Short flight at San Marcos Jan 19

Cloudy skies so no rush to go flying; in the end we went to San Marcos really early and waited a couple of hours for the clouds to break up and the sun to come around to the west side.  Endured a bunch of wasp stings on the HG ramp while I was trying to get some sun :)

Looking at the flying possibilities on the south side of the lake.

Jim had to go pick up Steve from the GDL airport and I was catching a ride in since I'm on my way to Valle de Bravo via the overnight cross-country bus.  So when I launched it was with a short flight in mind...just make it back to Lake Chapala and within walking distance of the hotel and just enough time to pack.

Of course I ended up getting past 4500m over launch, the highest I've gotten here so far, and I wasn't "allowed" to use its full potential!  So I went on a giant glide to the lake (usually you need at least 2 thermals to make it back) and fooled around the edge of the lake, flying towards the south side and doing spirals and wingovers over the water; I still had 1500m to burn off once I reached the edge of the lake!

I could have continued to the south side of the lake and flown the mountains there, but alas I had other obligations and ended up landing after a short 25km flight.  Ray and Derek also made it back to the lake; it was Ray's first XC and he was quite stoked about his accomplishment.  He says "I now understand why you guys like going XC so much; this is way better than walking or driving back!"

So after 10 days of lazy vacation it's now time to switch gears and do some "serious" flying in Valle de Bravo.  I'd like to thank Jim at FlyBC for handling logistics on this part of my trip: he took care of the hotel, pickup at the airport, and retrieves during my XC flights.  Super-nice guy!

I should arrive in VDB sometime tomorrow morning, assuming the bus connections all go according to plan.  And then it's time to practice with all the other PWC pilots and experience the hoopla that is El Penon launch.