The Skydog Report

Tuesday February 11th 2020, and we have a Great flying day at Wallaby Ranch. Oded and Jimmy are at Wallaby Ranch and we head out from Tampa to fly with them. We arrive around ten am and set up my glider and the next thing we know Tom Nejame is walking his new Atos out to the end of the driveway and is wanting to fly. The wind is around 12 mph with some higher gusts but about seven of us get out there behind Tom and we watch as Tommy takes off. Looks good so I get into my harness and off I go into a nice cummie filled sky. Bob McFee tows me up to 2,500 and I find a decent thermal and stick with it for a while and go searching for another. Oded and Jimmy and others get into the air and we all have a good time trading places. Oded takes another tow later and has the longest flight of the day at one hour and forty minutes along with Mick Robson. My flight time was 1 hr. and 18 minutes with a later flight of 28 minutes and the highest I got was 3,400 feet. I think Jimmy stayed up for one and a half hours. This was a very enjoyable day of flying and was my first day since July when I flew at SOGA field in Canada.

Wednesday February 12th 2020, and Tommy goes first again on a windier day and the rest of us opt to try later in the day but that was a mistake on my part as it only got less buoyant later and I only had a 18 minute sledder.

Oded and Jimmy are flying home on Thursday so we will miss them and we will try again next week sometime.

Sunday February 23rd 2020, and we are off to Wallaby again from Tampa as the forecast say lighter winds today. Maureen and I get there around 9:30 am and I get set up and ready to fly. There are lots of pilots to fly with today. Tom Nejame gets off first with his Atos and I am third in the air. Bob McFee takes me to 2,500 feet and a good core. I muddle around with it for a while and get up to four grand at the half hour mark. After that I get into some sink and get down to 1,200 feet ato and finally find another good one and take it to five grand. Scott and Jason are up there with me and we work together for a bit. The temp was likely 55 degrees at five grand so coming down to three grand was more comfy. I take a run to the clover leaf and when I come back to Wallaby I am down to 1,000 feet and have to look for some good lift to get me back up with the others hanging around Wallaby Ranch. I do get one and take it to 5,551 feet ato. Now I am comfortable and happy to be so high. I see Brian and Matt cruising the sky and I think I saw Gregg floating around but it may have been Joe. I was able to catch many others on my GoPro so check out the action. My flight time today was 3 hours and 9 minutes.

Sunday March 1 st. 2020, and here we go again with a forecast of winds of 7 mph we are anxious to fly. There were thirteen of us in the air today and there were  blues sky. Tyson got off first and was doing well while the rest of us scrambled over to another take off point more into the wind. I think that I was third off and Bob McFee took me to a pretty good thermal and I stuck with it for a while and off to the next one. I finally got p to 3,900 feet and could see an inversion line far out. The thermals were usually small hard edged ones with a few larger cores. I stuck it out for 1 hour and 10 minutes and then a sinker got most of us and down we came. Four of us took second flights and Karla Cenne from Brazil had the longest afternoon flight of 42 minutes while I logged 20 minutes and we were up to 3,900 feet. It was a tough day so many of us took two tows. We are heading home Thursday and the forecast says windy until then so that's it for me until I come back down south with Oded in a few weeks.

February 11, 2020 Video

Oded Being Towed by Bob McFee

Bob with Oded Way Above

Bob Being Towed

Bob

Oded

Four Gliders Thermalling

Oded

Oded Landing Approach

James Kolynich

Scott, Rick, Jason, Oded and Pete Relaxing After Flights

Tom Nejame Landing Approach

Mick Robson

Skydog Bob Being Towed

Drone

Jimmy

Oded

Oded

Oded

Photos From Eric's Drone

Oded

Bob

Bob, Maureen and Finnegan at the Beach