Looks like we have survived our winter and look forward to another season of aviation. The little local event called "Winter Olympics" has come and gone and seemed like a pretty good time to dust off the wings and head to the hills. Something called global warming has helped keep the local hills free of snow.... perhaps more accurately stated, "El Nino" and its warm ocean currents put up a challenging fight for the host of this years Olympic events!
With the warm winter Mia and I had picked a few days here and there to get out on the Paragliders. Even managed to scratch some airtime but Saturday, March 6th seemed like a good time to bust out the "Big Bird".
It was a scratchy hard work kind of flight but enough of a challenge to start getting the feel back. Managed close to 2 hours and a few nice speed runs through launch, ending in a so -so near no wind landing. Mia decided to stick to the Paraglider until after her latest final exams (Mid April) but managed close to an hour.
Lots of rusty pilots out re-learning the art of aviation. Have to admit that after my Paraglider mid air a few years back I trust absolutely NO one while thermaling. Especially in the spring!
One of the rusty pilots out was my brother in law Ken, with his new (used) acquisition.... the ATOS VX:
Its a bloody Big Bird! My VR is no longer the local king of span! Ken is going to take some time getting used to his new wing but I think once he gets the handle on packing the behemoth around he will soon be enjoying the beast.
We head down to Mansfield Easter long weekend to chase out the mice, clean up the property and sump out the basement (if it needs it ;-) We will drag down the "Bags" just in case the Chelan's Airport Ridge is working. Other then that its more the act of getting away that we look forward to.... and there are not many places more "away from it all", then Mansfield WA.
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