Flight 1088 & 1089

1088 was great! The plan was for Alvaro and I to fly to Gaspirilla Beach. He had a problem with his 1st launch an called me to to on ahead without him.

I got as far as crossing the causeway and decided to stay there and play with the clouds that were forming off the island. I caught one that went from a wisp to a city block of thick white puff in 3 minutes. It was small enough to fly around , over and under. Great fun! The highlight for me, was a beautiful Glory Rainbow on my pass in the clouds.

Tech note: I set the trim two notches out for landing and wasn’t able to push through a complete flare. The next flight I set at neutral and it was better. Next I’ll try a little more trim in.

The highlight of #1089 was the launch. It was 76degrees and 99 percent humidity. I set-up on a wide road into light to nil wind. The wing came up clean and I accelerated quite a bit before lifting off. No brake input. About one second after lifting…. Whoosh the climb was dramatic. FlySkiHi showed 400 fpm.

I didn’t stay up very long, the clear sky was filling with puffers and it was getting bumpy quickly. I got into a little “cloud suck” and was climbing at 300 rpm. I went to idle and worked my way to the edge of the cloud. When I crossed into the sink, it was as though the down button had been pressed on the express elevator. I grinned like a kid, altitude is my friend.