… And brings with it the end of another season of bolting out to the lake to catch the easterlies after work.  This brings to a close the second season of lake dashes for me and was topped off yesterday (April 1) with a magnificent flight with Dave, Nic, Dan W, Brendan and Ed.  After being crook for 3 days I was jumping at the gate to get out there and spread my wings. 

Dave sent and email through in the morning letting us all know that he would be at the lake in the arvo followed by an email a few hours later saying that he had changed his mind due to the fact that the radar showed rain out the lake way.  I called Dave and said that his attitude was just not good enough to which he stood up to the man he is and said ‘F@ck it lets go’.  So we did and everyone met out there at around 5 and took off. 

At the start of the flight there was a shower a few km’s north on the ridge that was passing through which caused no problems as we simply flew up to the side of it and stayed dry.  Cloud base was low and it was effortless to get there using ridge lift and some cloud suck that seemed to be about the place.  We were all having a go at out and returns with Dave going out many km’s from the ridge following cloud streaks before returning to the ridge. 

Once the shower had passed, cloud formed at hill height where the shower had passed through.  It was a magical sight to see as from above the cloud looked like fingers forming and sliding up and over the ridge.  What else was cool was the fact that you could be out over the lake under a cloud streak and have lower wispy cloud to the side of you that you could dive through.  All of this happens of course on a day that I don’t bring along either my still of video camera. 

After an hour and a half of playing ‘under’ the clouds and dodging rain showers it was time to land.  Dave and I decided to top land and after testing what seemed to be rough air on top of the ridge many times, Dave dropped his balls legs and made his approach and pulled off a perfect top landing.  After a quick radio down to Dave to get his report on the air I lined up and came in for a nice smooth top landing too. 

As the wind was quite strong the air right at the ridge seemed quite rough and for me I had to approach slightly lower than normal to accommodate for the extra lift I would get at the point where I pass the top of the ridge.   Once at this point the air was a little rough where the peak lift was but once behind in the take off and landing area it was quite smooth. 

After landing Dave and I packed up and were greeted by Ed who top landed as we were about to leave.  Nic Dan and Brendan landed on the lake bed, and with Dave and I being noble to our fellow flying buddies who had landed below, we radioed down to them to grab their attention at the two shinning full moons of Venus that were shinning down upon them, to which they were happily amused!  To all those who I have flown with over the last 6 months or so after work out at the lake – it has been a pleasure.

>:-)  Happy flying Andrew