It was roughly 1 week ago that Lenami lost her life at Woodside and an impromptu memorial service was held yesterday in the cutblock where we found her body. I chose not to attend for personal reasons. But today I was ready to resume flying and it was also a chance to get Hardy some high flights before he heads to Europe.
After Hardy's morning flight the launch started getting crowded...tonnes of pilots showed up out of the woodwork that I haven't seen in ages. It was a beautiful sunny day, a weekend, and I think many came out to think about Lenami too. In any case, the skies over Woodside were indeed crowded today. We even had a sailplane from Hope fly overhead a couple of times.
There had been a plan to do the 75km Samplonius triangle but once I got in the air I was feeling a bit distracted and "off" so I decided to skip that plan. I spent the next few hours boating around Woodside, never getting super-high (maybe 1400m) and watching the launch crowds ebb and then re-form as the day progressed. Eventually I flew over the back to Agassiz Mountain, mostly for something different to do, and did a short out-and-return back to Woodside. Al was with me and took a different line back...he ended up landing at Harvest Market.
Meanwhile a bunch of pilots had gone on more massive XC's than me...Igor went up to Stave Lake and back, while Alex almost completed the Samplonius triangle but landed on the south side of the Fraser river so we had to go pick him up. Rob made it back to Harvest Market after doing the Woodside-Bridal-Elk run. And Peter did two big XC flights today, one at Woodside and the other at Bridal later on. Martin on his ATOS flew up towards Benedict before returning to Mother Woodside...he had a "wardrobe malfunction" (his words!) so he opted to land early.
A final sled ride for Hardy at the end of the day and then it was time to head home. It was soarable from 11am until 6pm; the days are getting long now. Soon we'll be flying Bridal until 9pm...
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