2010 - A Year in the Life of Soaring

Today is my last chance to visit the sky in 2010 and luckily it looks soarable. After my morning run I get a phone message from Gerry ... "want to go fly Diablo?" I call back ... "Nah, I checked the BLIPs, there's thermal, convergence, wave and clouds over the Mendos, already got my 27 scheduled. But wait, let me see if I can get a plane with a back seat." Three hours later and we're towing into the the lee of Snow Mountain. Slack lines become more frequent and worse, damn it's getting rough. The tow pilot calls on the radio "how much further do you plan on towing?" Translation: "GET OFF TOW." When I do, yep we're in a mix of thermal, convergence and big mountain lee side rotor, wow look at that vario plummet.
After a nauseating ten minutes of bouncing up and down and never finding that magical wave we decide to leave the angry mountains behind.
I spot a nice looking Q over Walker Ridge. Gerry doesn't think we can make it. "But Gerry, we're in a sailplane." So we head over and spin it up, getting above our release altitude next to Indian Valley Reservoir.
Gerry enjoying the sights and some friendly foothill air.
After spinning a few holes in sky above the hills we head back to a beautiful and clear valley, soaked from recent rain of biblical proportion.
And put it on the ground one last time for 2010.

I met my goal to chronicle every flying day/trip for 2010. Real Pilots Don't Need Engines will continue however, I'm unsure if I can sustain the constant blogging pace and may resort to showcasing highlights of soaring life.

The 2010 Box Scores (I only keep a glider log book)

114 blog entries of only 117 flying days, 69 hang gliding and 48 sailplane.

Only 127.6 flight hours during 57 flights, Pilot in Command of a sailplane.

Average flight time 2.4 hours not including 3 pattern tows, 1 aborted takeoff and 1 instrument failure return.