Brody Wilson: Had a great day at the sod farm today. I arrived just as the winch was getting set up after the hand launch competition.   Got to try some bungee launches with Chris's bungee.  That's a lot of work for not a lot of height....

The lift was out this morning. I skied out the Espada for the first time. Was up for what felt like 30-40 min and finally came down for battery concerns. Had a few other nice flights.  My winch launches continue to improve, as does my familiarity with the the Espada and my radio set-up.

Got some much appreciated soaring coaching from Adam.  I'm slowly trying to teach my left thumb to fly.

It was fun to watch Glauco's 2 km attempts.  I'm sure he'll tell that story. 

Hope to see some of you tomorrow morning.

Brody

Adam Quennoz: There were three of us that showed up to throw. Chris, Mike, and myself. We flew AULD. We ended once the air became so active even I was maxing along with Mike and Chris.

Once the Hand Launch was over the winch came out and so did the big birds. Glauco and Brody showed up too. Glauco was going for his 2km Goal and Return and Brody was looking for stick time. I'll leave Glauco to tell his story. Brody's soaring affliction was made worse today. He had a pop off that turned in to a ten minute flight that never got above two hundred feet. Finally it fell apart and he landed. The best part was the next time he launched. He shot right in to lift. After a few minutes his Espada was way up. He was under my shade giggling like a little kid as his plane spiraled up.

Had a great day. Next week is the Nats............are we there yet?

Adam Q

Mike Johnson: July hand launch results are below.  Adam came up for the contest which gave us 3 flyers - enough for All up last down.  We scored it with no timer except for a 3 minute max with 1st place getting 3 points, 2nd place 2 points, 3rd place 1 point, 0 points for off field landings.  Afterwards Chris and I helped out Glauco attempt his 2km goal and return.  I had a great time driving watching Glauco fly from his truck bed.  His first attempt ended at the 2km waypoint with no lift in sight and a safe landing at the sod field up there.  Hmm, how did his second try go?

Hand launch results:

Chris - 3000 (1000)

Mike - 2602 (867.3)

Adam - 2589 (863)

Glauco Lago: The Nats is a week away and the 2km goal and return was the last task to complete for my LSF IV. Not that I'm planning on doing any LSV V tasks at the Nats but Jim Deck will be there and it is always easier to just hand him the voucher.

Talked to Mark Miller and we both agreed to try ours on Sunday. There was a small chance on giving a try on Saturday if the HL contest finished a bit before Chris had to leave to work at 1.

At 9 AM I got a call from Jim Crook reporting that Chris wanted me there. But I was in the middle of upgrading another plane so took me a while to get to the field. Once there they reported the contest was over, lift was all up and I should get my plane right away.

Mike Johnson who is an expert stick shift driver agreed to drive my truck and Chris was my spotter.

We got close to the turnaround point but the sprinkler at the satellite sod field was on and we would get all wet so I just flew past what we thought it would be the return and pointed the plane back.

Should have kept a bit of speed but before we could move the plane was getting really low and I wasn't able to find any strong lift. Landed at the satellite farm, took the wing tips apart and we drove back to the sod farm with that sinking feeling I wasted their time.

Total one way distance of that flight checked by the GPS was 2.33 Km.

So we were back to the sod farm and I wouldn't try again but Chris insisted he still had time. Launched again but came down fast. One more try and it wasn't looking good. Thanks to Adam the winch line was retrieved for me all the time.

Next launch and a good nice thermal was there so to the truck again. This time I managed to lose almost all altitude half way to the turnaround but with Chris' help we found a nice bubble that kept getting strong at the correct direction we wanted to go. So we kept moving and once at the turnaround a decision was made for a mad dash back to the start point.

At the last stretch the plane started to get lower and lower so we were driving really fast. I could see the plane flying by the  car just a few feet away. When we passed the West tree by the old Zoysia field the decision came to just stop the car and fly the plane towards the start point. The problem is that it was far away and depth perception was tricky. Could hit the trees, the pond or whatever other object but it seemed the plane landed safely.

When we got to the plane it was about 50 ft from the end of the Zoysia by the big tree at the middle of the field and about 200 ft from the start point. My adrenalin level was really high along the heart beat too, what a rush.

But then came the question, the short landing was enough to call a 2Km or were we short. I kindly asked Mike and Chris to sign the voucher pending checking the GPS log to make sure it was good. That is the reason no one that was there at the field was sure if the goal & return was complete or not.

Tight but good enough to finish level IV. Have to say I wouldn't be able to make it without Chris' expert knowledge, he judged  distance, altitude, stop points and had all the other information I couldn't process. Mike's driving was also perfect, it looks easy but you have to keep an eye on the road, the other to see if all passenger are still in the truck, some sort of track where the plane is and be able to respond fast to whatever instruction is passed to him. So thanks Mike and Chris, awesome help from both.

From now on I have much bigger respect for people who has done it and even more for the ones who did their 10 Km. This is the great part of the LSF journey, it pushes you to try and fly in ways you never thought it would be possible.

Glauco

Looking for lift over a recently watered grass field.  Uh-oh.

Plane retrieval from the satellite sod farm near the turnaround point on the first attempt.

2.01km!  Not leaving a lot of room to spare!