The day before this had looked very good and the thermal index for Saturday was even better. However, the fly in the ointment was an area of thunderstorms west of the area that had weakened but placed a solid overcast over the airport at the start of flying that delayed surface heating. Winds were light out of the southeast so we initially set up operations for a 31 takeoff.
The first flight was Jaime taking up a 90 year old gentleman to satisfy his bucket list. Whit towed. Winds were forecast to pickup out of southeast so we switched operations to 13. Whit took two CAP rides up next with Paul Jelinek towing. By this time the overcast was gone and Cu were dotting the sky though the bases were not too high. Pat Greenwood was next up in the L-23 for a 22 minute flight. Bob Dyer launched in his Russia and soared for one hour and 34 minutes. Paul Jelinek was next up in the L-33 for a 25 minute flight. Mike Boska then launched in his Russia for a 40 minute flight. I was up next in my Russia ( at this point we had 3 Russias in the air ). The cloud bases were around 4500 ft MSL with strong lift under the better defined Cu. Paul Jelinek launched again in the L-33 for a 25 minute flight and Mac McKain flew the L-23 for the hanger flight. He was up for 56 minutes but had to come down while there was help to put the L-23 in the hanger. I landed next for a 1 hour and 45 minute flight.
Bob Craig
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