Two more days at Marfa

Hi all, well we are about to leave Marfa after 3 great days flying. Three of the Germans have been here too - Andy, Tilo and Charlie, and are planning to stay for up to 2 weeks. Andy is the chief designer of the Quintus and Tilo is the current manager of Schempp Hirth.

Here's a shot of Tilo filling the Quintus - what a beautiful aircraft.

Yesterday I took a run down to Big Bend National Park. The countryside is daunting but the run is quite safe if you just hop from airfield to airfield. I had a B1 bomber pass straight underneath me - also daunting - but cleared me by 2000ft. It was too quick for me to get a photo.

On the way back there was a cloud street that ran 160km without needing to turn - great fun. Here is a shot of the old military airfield that was the base for the Sunship Game. You can see trees growing from the runways...

Evening view

From the hanger, Marfa Texas.

Carlsbad Caverns & Natural Arches NP

A few photos... The glacier is in Great Basin NP, the photo below it was taken in Arches NP at MOAB.

Marfa - home of the Sunship Game

Well after a week supporting the Aussie team at Uvalde it was finally time to get some more of my own flying in - the original plan was to fly from Uvalde to Marfa on the day of the closing ceremony - but it was rained out. So we drove.
Yesterday I got a nice flight at Marfa - which is now a commercial gliding operation run by a great guy called Burt Compton.

The airfield is now right next to a hydroponics tomato glasshouse complex which was recently destroyed by a hailstorm. The glass was meant to be hailproof but mother nature decided to test that definition by pounding it with tomato-sized hailstones. Over 14,000 panes of glass destroyed. Here's a shot showing the airfield and greenhouses.

There is some lovely scenery around - as an orientation flight I did a 500km triangle. The only real landing options are roads and airfields - everything else is just donga. The flight  I did was the same task done on the final day of the Nationals featured in the Sunship Game - but I did it clockwise instead of counterclockwise. Countryside is very green compared to what we have seen, but no agriculture apart from extensive beef farming.

Here is a shot of Marfa town - see if you can work out where the famous landing in-town occurred from the Sunship Game.

At Marfa Gliders

Here are the German team Captain, and an Austrain team member& German team member (they flew the quntuses in)- with Burt Compton who owns and runs Marfa Gliders.

This is a great area to fly in and has a nice town (Marfa) nearby. It's a very friendly setup and definitely worth a visit. Www.flygliders.com

The Quintus in the picture was one of two flown in yesterday from Uvalde.

The colourful critter is some sort of grasshopper...

Carlsbad Caverns

Very big cavern; a 1 mile walk down, and another 1 mile walk around another loop, and then either a 1mile walk uphill 800ft gain, back out, or take the elevator...

Here are a couple of pics.

Oh no

I've crashed in Roswell!

P.s. saw a coyote this morning- and a road runner this evening... Meep meep