Marshall Island 3 Demo Day1

       The next morning, I do my readings, and cry lol dang smart India religious stuff.  :)  No time to really help Steve, and the full excitement of Demo days is here.  The campground filled up overnight, and there are a lot of pilots in the Lz.  I excel in small group conversations, but I don't deal with crowds as well.  I have made friends, and will still make more!  The evening before, I watched one of the Wills wing guys preform a perfect landing. Mitch is gonna record and critique all the landings of the day.  In the previous week, I email Steve Pearson, to get on the list to demo gliders, and we have a nice chat.  I see the guy who I watched land perfectly the night before, and I assume is Steve Pearson.  He also assumes correctly who I am, and we meet and say hellos!  Boom, instantly super excited and stoked! A little small talk, and it's time to sign up for gliders.  All Krishna'd up I let everyone choose there gliders, so all that is left is a 170 falcon.  Whoo hoo falcon again, fake excitement, but still super stoked!  I chat with Ken for first time as well, a facebook friend and Wills Wing glider builder, my favorite person of the team.  I ride up with Mike Meirers the last top dawg of the Wills Wing team!  I try my best to control my ego and excitement with an overactive, talkative attitude.  I also try to be as respectful as possible.  We drive up to the Marshal launch, and I am first to set up and fly around 11:45.  Mike helps  me with a few things, and he un-farmiliar with my flying skills :).  I asked,  "Where is the proper launch spot", cause I have no clue :).  O, right next to the that first cross launch platform duh.  I give a hard walk, jog, run run run and I'm off.  O yeah I'm a good launcher for sure :).  This Falcon has a tight mylar sail and is flying a lot faster and tighter than the 190, I have been flying.  Also, the air was a bit early, and the thermals are kinda weak.  I scratch for about 30 minutes, and I don't get it.  My first burn out of the trip :(.  I have a great landing, and Mitch critique's my techniques.  He shows how my legs swing around causing a little bit of cross control.   He also tells me how to swing forward, to land land like Steve P.  Most of the other pilots are staying up, and I am a little bummed.  I know I launched early, but I thought it was gonna be another gimme, nope.  At the Lz I meet Steve Pearson's lovely wife and daughter.  They are both super nice, and his daughter who is my age even fly's!  I am kinda crushing for sure! But I am in dumb puppy mode anyways, so I am just a goof :).  Then Nofly Steve goes, "Cruser want to go up?", well hellz yeah.  I just burned out, and I don't want to wait two hours for the next demo run, I just want to fly!  Ken, "ahh I dont have bags  and ahh um can I bail on putting the glider away cause gonna be hour till the glider bag is down..."  Lol he says, "I got you buddy, go".  Whoohoo outta here.  I meet Local pilot Chris, and throw my glider on!  Me, him, and Steve are outta there!  We chat alot about Maui and things, and get up to Crestline!  Whoohoo, I set up quick and Launch!  Straight to  billboards, and I thermal up to cloudbase!.  Chris doesn't get it right away, and I can tell he's like dang, f that kid jokingly :)  He bails on his high performance glider to go have his own sick flight.  I fly all over the place, to Marshall and back up to Crestline.  I fly downwind to scope new areas, and find Stephen with Lua doing a tandem, fun flight.  I loose a ton of attitude, and bail on them.  I trying to milk every nook and crack. Ahh, I am downwind and as low as Marshall.  I head to the Billboards, but way below, then boom.  4 to 6 grand at billboards, and in the clouds! Ok lets cross the upwind valley to pine peak.  I hit strong headwinds, and make it.  I see clouds, but I am not getting up.  I scratch till I I hit my bail altitude of 3700ft. Thinking I will have tailwind, I head back.  Um sink,  sink, sink ah not gonna make it. I am stuck scanning for bailouts, but I reach regionals and climb out. Wohooo.  Back to Marshall, and I enjoy the rest of the flight.  I have another 3-4hr flight with a perfect landing!  Super stoked, I stay up late talking technique, and sharing videos with Kevin and the other pilots.

Yesterdays flight video...