After three days in Manilla, with only a couple of very short flights, Dave and I had a treat today. The skies were dry & the winds calm when we woke. The forecast was for light winds and no overdevelopement until late afternoon. We launched arount 12:30 and both had nice climbs to cloudbase (low at only about 1200 meters) I enjoyed the flying near the clouds since we seldom get to do that in California.
I worked down the ridge until reaching just North of Manilla and went looking for some more lift. I got low in shadow & went for one of the few dry looking fields in the basin. I stayed with very light lift until it bloomed into a nice weak climb to 1200 meters & petered out. This gave me enough altitude to head up the main Manilla road. I ended up well West of the main road in the foothills & eventually landed in a nice field. I only covered 22 kilometers, but the 1:45 flight was fun.
My hike-out was 3.6 miles to the main road where, before I'd even set my bag down, I got a ride into town. Dave called my phone & said he'd pick me up in town. . .
We had another great meal at the RSL club in Manilla and were treated to the sunset in the photo above. We hope to get a good long flight in tomorrow since it will be our last chance before we drive to Sydney on Sunday.
Tim
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