I am interested in flying Thursday, Dec 10.
Lew

Weather looks promising just now. I'll look again in the morning. I'm tentatively planning to be on launch around 3:00 p.m.
Lew, shall we meet at Houghton and I-10, say around 1:00 p.m.?

Fly high and land soft, guys! Wish I could join you!

John,
I will be at Houghton and I-10 at 1 PM ( I will try to be there about 10 minutes earlier). My cell is 549-8250.
Lew

I will collect Terry from his house around 12:30 and be at Houghton and I-10 around 1:00 p.m. Work has delayed me just a bit, so I will likely be a little late.

How'd it go, guys?

Lew arrived on launch around 3:00, and Terry and I trundled in about 3:25 after a rather cool and breezy hike. It was blowing in from the west at about 12-18 with a few lulls dropping down to 5 or so.
The forecast said it would get stronger as the day wore on, so Lew set up and launched around 4:00. He went straight out and straight up. He never did bother to come back to the mountain, and eventually wondered how he would get down after going about a 1/4 mile west of Elgin Road. I'm not sure how high he got, but it had to be at least 2K over launch. Terry stayed close to the mountain, getting at least 1K over launch.
The conditions then changed a bit. Terry got flushed, and I started worrying about having enough wind to launch into. It also turned slightly NW, at least on the ground. When I pulled my wing up, it was more like NNW at wing height, and I promptly blew that launch. I failed to commit one way or the other and was rewarded with a bouncing trip over the rocks. By the time I gathered up the wing and reset, it was 70-90 degrees cross. I packed up and made a twilight hike down the mountain, arriving a bit after dark. The night sky was absolutely stunning.
So, it was an atypical day at Mustang, but we bagged 4 hikes, 2 flights, and several bruises (all mine).

Wow, what a day! You should try that north launch, John. The air up there is smooth as long as the incoming air is clearing the biscuit. I ridge soared it once for 20 minutes or so, slicker than WD-40. The launch is a little tricky though, because your wing is laid out in the wind shadow so you gotta be aggressive with the inflation but then once it hits the power zone, SHWOOP! It picks you up off your feet and you're airborne in reverse position. I'm sure you could handle it though.

Lew, sick flight, man! I'd love to get that high there, must have been beautiful!

I briefly considered the north launch, but since I had to pack up to get there, and it was getting dark, I elected to hike down.
I'll have to scout that launch next time I'm up there waiting good launch conditions.

Thursday, Dec 10 was an exciting day at Mustang for me. John's summary is very good, but I should mention that the wind at 8000 MSL was unusually strong (about 27 mph SW - I could barely penetrate with full speed bar and went backwards with big ears and full speed bar). I was uncomfortable with the high altitude wind speed- and unrelenting steady lift- that's why I used big ears. At 7000 MSL the wind speed backed off, but I stayed on full speed bar. After I crossed Elgin Road, I released the big ears, because it looked like I might someday actually return to earth. (I flew West because I wanted to land - and wanted to land very far away from rotor from any hills or mountains.) I turned for a very high speed run back to the LZ. At 500 AGL the wind switched to 15 mph from the North and I landed in the LZ with a nice 5 to 10 mph North breeze.
Lew

Awesome flight! Incredible, that the thermal was working so far out in front of the mountain with such strong winds. Definitely not a textbook thermal model. I'm definitely gonna have to re-set my speedbar before I fly Mustang again. I noticed that the pulleys weren't near touching at full extension last time I used it there, even though on my homebuilt simulator they were... curious.