#334 Simms

Foggy day with Low Cloud Base

This was a weird one, I woke before the alarm which I fully intended to switch off and ignore. When I went downstairs and opened the garage door I was surprised to see that we were completely socked in. The cloud base was very low. It hadn't rained and the grass was barely damp. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go but I loaded up and drove down to the gas station for coffee and a sip of gas for the buggy. 30 minutes later I was at Simms driving in circles tying to find the place where the weeds were low enough to launch.

There were banks of fog in the area south of Red Rocks. I was wishing there was another pilot with me but the air seemed so still I had to go up and see what it was like. The launch was normal and for the first 30 minutes it was glass off. I went to 700 feet and started to lose site of the surface so I stayed there and kept a good eye on the ground. A couple of times the base lifted and them came back down...or maybe it was me but I was seeing the Denver skyline come in and out of the fog. The last 10 minutes the air started getting bumpy so I landed. As soon as I was down, I regretted it, There was a slight West breeze and with the thick overcast, I'm betting I could have flown past 10. But...It didn't feel right flying in soup without back-up so i packed up and headed over to Chatfield. I spotted a couple of balloons through the fog and drove over to the port to see if I knew anyone. A couple of them had landed out so I drove over and assisted them in getting deflated.
Later I stopped at the old Titan LZ and was surprised to see that it had not been visited and seem to be dormant. I think the Rush Soccer Club has postponed the development which means that we will probably be able to fly out of the old field without anyone complaining. I'm going to go for it, even if it's only once.