"I don't know why we do this crazy shit...."

"But is sure is fun"..C.M.

The day started overcast.....again. So we went to the pilots meeting at 9:00 and were told to come back again at 11:30 to see if it would get better. I walked to town to make a phone call home and on the 2 km walk back it started to rain, then pour. I was pissed. I was soaking wet, grumpy and it was going to be another no-fly day here....again. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse some a#$hole figured he would "measure my sense of humor" by swerving off the road and soaking me by driving through a puddle. More on this later. I changed, the day got called, went for lunch and when I got back the sky was blue the sun was out so I hooked up with the Jeff's and we decided to throw the gliders on the car, grab our driver Biddy and head up mystic for a flight. Any flight would have been cool, this one was amazing. Mystic is only 1500 ft, another front was coming in so we raced to set up. OB was first in line, I was behind him and Montana had just walked up when he asked OB " so do you want to go first?". He didn't even wait for the response he just sprinted down the hill with OB chasing after him and me 5 seconds behind OB. The 3 of us played a low level game of follow the leader over the treetops and ridges for a couple of passes and then headed out to the LZ for an "expression" session. OB and I were next to each other 100 ft apart and about the same altitude when I noticed him pull a bunch of rope. Montana got to watch as we both dove our gliders and pulled up into wing overs, OB going right and me going left. I did 2 or 3 I can't remember and as I came out of my last one so was OB. Montana was exiting a loop and I watched from 100 ft above him and 500 ft off of the ground as he dives into a second one. He came up over and then settled out and flew upside down for what I am sure was 4 seconds. I watched as he came over the top and pushed the bar out to get it to wrap, and when it didn't I saw him bring the bar to his chest and then after a couple of seconds the nose finally went down and he followed it around. It was one of the most intense things I have seen while in the air. I flew over him screaming and yelling and I could hear him doing the same. The 2 jeffs came in on either side of the road at exactly the same time with me a few seconds behind. I immediately unhooked myself from my glider and ran across the road and gave Jeff a high 5 and a hug. It started to rain, hard just after we landed and we got soaked and basked in it as we packed up. This flight was what most non pilots think hang gliding is. It was fun, exhilarating, exciting, a bit scary and when we were done you couldn't beat the smiles off of our faces. It was just what we needed.

Soaked but happy in the LZ at mystic.