Back to Pemby - July 17

Another nice flight in Pemberton. I pushed on a bit further than last week and went all the way to Owl Mt. Along the way I watched another pilot hit some exciting air causing him to spin/spiral low above the ridge (but he got away with a scare) so I opted to fly out into the smooth air over the valley. I had already picked an LZ when my vario started chirping. Sweet 500 meter climb in one thermal in the middle of the valley!



In the evening there was talk of glass-off flights and we went up to Lower Launch. It was pretty windy, but launch went very smooth. The first half of the flight was nice, but later the air turned a bit rowdy. I used the lift to get up to microwave tower height, but should have stayed with the rest of the local gang who hang out near lower launch (as I heard later the valley can go off with a big boom on evenings like this - better to stay low). We landed east and away from the venturi and rough air and turbulence at the school LZ. Barely a stir in the air where we landed, but myriads of mosquitoes (but hey, I'll take the bugs over a turbulent landing anytime).