This year Cody and Dorothy again opened up their house for a fly-in / barbecue. The pilots, Matt, Cody, Greg and me met in Sardine Canyon where the road to the towers launch begins. Cody's neighbor Randy was kind enough to drive us up this most heinous road. We were welcomed at the top by a smooth 12 to 15 mph southwesterly breeze, which is perfect for the Towers. Cody was off first followed by Greg, Matt and me. We all soared around in the buoyant air for twenty minutes or so, before finding solid thermals. It wasn't long, we all were coring jagged little bullets. After a while, the thermals seemed to consolidate and get a bit easier to work. Cody flew out front and found a nice fatty coming off the rocks below a secondary ridge. As Cody thermalled up I joined in on the fun, and it wasn't long until we were smellin' barbecue! At around 11 grand (about 4000 ft above launch) we cut loose and headed down wind and on course for Cody's house. Greg and Matt were scratching around at launch, but soon they both climbed out high enough to turn east and over the back. Cody and I flew together and ended up high over his house. We found a thermal and took it up a thousand feet or so, drifting toward the range to the east of his house. We boated around for a while then landed in a nice barley field adjacent to the festivities. Greg was having a hard time with his radio - batteries - but later on the ground he told us he finally left the ridge with under 9000 asl managing to glide over with no problem, landing safely before Cody and I. Matt fought for over an hour on Pisgha Ridge just east of launch, but was unable to get high enough for the glide to the party. Matt landed safely in a dry lake bed. We all convened at Cody's for fun and food and lingered well after dark.
Cody
Greg
Matt's nice launch
The LZ
Our support team
Greg's support team - Jennifer
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