The T2C Comes Home

Colorado's s schizophrenic weather has sternly reminded me that I am not in Florida anymore. The past two days have been sunny and warm, but relentless 50 mph winds have made those hard to enjoy. The soaring forecast for today on the Front Range was good to excellent as a cold front passing in the night would bring calmer wind and unstable air. This morning it was downgraded to fair. I headed out to Lookout in hopes to fly the T2C. The wind was supposed to turn east and south, but it didn't look like as I drove past the wind turbine research center.

In Golden the wind was strong out of the north making a mockery of the forecast. I took the opportunity to rig my old Z3 harness to the T2C. Flying the Z3 harness on the T2C is kind of like putting a 20lb comfort seat on a race bike, but it'll have to do for the time being! By mid afternoon things were looking "possible". BJ met me at the LZ and we drove up to launch and hung out on the road guardrail with Sparky, Loopy, Grant, and a few others. The wind was still north, but the holes in the clouds were allowing spots of sun to peak through. It was enough for me, I headed up to launch and rigged.

The T2C's New Home

Loopy Skying Out

As the afternoon progressed things looked better, but soaring was doubtful. Loopy launched his new space ship paraglider and immediately skied out. I walked out to the north point and waited for a good thermal to block the northwest wind. When the sock was semi-straight for 15 seconds I committed and ran like hell. I've launched there before and if you pick the cycle right the rotor off the terrain to the west isn't bad. Today wasn't one of those days, the rotor made itself known as I ran well past normal flying speed. I committed to run all the way to the LZ if I needed too and eventually I lifted off in mild sink. It spit me out with enough altitude to clear the road, but I would need to find some lift ASAP or I'd be on the ground.

BJ Showing How to Launch in the Rotor

I had planned to land in the big miners field to the south, but the smaller primary LZ was my only option off launch. As I was setting my approach over the rock pile I hooked a light and narrow thermal. I put my freshly honed thermal skills and new wing to work and quickly climbed out enough to make the miners field. I was only in the lift for a half dozen turns, but it felt so good to make such a low save.

With a little breathing room I headed south along the foothills working a few patches of zero sink, but the cycle was coming to an end. It was by far the lowest I had every glided over west Golden to the LZ and not possible in my older gliders. The landing was stress free, although I did notice the thinner Colorado air in my approach and flare speeds.

BJ Landing

Sparky and BJ soon followed and we relished our 5 minutes of flight in the best cycle of the day. It was typical Colorado flying - 8 hours work for 5 minutes of airtime! My low save felt as good as sex and like sex it didn't last very long - wait... I'm going to stop typing now!