On a hot day in August 2001 the conditions were awesome in North Central BC.
Some sailplane pilots from Hope gathered here to tow from the nice airstrip.
So I thought to set up my self-launcher, The DV8 (Seen flying over Italy by its creator, above, behind the title)
Until that day I had never had the chance to see the top of Mt. Robson, when I had driven past on occasion.
That day, I climbed out in rock and roll air from the Valemont airstrip, hooked on to good thermal only a hundred feet over the runway (Fusion Dragon), drifting to the North East, directly towards Mt. Bubblehead.
I was over the road stop about a mile south when I topped out near the bottom of a cloud at 14600 ASL. What I saw before me, made me shiver and cut the flight short.
The view is forever burned into my "Awesome Sights" mental folder. To the north and East was an uninviting glacier that stretched as far as I could see.
I had had problems keeping the motor running before launch, until 2 forestry workers gave me a hand. It was a hot day and I had taken off my down jacket and forgot to put it on again for the flight.
I couldn't stay up for long, as I was doing the double shivers- one set of harmonics on top of another!
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