Mansfield Encampment 2012… the “Second Session” (part 1)

For a change Mia and I decided to start the second session of our “Mansfield Encampment” on our own. We snubbed our normal house guests and opted for a few private days crewing for each other.

July 28th.  Mia volunteered to go first as “tow-chief”. The weather was hot and blue, light winds and a weak soaring forecast. As we headed out to the tow site there were the usual number of dust devils stalking the local fields so it looked like there would be some reasonable lift.  With a bit of a late start (for me), I was up and away after 1pm. A single tow made for a light day at the tow site so Mia was quickly back into Mansfield with the tow rig, switched vehicles for chase (into the XL7) and was only a few km’s behind has I worked my way SE to Dry falls for my first turn point.  Lift was weak and broken, at least there was not too much sink on glides.  After I made Dry Falls, I got into a bit of trouble over highway 2. Heading west, back near L-Road I had unsuccessfully chased 2 or 3 dust devils with no luck and was hanging onto my last chance when I was finally able to re-establish some height to seek out some better climbs. As usual, a little bit of suffering down here pays off with some nice climbs….. only to wander into the same trap again?

I had intended to go to Waterville but the slow climbs where starting to take their toll remaining soaring time for the day so I turned early (a few km’s east of Douglas) and headed north. Of course, having given up on the planned task, things improved. Heading north I watch a sailplane lower but climbing fast just west of Withrow. By the time I got there he had topped out and was heading east but I was thank full he had marked such a great thermal. I soon climbed to 9500ft asl in a nice smooth 1000 up and was inspired to try and salvage some of todays task. By now Mia had joined up with the chase vehicle and was directly below as I headed for my Dyer hill turn point. Staying high was easy with the air on the rim being very buoyant.  I peaked over 10,000ft on several occasions so it was an easy trip up to Dyer hill then back to the tow site at L+13.

When I landed in 1 foot deep moon dust at our highway LZ, Mia was waiting with some cool refreshments (bottled water….. really )  followed by a quick takedown, trip to the lake to reward my excellent ground crew and back home for steaks and Scotch.

My 138 km FAI triangle flight.

 

July 29th. Still blue and hot, today with some high thin cloud and some minor haze. Mia’s turn to tackle what looked like lighter air then the day before.  Mia is flying her new ATOS VQ with its amazing sink rate…. something she was going to need today. Starting with her tow, Mia found the lift weak and broken.  In the beginning, reaching 8000ft asl was high. To top it off, she had to contend with a 10-15 mph SW wind…. in light air made for a very hard day.  It was a very hard slog to get all the way down to the gravel pits west of Farmer  (with only one climb taking her near 10,000ft asl) when  she decided that it was time to head back to the tow site (about the only time of day that I was not able to keep up with her as the tail wind made it easy for her to pass me in the chase vehicle heading back to Mansfield).

SE of Mansfield Mia staged her final battle to get back to the tow site.  3 times she dug out from less then 4000ft asl (ground is 2300) only to hit a late day wall between 5000 and 6000 ft.  After loosing the third battle to get the altitude need to get back to the tow site, Mia decided that the freshly cut wheat field that I had found her and the thought of a cool dip in Park lake was enough to call it quits and land. On the ground, despite the lack of lift there was plenty of activity (winds gusting 5-20kms). As I called out wind conditions on the radio Mia set up her approach. She had lined up a perfect final when the bottom dropped out (a thermal passing through?), amazingly, she pulled off a perfect nose up, no step landing in what turned out to be next to no wind!

Again, as a team we had the glider in the bag and off to the lake in less then 30 minutes… tough day but I was proud of Mia’s effort on what was a very challenging day. Mia's hard fought 76km FAI triangle.

July 30th. Strange brew today. Early, 3-4 am in the morning some strange weather moved through.  We woke up to blue skies with a band of upper Q’s. Often a sign that some instability had found its way into the stable air mass (and often the kind of weather that would lead to thunderstorms).

Mia crewed and and I flew. This time there was lots of activity at the tow site. So much, that I considered not flying (especially given that winds aloft where forecast to be over 15 mph). It calmed down enough at the tow site I decided to give it a try. The tow was STRONG, several times while under tow I was showing 1400ftpm up… thing is, normally you would pin off in that kind of air but every time I hit the strong lift I was in a poor position to release. One thing you don’t want to do to your tow operator, is release your towline with a bad recovery chute over rough terrain! Dragging 4000ft of towline out 4ft high sage in 90degree “F’n” heat, is not going to make you popular…. not recommended if the tow operator is the one cooking your next meal…. or worse….

