Josh and the winch...

Josh met me at the airport this morning for training. The winds were light and unfortunately across the runway when we arrived. The forecast was for a 90 degree change sometime before noon. Sure enough about an hour later the breeze built in strength and lined right up with the plowed strip.
I prepared the winch for towing while Josh got the wing set up. We started off small with a short tow just 20’ or so in the air. By the time we breaked for lunch Josh was releasing from the tow line about 100’ up then gliding down softly to the middle of the runway. Way to go Josh!!
The winds were supposed to build even more and stay perfectly lined up with the runway for the rest of the day so we planned on Josh making his first paramotor flight when we got back from lunch. However, when we returned from our break we found the wind had turned and was once again right across the runway. Argh!
We spent the rest of the day preparing for the PPG2 test while waiting for the wind change back, it didn’t. Unfortunately with all the snow in the ground right now we need to use the plowed runway. Running through a foot of crusty snow just doesn’t work. Hopefully this weekend’s weather will improve the ground conditions.