Everyone flies!

Click image for more photos!Day 1 of the Nepal tour begins

The day started with everyone heading up to Sarangkot launch and, as per usual, conditions looked excellent.

Ioan was first on deck and he executed his very first reverse launch. He then proceeded to clock over 2hrs of airtime - not bad for his first flight in well over a year!

Charlie, Rick, and Paul then hucked off and were greeted with more challenging climbs in the house thermal than yesterday. Narendra took to the air on his first Nepal flight and he was happy to experience new conditions at a foreign site.

Rick launches Sarangkot:

Adam caught up with Rick and Charlie over the Sarangkot tower where he proceeded to lead them on a short XC past Torapani and back. I caught up with them as they were making their into-wind return glide and they were low. Adam took a different line at this point, but Rick and Charlie headed more into the valley where they were met with nothing but sink. I had more altitude than they did and watched their progress. Next thing they knew, 3 or 4 vultures appeared in front of them and showed them the way up and out!

Paul, meanwhile, had tried to work the house thermal but ended up landing at the Tea Shop at near the 25mins mark.

Everyone conveyed at Maya Devi (Adam's main LZ and cafe) where we had a nice meal and then decided to try our luck with a late afternoon flight.

Conditions had lightened considerably and forward launches were needed but Charlie, Rick, and I all had smooth flights - somehow getting nearly 20mins to end the day.