Finally the combination of a clean drop zone, strong lift inspired me to release, “pop”….. out comes a good clean chute and the towline was on its way back to the truck and I was heading for the sky at 500ftpm. At first the air seemed smooth but for sure there was a strong south wind that I was going to need to deal with. Fortunately a plan presented itself. Good Q’s where forming up over the tow site and a good solid street was forming to the West running from Pearl hill (near Chief Joseph Dam) all the way down to Waterville. I left the tow site heading straight north to Pearl hill (25-30kms) and joined up under this beautiful cloud street. Mind you, it was a beautiful cloud street with an attitude! The air was rough, strong lift that was broken and unpredictable. Base was near 11,000 and I regularly pulled out of lift at 10,000 choosing to press on to Waterville staying well clear of the clouds.

My intended turn point was Waterville. Unfortunately, the street fizzled out well short and diving into the blue is often risky on a day where clouds are present….. today proved no different. Before long I was below 5000ft asl and hanging onto to every bug fart I could find . The only positive thing was the fact near Waterville the winds had shifted west and I was able to push my southerly distance enough that I was able to allow myself to drift toward my next turn point (Dry Falls). As I mentioned earlier, this place seems to reward your efforts…. my struggle soon allowed me some freedom to do a little more searching and soon It was back up over 9000ft asl for an easy crossing of Jameson Coulee (under the still intact cloud street). From here it was back into the blue (yikes)…. and just like before the lift took a holiday. By now I had enough of the rough air and turned short of Dry Falls and headed back north to the tow site just east of Saint Andrews.  Here, the winds were back to a southerly heading and with a few short climbs I was able to drift my way home to the tow site in rough trashy air. Mia was waiting with a wind sock, weather information on the radio, cooler full of beverages and a chuffer driven ride to Park lake to sooth some nerves frazzled by the days challenging air. Life is good (and my ground crew even better!) My 140km FAI triangle.

Soaring over Pearl Hill Washington State

Mansfield Encampment, Session 1 (part 3)….

Best to get this “Session 1” out of the way since session "2” is now underway ….

July 8th, Blue with good potential for altitude. Mike had an interesting day, he had to re-launch (rare this season) but somewhere during his first landing he damaged his sail on the left wing. (later on some video we could see that it lightly touched the ground).

The damage went un-noticed until he was up on his second flight. He could see a small section of 3” x  2” cloth hanging down out near the leading edge. After a bit of discussion over the radio it was decided to head back into to Mansfield and land. After inspection we figured there must have been a rock in the field that cut the cloth. Later that evening I helped him pull the sail and by next morning with the help of Jeff the sail was repaired and ready to go.

Mike's drama queen flight..

Other flights from the 8th…

Jorge's drunken meandering 45km triangle ....

Randy's 75km local triangle

My 140km triangle had some interesting moments, out near the western rim (Waterville) I was suddenly able to crack through the lower air and climb up to 12,000+ ft asl so I started a leg across Farnham and McNeil canyon up to Dyer hill. Crossed over a familiar PG pilot that turned out to be Alex Raymond… doing his version of a Chelan “Sammy”, very low on the rim, heading south from Wells dam. I was surprised to find out he made it back. At least he had the option to walk home (and it would have been a very long walk).  From Dyer it was back to the tow site and home to Mansfield for cool Becks (and to help Mike pull his sail on his VR).

Nic Voss, a pilot from the “good old days” arrived and in exchange for room, meals and Scotch joined us to run the rig for a few days. Sadly, Jorge and Michele  ended their stay… and as usual where late leaving to be where ever they had to go

July 9th, weather, wind with potential overdevelopment in the forecast so it was a trip to summer falls for a day off (Mike was getting his sail repaired) and Randy had to head back to work.

July 10th

Mia's 115km OR

Mikes 150 km FAI triangle...

Today I managed to put together my own personal best for FAI triangles (making it home). It was inspirational as I did not feel it was a very good day. The early first leg was very slow and hard work. Not the kind of day I was expecting to go well. Once turned at my southern turn point I pushed north to join up with Mike (who had turned near Wilson Creek). Things improved dramatically on this second leg , for a change I had clouds to chase and someone out ahead that was indicating good lift.

