As the title suggests, a fun, action packed day at Hat Creek  with Dennis and family, performing a little "tank transplant surgery" on the launch Pottie,  (Dottie) and taking the Potty in LZ 2 (Scotty), to the dump and replacing him with Scotty 2.

      Launch conditions were light, and I had a fairly quick flight to LZ2, and then had the pleasure of watching Dennis show me what I should have done, as he found a light thermal and climbed out.

     A fire in the LZ with friends after flying.  Priceless!

    The Weather was very kind to us for the Flying/Camping/Meeting weekend at Hat Creek. Aviation was committed for three nights in a row. Don A. flew all three evenings. Three pilots flew Friday evening and 13 Hg,s and one PG flew on Saturday.I had a good time and I believe everybody else did.

   We had a great fire Saturday evening until the small hours. The HCPA meeting was well attended and enjoyable at JJ,s cafe in Old Station. The Camping was a little cold in the mornings but beautiful. Murken lake is full and there were many birds singing for us. The pilots and friends attending are what made this weekend special. I hope we can have many more.

    Typo made a video .......

   2 HGs and one PG turned out last Thursday for a flight that seemed to imply Spring is here. We all had good flights, and for Dennis, after a nearly 2 month break from flying, was quite stoked.

   We were not packed up till after sundown and it felt like a summer evening. It is fantastic to see all the resevoirs full and the LZ's green.

    The year is young, and I hope that all pilots  come and get some magic Hat Creek air this year.

    We have a HCPA meeting at JJ's Cafe in Old Station Sunday April 3rd 10.00am.

    Old Station is a few miles from the Hat Creek flying site and the plan is to fly Saturday (and Sunday) and camp in LZ 2.  The Hereford Ranch RV park will be open for folks wanting to camp with extra facilities.

    Everyone is welcome.  Come fly and come to the meeting.

    Want to become a HCPA member email Membership  with your name USHPA # (if you have one) Wing type , rating and contact info.

      A few photos of flying earlier this year. Thanks to Sonny,Janene,Debbie.

We launched into some nice thermal air around 2.00pm and found lift just about everywhere, with climbs to over 2000' . It was possible to fly all over with the abundant lift which seemed to get stronger as the day progressed. We all had a lot of fun with some exciting landing conditions for the first two to land in a strong thermally west wind which changed to a steady north wind for the last two to land.

  Some photos follow taken by Glenn Rose. I do have landing videos to be worked on.

 P.S.  Four pilots two HG,s and two PG,s did get to fly last weekend the two HG,s were down very quickly while the two PG,s managed to climb a little bit and hang out for 15 mins or more.

  Hat Creek Rim 2016

  The flying year at the rim was led off by Glenn (Rosie) and Typo. They both had soaring flights late in the day landing in a soaked LZ1 at the Blue Balls fly in, in January.

http://www.youtu.be/UfGRzXPyLzc

February 12th with the promise of a west wind Roger and Sonny met out at the rim and managed to luck out . Launching around 3.00pm in light looking overcast conditions we did not expect to climb out in the light friendly thermals. Sonny topped out around 2 grand over. I topped out around 1200 over. I know from experience it is hard to catch Sonny. We were treated to an amazing sunset while retrieving the vehicle. Let us hope the season continues to be friendly.

   A few photos