I just talked to Greg D. (a visiting pilot for the weekend and first of next week). Greg arrives late this evening in Tucson and is available to fly Saturday. He has to work on Sunday but it sounded like he might be available early next week.

Greg indicated that he was a solid P3 almost ready for P4 with lots of thermal flying.

If you plan to fly, let him know

His number is 530 threetwo 0 -0181

It looks like JLo, Orrin and I might be going to Miller. Haven't checked the weather so I don't know about PGs...

What time are you planning to leave Tucson?

We are leaving town about 6:30 to arrive early and clear off some nasty bits on launch from the fire. Probably be in the LZ 8:30 if we have to make stops along the way.

When is Andy going to tell us about his flight from Miller to Tucson!!! Hello it was so fun

Whitney,
You can tell your version. It's always interesting to hear different version of the same day.

We had 2 pg pilots, 2 hg pilots, 3 drivers and Orin’s son Taylor, for good luck, show up at launch. Greg (a visiting pilot) went off first ~10:40AM, off the east launch. Greg got up to about 9k and went out over the LZ. I launched second. Finally caught a thermal halfway to the LZ and took it up to 12k where Greg joined up with me. I found another thermal back over Carr peak and took it to 15k. I don’t know when Orin and Eric T. launched, but I think they were in the air by then. They both launched from the south launch. I made it halfway to the river before I caught my next thermal. The wind was light out of the SE. Greg followed me out to the valley but he was lower and a little bit behind me. I worked my way up the valley first to copper top and then on to the bird sanctuary where I started getting under some clouds. I think Orin made it out to the valley some place close to the LZ or near copper top. I think John L., Whitney and Taylor picked up Orin. Eric was about to catch me at the bird sanctuary. I think he was only one thermal behind me at that point. I caught another thermal that took me to 16k just north of the bird sanctuary. I was jumping from cloud to cloud from the bird sanctuary to the Rincons Mountains. Eric started out toward Tombstone but didn’t feel comfortable making the jump with the altitude he had. He went back and landed at the Bird Sanctuary where Raquel picked him up. Greg took a more direct route straight north and made it to Benson where John L. picked him up. I had good altitude until I got to the Rincons (north east of Colossal cave area). Greg picked me up and we had a land a beer while we drove out. I only needed one more climb to make it to my house. I had a max altitude of 16.2k, 4hrs:42min of air time, 52.4 miles from Miller to Coyote Creek. It turned out to be a great day and it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to cloud fly that much in one flight.

Big thanks to all our drivers and our good luck charm (Taylor)!!!!

Looking forward to doing it again soon with all of us going farther.

Going to be tough to beat Andy for "Pilot of the Month"

How did you guy's make out clearing burnt debris on the East slope?
Maybe it was just to dam hot for laboring.

Raf, I replied in members-only.

What a flight!! I'm not worthy but would sure like to chase you around the sky.