My objective was a turn point near the Columbia river north of Wilbur but a big blue hole forced me to cut short the leg (still 70+ km’s) and head for home. Just north of Highland I stumbled across Mike where we set up a crossing for Banks lake, timing some nicely spaced cloud for a good arrival on the west side of the lake. Here Mike and split up, he pushed home, I hung out in some nice smooth air, peaking over 12,000 near the tow road so I went on a big long glide out toward Wells dam and the Columbia river to the west. About 20km’s past Mansfield I turn and ran for home to end the day.

My 235km FAI triangle (personal best)

July, 11th. Day off for me. Mia and Mike did and excellent job running out into the blue. Nick and I ran chase in what we called the cemetery tour, waiting at all the cool shady rest stops of Wilbur, Almira, Hartline and Mold cemetery's. 

Mia's 130km flat triangle

Mikes 178km FAI triangle (his personal best!) Nice Job Mike!

July 12th. Odd high cloud, good soaring numbers but a strange looking day. Not to inspired but I took a tow. Found the air to be pretty nasty so suggested to Mia to bag the day (she did). I poked around, heading west in strong ratty air to meet up with a PG gaggle over Farnham canyon (full of Ice Peak comp wings). I stayed above the mess peaking out well over 12,000 ft but did not like feel of the day so I pushed south to Farmer. There everything went soft and I only managed to cross back over to the east side of Jamason coulee and pull a few k’s north. There Mia and Mike caught up and helped me pick out an LZ. Wind sock and a breeze and I still duffed my landing! Dirt tasting (nobodies perfect):

My 80km flight… Session “2” coming soon… Cheers

Mansfield Encampment, “The first session” (part 2)….

July 6th, Getting hotter and lots of blue sky. Occasionally Q’s would pop in the distance to give inspiration to the perspiration. I teamed up with Michael to run the rig with Mia, Jorge, Mike and last nights late arrival Randy pilots for the day.

Mia gets ready to fly her new ATOS VQ12

The day required a bit more work but winds were light. Noon and Mia was up for her first tow on her new VQ, pinned off and started scratching up from the tow site. Mike was next, followed by Randy and Jorge took the last tow. Everybody up and away with no re-launches (now that’s the way you should treat your ground crew!).  It was a mish-mash of plans, Mia, Mike and Jorge all wandered off in the direction of Waterville, Randy on the other hand pressed straight south down the tow road. With everybody spread out we decided to head out in two chase vehicles. After some early struggles, most of the crew started getting pretty high (10-11,000ft asl) with the exception of Jorge who unfortunately got caught out near Withrow and landed. Randy put together a nice little 100km FAI triangle, Mia a 90km OR (her first VQ XC) and as usual the “Air Pig” Mike with a 127km FAI triangle, all landing back at L-Road in light SE breeze. We pushed a quick trip down to Park Lake for a swim and some beverages then back to Mansfield for dinner… and yes an evening night cap.

July 7th, More blue… more heat and light East winds but today also had some sort of upper system with very high cumulous clouds (based at 15-16,000?). This was to be a hard work day. For Mike, he was going to serve his first full day on the rig (and not in the air!) With Michael has his instructor/observer Mike got to find out just what it would be like to run the other end of the towline…. which btw is a requirement if your towing with us.

There was some haze in the air and the upper air instability so it was anybody’s guess as to what was to be expected (all of the soaring forecasts could not agree).  My call was to attempt to head SE, quartering into the light East winds. With a bit of a slow start, I soon found myself busting 10,000ft asl near Saint Andrews (the patron saint of sink?) and pushed south to Wilson creek. The upper clouds proved interesting but I was not sure there was any connection to the lift below.  Randy had a wonderful climb out from tow and decided to push straight east to Sims corner where he spent a bunch of time moaning about being low…(and based on his trace, he got freaking low!) but after some persistent grovelling punched a nice climb back up over 10,000… then got low… then climbed out and finally was east bound across Banks Lake (where his faint radio transmission continued with complaints about struggling… come to think of it Randy only seems to use his radio when he’s getting low and having to think about landing… which is usually followed by an epic climb ).  Mia, on the other hand dispensed with the dramatics and after two climbs also crossed Banks. Jorge followed up the rear with close to an hour of low level grinding and was eventually rewarded with a couple good climbs to cross Banks to the east.

