How about some talk about flying?

Since this group is being overwhelmed by an incredible quantity of crap,
and contains virtually no actual reasonable on-topic posts, here's a
little attempt to switch things up. I wrote this message to my club, but
it ought to fit in here OK. Even though it's not about big complicated
machines with spinning fans up front, at least it's about flying!

....

And an incredible testament to the power of XCSkies here.

I checked the XCSkies forecast in the morning before I left home. It
showed good lift to about 3,000ft over the Massanutten, and to 6,000ft
over the Blue Ridge. Since they're so close together, I figured this
couldn't POSSIBLY be really accurate, and just took it to mean that the
lift would be spotty.

After the shortest non-rope-break tow I have EVER experienced (the vario
needle disappeared past 10kts before the end of the runway, and
eventually pegged so hard that the needle went all the way around past
zero a second time) I climbed in good lift over the Massanutten to... a
little over 3,000ft. Couldn't get much past that no matter what I tried.

Remembering the XCSkies forecast, I fell back to the Blue Ridge. Lift
was consistent enough that I got there at around 3,200ft still, and hit
solid lift again. A few minutes later I banged into cloudbase and
checked the altimeter... 6,200ft.

Now THAT is incredible weather forecasting precision. An XCSkies
subscription is worth every penny in my view.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon