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Leo
Jones
Unregistered
User
(6/29/04 12:41
pm)
66.52.165.190
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King Mountain
report
Just a brief report for now - more later and perhaps others will
add their own perspectives.
The weather at King was poor this
year - persistent northerly winds, and there was a lot of moisture
in the air and massive overdevelopment with cu nimbs, rain and gust
fronts every day. The best conditions were in the days before the
comp.
Most of the Sonoma Wings pilots camped by the river at
Darlington. It was very dry and dusty, but beautiful
nonetheless.
On wednesday, the first comp day, route 1 was
called, north up the Lost River Range to Salmon etc. Launch
conditions were very tricky, and many pilots could not take off
because it blew down after a while. The route OD'ed very quickly and
few pilots flew more than 20 miles or so before being forced to
land.
Thursday route 3 was called, over the back of King to
the Lemhis and the east. Again conditions OD'ed very quickly - I
climbed to 15,000ft over launch but could not leave immediately
because of a huge wall of virga and two cells over the valley behind
King. Flying at this height over some of the most spectacular
mountain ranges in North America, around cu nimbs with lightning and
rain coming out of them is certainly exciting. Few pilots got more
than a few miles before being forced to land by worsening
conditions.
Tragedy struck that afternoon when Chris Giardina
was killed when trying to outrun a storm. He was found the next
morning, and it seemed as though the glider had dived into the
ground. It is unlikely that we will know what really happened.
Chris's death cast a pall over the meet. Our hearts go out to his
wife and baby son and his family, and all who knew him well.
Friday's flying was called off - no-one wanted to fly. Some
of us hiked up to a beautiful lake on the SE side of Mt. Borah, and
dove into its freezing waters after a sweaty climb.
Saturday
morning at the pilot's meeting we had a small memorial for Chris in
Moore park, with a poem reading and a trumpet farewell by Lisa
Versella (sp?).
The route chosen was a new one - route 4,
that headed south from King to Big Southern Butte and beyond, out
over the deserts to avoid the OD in the mountains. Some pilots made
50+ miles, but many of us did not launch due to to crappy launch
conditions, and threatening storm cells over the
mountain.
Sunday the same route was called. Conditions on
launch were better, and the OD was a bit later, so most pilots flew.
Many did not make it further than Arco or the vicinity, but some
managed to get out into the desert and find lift under the clouds
that formed there. Scot Huber had the longest flight of the meet
this day, with a flight of c. 73 miles.
All in all it was a
fun trip for most of us, even if the flying was not great this year,
the camping and socializing made it worthwhile. It was great to see
all our friends again, from Idaho and beyond. As usual Lisa did an
incredible job of putting on this wonderful meet, ably assisted by
Terri, Donna and John Spurlock, and many others too numerus to
mention
Soar high for us, Chris. We will be back.
Leo
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mttsflyin
Unregistered
User
(6/29/04 6:00
pm)
12.135.228.186
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King
King kicked our asses. Will try again at St. John this
weekend.
more later,
Matt
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Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(6/29/04 6:13
pm)
24.5.51.30
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Re: King
Mountain report
Leo pretty much covered it. The weather was spectacular to watch as
it changed the look of the sky and the mountains hour by hour, day
after day, but the flying pretty much sucked. I'm glad that I did
get into the air, but it was only once, on the day before the meet
started. On that day, it looked like we had a shot at a nice flight
up route 1, but once over King and onto Sunset Ridge, we could see
that there was nothing but darkness up the route. One after another,
we chose to boat around on Sunset, then head out into the valley to
land in the big field next to our campsite on the river.
I
was planning on shooting a lot of pictures again this year, but as I
was checking out Lori Jagelka's new 5 megapixel camera, I realized
I'd left my CF reader (which I needed to copy photos from the
camera's storage device to my laptop) at home. What with that and
the radio antenna on my truck being dead, I talked Greg Sugg into
joining me on a 60 mile run into Idaho Falls to buy a reader and an
antenna on Tuesday.
So, here I am, over Sunset Ridge,
climbing nicely up to cloud base at 14,600 and watching John Blacet
almost a mile below me make the crossing from King to make a pass or
two then head out to the valley. I pulled out my camera to take
photos of all the wonderful scenery laid out around me. Snap, Snap,
Snap, I'm clicking away when I suddenly notice that my camera isn't
working anymore. Dead. Maybe the cold? Oh, well, I guess I'll head
out too. I arrive over the LZ at 9,100, and find a little thermal to
play in while I wait for Leo and John, below me, to land. After a
while I notice that I'm up over 11,000, and still climbing. What
fun! But, there's that black stuff moving down the valley from the
north that's not so friendly-looking. I actually found myself in
that oh-so-rare situation of having to look for sink in order to get
down. I found it on the other side of the valley, and eventually
arrived on the ground with a nice landing. This wonderful flight,
that I thought was only the first of many, ended up being the only
sustenance I had all week.
