Father's Day @ Dallas

Click photo for more imagesKiting and Flying at Dallas All Afternoon and Evening

Deciding to pass on mountain flying today, Natalie and I hooked up with Johnathan at Dallas in the early afternoon as southerly winds were expected. It was almost soarable when we arrived; nice conditions for them to practice kiting.

Airwave Canada team pilots, Alex Raymont and Nicole McLearn arrived after having had their first flights at the Malahat (thermalling up to the limit) and were hoping to experience some Dallas flying.

There was some good wind further out in the strait and it wasn't long before it blew in. Natalie and Johnathan got a short window before it got too strong - way to go guys!

Alex pulled out his Mustang2 and was soon airborne, getting a feel for the atypically bumpy conditions. After a few inflations with her Magic, Nicole took to the air as well, flying quite high before she and Alex headed west for an easy crossing of Finlayson Pt, pushing further past the apartments. They were definitely lucky to have such conditions for their first time!

Since the wind was too strong for student kiting, I took Natalie's Gecko up for a flight, meeting Alex on his way back from the apartments, snapping some pics in the process.

Click photo for more imagesIt was sad to see the results of irresponsible fire use on the cliff below Linden. Hopefully that part of the bank doesn't erode as a result.

Up high the air was strong but smooth while down low it was bumpy and sinky. It was almost as if the 'bubble' was just on the verge of forming but never did.

We left around 6pm and later heard that Paul and Rick came down and flew in super lifty conditions that made the point jump a piece of (Father's Day) cake. Nice work on 3hrs of thermalling and then hours of ridge soaring on the same day Rick!

Rick reports:
"We loaded up Shabe's vehicle and talked over our great day (at Prevost) as we headed back to town. I called Jayson for the Dallas update as I knew he was already there.
"It's getting strong. Probably not too good for kiting but there are pilots in the air now".
That's all I needed to hear. So I loaded up my glider and headed off to Dallas. When I got there I found Norm and Merwan already there in hopes of some kiting as well. Jayson was right, it was strong but no one was in the air. That quickly changed when Paul showed up after a long day at work.

"Looks good" he says as he throws on his flight suit and within minutes he's off.

Click photo for more imagesIt didn't take long before I found myself thinking why is he so damn high. I grabbed my glider and decided to find out for myself. I launched off thinking maybe we can hop the point this evening. It quickly became evident that hoping the point was going to be the easy part. Getting back down to land was going to be the hard part. After an hour of Incredible lift that extended the entire ridge clean past the apartments and pond I found myself starting to think about how I was going to land. As I head back down the ridge I thought I would check out how far east this insane lift extends. I was able to fly over the parking area at Clover Point with a lot of height, something I previously thought was impossible.

Being so giddy from the flight I didn't pay attention to how the pilots before me landed which is alway a good idea so I decided to just back it in in the normal fashion. Well I backed up all the way past the monument to the road and was still higher than I normally get over the ridge. After a few minutes hovering over the road I thought that's not going to work so I used a little speed bar to push forward and did some small wing overs to lose height. Paul came in right after and used some big ears over the water and backed it in making it look easy. In the end I had accumulated around 4 and a half hours of air time and I was DONE! It was a great day for all I'm sure and one I wont forget anytime soon. I always thoroughly enjoy getting out and flying with good friends."

Thanks for the report Rick! You spent more than 25% of the waking day in the air!

Note to new Dallas Rd pilots: The easiest way to land at Dallas in these kinds of conditions is as Paul did - lose your height out front over the water and then crab/back in when you are much lower and aim for just behind the path.