OK, but let's also have a look at Saturday's weather tomorrow morning.

As of 6:30 a.m. Sat. still looks too strong fo GV (12-13 mph in the valley all afternoon). But I'll look again after 8 a.m.
Sunday now looks good for afternoon flying. 8 mph out of SW.
Gunter

As of 7a.m. it looks real good for Box.
Essentially winds out of SW @ 8 in valley / around 12 @ launch all afternoon.
planning to be in lz by noon.
Hope to see all the Pg pilots.
Gunter

Gunter,

Thanks for the message. Didn't get it til 2PM. Couldn't have come anyway. Friends from N. Calif in town. Came to weekend visit. Bought a beautiful condo at La Cholla Hills in Tucson.

What happened at Box?

DEnnis

Just a brief desciption, John Wolf will give detailed report. Both of us flew for over 1hr and 15 min. John get's eagle - after scratching and heading towards Lz he got up to 8500'. I only got to 7400'.
Gunter

Winter is over; it was two weeks ago on Sunday. Sorry if you missed it.

Mark Williams, Gunter, and I left the Box LZ around noon and arrived on launch about 1:00 p.m. We noticed plenty of good, strong cycles during the hike, but they all seemed to be separated by a significant lull.

It was different on launch (how odd). Base wind was about 5-8 mph, mostly from the west with strong cycles (12-18 mph) coming pretty close together. At times we were seeing only a 30 second pause between cycles.

Mark got set up, but the strong conditions were not conducive for his first launch from Box. We took him down to the lowest point on the southwest launch but decided against that as well because there just isn't any room for error down there.

Having been duly commissioned as the day's wind dummy, I got set up with much-appreciated help from Gunter. An uneventful launch put me into some lift, and the day was looking promising. It didn't last though. I made several passes across the face and never got more than 100 feet over launch. I dropped well below launch many times, and eventually got down to the fence.

Disappointed, I headed out to the LZ...and promptly blundered into a boomer that took me above launch with only a couple turns. Back in the game! The air was punchy for the first 30 minutes of the flight, and at times I struggled to make net upward progress.

While I was working the southwest ridge above launch, inching my way up, Gunter launched and started the same scratching routine I'd just endured, and he seemed to be having the same trouble I had: can't get much above launch, but it sure is easy to drop to the fence. After about ten minutes or so, he headed for the LZ, and I thought he was done.

Turns out Gunter found a bubble of the same origin as the one that saved me, and he was back in the game too. By the way, when I found this miracle, I looked down to see what I was turning over and found a large pile of rocks. Something to keep in mind when you're struggling to get above launch by working the face.

By this time I'd finally managed to get above the peak, and now Gunter was working the ridge, inching his way up. Eventually, Gunter made a run to the north along the west edge of the ridge, and I tracked him from above. We were clipping along at a ground speed of 40+ mph, but there was no appreciable lift to be found, and we were putting lots of distance between ourselves and the LZ. Needless to say, the trip back to the peak required a bit of patience.

Somewhere over the peak, I found some more serious lift and rode it up to 8500', the highest above sea level and launch I've ever been. Somewhere behind the peak I found the rotor and proceeded to test the limits of my speed bar.

Gunter peaked around 7400' and headed out west. I think he went a mile or so past the LZ, losing very little altitude before returning to the LZ.

Mark never did find a cycle that worked for him, so he hiked down, arriving in the LZ around 6:00 p.m.

Gunter and I both flew for a little over 1:15.