[Amigo] > [Tony De Groot  flight index]

Tony De Groot
Saturday, 7/23/05
Pine Mountain

Our Saturday Pine crew consisted of Hammer, Aaron, Ramey, Scotty, DD and myself with drivers Bernadette, Janet, Skippy.  Joining us was Tony Deleo with Fast Eddie driving chase.

Pine was going off.  Maybe a touch too off.  Diablo was off early in his sailplane looking wing.  Looked cool but was not getting above 9 grand.  Hammer launched and then was joined by Scotty.  Nobody was getting high at launch.  Diablo sounded really good early but then hit some headwind or something past Frazier when we lost track of him with Fast Eddie in chase.

Hammer and Scotty tagged Frasier and were coming back.  DD and Bob Ramey were cruising around launch and Aaron and I were wondering about the whole thing.  Finally I got up my nerve and Aaron followed and we all got up and went over the back.  Nice clouds everywhere and smooth lift greeted us as we boated around 9 - 9,500 feet between north launch and dry canyon.  It started overdeveloping in the distance and rain was starting to come down.  So we couldn't go East due to the overdevelopment and it was dry to the West but I was boating around in a Falcon at 9300 ft in smooth lift so why not just hang out and enjoy the view.

Later it started to REALLY overdevelop around Able.  Rain, and a dark monster getting huge, and it was moving our way.  So DD, Aaron and myself decided to get on the ground at Dry Canyon and folded up fast in case we got a gust front.  Ramey landed toward Ozena and Hammer and Scotty went back over the back with Hammer landing at Fox tail field and Schotae making the glide to the hot dog stand.

Just after the gliders were tied down we were greeted by a lightening show and it started to sprinkle heavy drops.  As we were showing Skippy the Scheideck landing field the gust front/dust storm came through.

Thanks to Skippy, Janet and Bernadette for chasing us.