Dallas All Day

Click image for more photosFirst flights on the new SWING tandem

and HOURS of airtime for Charlie, Pierre, and Rick!

After getting blown out yesterday at Mt Prevost, we'd hoped for better conditions today but alas, Charlie reported strong west again in the morning so I decided to stay local and try Dallas Rd. The webcam was showing strong wind but a good direction so hopefully it would die down.

Lee met me there at 9:30 and Charlie wasn't far behind. The wind seemed to be back off pretty quickly and Charlie brought up his glider to test it out, moving slowly to the cliff's edge but penetrating nicely. My new student, John, was late so I decided to bust out my new tandem and Lee volunteered to be ballast :)

Pierre had arrived by this point and gave us a launch assist. The tandem came up nicely and Lee and I were airborne before getting to the path. We stayed low and out front, soaring over the shore, as the wind was definitely on the strong side. We joined Charlie further down past Cook Street and Lee snapped some pics with his cell phone, enjoying the hands free flying.

Click image for more photosAfter 20mins or so I cruised back over to the kiting area and saw someone waving and smiling who I assumed was John.
"You want to come fly?" I yelled down.
"Yes!" came his eager reply.

Lee and I touched down and then I realized that it wasn't John but rather a visiting Russian engineer! I chatted with him for a bit, geared him up, and then, with Charlie and Lee's assistance, flew off! During the flight, I learned that he'd just arrived in Victoria yesterday with a coworker (who was now taking picture down below) and that they'd moved to settle from Russia and the Ukraine to work for Boeing.

Well, I had to take his buddy for a flight as well and, since John still hadn't shown up yet, I was happy to do so.

After bidding the two very happy engineers farewell, John arrived and I took him for a tandem flight as well, getting to know him in the process. Charlie, meanwhile, had flown to the apartments twice and Pierre and Rick were clocking up the hours.

Check out the video Charlie took of John and I on tandem here:

We ended our time at Dallas with Lee and John putting in some time kiting in strong wind. John did very well for his first time!

It was hard to pull ourselves away from such good conditions at Dallas but the annual Oak Bay Tea Party was underway so we took Charlie's kids there for some fun. As it turned out, there was an airshow complete with aerobatic planes and skydivers.

Flying Dallas was way cooler ;)

Here's some aerobatic footage. Listen for the kid behind me comment...