I should have checked the weather first thing, at 5am, when the alarm went off. It was too late to go back to bed now, I’d showered and was enjoying my first cup of Hawaiian Bold when I opened Weather Underground to check the radar. There was huge storm building West of Boca Grande.
I expected it to move inland but I figured I had time to crack off a quick flight. Placida was obviously not going to work so I headed to the Peachland LZ. No joy there. The grass was high and big sections were still flooded. So…. I plugged the Yorkshire LZ into the IPad. I wouldn’t have thought of this place except that Bob Harrison had mentioned it yesterday as his preference over the Orlando LZ. And…. it is better, Yorkshire St. loops through the northern section of undeveloped North Port North East of I-75. It’s the same basic flying area as Peachtree and offers a slightly wider corridor with less traffic than the Orlando LZ.. The ground between the paved roads is saturated but not flooded and the grass is short enough for footlaunching.
I set-up on the road and launched in nil wind following the curve of Yorkshire Loop until I had enough altitude to traverse the forest. Once up, I found the wind behind me at 7 mph. I climbed to 1400 feet in smooth air and the wind increased to 15mph. The storm was beautiful with two distinct domes boiling on top and a gigantic base dumping 5 inches of rain into the gulf. Over North Port it was smooth as butter. The only bump I felt was when I flew through my own prop wash. I flew south to the Lake Suzi Airstrip hoping to see sign of Paul C. but he wasn’t there.
I could have probably stayed up an hour but that storm was dominating my attention and this was my third flight in as many days so I turned back and landed by the truck.
I got my fix for the day and got back in plenty of time for social sailing at The Isles.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 