Doug Mueller gets some air at the Cantamar sand dunes.
Sunday
2/23/03 Strong south winds prevailed. We did inflations on the beach
and practiced ground handling.
Monday
2/24/03 Strong south winds again. We did inflations on the beach and
watched video tapes.
Tuesday
2/25/03 Strong south winds and rain kept us all on the ground again. We did
inflations and visited Ensenada.
Tim Smith gets his first flight off the ridge.
Wednesday
2/26/03 It rained in the morning, but cleared out midday. The beginners went to the
sand dunes in Cantamar and got numerous flights in fairly strong on shore breezes. Aaron,
Al and Tim got soaring flights in off the ridge late in the day. Al was up for 55 minutes.
Aaron got a 50 minute flight in and Tim soared for 20 minutes before it got light and
everyone landed in the landing zone.
Thursday
2/27/03 The beginners went to Black Mountain in San Diego for their fist flights
from the 300 foot launch. Aaron, Al and Tim got soaring flights of up to an hour and a
half before the wind picked up. Aaron and Tim headed out from the ridge at 500 to 600 feet
over launch and tried to make it to the beach, but failed to penetrate out that far in a
very stiff onshore breeze. They landed near the road and walked back to the villas. Al got
blown back over the top and landed safely on the mesa after the wind picked up to
30 mph on launch.
Tim Stelzer, Al Socquet, Aaron Laznovsky and Ruth Masters soar the ridge at La Salina.
Friday
2/28/03 We arrived at launch at 9:30 a.m. Al, Aaron and Tim soared for up to an hour
and a half before all three of them landed on the beach in front of the villas. It was too
strong for the beginners to launch. We returned to the launch on the ridge at 4 p.m. Al,
Aaron, Tim and Ruth all had soaring flights. Aaron out lasted the others, landing after
sunset, logging an hour and 45 minutes of air time. Ruth top landed and assisted the
beginners off the ridge in lighter conditions. Doug and Tim Smith got their first flights
from the ridge.
Doug lands short of the bullseye at La Salina. Nice try!
Saturday
3/1/03 Catherine and Tim Smith had a flight out in the morning. Al and
Aaron joined them going up to San Diego in the first van. Tim Stelzer and Doug arrived at
launch with me at 9:30. Doug got his second flight from the ridge in light conditions,
then hiked back up and got a second flight in light thermals. Tim launched at 10:25 and
experienced a lot of thermal activity. Tim got high above the ridge in light thermals and
then used thermals effectively to fly out to a landing on the beach after about 15
minutes. Well done, Tim - certainly the most improved pilot of the trip.
It was disappointing not to get any flying in Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday, but the beginners got a lot of inflations and ground handling in and we saw all
the videos and did a lot of ground school work early. And it’s always good to get a
road trip to Ensenada in each trip, including Ruth’s birthday celbration at El Rey
Sol. Conditions during the remainder of the week certainly made up for the lack of flying
early in the week. With an hour or two a day logged by our more experienced pilots, Al,
Aaron and Tim certainly made a lot of progress in varied flying conditions on Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We had a great week in the Baja, again.
