After a couple of days of tinkering and getting everything "just right" I was able to launch at 3 pm on Saturday. On tow behind our Citabria, the varios were pegged and the averager was showing 10 kts, so I was sure something was wrong. Once off tow, a stopwatch and the altimeter showed the varios were telling the truth and it was really that strong of a day.
I decided to go for a "local" cross-country and was able to find 4-6 kt climbs and cover 211 km all while staying within glide slope of SOSA. Since it was a convective day, I was not really able to check the compensation of the varios, but they seemed correct in flight.
Peter Cheney from the Globe and Mail, who did an article about the team in 2008, was at SOSA. He is a long-time aviation guy and has spent 40 years flying hang gliders and is now planning to take up soaring. He took this photo just before I launched.
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