The end of this seasons flying came with the September long weekend. Not always the best time of year to be aiming for a little airtime but this year... there was airtime to be had!
Here is a link to the WCSC "logbook" describing the weekend:
http://www.westcoastsoaringclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4655
A few weeks later Mia and I finished this season with a trip down to Mansfield to de-rig the tow rig and bring the beast back home for the season. It was fitting the skies were blue, it was hot and if you watched real carefully, you might have caught the twist of the last dust devils of the season.
On Saturday, we were worked on our projects , Mia putting a good coat of paint on some of the bedroom floors and I spent the morning pulling pieces off of the truck and taking photo's of the rig for a later posting.
At the end of a the day, I got a call from Jeff asking for a lift back to Chelan. Turns out our little air junky could not resist a late season effort from Chelan Butte where he managed to get away and land out on the flats at Mud Springs (part way out to Mansfield). Our plans put us on the way in to Chelan for dinner so we picked him up on the way.
The outstanding weather continued on Sunday. As summer continued to hang on mother nature was giving signs that the season was rolling to an end. Several groups of Sandhill Cranes past through heading south. They would be cruising along at around a 1000ft then stop to work some lift (and just like a vario they would start up loud series of squawks as if to indicate lift), then they moved on heading south for winter.
I did some aggressive pruning of some troublesome trees in our yard (damn things, you trim them once and they come back with a vengeance) at the same time Mia was putting another coat of paint on in the house.... finally we simply could not pass up such a beautiful day one more trip down to Park Lake.
We had just gotten out of town, when we got a call from Jeff, he had just arrive at Mansfield so we back tracked and dragged him down to the lakes with us. Park lake was heaven.
Going for a swim was perhaps a bit on invigorating side... but Mia made the plunge at least 3 times with the traditional 10o meter swim out to the shallow's off shore and back. I bravely got wet twice... but preferred sipping beers back on shore! Fitting end to a pretty good year.
We left Jeff at the lake with Vivian and family as they were off to do some tourist stuff in the area. We did our last cruise up the tow road and back into Mansfield to head home.
It was a pretty good trip through the Cascades. Just a little under 5 hours and I was sitting in the driveway back in Abbotsford. I looked down at the odometer.... from the start of the season to back home the tow rig had pulled 2300kms, at least a third of that had to back and forth and up and down L-Road! Even though I hate my Ford (in an affectionate sort of way).... She did a pretty fine job. Mind you, doing the "job" she did burn a feak'n pile of fuel, I swear this hunk of junk is "Fuel-Cooled".
As seasons go, we can't complain. Mia has sent off her record claims package to the FAI. If we did enough stuff right she should have established at least 5 world records for Female on a Class 05 !
I came close to claiming a 200km triangle speed.. but close only counts in Horse-Shoes and hand-grenades :-)... there is always next year (I did fly a personal best for triangle distance at 227km's and could have been much bigger but weather set down the rules).
On a sad note, A good flying friend of ours (Randy) had, for the last two years brought down his adopted "Rotty" named Shelby. She was a wonderful animal and made for great company (man if there is one thing a dog loves to do...It's ride in a pickup truck!). She took ill and passed away quickly.
This picture is of Shelby and Max (who past away of cancer last year). I think it shows the wonderful personalities that both of these two companions had....
Hopefully I got this link working but it should lead you to some shots of flying from April till September of this year.
The 2008 Mansfield Season
Cheers....