To make matters worse, I found
that the reason my camera stopped working was because my battery
compartment door had opened. My battery is in pieces somewhere at
the back end of Ramshorn Canyon. I wasn't about to make yet another
run to Idaho Falls, so that was it for me, photo-wise. But the real
kicker was when I looked at the photos I had taken. It turned out
that only the very first one I took was there. The battery must have
fallen out right at the start. So, here's the only in-flight
photo I got for the week.
Luckily, it's a keeper, a shot of King from about 14,000 over the
back end of Ramshorn. One look at this and you'll see why we keep
coming back to King - and this is only the beginning of that
wonderful route 1!
BTW, I was glad I cored sink and landed
when I did. No sooner did we bag our gliders and get back to camp
than we got hit by the gust front - only the first of many during
the week.
Edited by: Ernie
Camacho at: 6/29/04 6:26 pm
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Hangfly
Club Secretary
(6/29/04 11:36 pm)
198.81.26.45
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My Take on it
Sorry this is so long. NOT! I could go on! 
Here is
my perspective on King 2004. I rode with Leo. We camped on the
Salmon Creek south of Jackpot on the way. We barbecued steak and
garden veggies. It was cold as hell to bathe in! We were last to
arrive at River camp. Already there were Matt and Lori, Kurt and
Anna, John B, Jon J, Ernie and Greg. Blaine Perkins from Boise
joined us there also. We got set up and barbecued trout and tuna and
more garden veggies.
Also there from Sonoma Wings but staying in
other places were Scot and Donna, Bill and Kathy, Lou Bartell and
his driver Ted, Daniel Pfiko and our friends Rob Wolf and Bob Bay.
The Mother Load Sky Riders also had a contingent of pilots there.
Tuesday evening Scott from the Ram’s Horne opened the restaurant for
us so we ate there. It’s sorta lost its appeal.
Wednesday
morning I gave the Meet Staff signal mirrors, along with about 25
more mirrors to give away. At the morning meeting I gave the staff
gift certificates for 20 minute massages from Lori Allen. Many
people didn’t fly Wednesday due to overdevelopment on the called
route. There was a hoaxed “pilot down” situation that ruined the day
for many people. Blaine made dutch oven brownies in camp at night.
YUM!
Thursday there was a breakfast in the park. At the morning
meeting I gave the Meet Staff beach towels from the Disney store.
They liked ‘em! Route 3 was called. Once again many pilots chose not
to fly due to overdevelopment on route. The pilots who flew didn’t
get far due to weather. Jon James mentioned getting baptized into
the Unorthodox Church of Hang Gliding. After landing to avoid a
squall he hunched down to avoid the rain and got soaked to the bone.
He is now officially and spiritually a church elder!
This was the
day we lost Chris Giardina. My opinion is that weather played a
significant part in his demise. Conditions were extreme. Many pilots
felt they flew safely in these conditions. Other pilots I talked to
thought that they should not have flown and they were happy to be on
the ground after landing. Thunder, lightning, rain, hail, snow, gust
fronts and squall lines were all reported! Blaine made dutch oven
pizza at night. More YUM!
Friday. The day was going to be called
due to weather anyway but right before the meeting was to start the
Sheriff came by and said that they had found Chris in the Four
Corners area. Lisa made an announcement to everyone and people
drifted off in different directions. Chris was really an
entertaining guy. We’ll miss him. Several of us from Sonoma Wings
hiked up to Lake Merriam behind Borah. It was an hour hike from
8100’ up to 9600’. Snow banks were melting off the steep slopes
right into the lake. Of course we all had to drop trou and jump in.
It was freezing! Once again the day was overdeveloping and we hiked
down with thunder rolling and rain falling. On the way back we
stopped in MacKay and had dinner at the Bear Bottom Inn. Oh, music
CDs was the staff gift of the day.
Saturday, at the meeting, we
had a brief memorial for Chris. Lisa Verzella played trumpet and
Tina Jensen read a very touching poem. Obligatory wine was the staff
gift of the day. There was another breakfast in the park. Everyone
sang happy birthday to Donna at the morning meeting. There were
noticeably fewer gliders on launch today. They called a new task,
route 4, to try to fly away from the overdevelopment. It went to the
south southeast past Big Southern Butte into the desert. Many pilots
were not much in the mood to take chances. The weather was OD’ing
earlier. Pilots who didn’t get off early had to bag it. A squall
dumped rain on launch for half an hour. We had the steak barbecue in
the evening.
Sunday, there was a buffet breakfast at a B&B
next to Allen Paylor’s shop. Picture frames was the staff gift of
the day. I hope they like ‘em! Route four was called again. And
again fewer gliders than yesterday on launch. Scot kicked ass! The
pilots who did well in these conditions made good judgment calls
regarding the weather. Flying in these conditions, in my opinion,
requires a higher level of weather evaluation skill than most of us
have practiced. At the awards there were lots of prizes drawn for.
Steve Rudy gave away several instruments from Hiener’s estate. I won
the staff choice award! It is a large vase of layered hand blown
glass by Lisa Tate. It has gliders and thermals on it. And it’s full
of exotic bird feathers. Way Cool!!! Ernie won the Sportsmanship
award! Yea Ernie!!!
