And then there were two (plus a Shasta)

Saturday was the first weekend that actually felt like Spring this year. Temperatures were forecast to be in the upper 70's on Saturday and in the 80's on Sunday. Winds were forecast to be good as well. Suzie & I packed the Jeep, loaded Shasta (Hang Gliding Dog by Marriage) into the back, and headed to Ridgely hoping that the weather would hold. I wanted to get in to the air again and Suzie had her first lesson in 18 months scheduled for later in the afternoon.
We arrived Noonish to the most crowded I've seen Highland Aerosports in quite a while. Gliders were in various stages of setup and tandem flights were already in the air. Lots of people that I hadn't flown with in a while and everyone eager to get some much needed flight time. There was a cirrus layer that looked to be pushing back towards the East, but blue sky was abundant. Lots of blue sky with no puffies in sight to mark the lift. The Bat-Wing was setup and ready to go, but none of the first few pilots to launch stayed up. Tom McGowan & Bruce Engen launched for a second time and this time they both stuck. Joe Gregor, Steve Kinsley & Mark Cavanaugh quickly followed and they all decided to head XC.
I launched around 2:00 with undecided intentions. I really wanted to head XC as it was a beautiful day but without big puffy markers, I knew it was going to be a challenge. Off tow, I struggled to find workable lift, so I was in search mode most of the time. A few bird farts gave me moments of hope but soon I found myself low & down to 600'. I finally hooked a small thermal over the east edge of the LZ and drifted in it climbing back up to 1200. I was just east of the chicken coups and contemplating heading XC if I could just eek out another 1000' but then promptly lost the thermal dowsing my hopes. I tried to relocate but was crossing through 900' so I pulled on VG and headed back to land at homebase. If I was going to leave the field, I wanted something more than to be a lawn dart 5 miles from Ridgely. 25 minutes was all I could muster as I listened to the XC group working easterly towards the beach.
Suzie was getting ready to start her lesson soon after I landed so I put on my photographers hat to get pictures of her flight since she had been gracious to take pictures of mine. Her butterflies were being stowed and soon she was loading up with Sunny in the Tandem glider. SIDEBAR: Its really cool to have a wife and best friend to share the joy of flying with and she enjoys hang gliding almost as much as I do. What more could a man want? (Soon I'll be driving retrieve for her!) Now back to our story. After reassuring Shasta that Mommy would be back, Suzie was pushed out to the staging area and was soon in the air. Scheduled for one flight, she ended up taking 3 over the course of the next hour and knocked some of the rust off her quickly developing skills. Sunny said she was doing really good and we purchased another package of flights for her next lesson date.
I took one more late afternoon flight just for more practice in the new glider/harness combination. I had been having some problems with the new Viper harness and have been working to smooth out some of the issues I've had with getting upright. On Sunny's advice, doing a simple pushup off the bar seems to have worked out the bugs with getting my slider to budge ... well, that and a bottle of Silicone spray. Both attempts were 100% better than last years feats of stupidity and I ended up nailing both landings.
We broke down the glider and repacked the Jeep to head home to the other two furry beasts that had been left at home for the day. They are NOT as well-behaved as Shasta and would have been in Delaware if we had let them off leash. We blew off our planned stop at "On the Border" in Bowie and instead decided to crash Baja Fresh near our home for takeout. We devoured dinner and soon after poured ourselves into bed as we were both exhausted from the long day.

Current 2007 Flights: Chris - 3; Suzie - 3