First Flight From "Angus Ridge"

    Two days ago, Shelby and I stumbled across a potential soaring ridge that we cheekily dubbed "Angus Ridge". It was the most probable looking flying site I had come across in SD in that it had prominence, a lift inducing slope angle, and a Southwest facing aspect that might produce some thermal activity when baked in the afternoon sun. I went out the next day to find the wind blowing upslope relatively laminarly (for the SD conditions Ive seen up until this point). The anemometer read 15mph max. at the edge of the top. Unfortunately, this was already a little past 2pm and by the time I did some gardening and got my wing laid out, the perfect soaring wind had died to nil. This no wind condition proved way more difficult than anticipated. With all of the yucca and horribly snaggy briar in an otherwise treeless launch area, it became impossible to get the wing off the ground without a helper. After four aborted launches in zero wind, a light cross wind from the SE allowed me to pluck the wing from the clutches of all the snarly vegetation. A very pleasant flight of about a minute ensued. The sun was just on the verge of disappearing behind Flagpole mountain and the large, newly planted field made for a prefect golden hour landing. The terrain provided light lift over a little knoll that was facing into the weak SE wind but nothing else to speak of because what little wind existed was blowing across the ridge at 90 degrees. There was still enough room for a few little wing overs while landing comfortably in the middle of the LZ. I'll make sure to bring a rake before I try to fly this site again in no-wind conditions.

Landing Field at Golden Hour