Sunday, September 17. Blowing down on the top, 8-10 S in the LZ. Everybody went to Ave S. The soarcast is good. Guys, you want to go up? They were sitting in the gazebo. Nah, they said, it's blowing down.
By the time I set up, it slowly diminished to occasional puffs from S-E. The main streamer on the top (God bless you, whoever erected that poll again, may you never need Viagra) went slack, but still N and the PG streamer was straight S. Camp 9 said 5 NE, J said 8 S in the LZ (?!!).
I took the puff and went off the back. Ridge soaring didn't work, there wasn't enough wind. Went around the corner, got some, headed more SE. The thermal sniffer of my glider just pulled me into the convergence line behind the 4-th bowl. Then I drifted more E ( Humm, I thought it was NE wind) and got to 7.5K over Volcano, and going strong.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I Give You the First Kagel Convergence (of the season)!
I had the whole sky for myself only. So I plaid around, went to Lukens (8.2K), wish there was someone, like Dave Cutter to go to Wilson with, went back to West Towers(7.5K). Never tried to top it off to see how high it was, though.
Had to work hard to go down. It took me 30 min to land.
So it's here! It was lined up along the range, but up front, especially near canyons. It was rough occasionally (it's not a thermal), mainly at higher altitudes, that was freaking me out (I have not recovered completely yet).
Flew out of it couple times, but was a no-brainer to get back.
Looking forward for the next one...