See the pics

Well, we were going to try a XC down the Brazos River but it turns
out we ended up going out to Damon to fly from the newly Bull Dozed
PG training hill at the rock quarry.

Cowboy, Blaster, Terminator, & myself (Gadget) met up with Rosie and
his PG Trainee at "West of the Brazos" in Damon at about 7:15 am. We
all followed Bud from there to the training hill. To get back there,
you definitely need a truck, it's dirt road all the way with a lot
of ruts and some steep hills. Good thing I had just washed my truck,
NOT ;-)

We were able to drive up on top of the hill for unloading and
launch. The wind was blowing out of the SE at about 4 mph. The flat
launch area is pretty small before you start heading down hill but
with the wind coming up, should be no big deal.

Dale was set-up first, a quick reverse and off he went, climbing out
over the rock quarry. I was up next, reverse and climbing out. Barry
was not far behind.

The rock quarry was operated by Dresser back in the late 1940's and
1950's, mining limestone. The story is that once the top layer was
mined out the limestone under-neath was not good enough quality and
the quarry was abandoned, eventually sold off to a private owner.
The quarry is now filled with water that is really green looking
from the air. I hear it has a lot of sulphur content.

Now, this could all be a cover story for the UFO sighting that
happened September 3rd, 1963 in Damon. more info here...

<http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case38.htm>

This location is really different than most of the Houston and
surrounding areas, with actual rolling hills and cliffs around the
quarry, including Damon Mound, at 146 feet above sea level.

Cowboy had some issues launching, and had to abort a few times. Dale
& I climbed up into the cloud lanes to about 1000 ft. A quick look
at my GPS and I see we're doing about 4 mph into the wind with tabs
all the way out. I got a few pretty good photos of Dale with the
spotty clouds around and behind him. I turned 180 and the GPS now
read 42 mph. I decided to drop down and look for some wild life. I
flew over towards Barry and gave him a thumbs up, then flew along a
creek at about 50 feet. We were getting bumped around pretty good
and I took a couple of wing tip collapses but nothing to increase
the pucker factor too high. I worked my way back to the LZ just in
time to view Cowboy get off the ground. Barry said later that he
tried to motion to Cowboy Mike not to take off as it was getting
rowdy but couldn't get his attention. Mike kited up, did a turn and
stumbled a bit to his right. With the wind really kickin' now though
the wing held him up and he gassed it. He popped up off the ground
and moved off to the left, climbing out.

As I made one last loop of the quarry, Barry & Dale came in to set
down on the small LZ. I looped around to land and as I came in the
wind was really surging, causing me to oscillate quite a bit. I
powered up to go around again. Bud had said there was a larger area
to land on the next hill over about 1/2 mile away to our west if the
wind came up too much. He also said we could get a truck over there,
no problem. Well that hill looked pretty good to me at the time so I
put it down there, only to be dragged into a rose bush as I turned
to put the wing down, a few scratches but nothing requiring my
nickname to be changed to "Rosie Jr."

Cowboy learned a valuable lesson about dropping down below a hill on
the backside when the wind is blowing 15 mph or so from the other
side. He encountered some serious sink but was able to work his way
up out of it. He opted to set it down on the higher launch area that
is just above our LZ facing a bit more east. He landed without
incident leaving me as the only wimp to land away from the LZ. I
hung out waiting for someone to retrieve me and my rig. Cowboy
stowed his PPG gear and then drove his Dodge 4x4 to my location.
(Thanks Mike!) Good thing it was a 4x4, my Nissan Frontier 2WD would
have never made the trip.

About this time Bud decided to try a high wind launch with the free
flight stuff. He kited up, turned and shot straight up with
a "Yeehaw". He stayed in the lift for a little while and then
dropped to his feet at the top of the hill, turned and wrapped his
wing around Cowboys truck. Enough kiting for today.

We all climbed to the top of the high launch as Beery drove up, just
in time for a beer and tire kicking - story time.

Now it's about 9:40 am, Beery and Barry both have coolers stocked
with Miller Lite and we all partake of the liquid breakfast of
champions.

We quickly ran out of their beer and made our way back to "West of
the Brazos" for a few more stories, cerveza and a BBQ plate that was
being cooked up for a motorcycle benefit event. The beer was cold
the BBQ was great and the B.S. was flying.

We broke off at about 1:00 pm to head back to our respective parts
of the city.

A good time had by all.

 

CP.