By this time, I found myself cautiously trying to pick my way into my southern declared turn point called the “MicrowaveNE” south east of Wilson Creek. Early high altitudes were gone, the upper Q’s where producing nothing and the east wind was getting stronger.  I tagged the turn point and started pushing north to Irby.  There I got real, real…. real low. I called Mike on the radio and suggested that if he did not hear from me in the next while I would be down on the Irby plateau (north of the town of Irby). I got a confirmation that was none to confident… obviously had no idea where Irby was! Next I hear Randy is landing in Wilbur, Mia was turning around north of Hartline and Jorge was flailing around North of Almira. Michael in the second chase vehicle was heading back to Mansfield for Mia, for sure if I sunk out I was going to sitting in the dirt and heat for quite some time (as Mike searched out Irby on his smart phone). I dug deep, gave up on heading north and just let the bug farts that where keeping me up send me back toward Wilson Creek and hopefully into an area much easier for pickup.  With some hard work I was able to drift and search and keep my ass off the ground. Up north Jorge was doing much the same, in fact he was sure he was going to land but managed to make another save. Meanwhile, back in Mansfield Mia managed a nice no-wind, tail wind landing and was walking her glider back to the front lawn.

Just East of the Wilson Creek coulee, at 6500 ft asl, I watched a Cessna Citation jet fly south below me at what I estimated to be 5000ft asl (I suspect heading direct to Ephrata?). At least now I was starting to gain some altitude and I went to work on heading NW to Mansfield.  Randy was picked up by Mike, Jorge was now working his way to Hartline, looked like we might actually find our way back to Mansfield to join Mia. North of Wilson Creek I took a nice slow climb up over 11,000 ft asl and made for a crossing south of Coulee City back up to Saint Andrews and on my way back home. Arriving in Mansfield winds where light out of the north, making for a tricky (but perfect) landing…. even I was surprised  

Unfortunately, it was getting late and Jorge ran out of time to get home. He did manage to cross over Dry Falls but was unable to re-establish any height on the west side. Apparently in a rather unique landing spot that later required me vacuuming my radiator to clear off a good thick coat of wheat chaff and scrub brush that some how made it through the grill… still Jorge’s flight was a real hard days work and brought him back to the house with a big smile! Of course Mike also came back with an appreciation of the hard work that goes into crewing for a bunch of knuckleheads!

My 157km out and return, Mia's 70km out and return, Randy's 65km trip to Wilbur AP and Jorges, 85km FAI "almost" Triangle.

My landing at the end of a long, hard day ;-)

Mansfield Encampment, “The first session” (part 1)….

For a variety of reason, this years encampment is being broken down into two session. The first session ran from June 29th to July 16th. This posting is not intended to be a daily flight log but more of a summary of some of the highlights from this first half of the encampment.

In a casual way, the summer objectives usually revolves around flying FAI triangles. The bigger the better. Often if conditions look exceptional or the weather forecast fools us into believing that something exceptional could happen…. we like to declare a record attempt. Mia is looking for her first 200km FAI triangle, I’m hoping for my first 300km.  If all else fails, the secondary objective is to log as many km’s as possible (racking up points for our OLC fun…) and if at all possible, as many of those km’s ending on the front lawn in Mansfield with a cold Beck’s from the fridge!

First day (Friday June 29th) in Mansfield was spent getting the place in shape, cutting the never ending forest of lawn, stocking the fridge and getting the rig in order. Not really prime towing conditions anyway with lots of wind and plenty of weather action (overdevelopment in the area).  Later that evening, Mia caught me sleeping in the living room listening to NPR… well sort of… I had dozed off with a glass of Scotch in my hand… Bliss….

Saturday June 30th, weather. Randy Pankew (proud owner of Mia’s “Old” ATOS VS) showed up but decided that the weather was a little on the industrial side so it was off to Park Lake for swim, and back to the shack for dinner.  Big thunderstorm pounded the banks lake region late in the day as we watched the spectacular display from Mansfield. (posted earlier on July 13th). The next day there was an amazing amount of moister still hanging in the air but Randy had to head home the next day so I got him inspired to join me for some flying (posted about the flights in an earlier post). After that, with poor weather in the forecast (not unusual for late June, early July) Mia decided to head back for a few extra days of work and Randy headed home, leaving me to take on various tasks around the shack including hard wiring our web cams that we hope to put up for public viewing. 

On July 4th, early AM,  Mike Bomstad from Spokane pulled into town with his tongue dragging on the ground desperate for some airtime so I agreed I would yank the big baby up. Of course it only because he is always good for video footage : (Mikes 07/04 flight ).  (Mike's landing from a different angle ).  After a little power gloating,  Mike and I where joined my Jorge and Michael (also from Spokane with Jorge being our token “Flex” pilot ) Later that night Mia returned to find us all over indulging in Scotch… after a few tsk tsk tsk’s… she joined us.

July 5th was the kind of day that makes us smile. Mia teamed up with Michael (Jorge’s guardian and baby sitter) to get all three of the children into the air. Lots of blue sky with just the occasional Q popping south of the tow site. Both Mike and I plunged off to the south. Jorge headed off to the west toward Waterville. Down south toward the Beezly hills Mike and I where struggling to stay up (or at least making any headway toward our planned turn point and seldom getting over 7500asl ) so both of us bailed on our task and headed West over Rim Rock (a bizarre little red neck camp ground on the east side of Jameson coulee and off to the flats south of Farmer. From this point, things started getting good. Back up over 12,000 where a rigid wing really belongs   Mike agreed to a little recon flight into the mountains on the west side of the Columbia river… this was going to be a first for both of us. Despite the 15-18 mph headwind the crossing was pretty encouraging, with beautiful clouds up ahead we pressed on.

Unfortunately, the great looking clouds where not producing any of the great lift we had left behind. NE of Cashmere and getting down below 9000asl and nothing that looked like a suitable emergency LZ… and we were both turning into cowards, I announced I had enough of these stinking mountains and declared it was time to head home. (no protest from Mike!)…. so with a good tail wind we plunged on back to our familiar flats just west of Waterville. Arriving back below 5000 asl we were promptly given a good slapping around for being unfaithful! By the time I had made my apologies for having been unfaithful I was digging myself out of Pine Canyon from 3900ft (600agl). With a little “I’m sorry” the broken ratty lift surged into 1200-1400 straight up over 10,000 and a wonderful set of clouds had formed a well marked street back to Mansfield (Clouds that Jorge had spent his whole flight enjoying…. pays to be faithful). Mike also got spanked, and with a similar prayer was also blessed with a nice climb and ended up a little behind but chasing me home.

Jorge announced that  he had gone from Waterville, out north of Sim’s to Leahy and was making for the beer fridge in Mansfield.  Clouds were still great so Mike and I headed off toward Leahy as there was plenty of sky to be enjoyed.  Mike was starting to snivel about getting cold hands (we were now easily getting up to 11,000+ ft asl)  so he called his turn just prior to Leahy and headed home. I took a more northern line and decided to explore Pearl Hill (NW of Leahy) and after bumping around the cloud base at 12,500+ I decided to pull the pin with nearly a 30km final glide home to the front lawn in Mansfield. I think we all duffed our landings (in a minor way)… I was late with my flair and skidded on… no tubes bent,. Our “near the house” LZ is a little rough and the wild grass makes for a tricky landing spot. I had tried to buzz cut a clear spot but I have to admit… allot of work yielded only a small clearing, that I promptly missed in the light switching conditions. Oh well, no bruises and the beer was cold! Our flights:

(Jorge's 120km Flexi flight) (Mikes "little" 184km triangle flight) (My "massive" 197km FAI triangle ;-) )

More to come…… Cheers

Mike’s Lightning Video….

Mike sent me an edited Iphone video of lightning storm under the power-lines looking east toward Mansfield. Sound track… well not my choice (perhaps the Door’s “Riders on the Storm”?)… Nice job Mike!

 

“On the Rim, Lightning storm”

3 hours later…..

Like I said, this place can be very big. This photo was taken three hours later (after the photo in the previous post) looking back at Mansfield from 25km’s away. At the end of the day this thing laid down numerous lightning strikes and caused at least two fires.

Strange things said and done…..

The Columbia basin produces big air. You need to respect the place or it can kick your ass big time. Why just the other day while flying near Withrow and monitoring 146.415 (our local op frequency) we had some familiar “no call sign” Russian PG’ers (and others) talking their way onto the flats from the Butte when there was a brief strange transmission ……. “Throw your Chute ! “ ….. (brief silence)…. “Nice save!”.

Not sure what the whole storey was but undeniably somebody just got schooled.

Over the last few days, there has been a local Chelan Butte PG comp underway, they have done well with reasonably good comp conditions with some very respectable performances. In the last two days, tasks where pushed with very high chances of thunderstorms. I’m not chastising anybody ( I’m sure they are all big boys and girls) but the second of these two days did “blow up” and had some serious potential . The task was called and it rained PG’s in Mansfield, later even a tandem sailplane from Twisp was forced to seek shelter at the Mansfield airport. I guess all I’m saying is you can “poke the bear” but remember…. the “bear does bite”.

Mia and I tend to seldom want to challenge the place when the forecast includes overdevelopment. Something about dragging 4000ft of towlines through statically charge atmosphere with a “kite” on the end of the line?

If I were to offer some advice to PG pilots who want to fly the Columbia Basin (Chelan and surrounding area), Unless stable, you should have at least 500+hours of experience. You should try to team up with pilots who know the area. Expect to encounter air far beyond anything you have ever experienced (even in an SIV). This is not a place to fly for the timid. Pilots who do not have a masterful grasp of controlling and recovering their wings should not be out here. I fully admit, as a PG pilot this place is way beyond my skills and comfort zone. I have close to 150 hours on the PG and would never dream of flying this place on anything but the quietest of days, preferably well into the calmer days of August and September.

Todays morning weather (11am) with severe thunderstorms in the forecast….

(Think we will go bird watching… Fly safe)

2012 Mansfield Encampment…. first day

Arriving at in Mansfield on June 29th, the weather was less then promising. As usual the weather proved entertaining (to watch) but not suitable for grinding out any airtime. Thunderstorms passing through made for some impressive photography.

 

Perhaps we could have pulled up for a little airtime on the days prior to July 1st but waiting for better air seemed to be the right thing to do. On July 1st, and very much to my surprise, what appeared to be a washed out day that I fully expected to overdevelop and explode into thunderstorms…. did the the complete opposite! It all started with a very low cloud base of very unstable dark cumulous (I estimated base to be a mere 5000ft asl, only 3000ft about the local terrain). The only incentive was a much brighter, dryer, group of Q’s to the south.  The best I had hoped for was to get Randy (now the proud owner of Mia’s “old” ATOS VS)  a flight before he had to head home and perhaps get a chance for a little airtime before we would have to dive for shelter down south in the dryer air.

I towed first, immediately connecting with some soft light climbs that brought me up to a now rising cloud base. Lift seemed pretty reliable so I pressed south to try and stay in the blue (some rain had started to the north of the tow site at L+13). As I pushed a few Km’s south when Randy got towed up by Mia and was “hanging in there” so I continued to push south.  At this point in time it was pretty obvious the day was not going to go as expected. In fact it was rapidly drying and cloud base had lifted quickly to 7500asl.  Within a few hours the area had turned into a pretty respectable day with a typical cloud base reaching over 8000ft asl. 

Randy’s first flight of scratching around in the light air, ended a few miles south on L-Road with a good landing. Mia was right on scene and re-loaded Randy on the rig and at which point began a slow 3km back trek backup the tow road to get Randy a re-launch. This time Randy was up in the better air and worked on some nice local XC landing just west of Mansfield after a few more hours airtime.

(Down south the Day dries out…..)

I finished up the day with a 135km FAI Triangle, back at the tow site then a nice cruise back into Mansfield for a breakdown on the clean green grass at the shack. Ah, its good to be “home”!

July 1st’s flight

Rotten Spring….

It’s been a rotten spring in so many ways. For Mia and I the flying season never really took off. A few nice days here and there (for the lucky ones) but no real trend setting up for some classic Fraser Valley spring conditions. Not saying that all the flying was bad, but it seemed that every time we thought we could count on a “great day”…. somehow mother nature would schedule a new weather event to put the damper on our plans.

Adding to the dark spring, a number of tragic flying accidents shook our local Fraser Valley community. 

Here’s the thing about these accidents, they act as a wakeup call, they remind us that flying is a very demanding pursuit and as the expression goes, “a very harsh task master”. Even the simplest of mistakes can compound to deadly circumstances. If these accidents serve any purpose I would hope it would be to remind us that we have to bring our “A” game everyday.

I’m late writing anything in my blog, always seemed to have other stuff to do. Right now I’m enjoying time off in Mansfield and I’m pleased to say enjoying some wonderful airtime. It may have been a “Rotten Spring” but things are looking up. More to come…..