The forecast for the day was for weak Westerly breeze with a switch to South around sundown. But, at noon the wind was howling out of the Southwest, gusting to 30+ on launch, and inconsistent. I'd actually shown up at the launch, hung out for a bit, then given up. Later in the day, I happened to glance at the meter when it was showing 17mph WSW, which is about perfect, so I headed out there again. Unfortunately, I seem to have checked during a lull in the day because it was still around 25 and very SW. It WAS smoother, though, so I took a chance and set up. The reward wasn't a euphoric flight, but it had its charms; long gaps of time to just hover and check out the view, strong/smooth flying conditions, no concerns about sinking out (despite the otherwise alarming wind direction), and a landing that I had to think about a little bit.
I should also mention that most of the time, the wind was SSW an the North end of the ridge, probably due to the ridge deflection (as opposed to SSW being the actual prevailing direction.)
I happily discovered that my heart rate monitor was working again, though less happy to see myself peaking out at 187bpm.
Flight 358 (0:00 - 8:27) 51m
Total: 137h 46m
Total Mountain Hours: 22h 49m
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