High Rock Fly-In 2009

Thanks to all who made it out to the Fly In despite the so-so forecast. It turned out to be a great day!We actually had talked about getting up early and going to the Pulpit and attempting to truly Fly-In to High Rock for the party.But I ended up oversleeping and deciding it would probably be blown out there by 10:00. However, as we still sat in the High Rock LZ in the morning undecided, the wind was still SW, even S. But Mark and Hugh checked launch anyway. We thought they were messing with us when the report was "brain dead soarable". It was true! Sweet! But I also knew that the ramp up was happening sooner than we thought so we'd better get on launch. By the time Mark and Hugh were ready to launch, it had already ramped up and 3-man wire crew was a must. Actually, Mark did mention that he'd fly by launch and I could give him a signal whether it was even launchable for us. Now that I think of it, I do remember hearing Mark yell something when I was over by the gliders. hahaha. But later I did give him the "hell no, I ain't launching in this so keep right on flying, buddy" wave. Anyways, things started to ease up a little and everyone launched, everyone soared. I got to 2,000' over a bunch of times but kept drifting over the towers and having to leave thermals. And for the first time it was actually hard to get down! I seriously thought you all were just rubbing it in when you'd tell me about this after I had sledded. It was kind of neat but tiring! Still high on the approach but it was very hard trying to set it up with that much lift so low to the ground. I still got it down and hit the flare. And an hour and forty minutes helped me get a lot more in tune with the glider.I'm getting there. Here's some footage from the flight -
http://vimeo.com/6973277