A fun time with a somber tone. I still would
liked to have stayed longer.
Hangfly
|
Lori
Allen
Totally Kewl
Hangchick
(6/30/04 9:43
am)
67.166.122.49
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Minor
correction
Hey Charlie and all, great reporting. If anything, I sure enjoyed
seeing all the Sonoma wingers and other friends I only get to see
once a year.
Charlie, it was Steve Rathbun, aka Bigfoot, and
not Steve Rudy who gave away Heiner's stuff (Rudy never showed up
for the comp, probably because of the
weather).
Congratulations to Ernie, Charlie and Scot!!!
Let's all continue to make safe flying decisions and hope
for better weather next year.
Lori
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John
B
Unregistered User
(7/2/04 3:07 pm)
65.214.144.217
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King
I had a good time in spite of the flying conditions. Being there
for a week gave me more than one flying chance. Each flight was
different with unique circmustances. Quite a rush!
We had too
much Mexican food (oh well, so what). Found a good local micro brew.
Found an awesome set of canyons behind Borah.
We shared the
emotion of loss.
We enjoyed the company and enthusiasm of
Anna, who can read a map and GPS with the best of us. She did a
great job of retrieving even though we didn't go that far just to be
easy on her....;> And she can appreciate the lure of hot springs
and cold lakes. Hang II Driver nomination for Anna!
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(7/2/04 5:09
pm)
24.5.51.30
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Launches
You'll notice that there has been no mention, so far, of the blown
launches this year. Last year Scot was a bit too lackadaisical on
lower launch and biffed it - no damage. This year both John B. and I
launched with our noses a bit too high and biffed it. We each broke
a down tube.
Luckily, lower launch at King is shallow enough,
with no real obstructions, except for some football-sized rocks here
and there, that blowing a launch isn't too disastrous.
But,
having a poor launch at a site like St. John CAN be a
disaster.
I've been witnessing lots of slightly-nose-high
launches lately. Several other pilots blew launches from lower
launch this year, due mainly to their nose being high and/or not
running fast enough. And I've seen a number of club pilots
consistently launch just a bit too nose high and a bit too
slow.
Now that I've done one, I can see how insidious such a
launch is. I wasn't sure that being nose-high was the cause until
others critiqued my attempt and verified that that was the
case.
As I was launching, I didn't notice my nose being too
high. It felt about right. My plan was to run, run, run, until the
glider lifted me into the air. It did lift me up, but sooner than it
should have. And slower than it should have been. I came back to
earth and took a few more steps and was lifted up again, but still
too slow to really be flying. I wasn't sure that there was a problem
until my left wing started to drop, with me not able to make a
correction, since I was just skimming over the top of the sage
brush. I had no room to pull in and gain speed. As the left wing
dropped, I became a passenger/spectator, along for the ride. In my
case, that shallow left turn turned me far enough that when I did
contact the ground, it was with my right wing and it was my right
downtube that took my weight.
I'm describing all this because
I've noticed that most of the time, when I tell someone else that
they're launching too nose-high, they come back with the argument
that their launches are just fine. Now I can see how pilots come
away with that perception - a nose-high launch that you get away
with DOES seem to be OK; anything about it that's less than ideal
can be blamed on the wind.
I'm here to tell you that if one
of your caring buddies tells you that you're launching too
nose-high, pay heed. A place like St. John is not where you want to
discover that they were right. Keep that nose down! I know I
will.
Ernie
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Chris
McKeon
Unregistered
User
(7/6/04 7:00
pm)
207.173.10.89
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King Mtn. This
year.
Hi Guys.
My first trip to King Mtn.
Many pilots told
me this was the worst year as for flying
conditions they had seen
at king.
Loosing Chris was just the worst. I was always blown
away by how stoked he was about flying.
I still had a pretty
good time. Did some things I had not planned on. Fishing with Casey
and his son. I did some
hiking, and of course some
flying.
I want to thank Lisa, for all her work and effort to
make this meet work.
A huge thank you for Terri she really
helped me up on launch holding my glider durning Dust Devil time.
Ernie thank you for the ride home. I found out we both like
a lot of the same music.
I very well might go back next
year.
Chris.
'
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zoolisa
Member
(7/9/04 4:14
pm)
216.255.214.24
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Re: king
2004 King Results
(for a complete listing contact
lisa@soaringdreamsart.com and I can mail you one)
84
registered entries of which 78 showed up
1st Place Team:
Twisted Misters
Sportsmanship Award: Ernie Camacho (great
guy!)
Driver Award: David Van Der Steen
Staff Choice: Charlie
warren
Eiji Yokoda Memorial Trophy: Scot Huber
Open
Class:
1st - Joe Evens
2nd - Bill Soderquist
3rd - Shannon
Raby
Rec Class:
1st - Orv Haugen
2nd - John
Kangas
3rd - Bill Smith
Thank you all for coming, please
send me your surveys- Lisa
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