Am definitely not there everyday, so can’t comment from a local’s perspective, but the last few times I’ve been, I haven’t noticed any significant flying insect annoyances – mosquito or otherwise. There was one day on Marshall launch which people experienced a black fly swarm of Biblical proportions, but seems like that was an out-of-the-blue weird occurrence.

Knock on wood, I haven’t seen any tick activity around AJX or the launches since I’ve been flying here.

Looks like many of us had exciting launches, and I threw in an exciting landing as well – excitement sandwich. The rest of my flight was very mellow. Battled the wind right off of launch, but got a nice climb up to 7400′ at Marshall and everything smoothed way out for the rest of the trip. Less wind above 5k. Nice tailwind made for pleasant drifting downrange, with a few decent climbs on the way. After crossing to Crafton and setting my sights on the athletic fields by the brewery, I abandoned that idea due to the increasing headwinds. On a different day I had it on glide but not this one. Winds and sink increased the lower and closer I got to my LZ and ended up coming up a little short. Got to study the local plant life a little but still was a soft, vertical touchdown. Also thanks to Steve for the retrieve, and there was complimentary beef jerky (more than I get on an airplane).

Track log here.

Crafton pic:

I was grinding it out at Pine and watched with envy your and Mario’s seemingly infinite glide back from the pass.