The launch was good and I headed directly to the dunes. The air was smooth and cool. The falcon achieved 410 ft/min climb at 3500 RPM. The sky was overcast and not the best light for photography but I took a bunch of shots anyway and even a short video of Jeff Goin and company playing around a single dune below the "Black Diamond Face". After an hour and 30 minutes my belly was screaming from being too far laid back so I turned to the campground and landed. What a wonderful day, the clouds were keeping the thermals down and several guys were still in the air at 10:45. 
That afternoon I checked out Holtsville which is a small Agricultural community about 25 minutes away from our camp. The grocery stores were bare bones so I satisfied myself with a chorizo and some fresh produce.
That afternoon I checked out Holtsville which is a small Agricultural community about 25 minutes away from our camp. The grocery stores were bare bones so I satisfied myself with a chorizo and some fresh produce.
When I got back , the group were all into “parawaiting”. Chad was assembling a MiniPlane with a couple of guys, the Canadians were sunbathing and a bunch were trying to figure out what caused the fire in the concert bus last night.
The afternoon flight was probably the longest of the trip. I had been out for well over an hour and was ready to return when I hooked up with the Canadian contingent. Luc ...Ned... and Cyrille were skimming the dune tops as I approached. When I caught up with them they were approaching a couple of ATV who were running hard on the "Big One" and it wasn't long before all of us were playing tag.
Mark MacWhirter took some great video earlier in the day of the same thing, http://vimeo.com/9247436 . About halfway through the video Phil Russman bashes into a dune and manages to recover with a few steps.
Later Luc joined up on my left side and I got some nice video on the way back to the campsite. The sunset...wings in the air...it was all good. Returning to the LZ, the sun had set and I turned on the strobe. It was dark enough that it was hard to see the surface and a little tricky timing the flare.
That evening Christian set up a projector and we watched Star Trek on the big screen. Later I watched a video about Donald Crowhurst and his insane attempt to win the first round the world, single handed yacht race. It was a good night for movies.
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