Mon 18…high adventure
Usual start to the day with breky and stuff…less fat more fruit…be good to yourself…marshals is a well organized club /teaching site with the only irrigated grassy landing field I have seen since being stateside…it is very professionally run by the an outfit called high adventure http://www.flytandem.com/justmaps.htm and the crestline(a higher launch over the back)soaring society…they are fulltime instructors and have big site overheads borne out by the fact that almost the first words out of the proprietors mouths are their prices…this is the first place I have had to pay to fly since being stateside but with the setup here you can see why and I have no problem with it…I feel however that a long time running a full time school has taken some of the fun out of flying for them and they seem a little disintrested after they realize I am doing my own thing and they will only be getting minimal daily charges from me…because of this I make phonecalls to the e team to get directions to launch(saving $10)..which is up a small unmarked dirt track on the left about 7 miles or so from 40th st out of san bernadino up the mountain on highway 18…hard to spot so watch out if you are going there…I arrive on launch at around 1.30 at the strongest part of the day to find 3 or 4 paraglider pilots sitting waiting for a wind dummy…dummy is my middle name so I get straight off after sussing out the conditions… top land to get my new vario(thanks to andy at green dragons http://www.greendragons.co.uk/ )and fly again…its windy and inverted… this breaks up the thermals that are there quickly spoiling the fun about 200ft over the 3500ft(1000m)launch…predictably they all launch within 10 mins of my takeoff…come on guys…no guts no glory…I land early as despite the wind there is no real lift I have the skill for away from the mountain despite its size and I chill for the afternoon watching the hangies come in to land…lazy day with an exelent pollo loco(mad chicken) dinner…crash…