The first day was outrageously turbulent, and we all got down as quick as we could. But the second day was nice good air. There was still some thrashing, and a particularly nasty inversion layer, but after breaking through it things got great. The lift was abundant and climbs were taking me to 6,000'.
Looking South
To the East were the Sierras. It is only 40 miles in a straight line to from Dunlap to Lone Pine (our destination for the rest of the weekend), but driving there takes the better part of 6 hours and covers more than 200 miles! I'm sure I could have flown there if I had gone for it, but why miss a super long car ride?
Who's that sexy pilot?
I played around, flying up the ridge, checking out the new local. Took a tour of the valley and then came in to land after about 1 hour. I didn't have my head on straight setting up my landing approach and I came in too high. To make matters worse I got a strong pop from a thermal on final and started climbing. With the T2Cs glide, I new I was in danger of overshooting if I just kept pulling in the way I was. So I let the bar out, climbed and slowed. I kissed a stall at the top of the climb and then jammed the control bar back. This let me get into a much faster and steeper dive then I would have if I had just kept pulling in. The maneuver worked and I got down to ground level and shot across the LZ. I flared early at the end of the LZ, climbed 5' and planted it for a solid no stepper. Pure ACP style! BAM
Here's a video of my landing, taken by ACP John Taylor
Link
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