Saturday's flights were uneventful. I had a ~25 minute flight with only a single climb. We were lucky to get what we did with the weather how it was. That evening we had a cookout with campfire and live music that was a lot of fun. Sunday ended up being a decent XC flying day. Mark, Rich, Greg and I took off. I launched first and hung out at cloudbase (4500 feet AGL) until everyone had launched. We then all started drifting downwind. After my first glide I released my VG rope (which allows me to tighten the sail for a better glide) and the rope went all the way through the cleat that holds it. I tried for some time to put it back in the cleat, but doing so would be a long 2-handed operation, and it also takes 2 hands to fly a glider so I gave up on it. Rich and Greg were 1 thermal ahead of me for most of the flight (~2.5 hours) which actually worked out very well since I then always knew where the next thermal could be found. Mark caught some horrible sink at 35 miles and was forced to land before a very long blue hole. I was hoping to have radio communication with the others (we all brought radios) but it seems my radio must have had the button stuck (which I re-soldered that morning) causing radio communication to not work at all. During one of my long glides about 1 hour in I was flying while holding the VG rope in my hand and tried to get a drink from my camelbak. The bite valve came of the hose and unfortunately with a full face helmet, visor down, and the camelbak located well above my back, it was like a geyser going off in my face. Blinded by the water all I could do was search for the hose with my gloved hand and eventually got it out. The hose flew over my shoulder and continued to soak me. I was very hungry the whole flight because I skipped breakfast (stupid mistake) which did not help when I started to get airsick. After getting low and drifting at 1500 AGL for a long time, I decided to glide for something better, but not much was there. I spent my last 800 feet searching over a neighborhood in hopes of finding a Memorial Day BBQ I could partake in while waiting for my ride. I saw smoke coming up from behind one house and my mouth started to water. After flying over there I saw they were just burning some yard waste :-( so I continued over to the soybean field to land. After a good landing one of the neighbors came out to inform me that the airport was only a mile north of there with a "what the heck are you doing here" voice. I told him I didn't want to land at the airport and he seemed a bit shocked. It's always great seeing peoples faces when you land away from the airport. I landed 47 miles from my release point (as the crow flies). Greg and Rich made it 75 miles landing ~5 miles short of the Mississippi river. The flight had it's share of frustrations (radio not working, camelbak explosion, VG rope not functional, GPS tracklog started too late, landing just short of 50 miles, no cell signal after landing), but with a "personal best" for XC flight and a good landing, I had a very big smile on my face. I uploaded a whole bunch of photos from this weekend to: http://tinyurl.com/q7h62a My flight can be seen on the map and loaded into google earth by clicking the KML link here

I flew a personal best of 45 miles today! I just got picked up and am heading back to the airport for more flying tomorrow.

i was able to slide the lock and clamp the release so i could release the string from my mouth. I then pulled the barrel at 2k and released.

After adding another loop to my mouth release, it worked wonderfly today! I had light tension so i know it would release if i was in trouble. At 500 feet

eather should be a lot better tomorrow. Tonight we are just enjoying the grill and live music.

I flew once this afternoon between thunderstorms and had a small climb to 3k. I'm planning a xc flight tomorrow going downwind with some other pilots. W

Here's a video from the Flytec Race and Rally showing lots of aerobatics. Most of the film was shot from the dragonfly. Our weekend fly-in weather is looking so-so. There is a chance of rain and it seems nobody knows what the lift might be like. We have cross country, flour bomb drop, and spot landing contests planned, with food and live music on Saturday evening. It should be a good weekend even if it is not soarable. I am going to try posting via SMS this weekend. We'll see if it works. -Craig

I have completed the webpage for the Memorial Day Weekend Fly-In. Now we just have to hope for good weather.

I had 2 flights today and hit lots of sink. A lot more sink than thermals. My first flight I climbed for a short while but the thermal was very bumpy. My second flight I made it to ~5000 feet and decided to try going XC, but as I flew downwind the air only got worse. I was back on the ground 6 miles away from the airport. From 5000 feet in dead air I should be able to glide closer to 10 or 11 miles. The good news though is that the camera worked beautifully. I think I need to find a different location to mount it though because the down tube is in front of my face in almost every shot. Here are a few of the better pictures. Click on the image to see it full size.

I went to the airport today with forecasts of decent winds and strong thermals to 7500'MSL but by the time I got my wing set up, wind were aroun 15 gusting to 25, which is faster than I am comfortable taking off in (could make me take of before I start going down the runway). With predicted winds of 10-15 straight west I was planning to fly to Lake Michigan. I had planned out a flight to the beach. With winds aloft at 25-20 mph all I would have to do is stay airborne for 2 hours to make the 50 mile journey, but getting airborne was unfortunatly unsafe. I will be heading back tomorrow afternoon after teaching sunday school (should be able to take off around 2pm). Tomorrow's forcast is for winds of 10 kts on the ground, 15 at cloudbase of ~7k MSL from the northwest. This might be a great chance for me to try flying home, something I have wanted to do for a long time. There should be other pilots there tomorrow looking to go XC, so it could be a fun day if we get several pilots together. I will post some updates in a few days. The image shows possible routes for east wind to the beach and nw wind to get me home (Island Lake LZ). Click the image to enlarge.