Sunday,
October 25, 1998

Hi Gang, 

WATCHING HAWKS

On Saturday, as I was pushing my bicycle up a road the
 North Mountain, I paused to rest at an overlook to a
 lovely hemlock ravine. As I lay there, I heard the
 hoarse call of a raven and the screech of a red-tail
 hawk. It's not unusual to have a raven harassing a
 hawk. They left and then were back, so I went to watch
 as the two birds soared in the uprising air hitting the
 ledge above road. Eventually, the raven gave up and left
 but a second red tail joined the first. These two played
 above me on the ridge lift for another 15 minutes. The
 red-tails flying speed matched the wind speed up the ridge
 and they could hold position nicely overhead.

I was impressed by their skillful adjustment of their
 tails to hold position in the gusts and how they slipped
 sideways to move lateral to the wind. They would fold their
 wings back to increase speed into the wind and move out
 away from the ridge. 

Twice I watched as one of the hawks lifted higher on the
 ridge lift then found a thermal and circled skillfully to
 1000 feet above the ridge. They would drop down wind then
 circle back to the spot over me and fly somemore. 

I am sure they were enjoying this because at one point the
 one hawk let out a call and the other came over and they
 flew side-by-side in formation for a while. 

Just as I was leaving this spot a crow flew by and attempted
 to fly in the same conditions and was not nearly as successful.
 It could not fly fast enough to keep from being blown backwards
 and had to give up.

SOME SOARING OF MY OWN

  On Sunday, I did some flying of my own. It was an interesting
 day! I was told that there had been soaring up to 5000 feet on
 Saturday even in the windy conditions.

 The day started with the wind out of the north giving great
 launches. There Terry Densmore and I got 1900 feet on one and
 I heard that someone else hit 2000 feet in a Ka7. The sky was
 partially cloudy and by mid-morning there was lift. Despite
 the 10-15 knot winds the air was smooth aloft and lift was
 occuring regularly. 

  Later, the clouds filled in and killed any lift. The clouds
 were drifting west to east but the ground level wind was still
 from the north. As the day progressed the wind slowly sifted
 into the west. The sky also cleared and with more sunshine
 hitting the ground there was more thermals.
  I took my first flight in VKA and found strong lift right off
 launch but I found that if I turned in it I went into sink. And
 the sink was 4-6 down. I was only able to extend my flight by
 flying slowly into the wind and staying in the lift as long as
 possible. The air was now turbulent and rough. Others also found
 it difficult to stay up.
  This eventually changed. By 2 pm other pilots were staying up
 and so I figured I might also. What a pleasant surprise, I found
 a strong thermal slightly to the northwest of the field and
 circled to 4200 feet. Eventually, I got as high as 4700 and
 never dropped below 3500 feet until I decided to land 1-3/4 hours
 later. Clouds were thin and small but provided reliable markers
 of the tops of the lift column bend strongly by the wind. If one
 flew up wind from a thermal, the sink was minimal and lift
 occured regulary. Even crossing over to other 'lift-streets'
 did not have much sink in them. 
   As I was cruising over the crown lands NE of stanley, the air
 was smooth with no turbulence and almost 0 sink. I felt like a
 passenger on an airline viewing the scenery. The air was very
 clear and one could see out into the Bay of Fundy over the
 Blomidon Peninsula. 
 
   We had quite a few guests and intro's on Sunday, and all got
 flights. By the time we had finished taking the wings of ALN and
 packing it in the trailer, the sun had set and the cresent Moon
 shown in the deep blue sky. What a nice setting for a good day
 of gliding and soaring.

Cheers,
Larry