We tried for 11 AM, but got started about 11:30. The wind was
blowing strong. There had been great cu's and cloud streets all morning, but the
cu's were drying up starting around 11.

Cloud street at 10 AM.

I was off first and let us say that towing in these condition with a Falcon 4
195 is not the easiest thing in the world. First, you have to pull in on the
cart, pull in far far more than any of you have ever pulled in while on the
cart. The idea is that you have to reduce the angle of attack to the point where
the small trike can get off the ground. You almost have to straight arm the base
tube, while still on the cart. You carry the cart with you through the air a
foot or so of the ground for quite a ways, bouncing back and forth off the
ground before the tug gets into the air. I'm getting better and better at it.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that the tug doesn't bounce back off the ground
again after it gets into the air and that doesn't mean that you are not above
the tug, because it is likely that you are, even with the bar all the way back.
And that's what happened to me on my first tow.

I saw the tug bounce and maybe I was twenty feet high (you are not even 100 feet
off the ground by the end of the runway) and get back up again and get going,
but then I saw Mike look back at me (he doesn't have a mirror) and I thought for
sure that he was going to pull the pin on his side of the rope and besides I
didn't like the situation I put him in. I wasn't worried about how I was doing,
but I was worried about him.

So I did something that I have never done before on aerotow and pinned off to
make sure that the tug pilot would be in good shape and immediately landed on
the runway. Chris brought me the cart and I was back at the launch in the few
minutes.

Taking off again I really pulled in on the cart and kept in on the ground until
Mike was in the air. I stayed low and behind him, no worries. The climb was
again very slow and Mike headed off to the right to get over open fields (one of
which was a high corn field). Away from the runway, suddenly, boom, either he
fell down or I ballooned up or both and I was way too high on him in a second or
two. At 100' I pulled the pin, headed down wind and landed down wind of the corn
field.

I decided that that is enough for the day.

Later we launched Chris but the sky only has a few cu's in it and he was less
motivated to go downwind with his flying partner on the ground (I volunteered to
chase him). He had a nice 40 minute flight and stayed local despite the high
winds.

While he was able to stay on tow until 1,250' he is going to move his hang
position forward tomorrow or go with a three point release. I'm moving my hang
position forward.

The cu's reformed later in the day and it looked like a good day if you could
have made it through the blue earlier.