Highs and Lows at Prevost

Click image for more pics!Overcast, but unstable soaring for some free fliers
And then more tandem training for Rick (with passenger Paul), and solo training for Paul S.

Paul, Rick, and I headed up to Prevost mid morning today and saw what appeared to be two yellow gliders in the sky (Charlie and Super Dave, most likely) and a lower orange/red one (Will?). Kuno zoomed past us on the highway so we turned back and got him and, before long, were up on top with strong, mainly cross cycles blowing in on Main.

Paul went first and quickly entered a sharp-edged thermal, deciding to turn downwind as he started his first 360. He continued to climb but ended up too far away from the source and hit some serious sinking air from that point clear through to the lower knob. He found a thermal there and started working it as Rick launched off into a strong cycle.

Not wanting to hit the sink that Paul so kindly marked, Rick flew a different line, heading more for the cairn - going up pretty much the entire way - before ridge soaring the east-facing cliff. Paul, meanwhile, was down on the lower cuts, doing a nice job of climbing.

Kuno went off during a nice south cycle, getting a bit close for comfort to the lower trees in the process (!) but flew over to the cairn where he soared for a while with Rick before getting flushed down to the LZ. The sink out there today was substantial.

I then set up with the Magic 5 for its inaugural flight at Mt Prevost. The cycles were pretty east and light at this point and I got off just as Charlie, Super Dave, and Will arrived back up for their second flight.

I didn't find much on my way over to the cairn and headed pretty far around to the north-east, amazed at the glide of the Magic5. That sure changes things! I finally saw some movement in the trees below me and figure-8'd my way back up over the mountain in some rough air, always cognizant of my distance from terrain. Even though there was high cirrus, there was a lower cumulus cloud base around 2900' or so and conditions were a bit strange. One minute I was at or near base while the next I was below cliff height looking for my next climb. After about 15mins or so of this, I decided to head out and join Rick who had found a nice climb over the lower cuts (also, I could see that Charlie and Super Dave would be in the air soon and there wouldn't be much elbow room given the current conditions around the cairn).

I zoomed over to Rick to find that whatever he was working had fizzled out. Bummer. He and I boated around and then edged our way over towards the final tree line next to the power lines beside the LZ. I wasn't expecting much but saw a little flicker of leaves moving to my left so I banked slightly that way. And then to the right. I was as surprised as anyone to find myself climbing back up from that height. Rick tried to get in there with me but there just wasn't enough room for the both of us. Charlie and Super Dave meanwhile, had flown down and were higher so they entered from above.

I forgot to mention that just before I got the low save, I spotted Will going into the clear cut below Main launch. Charlie radioed that he was fine. That's twice now for Will. Glad he was okay.

Where was I? Oh yeah. With Charlie and Super Dave above me, we drifted back and west, getting close to launch height. The Magic 5 definitely likes to carve and it was hard not to turn on the inside of the other, lower performance gliders. I was tempted to try and glide to new student Paul Slade and his wife's property in Sahtlam but the day was already getting on so I pushed back towards the LZ and landed.

Click image for more picsQuick lunch in town and then we met Paul S. at the Training Hill for some solo work. Conditions were surprisingly good for this late in the day and he got a good 4 or 5 flights in while Rick got another 3 tandems good with Paul.