And it looks like Box will be working in the PM!!!

Pending last minute weather checks, I am planning on being there. I'll work with PGs on the hill and if Eric sets up a Falcon, I may take a few runs in a HG. If the PM winds are NW, I'm headed to Box for an evening flight.

What do you guys think about going to Mustang since they are calling for a SW wind and we'll be training nearly on top of it.

I have a student coming to my house at 8 AM. Will head to Sonoita but will probably arrive after 9 AM. Will monitor 925 to find everyone.

NWS says NW in the PM, but all the other indicators are showing SW to W. SW would be ideal for hucking newbies off Mustang, Box would be nice for the memorial. Let's make the call at the training hill. I'll check the forecast Sat AM as well.

Save the lives of young Americans; carpool. I'll be departing my house a little after 8AM.

Note: I posted pictures at http://www.sahga.com/forum/album_cat.php?cat_id=2. They're all reduced size for uploading, if you'd like a larger version contact me by email. If you know who the pilots are in the unnamed photos please let me know.

We had a great turnout for the SAHGA training hill day - 16 pilots, including two from Phoenix!

It was still low-pressure and kinda unstable. Fred found the air uncomfortably turbulent for motoring during a brief 5 minute cruise around the Antelope Hills.

It was kinda southwest, so we watched it for a while, but the PG guys committed first and started hiking up to set up. The HG guys followed, and by 11:30 there were PG and HG guys buzzing down the hill.

There was one mishap. Tucson PG pilot Lared Hansen and Phoenix pilot Eric Chan got tangled up right after launching. Lared got turned downwind and landed hard. He got both knees scraped up and some bruises but was otherwise unhurt. Eric was able to fly down and land safely. Good thing it happened low and slow...

The rest of the day went uneventfully. By 12:30 it had gone north and no one had the energy left to chase it around to another hill, so everyone started packing up. The last of the kiting was concluded by 1:30 and we headed back to Sonoita to get lunch.

It was raining hard over the Santa Rita mountains, so Box was no-go. We got home early.

John

From one of the Phoenix pilots, a big thanks for inviting us. I enjoyed meeting more of the PG pilots in the state of AZ. I look forward to joining up with you folks for more flying in the future. Please call me if you want a change of pace and want to come fly some of the sites in our area. South Mountain has been good recently. Six different pilots over the last 3 weeks have made it to the 4000 ft msl airspace ceiling and had to use big ears to stay down.

John, thanks for the report and the great pictures. Thanks to everyone for coming out. Special thanks to Jason for setting this up and to Eric for bringing the "Beast" and quiver of gliders. If you didn't see it, take a look at John's midair pictures. There's a lot to be learned from this incident, and we should talk about it at the next meeting. A quarterly training hill day is a club activity we can consider. We need everyone's participation in the meetings and club activites, so hope to see you March 8.

Great photo of the mid-air.

Nice pics John. good to see you out and about. I'm the one in the yellow and blue PG.