On thurs. 2/11 I drove to southern california to fly Palomar mountain. This is an old hang-gliding site from the 70's. It took me about 6.5hours to get there and unfortunately I missed the glass off that first night by about an hour. This place is amazing. Picture this. Driving up we shopped and got fresh produce from the valley including organic oranges that literally hung into the road, and hence my car for picking. Perfectly legal per Martin. 30 minutes away is free camping in a sycamore lined canyon complete with waterfall. Instead we picked the camp site on the side of the mountain that also doubled as our landing zone. This would only be a landing zone in light conditions. From the LZ and camp it was a 7 minute drive to the launch a 1000' above us. Launch was "interesting". First time I have ever had a shooting range that doubled as a launch. No kidding- when I topped landed I had to yell "hold your fire". Pretty redneckish but most everyone was really friendly. The weather was mostly cloudy with sw winds at 5mph.

2/12 Took off at noonish. Really light conditions but all 3 of us got 1 to 1.5 hours of thermaling. I was laughing hysterically when after 5 minutes of hard thermaling I was only 150 higher than where I started. Roger flew 5 miles down range. Martin landed at camp. I flew straight out to land at a friendly airport.

2/13 Roger had other business but Martin and I gave it our best shot. Cloud base was substantially lower this day. It was kinda weird weather and we didn't quite know what to do with it. There were periods of dead air and then really strong stuff. It burned off in the afternoon and we were glad we passed early with valley winds exceeding 20 mph. None the less we flew in the evening. Martin got a 20 minute and 40 minute flight. I got a 30 minute flight. I top landed saving us an arduous 7 minute drive.

2/14 Roger decided little black looked better. He was right. He almost took a cloud street from little black to Torrey Pines!!!! Wow. Martin and I had mellow,low cloud base weather. I flew 4 times, he flew 3 times ranging from 20-40 minutes a flight. It was interesting playing the cloud suck, moving out into the valley with big ears, only to return to the hill to do it again. It was sweet. Not a single little wing tip collapse all weekend. The most stress free flying I have ever had.
Weather chased me home early but I shall return! Pics soon to follow.