Last Flight of the Year

For several days, today's forecast has looked promising for flying, at least in relative terms - a day of showers surrounded by days of rain. A bit of a crap-shoot, but at least a chance of some decent flying. But yesterday afternoon - contrary to the forecasts - it started snowing and there was still a lot of snow on the ground this morning.
But the roads didn't seem too bad and Steve and I headed to the coast in his trusty van, through rain, sleet and snow - to reach sun, blue skies and friendly winds. What a contrast!

The winds weren't terribly strong, but it was nicely unstable and very easily soarable. I launched first, Steve joined me and we flew around Oceanside for the next couple of hours. The wind was basically SW and we had a few trips S down to the Capes and back to launch before some rain clouds seemed to be heading our way. We headed S to the Capes, Steve went on to Netarts, I decided to head back as the clouds passed to the N to get the van.

Not too bad for the end of the year!

Some photos -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Oceanside30Dec#

Coping with Winter

One thing I've been pleased with this winter is not trying too hard to fly. When conditions have been half-reasonable, I've flown and enjoyed it - even if it has been a sled ride. I've had a few hike and flys and really enjoyed them - the flying tends to be unremarkable, but I enjoy the contrast of hiking and flying.

I have avoided trying to fly on gray, cold, damp days. Sometimes these days turn out to be perfectly soarable but even then it's not a lot of fun. And of course many times they aren't flyable or you wait around all day for a sled ride. So instead I've been doing quite a bit of hiking and enjoying that.

We've passed the winter solstice and the days are slowly getting longer - yippee!