A Great Day Soaring!

 

The End Of A Great Flight

Well, global warming in Alberta (-40 with 4ft of snow for about 7 months) has now begrudgingly given way to the monsoon season. Those of us waiting all winter for the spring soaring season have had little to cheer about, even the Soaring Week at the Edmonton Soaring Club had more hours logged shopping than flying. It  seems our friend Murphy was well rested after the winter and eager to try for the 'Employee Of The Year' award.

Last Wednesday I was thoroughly enjoying (not) watching the Weather Channel for a few hours, from the comfort ('not' again) of a dentist's chair. I thought that maybe I was either confused or drugged. The Idiot Box showed steady rain for our area, but a glance out the window revealed blue skys dotted by cute little puffy clouds. To a glider pilot, this means 'drop whatever the heck you're doing and get to the field, it's go-time!'.

Terryll shows up to pick me up after my joyous (you guessed it - not) morning, "Looks like flying weather to me."

"Yep," I reply, "Wanna go?"

"You waited all winter to go, let's try!"

A dash home for a call to the club and gimp-flying-supplies (us quads don't do anything without tons of supplies/adaptations/misc crap, only we know what it's all for and we're not telling) and we're off!

I was rewarded with a 1:32 flight with Bob in the Puchacz, and got to practice the thermal-finding skills that we honed all winter! What a great day it turned out to be!