Neat fly today

["Tex Hankey" <txhankey@...>]

I was so excited about working with my new camera today, that I woke up at 4
am and couldn't get back to sleep (I'm such a nerd....I felt like a kid at
Christmas). I took everyone out and Henry had some really cool flyabouts.

I have been really working with him (or rather myself) on not going to pick
him up if he doesn't land on me (it's taken alot self-restraint, humility, and
handfuls of almonds...I can detail it later if prompted). Due to the regimen I
put us on, however, this meant only flying Henry when I had plenty of time to
wait him out (that's the self-restraint part), thus sacrificing his physical
fitness because we could no longer squeeze in quick flies during my lunch
hour. It's amazing how fast he caught on....now our fly's take less time and
we are able to work more on getting in shape, and that's after only 2 weeks of
the beginning of the program.

Today was unbelievably perfect. There was a teeny breeze at the beginning, and
Henry and Betelgeuse had a couple outstanding flyabouts. Juice flew backwards
for the first time that I've seen; I sent her out after Henry, but six feet
later, she changed her mind and flew backwards onto my shoulder. Suddenly the
wind began picking up to about 10 or 15 mph, so I sent Henry out one last
time. He floated around on the thermals for several minutes like I have never
seen him do. He tilted his wings upward and gained height at a dizzying pace,
and then he'd dip his head and swoop down 50 or so feet to grab another
thermal. Betelgeuse was clipping along at one point high above me, and
suddenly she did a nosedive with her body completely perpendicular to the
earth and almost ground-pounded Henry! Hank the Tank finally landed about 30
feet from me, so I immediately started walking the other direction. He took
off towards us, downwind, no less, and flew over my head, pulled a 180 to face
into the wind and floated onto my hand. Once I got back up to the flats, the
wind was blowing so hard I had to stick Sailor in my vest because she kept
trying to take off and would dangle in the wind just high enough to be beyond
my reach (She's has a heart problem and can't fly very far). Henry was very
proud of himself and told us so the whole way home.

tex