A bit after 9 I headed west to Scoop mountain, the ridge there in the middle. For some reason AGAIN I was on my own to fly. I watched all the weather info and it looked to me like there would be over development later in the day and everyone else was talking of flying scoop 5-7pm. I had no desire to hike in the heat so I went when it was cooler and before storms built up.

Got to the lz as a nice cloud was moving near.

I got hiking before 10am and just kept moving my feet and legs as I listened to a podcast.

BEST decision ever! My sport weight utility kilt was the PERFECT thing to wear for the hike. SO MUCH COOLER!

I was a couple miles up the road when the cloud moved over fully and I got pelted with some rain drops.

The thimbleberries were looking amazing all along the road and I stopped every so often for a handful. Rather soft most of them bust still super tasty.

I got to the point where the road runs along the ridge to the launch and I watched a bird fly out and catch the thermal, so I knew where I was to go.

1hr19mins, 3.34 miles, and 1775 ft elevation gain I was at launch.

I stood and watched the cycles come through and found them to be pretty good. Lulled to 3-5 mph then up to 15-17 mph. I got all setup and managed to build a wall, barely. The wind wasn't exactly helping me launch so I had to do a forced reverse launch. I pulled hard on the lines to get the wing up a bit then kept backing up and pulling on the lines to get it up into the air.

Got myself in the air and in the pod and flew south towards the thermal the hawk had marked for me earlier.

I flew around where the hawk had been and I searched for the lift.

As I flew around I felt the thermal's rough edges and then all of a sudden my wing went limp and I heard the flutter of the fabric.

I took a solid WHACK to the wing and got a 30% asymmetric collapse to a frontal collapse. I AM SO THANKFUL FOR SIV!!!! My heart rate didn't raise a bit as I went hands up and let the wing reinflate then steered it back. I didn't even change direction with the collapse!

After the collapse I managed to get myself in the thermal and wow was it good. I didn't have to make any circles, just rode the elevator up well over launch.

This is the highest I have been at Scoop yet. I flew around and was largely in lift but then I popped out the side of the thermal and couldn't get myself back into it.

I tried but to no avail so I aimed for the lz.

I didn't pay the best attention to the wind as I was gliding down, I felt the direction but didn't actually fly it. I hadn't put up my wind sock so was judging by the tree movement, which was wrong.

I ended up coming in pretty fast and I pumped the brakes to try and check my speed but being downwind it didn't do much.

This was my first wonky landing with my Camino, I was trying to run it out but the little sink dropped me on my butt and I skidded in instead. It didn't hurt at all and my harness just got a bit dirty.

Packed my stuff up and walked back to the car to head for home.

As I was heading east I looked north and saw the MASSIVE thunderstorms building up near the Canada border.

I got home to see this in the group chat... LOL! Should have gone flying with me... I think I was the ONLY one to get a flight in yesterday....

My seat board worked PERFECT!!!! This is just one of the honeycomb storage wall panels I had printed out. I tied it in the middle of each side to the main harness supports that run directly to the carabiners which allows me to properly weight shift as the pressure is where I need to put it.

I got the linoleum blades in the mail so got the hook knives put together. I'm giving them to any pilot who wants one and a couple already spoke up.

It took me a bit to come down from the flight and do my log and data dump before I headed back out to the truck.

Looking around the sky there was some serious cloud buildup going in all around.

The crank came out with little trouble and THANK GOD! The damage is not that bad at all!!!

The 2 middle channels are the problem with the rear being the worst.

THERE WAS STILL BEARING THERE!!! That is a really good thing so the bearing was still there enough to keep the metal on metal from killing the crank. I called my dad to go over it and now have to find a machine shop in town that can turn the crank for me to get the groves polished out.

J got a pair of flower pots printed. They are the Warp tubes from Mario. These will be getting hen and chicks for @stryeyz co-workers.

It was only about 7 plants pulled from the row and I had the basket full of spuds which ended up at 20 lbs.

I happened to look at the doppler and holy balls were we in for it!

The lightning and thunder were great and J went out and danced in it as it poured down from the storms. It's been quite a while since we have had a "normal" summer storm like this.

It took less than an hour for it to move past us but as it did the lightning turned from cloud to cloud to down strikes only a few miles northwest. Pulsepoint LIT UP with vegetation fire calls.

The storms had passed enough that we were able to go out and soak for a while.

Piss poor sleep last night/ this morning... It's going to be over 100F today so will have to try and keep the house as cool as possible. I have to search for a machine shop, keep working on the engine, get harvests done, till the garlic bed, then have dinner ready early for the boys have kickball this evening at the park.

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