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Greg's Report on South Dakota June 2004
Posted by Greg Smith on Jun 23, 2004, 00:03
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South Dakota June 2004
Wendy, Sydney and I started our family vacation Thursday evening with an eye towards a bit of flying in the Chamberlain, SD area as a first stop. We laid over in Austin, MN and headed to Chamberlain on Friday AM.
Friday
We made a family stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD
We arrived at the Rockpile near Chamberlain, mid-afternoon where we met the crew from Minneapolis as well as Rob and Ryan from Sioux Falls.
The wind was a reasonable 12 or so and I first flew my 60-ounce carbon Opus DS V. I could cruise along the lip but the real lift was thermals so off a hunting I went. I was rewarded several times with screaming dives and a few aerobatics thrown in.
Wendy and Sydney (my wife and 5 year old daughter) went on a bit of an exploratory hike and amused themselves playing spy and sneaking around looking at what the pilots were doing while we were doing what pilots do.
I saw both Bill and Jack get in some good flights with thermal ships.
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| Jack launching |
The most fun of the afternoon was some solid Weasel racing with 5 or 6 planes working our improvised course around two pine trees. Lots of close quarters flying and whoops and cajoling as we blasted around the 80 or so foot course. The lone Combat Wing XR that was flying with us seemed like an interloper! (Sorry, Rich!)
I also got in a good flight with the Pixel. The winds were slacking but the late afternoon/early evening air had smoothed out nicely with decent thermal lift almost everywhere as the valley floor released the heat of the day.
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| What are those guys doing? |
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| The trick was seeing how long you could balance it there! |
Saturday
The flying crew ate breakfast at world famous Casey's while my family still slumbered.
With the forecast calling for winds switching to SE by noon it was off to The Point.
The day was not shaping up to be a memorable one but it was OK. I had a couple of good 30 minute or so flights with my Cyberdyne DLG and my electric Majko. A combination of light slope lift and decent thermals made the flying OK. Every once in a while a heavy sink cycle made it a bit challenging but riding it out was not a real problem.
We were getting some decent flying in but it was just kind of lolly gagging around. Some impromptu Weasel combat started and I got knocked down.
While I was getting my plane I decided to walk down to a potential DS spot I had spotted earlier in the day but decided not to check out since the hike down and back up looked formidable. Well, I was half way down picking up the downed Weasel so I went the distance. Good choice. The spot worked well with the Weasel and it wasn’t long before I was hearing little wooshy sounds from the Weasel as well as whoops and hollers from the top of the hill.
Soon, several guys were making their way down with Weasels. 4 Weasels DSing in a small area, at a blistering 40 mph or so, was a riot. The circuit was low and it was common to brush a wingtip. The best path for most of the afternoon had the plane knife edging between two yucca plants. Emil helped the mood by introducing stock car pit stops and driver changes. We got counter-rotating laps going with planes going in opposite directions. Rob and Ryan worked figure 8s and all sorts of other goofing made this a real great time.
Rich also joined in with his Combat Wings KR and cut some nice circuits as well.
Emil did a few bungee launches with a video camera strapped to his JW and transmitting back to a ground station where it was being recorded. Coming straight at the cars and the loop looked especially cool.
Finally, after narrowly missing some significant rain, the wind came up and we had 4 Pixels out tearing around in formation. Great!
We headed back to the hotel but before long, and with the wind still seeming OK, we headed to the Lonesome Tree for some more evening flying. JWs, Pixels and Weasels as well as buddy-boxing a DAW 1-26 rounded out the days flying.
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| Rob's JW |
So after an inauspicious beginning Saturday was some the most fun I've had in a while.
My family and I had good dinner at the Anchor then headed back to the hotel before continuing our vacation to points west.
I am already looking forward to my next South Dakota slope adventure!
Just a short PS here the spots we fly are for the most part private land and the access has been granted with some rules that need to be followed if we are to keep flying these great slopes. If you are interested in checking out the area, contact Rob Hurd at dakslope@sio.midco.net
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