www.sahga.com

Is anyone interested in a Whetstones run this afternoon? Weather Underground says Ft. Huachuca will be 15 kts SW on the ground this afternoon, perfect for the 'stones. Dr. Jack estimates a nice, high top of lift, > 16k.

I haven't decided for sure yet, but am leaning towards it. I haven't had a decent flight in something like two months, and am getting seriously cranky from lack of airtime.

If interested, reply here or my cell # is 444 8105.

John

Weather underground: http://www.wunderground.com/MOS/Display ... ateCode=AZ

Dr. Jack RUC forecasts: http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/RUC/SW/index.html

I'm leaving to check it out. In addition to the cell I'll be monitoring 151.925.

John

John,
Was determined to fly on Sunday. I decided to tag along, as I was not able to fly on Sat. I trained half the day Sat and left the Sonitia valley at 1. I wanted to go flying but was determined not to fly alone. I heard Gunter on the radio flying Box? how about a report?
John picked me up around noon. Sundays weather conditions were good, west to south west wind of 5 to 15 greeted us at the Whetstones.
The hike up to launch took us about 40 minutes. We were surprised how cool the breezes felt. May be it`s all realtive. The overcast came in just before we launched an really made it a nice day. We were concerned this might shut everything down, lift wise. It seemed to just mellow everthing out. I launched first and made several passes at launch height before getting up. John launched 15 to 20 minutes later, we had a good time with a couple of hawks spotting lift for us.
I spent an hour cycling from 7500 to 8400 several times tracking thermals back to the spine. The winds aloft were light, 10 to 12. John stayed out front working the light lift. He headed out at just under and hour and landed. I finally caught a good one and went over the back at 11400. Stuck with the thermal for several miles and a little more gain, 12K. I crossed Hwy 90 at 11+ and headed for St. David. We had radio contact I let John know my intentions. Arrived in St. David at 6400msl worked some light lift over the green fields. I tracked a small thermal several miles into the desolate hills east of town gaining only two hundred feet. Alas it was not to be, my short XC was over. I returned to St. David and landed in a nice cool green field next to the road. Apache RV, it`s where the road turns east west. The gps had the distance at 17 miles to where I landed. A fun flight and a nice 1.45 hours of airtime.

Eric

Nice flights, Eric and John. I posted our PG flights May 16, 8:31 am under "Flying this weekend (May 15/16)"
On another note, on Sat. Ross and I tried out a new PG site with a lot of potential, near Madera Canyon entrance. It's a W to SW facing launch about 800 ft above the LZ(s). For me the first time hiking it it was a B.t..h. It took me almost 2hrs (I got lost -don't ask) to finally get to the launch where Ross by this time had cleared most of the launch area. By the time we got there the winds mellowed and switched more to a Northerly direction. Anyway I launched and being sheltered flew into a mild rotor, found a lot of sink and landed way short of the preferred Lz. I picked out a small Lz, but had to make one more 1/2 turn which made me land short and 1/2 of my wing landed on top of a ##**$$!! Mesquite tree. It took me over an hour to clear the PG. After that memorable flight (first one at this site/ rotored/tree landing) Ross decided to hike back down. By the time we hiked back to the road I was all scratched up and lost over 4-1/2 lbs of water. I was exhausted. Ross, next time you have one of these great ideas, please don't call me; try someone like Scott, Ed, Pav, Morey, or maybe even Fred. ( Oh, now I know why you called ME. )

Gunter