On Saturday, the final day of the Wills Wing Fly-In at Wallaby Ranch, finally the weather turned soarable and pleasant with no chance of rain and light winds (even when it blew out of the west later) so that 245 tows were possible (with only four tugs).

The front had come through the day before, so it was blue and the ceiling was low at 3,500'. The towing started in earnest after breakfast (around noon), but the first pilots had difficult times (and of course some pilots had to come down because they were flying demo gliders).

There was one thermal just south of launch (which was taking place in the southwest corner of the Ranch) and that is where all the pilot's huddled in the air. Then as the afternoon progressed the thermal and the thermaling pilots were blown to the east and finally the launch had to be moved to the east.

All day all the pilots hung out together except for a couple that were further east and higher. Top of the lift was around 3,500'. Pilots could stay up although there was one flush cycle just before lunch at 3 PM.

Four pilots flew from Quest and were able to make it down to Wallaby (two landed short). The winds started northeast up there but switched to south west by the time they got to Wallaby. They got there just after everyone landed and found their best lift then. They had been bobbing between 2000' and 3,500'.

Steve Wendt had a morning scooter tow clinic and then an evening one in perfect conditions with no wind. I got to set the big Condor up on its keel, the down tubes resting on my shoulders and have a student instructor pull me up with me not touching the downtubes. I just started running when the rope started pulling me, and the glider rotated up and into the correct angle of attack by itself. It then lifted me up and I just held my hands out like I was flying. I had to hit the bicycle type release to release but the instructor could have just let me down gradually without me every touching the down tubes.

The conditions improved after the 3 PM to 4 PM "lunch" and lots more pilots launched using the demos and all had a great time without incident. Steve Pearson and his daughter Kelsey landed out not able to get back to the field, so she got some cross country experience.

The party was very well attended as was the whole day Saturday. Nothing like a day of good weather to bring out all the folks. There were pilots from Michigan, California, New York, Colorado, Tennessee, Virginia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and many other spots as well.