Taryn, called she would like to go with us ,as per yesterdays post.

We intend to meet at Houghton and the Freeway at 0745.

Eric

<siff>
Wish I were there.
Can't fly this weekend or next.

I'll be around the Cienega road gate on the Sonoita, Mustang Corners Hiway~ 1400. Looking to do some training hill stuff with the right conditions.

Sorry Eric obviously I did not make it. No excuses, just too late and hot. I am looking at next Sat, but afternoons are not as easy for me as the old days. Any way I will keep trying.

Dave Snyder,Dave Bishop,John lowery,Greg, a returning Hg pilot,
Taryn-PG,lily a possible tandem student, with her brother and mom,and I met in the Miller LZ Sat morning.
Conditions looked good southeast winds of 6 to 8 mph.
Dave Snyder was first to launch at 11. He found good lift and rose above launch quickly.
Tarny launched next from the east hike out area. She popped up above the launch ridge making zero forward progress for the first minute of flight. Eventually she descended into Miller canyon, after several low passes she headed out to the valley. She landed south of the LZ area. I observed several partial deflations. Welcome to Southern AZ.
I launched at 1140 and climbed above launch immediatly. After some work I climbed to 10K on the west face, behind Carr peak. Around 1200,I glided by launch sinking in the Southerly flow. I stopped to work some thermal lift from 7800 back up to 9k behind launch. John was breaking down at this time? probably too much south wind for launching?
I worked a few thermals over the spine on the way to the LZ,6800 back up to 8K drifting to the NE. Finally spiralled down to land around 130.
Great thermals for Oct!
We headed out for the training hill to meet up with several students, but thats another story.

Eric

So, I was one of the lucky ones who got to enjoy the air at Miller last Saturday (Oct. 27th). Under the protective wings of John Lowery and Eric, I got my first flight there. The forecast was for mild condition, but I got lifted off the launch...hairy. For the first few minutes, I had no penetration even with a bit of my speed bar on. I could see Dave soaring high above me, and thinking when I will clear these cliffs!

Once I was able to punch through the wall in front of the launch, I found many thermals and clocked in a decent amount of air-time for an intro-flight. In fact, I was asking where I can find sink at one point when I was ready to head down to the LZ. Flying in the semi-arid area of Tucson is definitely very different from the Sierra Nevada. Thankfully, the condition wasn't radical this Saturday despite the abrupt take-off. Unfortunatly, the condition at launch got much stronger after I took off that John sacrificed his window of opportunity by helping me out with my launch. As the PG community seems so small in Tucson, I really appreciate the closeness between the pilots of different wings. Thank you!

The landing was surprisingly soft. I still have to get use to landing in tall standing grass and rocky ground! No beer to welcome me, but I found some when I got home :)

Then, I got stuck with a week long of readings and greenhouse stuff...Happy belate Halloween and hope to see you in the air in the future!

Congrats on your first Miller flight Taryn. Glad it all worked out, although the first few minutes sounded a little scary.

That John's a great guy- helping you off launch and all.
But for all the assistance that you were given, apparently nobody mentioned that there's a BAR in our LZ for apres flying beers. Nick's place!

Tomorrow looks like another nice day to fly. Wish I were there.