Chelan practice days.

Friday I headed to Golden to get a flight in before going to Chelan. I got away late and arrived in Golden at 2:30. Dave Corbin was at the landing field and keen to head up. We loaded up and headed to the top. The wind was blowing in from the north and it was easy to get off. After I took off I worked my way up over mount 7 in very ratty air. I wasn’t sure if I was just getting soft from all the flat land flying I’ve been doing or was this really ratty air. After heading over to Capristo I came back and landed. Dave was already down; he agreed it was very ratty. After dinner I packed up and pressed on to Penticton.

I got up early Saturday and caught up with Doug and Leif at the boarder. It was no problem getting across the boarder and we were anxious to get to Chelan. I rolled into town about 11:00. We had lunch and headed up to launch. We all scoped out the area before getting set up. Pilots were launching all afternoon. Most people were getting up but it looked like work. Our group all got ready to go together. I went to the south launch as it looked like the wind was more consistent there. Every one else was launching between the rocks. Leif got a tail wind when he started his launch and never got up. He ended up bending some aluminium. I moved over to the other launch and launched in a week cycle. I had a poor launch run and just got off the ground. Once in the air I climbed up easily over launch and crossed the gap when I hit 2500m. I got down to 1200m on the other side before I finally got back up again. The lift was big and smooth. I was fighting a 15km head wind so progress was slow. It was easy to stay up thou and it was nice to get feel for the site and a good look at the lay of the land. I did a small 50km triangle and landed back at the air port. The rest of the gang got up and crossed the gap. Every one boated around for a while and then landed at the air port.
This was one of the nicest flights I’ve had this year. The lift was so smooth and good climbs it was very relaxing. I’m really looking forward to the week ahead.