Found the vario, lost the window, still managed to get high

  Ravi flies tandem at his home site while a woman grazes her goats on the hillside                                                                                                                                                                    On Saturday after taking the above picture I geared up and got ready to takeoff. The wind was perfect, Dwane had just taken off, and it was my turn next when I realized that my vario was missing. By the time I located it the tall grasses 20 minutes later the wind had turned very cross and I had to wait for more than half hour before I could get off the hill. Tired of waiting I decided to walk down and do some ground handling. I began to unclip and the wind got a bit better so I waited a bit happy with the idea of doing a top to bottom rather than walking down the hill. After takeoff I scratched about at the gully and many beats later perseverance paid off. I gained height and headed for the cliffs to investigate screeching Amur falcons making a serious racket high above. I was happy to watch them squabbling and roosting on the cliff-side.Piku came up on Sunday and it was good to meet and fly with him. Anand came with friends to fly and celebrate his birthday at Native Place. Colin, Richard and Sinchan were there too. All in all it was a good weekend.                                                                                                                                                                       Peace Bliss and Happy Landings                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Astrid Rao