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Wow !  This was exciting.  The first launch was to the East with mild winds.  I quickly saw that two of the lines were tangled and so I turned back to the field.  No big deal but I didn’t want to fly with the wing out of balance.  I landed without mishap and noticed that the skydivers had set up an extra tent for spectators.  
After clearing the lines I launched 180 degrees from the first flight.  Funky winds.
I headed toward the fishing lake and encountered some very turbulent air.  The trike was swinging big time and the wing was being pulled hard to the side.  I gently eased it around and headed back to the field.  It is an often over used term but I felt like a puppet on a string .  Bounced to the left and right.  Being lifted at over 400 feet per minute and dropped accordingly.  I don’t have a good reason but I was not freaked out like I have been the last few times that I’ve been in ratty air.  I was swinging but … ok … I was hanging under the wing but it was well loaded and even though it wanted to fly in a different direction … it was flying.  Perhaps I’m finally getting a little bump tolerance.  When I got back to the field the winds had increased dramatically.   they were coming from the west and I was barely penetrating.  With the trimmers full out I began to move forward and set up to land by the truck.  As I was descending the gust passed and I landed 100 feet beyond my mark. 
I waited a few minutes and re set.  the second launch was fine but after flying over the windsock I think it was 60 degrees cross wind.  The wing did come up high on one side but I was able to bring it overhead with some hard brake input.  It was a great flight.  Lots of bounce but I was good. 
When I landed the second stick of skydivers were landing.  It’s all good

back to the power play… So easy to inflate and launch ….

Late start
Low flight
Little house on the praire

I awoke with the star Betelgeuse shining in the bedroom window.  Dawn was asleep and i didn’t see any way that I was going back to sleep so I packed up and headed out to Vance Brand……Set and ready by 6:15.  The first launch was aborted after trying far too long to save it.  I even went so far as to reacquire the A’s and try to get the wing back overhead.  What I think happened is that some lines on the right side got hooked in the weeds causing the wing to come up very high on the left.  There was absolutely no breeze and when the wing fell back it was playing “push me pull you” with the prop wash.  I do remember seeing the right side collapse forward so it’s possible the cart decelerated and the high side overshot.  Anyway I launched and headed of to the South East at 150 feet.  It was a joy to fly low because i was able to see what was going on below me.  People were heading off to work… Kid were leaving for school.  At one little “house on the prairie”  I roused a bunch of kids who ran out into the front yard to greet me.  The Balloons were flying either way too high or playing down low over the neighborhoods,  so I decided not to hook up and headed back toward the LZ.
When I returned to Vance Brand there was a wing layed out.  I circled and landed.  The wing turned out to be a new pilot who was going on his 2nd or 3rd flight with the ppc.  Turns out he was a hanger partner with Barney and Craig.  Experienced Ultra light pilot but new to Para Flight.  Good launch
I turned home.

This was a good one.  I arrived at the field 20 minutes before dawn.  The launch was clean but the air was very twitchy between 50 and 100 feet.  Once above the layer it warmed up and was very smooth.  There were no balloons today unlike the last 3 mornings so I explored the south and returned to the field.  Not a real long flight but very enjoyable.

Good flight

another

Dead Calm  I had to share the field with NEK ATC training operations.  Para Military Security Training.

Flew with the Fairwinds Balloon and hooked up with them later at St Mary’s Field.  The Pilot “Jay” invited me to launch with them at Gunbarrel LZ.

Good flight
NEC Airborne training on site

Clean Launch and landing

Flight #557 was a pleasant surprise.  A week ago I posted to the Yahoo forum that I was planning to fly Chatfield on the Sunday morning after the Fagawie Sailboat Race.   In the beginning we would race from Sunset till Sunrise but over the years as we have aged, it has been shortened to a sunset till midnight race.  Since I was going to get some sleep I thought it would be a good time to schedule a Chatfield flight.  It was a disappointment when nobody responded but I figured John Sieb would want to go and even if he didn’t,  I hadn’t flown my old home field in over a year and it was time.

The Fagawie was a floater with little wind at the start eventually dying to zero.  Our speed was measured in inches per minute so we decided to abandon the race in favor of getting an extra hour of sleep.  At 6:00am the alarm went off and Dawn and I struggled to crawl out of the berth.  The air was considerably cooler than the last couple of days and I pulled on long johns to wear under the light pants I’ thought would be sufficient. At  7:00am we were pulling out of the Marina and encountered Chris Montes who had made the wrong turn at Roxbourough.  He waved and follow us to the field where we saw a big part of the Front Range Flock. John Sieb was getting ready to launch and I counted several others including, Mike Bennett, Ty, Nate, and Marek and amazingly Chip who hadn’t flown with us for ages.

On the way back to the south end I encountered a red white and blue balloon close to my altitude we blew by each outer with a wave and I turned around toward the bottom of the lake. 

Last nights huge 50 boat raft-up was greatly reduced but still impressive.  This is the first year but I’m sure the Annual Mega Raft-Up will be a regular event.

I flew over to the marina and RC Airport before heading back to the LZ.  What a great flight!  I was back on home turf and the conditions were perfect.

Thanks to everybody for coming to enjoy it with me..