Copyright 2001, John Gossett Austin, Texas
Anyway, I did have one really good/high/long flight thanks to my first buzzard lift. I tossed the ol' skeeter on my short highstart and just as I came off I saw a buzzard circling about 40-50 yards to the left and half-again as high as I had launched. I had yet to encounter a buzzard in my flying field when I had a plane up, so I scooted skeeter under the buzzard and sure enough there was lift! We both climbed with him/her flying about 100' above the skeeter. Eventually the buzzard vectored off somewhere else, but I kept with the thermal which got bigger and stronger and I just kept flying higher and further downwind. Fortunately it was a mild 5-10MPH breeze so I didn't feel too uncomfortable going downwind. I wouldn't say I specked out, but it was small enough that I was having trouble seeing how she was flying. Another personal best height!
I looked over to see if anyone was at the glow field, but it was empty. I wanted someone to see that itty-bitty way-up-there plane and say wow! However, it was just me enjoying the flight.
I was so high that when I finally came back over the field I still had two or three times my highstart height on the skeeter, but I just couldn't find another thermal. That is one thing that I haven't succeded in doing that I would like to do - catch at least two successive big thermals on the same flight. I wonder if a big boomer thermal sucks the energy away so that it is hard to get a second thermal from the same area? (No parking lots, just hay fields and some woods.)
Copyright 2001, John Gossett Austin, Texas