Box report Sunday Feb 27

Boy is it fun to fly!

Gunter goaded, cajoled, and otherwise provided good motivation and leadership in getting chaz, irina, fred, ross, scott, and visiting pilot clayton to commit aviation. [along with canines shadow and kodie -- clayton's puppy] early on, conditions were a bit on the rough side according to both fred and gunter who launched first. given that chaz, irina, and clayton, who all need to wear diapers when things go bump-in-the-flight, waited on the first knoll for conditions to mellow. some obstructive deadwood was moved a few meters to make launching the more north facing first knoll launch safer. as things got lighter, scott and ross showed up with their predictably incisive advice and help. chaz waited for bloody stinking ever for something smooth and consistent to come in and was finally rewarded with the sensation of leaving the ground without immediately coming back down. a long dry spell was broken there. next off was clayton who had an excellent flight -- a personal best -- soaring, scratching, longest duration, and kiting his glider out of some of our fine sonoran flora. irina followed with a no nonsense launch -- 'what? me worry? i'm going up! i may be flying reversed but what the hell...' nice confident flight with a typically nice landing. ross and scott, having rid themselves of the newbies, now faced much more difficult conditions: kodie [puppy] was confused and perplexed and found comfort in staying close to the remaining pilots -- especially right in front of them in the midst of their lines. ross eventually got off with some distractive help from scott. scott got off later with distractive help from some unknown higher being. having mentioned higher, R&S scratched like heck in ephemeral thermals -- high low high 'oh my gosh' low. toward sunset the glass off started and well, with the beautiful roseate hues of this land showing shadows on the field of wild poppies called our LZ those of us on the ground watched two comrades specked out. after both landed, we found that some higher being understood that they were having *too much fun* and in some small part mitigated the glory of their flight with sub optimal body temperatures. there were however many more smiles than shivers.

side anecdotes:

fred committed one of the cardinal sins of aviation: too much. he flew first, got high and eventually came down for a break. having refreshed himself, he pulled out this thing that goes 'eeeeeeeee' and which, by some method unknown to me, allows paraglider levitation from flat ground. in any case, fred was studiously helpful in informing those of us with mere legs and no magical propellent force, to analyze conditions aloft as he looked down upon our disgraceful groundedness. at some point the 'eeeee' became 'uh' and fred returned to the graceful touch of the poppy field. at this point however he became arrogant in his pursuit of aviation and tried for '3': a smallish winged vehicle was produced and he commanded it to fly in circles above the ground. again, a matter of concern for ecclesiastical authorities, for he bade the thing to do his will with a long metal wand. and, with a long drawn out frustrated whine, the thing obeyed his command to turn and perform unnatural inverted maneuvers. this man needs to be watched, for if he performs the final sin of '4' [aluminum aviation] the end of days may be upon us......