Strong and North

We were at the South Side again this morning. Kat got drug around a little while kiting and hurt her neck. Nothing too major, but we came "home" right away to ice it. By this evening she was feeling good enough to go out for sushi, but I think she'll miss one or two days of flying.

I went to the North Side in the evening and it was cranking. The first time I launched I was lofted straight up 10 feet and then I slowly sailed 50 feet backwards before landing! I bunched up my wing and thought about it for about 20 minutes and then I took off in a lull. I got back on the main ridge twice but my penetration was marginal (4 mph ground speed to windward according to the GPS) so I felt compelled to fly back out to the bench. I'm not a big fan of flying in such strong wind so after 40 minutes I went and landed on the bench and packed up. The sky was filled with gliders until sunset.

I took a bunch of pictures but I had the camera set wrong and they were all overexposed. I'll post a photo of a perfect looking summer sky at Dixon White's Merriam Craters Flight Park in Flagstaff, Arizona.