So, recently in my class, we've been studying Flight and animals that God designed to fly. We've studied the Wright Brother's and their first attempts and then their successful first flight. My dad has been helping out- because he's really nice and he knows a lot about flying (he had his private pilot's liscense for many years). Recently Dad's been designing different gliders to test out for my class. He just finished designing one and wanted to try it out by launching it from the top of Rattlesnake Mountain, across the street from our house. We drove up and launched it 5 times- each was unsuccessful. The left wing was a bit heavier than the right and the nose "cannard" (the little wing on the front that produces lift and counter acts the tendancy for the wing to flip backwards) produced too much lift than desired, causing the main wing to stall. Basically, to not be too technical, the nose went up and the whole glider rotated to the left. Here's the video to see our trial #3.

When the last trial was finished, since I was the "retriever," I just decided to try and fly the plane down the mountain as far as I could. Well, on my way down, I found that someone else had been up there and had been doing a little bit of sledding with some left-over wood siding. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "wouldn't this be really fun?! I'll wait 'til Mom and Dad are down on the road below me and I'll slide down on this 'sled,' right to the truck door!" When they finally got on the road below me, I sat down and slid within 30 ft. of the truck. It was so much FUN! I really wanted to record it, but the batteries in my camera died. Not, to worry, I'm always up for a second chance at spontaneous fun! Up the hill with my new sledding partner in hand, I rearranged the batteries, hoping to trick them into giving me just one more chance at recording my adventure. I sat down, turned on the camera, and this is the result: (hope you enjoy!)

I kinda look like the uni-bomber with my hoodie up ;) I couldn't get the siding that I was sitting on to move at first because I was stuck on a rock. Obviously there isn't much snow left on the mountain because it hasn't snowed for 2 1/2 weeks or so. This snow, that you see, is only there because it is on the north side of the mountain and doesn't get much sun. Hope that all of you are enjoying your winter no matter if there is or isn't snow and no matter if you get the chance to be spontaneous or not- I would highly suggest safe spontanaity, though! It's tons of fun...try it sometime!