Alamogordo Local Flights
I have had some spectacular flights in Alamogordo lately. In July I was asked to give a ride to a member of my church who just turned 90! I had to squeeze him in my schedule. We agreed on July 7 and between good friends and family we had enough crew. I selected the Old Wal-Mart site and we watched a pi-ball go toward Holloman AFB. We waited for the sun to peak and I tried again. This time it went North, perfect direction. We inflated, loaded my passengers and launched heading toward Holloman AFB. I climbed a little higher and we started going North and I road that for about 10 minutes going about 2MPH. I then went higher and discovered we were going South at the same speed. We road that wind taking us over the Wal-Mart and over toward the golf course. I then came down and we went North. Gee It sounds like a box doesn't it. We did that twice before landing and swapping out passengers. We continued to box for another hour when it faded. Great flying times.
Due to our local ride operator being out of town I picked up a desperate German couple who were being transferred back to Germany at the end of the month. I agreed to help them out and we tried for July 15 but got rained on standing in the parking lot of Home Depot. With a little change of plans they could try again on Sunday. Sunday brought us calm winds and slightly overcast. We launched from Old Wal-Mart and we drifted ever so slowly East, North, South, and on final landing West. A great time was had by all and they appreciated the elevator landings.
August 11 my crew brought relatives with them to share in an experience they have been looking forward to for a long time. Once again we launched from the old Wal-Mart and after a few directional changes during setup we headed North. After flying for about 45 minutes along the by-pass we started to fly more into town so I followed a lower wind and went back to the by-pass around the old landfill for our landing. Bob was taking pictures so he wasn't on site for our touchdown but it was so calm we landed quietly and hung around for Bob to catch up.
09/23/2007