Tandem for Pepe!

Learning English in Victoria for a few months, Pepe from Mexico wanted to run off a mountain to balance out his studies!


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Paul and I picked Pepe up mid morning and grabbed Rick en route to Prevost where Charlie was waiting. Steve the hang glider had made a flight already and said conditions were pretty good on launch so up we went. There was some pretty serious cloud formation further south in the valley to keep an eye on but otherwise things looked promising.

On launch wind was crossing east but Pepe and I hooked in and took a straighter cycle, lifting off together before flying out past the cairn and climbing up a bit. The air was somewhat spicy and the thermals disorganized so we headed out to the lower clear cuts and worked another climb before eventually touching down. Pepe was very excited to be in the air and he took lots of pictures and videos throughout his flight to show his family back in Mexico. You were a fun passenger to fly with Pepe!

Conditions had deteriorated somewhat on launch with less straight cycles to choose from but Charlie and then Rick finally launched off before the clouds to the south OD'd (Over Developed). They both worked some punchy lift for over 20mins before the crack of thunder helped them decide to land.

After dropping Pepe off, we decided to try our luck in town since the forecast for Haro Strait called for southerlies. It was surprisingly light and east when we arrived and, after some wishful kiting, it died, then swung west, then straight in but strong!

After some gusty kiting, we waited and then, just before calling it quits, the wind backed off and all four of us had a short window where we got to fly together to end the day.


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**News Update**
As I finished posting this, Paul reported that he, Rick, and Charlie just landed after Dallas came back on for over 2hrs of sweet sunset soaring!