BEESIEGED ON THE SLOPE
SUNDAY AUG 22, '99
The weather on this day looked
pretty
good,winds from the north, and warm.
I loaded the truck and
headed for the
slope. Expectations for the day were very high with
several planes to fly.
Took up a BABY ZAGI, ZAGI, and my
new
SU-27... hope'in mostly to be able to
fly the SU on the slope
for the first
time.
I reached the site about 1:30pm,the
wind
wasnt real strong yet, but good
nuff for the BABY ZAGI. Flew the
little
wing around for about 20min. and noticed
the lift was getting
much stronger.
I brought it in and readied the regular
ZAGI. Didnt
fly long when the lift died
right off and I had to land.. sat
down
in the shade of my truck and chugged
a little water and the
wind was back!
Now most times I've been to the slope I wind up go'in
for a hike down
hill for one of my planes for one reason
or other
(PILOT ERROR MOSTLY..) Well..
not today I thought...good lift, thermals
boom'in out'a the valley, hawks fly'in everywere..got the whole slope all
to myself cause nobody else wanted to go, nice day..
All of a sudden I
feel like someone
just lit a fircracker on my shoulder!
I jumped and
flailed as I turned to see
this monster horsefly come'in at my
face!
This thing was BIG! Like 1 and 1/2
inches long! he was after my face
next,.
when I took a swat at him and knocked
him silly to the dirt!
I had an empty
film can, so I scooped him up to save
him for
show-and-tell..nobody would
beleive the size of this thing
unless
they saw it..
Well I'am think'in that sucked but
he aint'a
gonna be bite'in anyone again,
so I keep on fly'in the ZAGI around,
have'in a good time, and wondering if
the lift is good enough for
the SU-27
yet..it was now about 3:30pm or so..
What happened next
scared the hell
out of me!!!! I'am fly'in the ZAGI quite
a way out
and up, when I hear a DRONEING
come'in from the slope face...THEN
A
CLOUD COMES RIGHT OVER ME!!! I was in
a SWARM OF BEES!!! The air
was literaly
dark with bees! I quickly took note of
were the ZAGI
was in the sky, pointed
it towards the slope, pushed in
down
elevator, and ran for my life over the
other side of the slope
and several yards down!!! The swarm had dispersed
and was giveing up
the chase! I stood
there for several moments catching my
breath and
waiting for the palpatations
to mellow out...then made my way
back
to the top. There were still bees there,
but most of the swarm
was gone...so it
seemed..
I peared over the edge of the
slope to
see if by chance the ZAGI was
visible. NOPE.. no luck there..
My
next thought was " maybey a bear toar
open the bees nest for the
honey...
OH GREAT..I scaned the slope face and
surrounding terain
INTENTLY...no sign
of any bears..so I carefully made my way down the
hill ..I was not to happy
about that, after think'in I was'nt gonna
have to do it this time...it took
some hunt'in... all I had to go by
was
a quick last look before flee'in for
my life..it was wayyyyy
down there, but
I got 'er back!
ZAGI in hand.. back to the top
I
went..I finally get to the truck, sit
down with the water jug, take
several
long pulls.. when I hear the same DRONE
of the swarm come'in
back!!! In the
truck I jump and role up the windows!!!
NO WAY!! They
came back!!! My planes,
radios, water, everything outside with
the
bees!..Great!!!...I cant leave cause
all the gear is in front of the
truck...
So there I sat.. steam'in like a lobster
in my own truck..I
sat there traped for
nearly a half hour when they all
kinda
conngregated over to a little fur tree
about 25-30ft. away.. I
opened the door
and cautiously gathered my stuff into the truck. Fired
up the rig and was just
gonna leave when I remembered that I had
a
camera with me... I pulled the truck
as close to the little tree as
possible
and snaped several photos of the swarm..
(I will put them
up soon...and the horse fly)
Then I got the hell outa DODGE!!!
WOWEE
WHAT A TRIP!!!
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