Flights 66 thru 70

#66 & #67 Aug 18, 2007 Simms
Wonderful flight…I took off into 3-4 knots and flew west to Red Rocks Park. I didn’t go right up to the Amphitheater because it was after a hot day and I thought there might be hot air rising off the Rock mixing with cool air flowing down from the mountains. It is definitely a place to come for a sunrise flight. So I played it safe and climbed 2600 agl and checked out Bandamire Speedway and Red Rocks from on high.

#68 &69 Aug 19, 2007 Simms
Chip and I waited 45 minutes watching a scary bank of clouds over the foothills the winds were 8 to 12 mph and I didn’t think we were going to fly but very quickly the winds died and the cloud band broke up. It was amazing it was there and 5 minutes later it was gone. One thing of note was that I did my first Touch and Go on the second flight. Despite the scary looking sky earlier it was relatively smooth everywhere.

#70 Aug 22, 2007 Chatfield
Nice long flight! I’ll always remember this one because as I was coming back I saw lightning coming from Blue Sky. More on that later. I took off at 6:30 am with the wing coming from the South. After climbing 2000 ft AGL I headed south following Roxborough Rd. until I go into some turbulence that was being kicked off of Wildcat Mountain which is really only a little cone that sits along about 1 mile east of the hogbacks. So I turned east for a ways and then continued south until I was over Sedalia. This is really beautiful country. The homes are widely spaced and fabulous, the term estate better describes it. Some were Tuscon others were French chateus and there were a few plain old ranch houses. This was my farthest afield yet and when I got to Sedalia damn if the wind hadn’t turned 180˚, so, I was fighting a headwind all the way back. For a bit I was worried that I was going to have to “land out” until I dropped 500 feet and was better able to penetrate.
As I was approaching the LZ I was looking at blue sky ahead and all was well…then out of nowhere lightning struck in front of me. I didn’t loiter over the field like I had planned instead I checked the windsock and set it down on the first pass. While I was packing up the wing it started to rain with great big drops, not enough to get me wet, just a few minutes and then it was gone. I guess next time I’ll make it a point to check my six once in awhile.