I took the machine with me to the lake and woke up an hour before the alarm. I had a hard time getting out of bed because it was cold in the boat but I dragged myself out of my nice warm berth and got to the field early.
The take-off was terrible. The field has been posted no trespassing and so I was forced to use a small section by the High School. The surface is rutted and the mud has dried leaving lots of little nubs that love to grab and hold the lines. In the field the weeds are thigh high and the ground is bumpy as hell. 
This place is the opposite if Vance Brand, the run outs are bouncy slow challenges. The trike is trying to power through the weeds and the wing is bouncing above the trike. I can only imagine the lousy air flow over the wing. Invariably I get airborn too soon at too low an air speed. It is more like lurching into the air. Looking back, I should have aborted but once up, the air was smooth as butter. There was a fresh breeze from the West making it turbulent over by Red Rocks so I spent 90 minutes playing over the golf courses and Bear Creek Park. Not much activity this early... just me and the coyotes
I did go east to Wadsworth and circle the big lake there. On the way home just to remind myself that things could be worse I flew to the prison. There were some people walking around the quad and I thanked god I wasn't one of them. I climbed to 8700 feet ASL and did a hard spiral over the prison. The Power Play Sting isn't a aerobatic wing but with enough pressure I was able to achieve the steepest dive ever. I dropped 3000 feet in short order and pulled out over the prison at 300 feet.
It's good to be alive
Back at Chips house I layed out the Eden III and did a serious inspection, the damage was much worse than I thought. Seven lines need to be replaced and there is a 1/4 puncture by the left wingtip. While I was doing that Chip fixed a wonderful breakfast and debated whether to fly, run or bike. Terrible dilemma... but the conditions were perfect and the sky won. I sat on the deck and sipped coffee while he hiked up and got in three flight over the next several hours. My thoughts kept drifting back to my girls, I wondered what they were doing and if they were thinking of their "Ol Man".
How cool to be able to land in your own back yard !
Chip's last flight of the day with a pal
Final approach
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