Airport Ridge....

First trip down to the Mansfield Shack this year.  The past two years we have been met with a flooded basement. So with trepidation, I slowly opened the basement door..... DRY!  Winter has been kind. Turned on the water, nothing leaked. Turned on the power Nothing blew up. Two glasses of Scotch and The 2oo8 World record headquarters is open for business!  (of course we still need to bring down the tow rig and the rigid's but that will be during the May long weekend)

Saturday the 26th we checked out the alternate routes into Chelan to visit Jeff.

Because McNeil Canyon is closed (35kms) we went via "Brown Canyon" (81kms) . Its a substantial detour but other then the the much rougher road of Farnhem Canyon (45kms), the other available options are via Bridgport (91km) or Waterville (109kms).  For sure it sucks having to do the big detour but hopefully the re-grade of the McNeil canyon road will all be done by mid June.

In Chelan we met up with Jeff and took the PG's over to the "Airport Ridge" It was hot, sunny, a few dust devils were tracking around out on the flats. At launch it was 10-15kms, crossing from the west. Dave (a local) got a few passes in and sank out. Both Mia and I did the same.  Jeff flew his Talon and got the best flight of us all. Thing is, as quickly as it turned on.... it would turn off. (one thing I should say about this site... you need to keep an eye on the airport for traffic. Keep clear of the end of the runway when ever anybody is taking off. Also, there are some monster power lines right behind launch. Personally, if it gets too windy I would not fly, if something went wrong you will end up getting bug zapped big time!)

After the first flight, Mia hiked up the front to get the the car (5-600ft vertical). In the mean time, Dave's wife showed up and came down and picked us up, so we went up for a second try. Mia launched first, two short passes and she sunk out.  I got lucky and managed a nice 40 min workout with one low save from half way down the hill.  

(One of my brief passes above takeoff)

I got caught by a low and dropped out. Dave launched his tandem behemoth PG (solo) and hung in for 20 minutes.  Its a "SkyBike" (I think its a Swing product... looked more like a SkyTruck!) Its a brand new/old wing. I joked with him you could build 5 Nano gliders and still have enough "rope" left over to do the North Face of the Eiger.

(Daves Monster)

Jeff, Cameron (owner of North Wings, a Ultralite/Hang Glider manufacturer) Jorge (both Dave and Jorge are employees of North Wings) all logged some nice air time after Dave joined Mia and I in the LZ.

Cameron was testing out a prototype Freedom 190. It's  a big single surface floater that I must admit looked like a lot of fun to fly!

Well it was far from an epic day, it was nice to soak up some sun, meet some old friends and share some airtime in town.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to change and we will probably do some painting and some shack clean up....