m-ville-09

With Saturday August 15, 2009 being so perfect weather wise and having, close to 30 pilots from all over the mid west
attending Tracy & Lisa's Margaritowvilie - 2009 at Cloud 9 Field, "what could have been better"? Well how about flying for hours with your buddies. Since I arrived at the field a bit later than everyone else I was late setting up. Most every one was here for some great flying on Friday so they were already set up and once thermic conditions kicked in about 2:00 pm the lemming rush began.
Chris Christophersen was the first to launch while I was scrambling to gear up & get in line. Finally Tracy pulled me off the ground about
2:30 pm. The tow was very uneventful, smooth with not many bumps. Once we got to 2500ft the lift was apparent and Tracy
waved me off into a nice 350 fpm thermal. At this point I was circling with Ron Rhode of Ohio for quite a while drifting to the northeast.
We were now nearly at cloud base (500 -600 fpm) when I noticed all the other gliders which had merged under this very nice cloud. There was Mark Dugan, Larry Wright of Ohio, Floyd Cadwell (Air Hog of the Day) on his Atos, Phil ?(sorry no last name) on his Atos, Bernie Spring & Dan (Guido) of Detroit, Larry Ball of Ohio & Larry Faringa of Ohio...have you guessed that this was a huge gaggle? I am sure I am
missing a few pilots names. Every one was flying very carefully. I did not at any time feel like there was too much traffic. After quite a while I decided to bug out back to the south with Mark Dugan who was about 500 ft above & ahead of me. We found many cores of lift and climbed back up to base.
At this point Larry Wright had come over to join us along with a few others. Off to the west was Floyd & Phil on the Atos's circling up. We would eventually merge back with these two later in the flight. By now we had drifted back up to the northeast a bit farther than I realized @5000ft.
It looked like we were near Mason road & Fowlerville road when I was getting nervous and decided to bug out back toward the southwest to Could 9 field which was looking farther away than I am used too. So I pulled the VG full tight and tucked my elbows in and pushed on my boot. (I really think this helps me go faster). It turns out I had nothing to fear as I approached the field with about 3200 ft. I looked to the west of the field over Kane road and saw 2 gliders about a mile away from me. I yanked the VG again and made it them with about 2200 ft. I finally found Lance Beihn who I had not flown with in ages. Also Bob Reed was there on his Falcon. Lance & I were in a nice thermal climbing
back up through 3000ft where Lance boogied to the south finding a nice core. I stayed in my thermal and took it all the way back up to the northeast over 4200ft. On my way I saw Chris Christophersen coming back south while I met back up with Mark Dugan who is always in the best lift. We milked this lift until we had to head back toward the field. At this point I realized that I was getting, quite tired of all this fun and decided to head down. Being the great day that it already was, the wonder air had kicked in and it took me over 30 minutes and 4 laps around the perimeter of the field to finally come in to a tired legged knee dragging landing. The only thing that was missing from
this flight was The SkyDog himself. I never got to share the wonderful air of this day with Bob Grant. All in all I racked up 3hrs 37 minutes and maxed out around 5400 ft at cloud base. Then to top off a perfect day of flying was the party that Tracy & Lisa threw with Renee Colletti as bartender. The food was great The naked scooter towing was hilarious. Mike Boska performed a perfect Condor "Moon" flight bare assed naked. He took down the house. May thanks to Tracy & Lisa of Cloud 9 field for the aerotows and party and to all the pilots who shared the air & stories.

Chris

The weather for the for the event was spectacular with lots of lift and Cumulous clouds to mark them. I heard many stories later in the evening about the wonderful flights that most had and just how hard it was to get down and to stay out of the clouds so I am sure it was one of the best days of the year. I did very poorly taking three tows and never getting above 3,400 feet and on that particular flight I had Mark Dugan about 500 feet above me and I thought that all would be good as Mark is the man to follow but I soon lost sight of mark and within 45 minutes I was on the ground and then I took my last tow with a broken zipper but I did not stay up again so I was frustrated and gave up for the day. It was great hearing all of the sweet stories in the evening but unfortunately I was not doing well on that day. Floyd Caldwell had the flight of the day with close to five hours airtime and many other had long and high flights also.

Skydog

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	Margaritowvilie - 2009 - Cloud 9 Field, Webberville, Mi.