Launching at Laguna is tricky! The launch is barely big enough to lay out a glider, and on a flat area. It's environmentally sensitive, so the club is not allowed to cut the brush and make it bigger.
You have to pull up in a slight lee into thermals that barrel up a 3,000 ft slope of baking granite boulders. You never quite know which way the wind is blowing until you pull up.
Once the glider is stable over your head, you dance towards a tiny slot about 6 ft wide, below which are nothing but rocks and scratchy scrub. At some point you usually get yanked off the ground as you get out of the lee air and into the main airflow.
Our retrieve driver caught this sequence of photos of my launch dance on the third attempt to launch...
Game on!
You have to pull up in a slight lee into thermals that barrel up a 3,000 ft slope of baking granite boulders. You never quite know which way the wind is blowing until you pull up.
Once the glider is stable over your head, you dance towards a tiny slot about 6 ft wide, below which are nothing but rocks and scratchy scrub. At some point you usually get yanked off the ground as you get out of the lee air and into the main airflow.
Our retrieve driver caught this sequence of photos of my launch dance on the third attempt to launch...
Game on!
Pull up ...
Get control
Get yanked sideways!
Tip toe forwards...
Get airborne!
Kick some bushes going sideways...
and off we go...
Into the wild blue yonder!
