Tues26…rocky
I get up early and eat…load lill suzy with wing boots water clothes and dr superflys now patented wind speed and direction assessment guage/fish catcher…I begin to calculate the takeoff equasion…wind speed over direction times height of terrain minus hours since sunrise…or is that direction over wind speed…I drive to the mountain…I study hard everthing I can think off on the way and stop a few times to check the wind…I see a couple of bombout spots but they are small and you still need to get it right…i look for a place high enough up the mountain road to spread my wing…I find something…some young passers by stop to see if what my story is…the bloodthirsty fiends ask if they can watch…no pressure then…I say they can if they are as willing to help if it all goes wrong…I have chosen a quiet observation point on the roadside about 7or 800ft(250m) up…I wander around sucking my finger and holding it up…I check the w.s.d.g.f.c…everything seems fine…still no fish but I clip in anyway…the small audience is indifferent…not much wind cos of the way the road is cut where the wing is… on the third attempt I am over the side plummeting towards the rockface below...no…actually im fine and soaring up the rockface tentatively probing the morning thermals…I scream inside and fall in love again…I begin to soar up the rockface…I go up quite easily a thousand feet or so and see if I can come down again…I can so I stop feeling quite so nervous and begin to enjoy the flight and climb again…it gets rougher the higher you get and I suspect the influence of a light west wind over the top I saw on a weather report online…I fly on till about 1.00 and although nothing is really making my spider sense tingle there are big sink areas as well as lift…I decide not to push my luck any more and effect a safe landing on the roadside after an hour or so in the bumpy thermic conditions…and so ends my first owens valley flight…nothing epic but lots of fun and at least for me a cool challenge which is why i came