Saturday - August 21, 2004

3 LSF IV's do 2 hour TD, one new LSF V

Two Hour Boys - Steve Meyer, Wayne Fredette, and Jim Bacus

That's right...
3 LSF IV's do the 2 hour TD task, one new LSF V after it's all said and done.  It happened at SOAR's Hampshire field today, just outside of Chicago.

Conditions were nice, the sky was completely blue, no clouds, big lift and big sink, had to get high and stay high, if possible.

Wayne Fredette, Steve Meyer and I successfully completed two hour thermal flights today, working towards our V.  For Wayne, this was the last task he needed to make level V.

CONGRATULATIONS to Wayne Fredette!!!  (I looked at his LSF V voucher card and he has dates going back to 1987)

Wayne flew a Chicago Style with a Picolario mounted in it today, and made two attempts, one for 1:15 in the morning, he recharged and went 2:05 on his second flight to make it, he was the last to land.

Steve flew an SBXC with an FMA copilot mounted on it and a Talking Telario inside it and cruised upwards of 1000m during his flight, he always seemed high through his entire flight.  Steve made it in one attempt, and was the first to land and accomplish the two hour TD today.

I flew my lightest ICON lite with a Picolario mounted in the ballast tube.  I made it on my third attempt, my first two flights went for about 3 minutes a piece, and I cursed at myself for flying so stupid.  On the third flight I got hammered at the start too, picked off a tight little thermal at 28' off a tree line and worked my way up to Meyer.  I ventured over 2,100' twice today, and had to save it once more from around 240' (thanks TK for the call to the barn) and worked it back out again.  2:01:01 and I was finished, about 45 minutes after Steve.  The 1250mah nicad battery pack in my ICON was at 5.5v at landing, my JR 10x was still at 9.8v.

It was a really cool day, I am beat up from flying that long but excited none the less.  I really enjoy knocking down those hard LSF task with my buddies, especially doing them together like that.

Thanks to TK, Don Smith, Wes Gibson, and Charley Schmitz for their help today.