I looked at the wind conditions and Alan's posting from the winery
and decided the trike was a better choice. I was considering taking
a flight over to Chehalem to check out conditions along the ridge.

I took off from the Lenhardt runway in almost no-wind conditions,
and it got fairly exciting at about 200 AGL. My groundspeed dropped
from 40mph to 25mph in just a few dozen vertical feet, indicating
a strong southerly component. It was very turbulent for a few
hundred feet, then smoothed out. Given the turbulence, I decided
to stay in the pattern and do a lap first.

Descending on base, I started getting tossed around pretty wildly
again, and it continued on final. I ended up finally finding a
smoother patch of air halfway down the runway and got it on the
ground in one piece. Terry in the hangar across the way said it
looked pretty exciting from his vantage point by the barbecue. I
decided discretion was called for and parked it for the evening.

The southerly wind aloft was creating horizontal rotors, I think,
which were dipping down into the stable layer near the surface.
It went from calm to gusty and back to calm in the same minute.
I was glad I wasn't flying a paraglider in that air!

MGF