Snake Charmed

Click image for more photos!Hours of soaring for Ioan and Naren
and a 26 km out-and-return XC for Charlie, Rick, and Paul

The day started out with a snake charmer coaxing up his two cobras right beside launch. I kid you not.

Ioan was brave enough to sit down next to him, not expecting to have one of the snakes draped over his shoulders and another perched on his head! Rick has some great photos he'll post at some point.

Ioan had his second reverse launch and it was smooth. He flew to the house thermal and, at one point, was joined by 24 pilots and as many raptors.
Ioan survived a few flushes and logged around 3hrs. He was a bit 'off' compared to yesterday which was attributable to the previous evening's activities . Still, three hours of airtime in strong and variable conditions on only his second flight is commendable.

Narendra also had his second flight and he was happy to climb up in the house thermal and glide over to Torapani and back. Way to go Naren!

Click image for more pics!Paul, Rick, and Charlie all worked to get up over the Sarangkot tower and then on to Torapani before having enough altitude to attempt the glide over the back to Dickie Danda (another flying site closer to the BIG mountains).

Adam and I had to play catch up but we both caught them at Dickie Danda where they were soaring well (Charlie had just made the jump back to the Green Wall on his own).

The plan was to climb south along the Green Wall, get high and then head back to Sarangkot - a total out-and-return flight of 26km. And, I am happy to report that everyone did it! The final glide was over 10km and I had a HUGE vulture fly directly over my wing nearly the entire way (drafting?).

Short Youtube video here:

With the exception of some good scratching on the first spur of the Green Wall by Paul, the flight was fairly easy with the lift just pumping up the steep faces. It was a great experience for everyone to fly over foreign terrain and complete the set task.

More flying tales to come...