Miller Saturday

jlowery · Post by **jlowery** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 1:16 pm

Saturday looks promising for Miller, southeast winds 5-10 at all altitudes, reasonable top of lift. Monsoonal, currently 30% chance of rain. It could be nice.

I'd like to go. Early would be better, I think.

John

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:32 pm

I am in possibly do some tandems.

Eric

John Wolfe · Post by **John Wolfe** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:46 pm

I'm in, and I'd like to go early as well. What time shall we plan to meet and where?

We would also love to have a driver or even two.

Whitney T · Post by **Whitney T** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:35 pm

I'll drive and help out with the tandems. When do we need to be in the LZ?

flydoc · Post by **flydoc** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:55 pm

Would love to join you guys but I have a required training session at work this weekend

--Aaron

Whitney T · Post by **Whitney T** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 7:13 pm

Bummer

amiller · Post by **amiller** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 8:16 pm

Count me in.

Eric Tucker · Post by **Eric Tucker** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:07 pm

we should be there assuming I get my glider fixed by then

John Wolfe · Post by **John Wolfe** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 4:15 pm

When and where are we meeting?

jlowery · Post by **jlowery** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:37 pm

I'm meeting Rafael at Houghton & I-10 at 7:30, we're planning on meeting Eric and his students in the LZ at 8:30.

John
520 405 5309

Whitney T · Post by **Whitney T** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:37 pm

Where is the Chicken Hawk???

Whitney T · Post by **Whitney T** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:39 pm

wow that was strange we posted at the same time about Raf

John Wolfe · Post by **John Wolfe** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 9:29 pm

OK, I'll be at Houghton and I-10 at 7:30 as well.

jlowery · Post by **jlowery** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:28 pm

I rode down to Miller with Rafael Ramirez and Debbie Hodge, where we met Eric Smith, Whitney Todnem, Eric's tandem students Matt and Vick, PG pilots Andy Miller and John Wolfe, and Phoenix HG pilots Allen Housel and Randy Buell. It was still overcast but looked like it might clear enough to get some flights.

We got to the southeast launch to find it blowing in. As we set up, Eric Tucker and Rachelle arrived to complete a pretty good turnout.

As Andy and John set up on the PG launch, Eric got the big Falcon and his first student, Matt, ready to go. They took off and immediately got above launch, which added some urgency to our preparations. The lift was better than we expected.

About that time Andy Miller took off the east launch and got up over the point for a while.

Next off was Eric Tucker. He also got above launch pretty quickly and probably managed 1000 over. Rafael Ramirez had a good launch but the cycle was weak, and he ended up flying out looking for lift a bit further out. Finally Randy Buell took off. It looked like he was sinking as he went around the point but about five minutes later we saw him clawing his way back up over the half-pipe in front of the north launch. Rafael, Eric Tucker and Randy flew through the rain as the clouds filled in and grew. Happily, there was no lightning to make things dicey.

John W. wasn't able to find decent conditions for PGing before it filled in and started to rain.

Eric's plan was to use Randy's truck to bring Matt and his glider back up for the second tandem lesson with Vick. While we were waiting for him it started to rain pretty hard so we hid out in his truck waiting to see if it would clear up for additional flights.

After Eric got back up it began to clear up enough that it was worth setting up gliders again, so he set up the tandem ship while I set up my glider.

Eric and Matt took off as Andy and John W. went back out to the PG launches for another attempt. The lift wasn't nearly as good as earlier, but they got a nice smooth one with a little bit of zero sink out over the LZ, for a good flight. I followed shortly after for a sled ride and a poor landing - happily, nothing broken except self-image.

Andy and John W. weren't able to make anything of the second attempt because the clouds were building fast and the conditions on launch were very squirrelly. So they finally had to bag it and ride down.

As always, these days don't happen without lots of help. Big thanks to our generous drivers and wire crew: Whitney, Debbie, Rachelle and Allen. And congratulations to Matt and Vick on their first HG flights.

John

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:37 am

Your right John, we could not have had such a good time without some help. Thanks to Randy for letting me use his truck to shuttle.

Thanks - Whitney- for the wire help and gear up with the guys an lunch!
Also thanks to you John for giving your base tube to Tucker so he could fly the first round! an for the camera loan an startup for the vidieo
Thanks to Vick for letting me hide my gear in his truck during the rain! Hope to get it back! My truck was still at launch, sure looked weird seeing the Pg come up and go down so fast on the east launch?
FYI
The launch ramp sure looks good! may be it will show up in the vidieos.
The main road up Carr canyon had been graded it`s smooth. Our road up to the Reef is in good condition as well.

Eric

Miller Saturday

Miller Report

Miller Sat