After a god awful drought in the California central valley for about 4 months (I kid you not - 4 months without any decent usable wind - the nor cal crew can attest to this), thanks in a major part to the El Nino that is currently taking place, there was a day of wind. I made it up to Blue Canyon to try out my new 12m Phantom at the closed airport there - they close it down around November because of snowfall. Well I was able to have 2 firsts 1. Buggying on snow 2. Buggying on an airstrip. Both were way fun - the 12m Phantom was amazing for its upwind performance: the wind was coming in parallel to the runway but I was able to cruise at about 10mph practically directly into the wind - astonishing. The self launching of the Phantom wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, even in winds that went from 6mph to 14 to 19mph, a tad hectic. Did bowtie a few times but was able to work it out with some fancy line yanking while the kite was on the ground. Overall that kite is an amazing all arounder - she stayed up in some horrible lulls and handled some very choppy air without getting out of control. Mind you I would have loved to be down at the beach, but for right now beggars can't be choosers. And to those of the Nor-cal crew that feel left out on this - I had relatively low expectations for the day so I didn't want to have some of you travel 80+ miles one way for a maybe day that was supposed to be raining as well - it didn't, but it was supposed to. I apologize for my fun - I swear next time I'll have enough for the whole class.

Here's a pic from today - by the way I quit smoking the last Saturday before the end of NABX last year - still use the old smokin pic for my avatar solely because I like it.

sounds like a fantastic day!

tbh I thought you'd gotten two noobs hooked on kites.... :evil:

You gotta get a bug for that 12m phanny furbs - even in a small spot it is a blast.

*must update profile*

I'm hoping to use it with my new GI patrol!

I may at some point get around to building the gilligan's special... a bamboo buggy!

congrats on the smoking by the way... I've been trying recently, but d@m its tough, I can't even get to 48 hours...

I would have to quit my job to stop smoking. BORING and yet working-with-tards stressful. Sounds like a blast, flexiblade. Got an airfield right near me, but I gotta' deal with dog walkers some times. I love it when they cheer their dogs on after they went after my gear. That and scudding through dog #@%$#! really puts a smile on my face. Furbs, I think I am going to find some old wicker furniture so I can help with a Gilligan bug prototype.

Helboy I was in a state park flying once where there is a strict leash law. And some woman was so excited to see her dog excited about my kite that she let it off the leash to chase it. I told her if it caught it I would make her pay me $400.00 to replace it. She said it would be worth it seeing her dog happy. :barf:
Some people are just asses. After a short time I sent one of my kids to get a ranger near by and he fixed the problem. A big fine and booted from the park.
Sorry to hyjack!!!

Congrats on the session, and congrats on quitting smoking! One only has to compare your profile pic to your snow pic to see that you are way happier as a non-smoker!