Tim is flyin' high

   Tim Lewis is a success story, He wanted to learn to fly. But first he had to lose a lot of weight, basically an extra person. He found the motivation to do this by dreaming of hang gliding. It worked. He lost the weight, he built his endurance and enrolled in lessons.
   He wasn't "a natural", he didn't pick it up in an instant, but he was very motivated, enthusiastic and willing to listen to the instructors and build his skills.
  The young kids ran past him up the hill, he kept pushing himself, they had bountiful energy, he had persistence. Like the tortoise and the hare he just kept going.
  He was the first to achieve his Hang 1 rating, and then his H2. He knew he would keep flying so he was the first to buy a glider.
  Then the training hill closed early and no one could get their first high flight last season. So most went home to wait for fall or the next spring, not Tim, he went and learned to aero tow and soloed that summer.
  Saturday was the first good forecast in a month and through diligence at the training hill this spring he was ready. An early flight at Bristol, then two more at Harris and he is off to the races. He will achieve, I guarantee it.

Conoe sailing at Hemlock Lake

      I met Ron at the north end of Hemlock Lake with the intent of sailing south to the opposite end of the lake. We unloaded my boat and drove to the boat launch at the south end and left my vehicle for retrieval. The wind was out of the SW in the mid teens and unfortunately not blowing straight up the lake, which is SSE-NNW oriented, that made it a little switchy and gusty as it rotored up and over the steep west hill side. It was slow going as we tacked back and forth across the lake trying to make as much head way into the wind as we could. We were only averaging 2-3 mph and not always in the right direction. We stopped for lunch and then continued south till about 6pm when we made the decision to turn and run down wind back to the north end where we put in. What took us over 5 hours to gain we quickly took back and were back to launch in about an hour.
    We didn't make it like planned but had a great day sailing the lake and enjoying a treasure of the finger lakes in Hemlock Lake. Little boat traffic, lots of canoes and kayaks and no cottages, it is an Adirondack lake close to home. Here is a link to a quick video and a over the shoulder shot of one of the few times I was out ahead of Ron.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DuEveZDKPs&feature=youtu.be