The New Digs

The promised pics of the new place: Compact, stately, rather lush. Rumor has it Hemingway once stayed here; the house belonged to a close friend who invited Ernest to KW in the first place.
Not sure why some insist on showing sideways.
The breakfast spot

Breakfast from the pool view.

The dining room/library, from the poolside entrance.

My 2nd floor room has an enclosed porch which makes a great place to paint. The artist at work.

Arrived, settling in.

After 8 days on the road and 3800 miles I got here Friday. SF-Reno-Salt Lake-Denver-Wichita-Shreveport-Biloxi-Port Charlotte-Key West.
Sometimes it felt like a bit of a slog but seeing friends and family along the way was great and overall fine traveling--almost surprised when I actually got here. A bit odd yet to be looking at this as home, not just a vacation.
Immediately began looking for a place to live. Rentals go quickly here (the "season" is just getting underway), a couple rented out from under me before I could see them, and then I saw a few dumps, so it was feeling a little less than rosy, but I found a great place yesterday and rented it. It seems pretty ideal, quiet neighborhood but easy walk to the main drag, very nice older home(historical register listed), an enclosed porch I can use for studio space. Will post some pics soon.
Also am meeting other artists and gallery owners, people have been very friendly, helpful, and generally welcoming here.
Now I just need to get moved in, file a bazillion change of address notices, get a Florida DL, a bicycle, maybe a scooter...., well I guess it doesn't all have to happen today ;-)

Eastward Ho!

Well for those who have been living under a rock, I've headed to Key West. Unloaded most of my stuff, put my paints and fins in the car and am on my way. Weather has held nice, I'm making good time and seeing friends along the way. In Denver today, turning right tomorrow. Nice rocks in Utah.

Slaying (the dragon at) St. John

Well, a comeback of sorts.

First, a Lengthy Preface:
Had a pretty rough downwind landing at Dunlap this April, sustained some neck and ankle injuries that took their sweet time healing up. Took a few flights since then (at Mission, Slide and Yosemite), but until recently it was still pretty painful, and more disturbingly, I was a lot more nervous than I'm used to. A little edge on launch is normal for me (for most people, I think), but this was to the point where I almost didn't do it a couple of times. I had not flown Slide or Yosemite before, and both launches are a tad more intimidating than most, but still...
The bigger issue was that the fear was messing with my flying. That became crystal clear to me (and maybe everyone else) at Yosemite. The LZ (Ledig Meadows) is *h*u*g*e*-- hundreds, maybe a thousand, meters long. The desired spot for convenience is at the end, where everyone breaks down in the shade of the large trees. The Saturday, not wanting to have anything to do with overshooting the spot, trees, other gliders, etc, I erred on the side of caution-- by 1/4 mile. Just ridiculous. How odd, I thought, to have misjudged so radically. Oh well, new place, etc... then did the exact same thing Sunday. Hmmmm.
It was clear to me that I needed to either back up a step, fly some easy, familiar places, get my confidence back... or just hang it up. Which I seriously considered. There were other factors as well--I've been pretty focused on painting the past year or so, the whole summertime competition/travel thing was looking like a big interruption of that, my girls, having been gone for most of the past year, would be around for at least part of the summer, I didn't want to be painting from a wheelchair, that kind of thing.
Well the calendar keeps rolling, the Sonoma Wings meet at St John was coming up. Its one meet I've gone to every year since I could. Not an easy site by any means, but I've always liked it, and usually had pretty good flights. Plus they do a great BBQ. I decided to go again this year.
My friend Eric Heinrichs (who is also an instructor), who knew a little of my situation, got wind of that and phoned me up-- not to discourage me from going, but to do the practice flights I knew I needed prior.
Thanks Eric.
Weekend before last we met up at Levin and got in a flight there-- good launch, good landing. More would probably have been better, but at least one to the good. Which brings us to this weekend.

