Let's go to Miller! It's rare that we get a forecast that looks so attractive for Miller Canyon, so let's go there.

Saturday looks better for PG, as the winds on launch are forecast to be NE rather than the E and ESE forecast for Sunday, but I'm open to going either day, or maybe even both days.

I'd like to be on launch around 10:00 a.m. and in the air sometime before noon. Both days look promising for lift.

Please let me know who is available so we can work out when and where to meet.

I'm interested in going but there hasn't been an HG dialogue that I know of...

Whitney, so you'll only go if those aluminum-endowed types turn up?
Eric and I spoke this morning, so I'm reasonably certain we have some HG interest. It's just not clear who, when, etc.
Please let me know if you need a ride down there, and if so where to collect you.

Hi Guys,

After talking to you this morning John, I called around.

Spoke with John lowery an Orrin, they would like to go so.. my place 0730? We can pick Orrin up on the way out of town.

Eric

Thanks John. I'll be at Eric's house at 7:30. Sounds like alot of fun, just like the old times!

I'll leave my house around 7:00 a.m. on Saturday and collect people along the way. I'll pass through Houghton and I-10 around 8:00 a.m., but unless I hear from someone who plans to meet me there, I'll not stop. Target is to be in the LZ around 9:00 a.m.
Please let me know if you're planning to join us.

I will be there. I will meet in the lz.
Dave

Well, that was fun. We had 5 HG and 3 PG pilots on launch, although I'm not sure how many of the HG pilots managed to fly.

Dave assumed the role as designated wind technician and got up shortly after launching. Orrin, launched perhaps 20 minutes later followed in rapid succession by Mike Sargent and me. The task for the day had waypoints at Tombstone, Sunsites, and goal at San Simon. After getting a very late start, it looked like Eric would rapidly catch me, but it seems he decided to head south instead, so I was the only one on course beyond Tombstone after one of the massive sink holes swallowed Orrin just east of the San Pedro river. I made it to Sunsites, for 3 personal bests: altitude (15.7K), distance (44 miles), and duration (4:04). My track log can be found at http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/744988.

If you flew yesterday, regardless of how far, please send me your track log so that I can use it to continue learning about the scoring program. If you need help pulling the track log or pushing waypoints, please contact me.

Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday, especially our drivers, Jake and Whitney.

Wow, Big Day! Congrats on the great flight(s)

Yes, all of the HG pilots did fly, although in my case just barely.

Orrin Smith got as far as former SAHGA member Jim Lindsey's ranch, a bit past the San Pedro river on Charlestown Road. He didn't know Jim lived there, just picked a nice looking place to land amid miles of cat-claw, and there Jim was. Small world.

Eric Smith got a bit north of Elfrida. Weak comm and a misunderstood in-flight transmission had us looking for him down near Douglas, but we eventually hooked up.

Eric Tucker and Mike both had nice soaring flights locally. For Mike it was a personal best, he got stinkin' high and soared around for probably 45 minutes or so.

I was last off at 3:30 under a solid overcast after a long wait for anything launchable, into the same suck cycle that was drilling Tucker to the ground. I got something like 6 minutes. But no complaints - good launch, no damage to pilot or glider, a successful day.

As always, huge thanks to our drivers and wire crews - Whitney, Raquel, and Jake - without which none of this happens.

John

It was a good first flight for me in Arizona! Flew for 2.5 hours after not having been in the air for the last 7 months. Got up to around 12K but could have gotten much higher. I was not prepared for the cold! I never had a flight where I intentionally left "lift" so many times so I wouldn't freeze my fingers. Have to be more prepared next time. Too bad folks didn't come out on Sunday as well, conditions looked even better.

Cheers

It was a mix of everything, had a lot of fun including almost rolling Orrins truck coming down from launch. Hope to see so many pilots go XC again soon.

It was a fun first flight at Miller for me. I flew for about 2.5 hours and got to about 11k at one point, which is the highest I've flown yet, and it was my second longest endurance flight. Of course I didn't feel high at all when I heard John call out his altitude as he passed over me, sheesh!

I took off in a vertical fashion, basically lifting off just as I let go of the A's/C's and started turning around. I flew around the mountain for a while, seeing how high I could get before attempting to push into the valley, where I got that sinky feeling for a good long while, and then XC aspirations turned into LZ aspirations. I think I was just barely going to make it to the LZ when I had a low save at a few hundred feet AGL and got back up above launch. I attempted to fly the task for a little while before sinking out/giving up about a mile NE of the LZ in this neighborhood without any houses. Maybe I could have gone further, but I didn't want to trade an easy landing for a potential landing in someone's backyard. I spent several minutes trying to figure out the wind direction, and changed my mind about 3 times on which way I was going to land. I ended up picking the right one I think. Jake picked me up and then we chased John down. It was a good day.

Here's a video of my launch:

http://youtu.be/_TOR9Zp4xIc

-Mike

I have Dave's track log, and since JLo's GPS batteries died, I'm now waiting for track logs from:
Eric S.
Eric T.
Mike
Orrin

Please e-mail them to me at j_r_wolfe@msn.com. If you're having trouble pulling them from your GPS, please let me know, and I will arrange to walk you through it.