[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcnCHnFEaT0[/youtube]
Yesterday I left in a hurry to fly in the afternoon at Marshall Peak and took off (from home) without my vario. If there was smooth wind and mellow lift, I was hoping to do some touch and go landings on the flat atop launch to improve my run-outs and flare timing. The winds were pretty light and the lift was weak as you will see by my long takeoff run on the upper, shallow slope. With no vario, I wasn't sure if I had enough skill to center and work the various, weak house thermals along the ridge, but I did enjoy the quiet. Early on I figured that I'd be landing shortly and doing my practice from the bunny hill instead. Then I received some guidance from a pair of red-tailed hawks. I captured 28 & 32-minutes of video respectively from my keel and (shaky) wing cameras from the 55-minute flight. I edited that plus the full stereo audio track to highlight my experience of working bubbles and columns of lift by using my senses, then I included the narrated final approach and landing. I might have landed before both cameras reached the 4GB data limit but I caught a very gentle column if lift about 500-feet above the LZ that I worked by feel for a fairly long time. I had no idea of my flight duration because I had no instruments or wrist watch available. I had guessed that it was under a half-hour and that at least on camera was still recording. But, I was off by 25-minutes. Isn't it funny how time passes so quickly when you become a part of air that you're flying in--without the usual distractions?
Enjoy! Jonathan