On to St. John
Conditions were expected to be OK, but not great. Didn't matter, we were going. The crowd was a little light this year. Some out of the country, some didn't like the weather, a bug was going around and several had to drop out the day of the comp. But those who came were enthusiastic as usual. The first day was open distance with an option of coming back for double points on the return miles. I launched middle of the pack, got to 9 K without too much fuss. Stayed over the mountain trying to get higher, but ended up getting below launch and having to scratch for a while. That took 45 minutes.
Most people had already left and were 15 miles uprange, so I was happy to have a couple of sailplanes flying around and marking lift. The nice thing about those guys is they cover so much sky-- they're more likely to find the *good* lift as opposed to just something going up. That helped me top up over the mountain to 10k; then I headed north.
Some cummies were forming over the mountains but they were pretty deep, didn't think I wanted to be back there. I wasn't finding a lot to work where I was, but the sink wasn't bad either. Past Felkner Ridge I noticed the faintest possible wisp, no, it wasn't even a wisp, more like the fog over your coffee, but it was going up compared to me, and wasn't too far away, so I flew to it and was rewarded by nice lift that only got stronger as the Q blossomed above me. Ended up higher than the cloud, over 10k again, and kept going. Saw a similar formation later but again it was too deep in the mountains, and was not clearly going up. As I continued away from it, it too became a substantial cloud, and I believe the heavy sink I experienced then was due to that cloud. If you're not in the lift, you're in the sink. Remember that.
The flight continued uneventfully. At Red Mountain (~20 miles) I turned back upwind, toward Stonyford, to get some of them double point miles. I was flying conservatively, didn't want any more sketchy landings. There was light lift, but drifting back in the thermals provided no net gain upwind. Made it back 6 miles, which turned out to be the high point flight that day.
Sunday also was better than forecast. Launch conditions were a little squirrely, with mixed crossing cycles. I thought I had a good window, but turned (or was turned, still not sure, probably some of both) hard left about 3 steps into my launch. I was too close to the (harsh, sharp, volcanic) rocks surrounding launch, but stopping wasn't an option so I flew as best I could and managed to clear everything. I'm pretty sure I heard a big sigh behind me as I got away from the terrain. Or maybe it was just me ;-)
Pretty ratty over launch, we'd seen one dust devil earlier (first one I'd seen at St John, I think the trees usually dissipate them), and I got a full on, slack strap twang about 250' over. Not enough clearance for that kind of crap. Eventually hit 9k and went south, the day's course. Got a few miles past Gilmore Peak, noticed I wasn't getting the predicted northerly tailwind, an decided to try back to Stonyford. Broken lift over the foothills kept me going for a while, but I was slowly losing altitude.
I really wanted to make Mary's, might have been able to (I'm sure Ben or Bruce could have done it had they been there) but I was committed to landing safely, which for me meant not scratching until the last moment. I picked a nice field, circled it once, and set down a mile short of Mary's. Missed those 10 bonus points and the spot landing, but kept my confidence intact and had a pretty decent flight overall. I was happy with the decisions I'd made. And combined with Saturday it was good enough to take home a spiffy set of speedsleeves from the prize table ;-)

And yes, the BBQ was excellent. I may not fly as much this year as in the past, but its nice to be back.

Soaring Tam

Wanted to catch up a little on a nice flight earlier this spring. Went to Tam w Paul Gazis, meeting a few other pilots up on launch after signing in below. I'd been a couple of times before and gotten sledders.
This was a slightly snarky day-- light northish wind splitting the ridge and sometimes coming over the back. Still, it was sunny, postfrontal, and the odd cycle would straighten out the wind on B launch and most of us eventually set up.
We waited, hoping for the wind to come around west, but it never did. After one particularly long lull, during which I thought we'd seen our last launch opportunity come and go, I decided to take both balls in hand and get off the mountain.
I waited on launch quite a while. The flag high up on the ridge is a godsend- saved me from several false starts where I would have been tempted to go but could see it clearly blowing down. I was finally rewarded with a strong if slightly cross cycle, and took it.
Got some ratty lift pretty soon after launch and was working it for a few minutes when I saw Paul get off also. We were over the first knob on the way to the beach, with me maybe 300' higher. Didn't seem like a lot, especially with the rowdy air, but it made a difference. We both worked it for a while but I was making slight net gains while Paul, in the trashier air below, was slowly losing feet and eventually had to head beachward.
Eventually I climbed to cloudbase a bit over 3k where the lift got more consistent and much smoother (though not exactly silky). Phil joined me on his rigid and we benignly ruled the sky for an hour or so, surveying our realm North and South, gazing east toward the hinterlands of SF Bay and beyond.
Seemed like the northerly flow was turbulating over the ridge, and it was a matter of catching a strong cycle off launch (and a bit of luck) to get above that mess. I had heard tales of serious spankings ("most terrified I've ever been") in stronger winds of this direction, and was seeing how that could be. Got spit out of couple of doozies, but kept climbing back up.
Must admit to a touch of schadenfreude watching 5 or 6 pilots (Berkeley, I think)go off the C launch in quick succession (small launch window?) and, in equally quick succession, sink like rocks (or maybe just lemmings without wings) and scurry toward the sea.
I flew further NW over the estuary toward Bolinas and found light but very general lift--a convergence was starting, and soon I could see a long cummie-like ridge forming along the coast headed toward Drakes Bay. Pt Reyes/Drakes looked like a real possibility, but I hadn't made any XC plans and didn't know the area well enough to just go. Still and all, a gorgeous flight, and nice introduction to Tam soaring.