Flight Log 2022-09-11
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Model: F3T
Size: 225
Serial: 29307
Dealer: KLH
Launch Site: RGNLS
Land Site: AJ
Launch Time: 16:50
Airtime: 0:35
Comments: Warm, partly cloudy, chance of showers from Hurricane Kay remnants. A couple of hangs landed while I was deciding what to do. Mori & Noel. Heard thunder from the LZ, radar showed cell over Big Bear heading NW. Decided to get ride to RGNLS with Gene & 2 pg’s. Windy at launch. Experienced PG shot up after launch. Rookie got dragged a bit trying to inflate. I waited out a gust cycle on the road then stepped over the edge gingerly and had a two-step launch. Gene took rookie down to the 750; too windy for him there too. (Good decision to not fly.)  Took focus to climb, but easily joined the PG at 5k east of Cloud Peak. Very cool and calming in the air. Went west slowly but the hills on the west side of Devil Canyon weren’t kicking lift off. Back to RGNLS and such. Could see dark to the far east, rain in Redlands & Loma Linda, moving west. Finally saw a bulge in the front to around E St. & the 210 Fwy. Stuffed the bar at 4k and descended (slowly) to west of the LZ, where I found sink and got to 400′ AGL. The PG was still doing big ears. Steady SW 12+ at the LZ, I sank worryingly at the end of my downwind then got popped up at least 6 feet on final nearing flare-time. The flow was so smooth it was easy to just pull-in and glide it out. Kathy Rhodes got phone video. It was sprinkling by the time I had my battens pulled. A single-surface glider who’d launched the 750 landed fine; another from the 750 stayed up in the rain and landed after it was raining in earnest and blowing from the north. Somehow he landed (gently) off the east edge of the LZ heading N.

Then the rain got very hard with wind blowing it sideways. I left the LZ at 18:10 and it was a little bit of an adventure getting home. 25 mph, wipers on high, could barely see the roadsides at times. Water curb-to-curb on some streets, standing waves at intersections. Water ankle deep, flowing from neighbor’s front yard across my driveway into my backyard. Six inches deep at the south end of my back yard. Drained completely by 9 PM.

Work Needed: Dry glider well. Lost a basetube nut safety ring while setting up – it sprang away during insertion. Broke a #2 batten string breaking down. Used spare from harness.