| Author |
Comment |
| Vince
|
Sinko de Mayo
report
Sonoma Wings had another great Sinko de Mayo fly-in. Twenty pilots
showed up to fly with several more there to help and watch. Three
vehicles were loaded with gliders and one with paragliders for the
trip up to the top of St. Helena (Northern California). We are only
allowed three vehicles on the mountain at any one time so as soon as
the paragliders unloaded, that truck came down. We were at launch by
11:45 and were greeted with the wind blowing down launch. I was not
discouraged (but I was not flying, my glider is still on it’s way
back from Florida, so I am driving today). The wind usually turns
around as that side of the mountain heats up.
Pilots set up
based on their launch order that was determined earlier by lottery.
The lower the launch number, the closer to launch you set up. By
1:00 the wind was coming up launch in light cycles. Around 1:15,
Charlie Warren was the first to launch. He was not getting up higher
than launch level and other pilots were reluctant to launch. After
20 minutes, more pilots launched. There was only one questionable
launch technique, everyone else had great launches. I was still in
the comp mode and was a little impatient that it took almost 3 hours
to launch 20 pilots, when we launched almost 100 in a half hour in
Florida. I hope I was not too much of a pain in the ass.
With all the pilots in the air it was easy so see the cycles
come and go. The gaggle stack would move up and down 1000’ as each
cycle came and went. As pilots got tired or were sucked to the LZ by
the big beer magnet (thanks Jon for picking up the keg), or the even
bigger food magnet (thanks to Ernie for ordering/picking up the
food) they headed out to the LZ for a flour drop and spot landing
contest.
The LZ was very generously donated for our use by
Jane Campbell. Jane is a wonderful woman who loves to party with us
hang glider pilots (she even thinks I am a great airplane pilot J).
She has one of the last pastures in the area around St. Helena. She
is a staunch cattle person, as she likes to say. Her ranch foreman
mowed a runway for our use. We actually had two LZ’s one was 500’ X
200’ which I called the leisure and a smaller LZ 150’ x 150’ I
called the seizure. Most of the pilots decided to go for the spot in
the seizure, although a couple (could it be, Leo?) did not make
either.
By the time I helped the last pilot launch, and then
drive down to the LZ, most of the pilots had landed and were well on
their way through the third task of the day, consumption of mass
quantities of food and beer (wine and other beverages for the more
refined pallet). I finally met Chris Ari, having flown with him in
Florida, but never had the chance to chat while there. Most everyone
thought Charlie had won the duration task, but Kurt managed to repel
the food and beer magnet longer than anyone else and took first
place in duration. I forgot who won the flour drop, but they won
with a direct hit on the center of the spot. No one in the past has
ever hit the spot with their flour bomb. No one went XC, the day was
not that great and the magnets were too strong.
Things
started to wind down as darkness consumed the LZ. Several pilot/star
gazers spent their time looking at the five planets visible in the
sky. One stumbled to the bed of his truck to sleep off the mass
quantities of beer. The rest of us sat around and told lies. I
decided to camp the night and drive home in the morning. Many other
pilots camped as well. Several were going to fly Elk today, but I
had to get home. I am still trying to get organized after my Florida
trip.
Vince
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Sunday
Only 3 of us showed up in the St. Helena LZ - John B, Matt and me. Everyone
else had left for Elk, and left us the beer. We sat around for a
while under the Oak tree, feeling a bit bleary, but eventually (like
noon) headed up the mountain. On launch conditions were perfect,
with good cycles coming straight in.
We all managed to get
our gliders turned around and launched by ourselves, our biggest
concern. I went straignt up to 5000ft, then 6000ft, and after about
20 mins to over 7000ft. Winds were 20 out of the NW and the drift
was strong. I got 7300 over the back of the south peak before
leaving it. Pope Valley was an easy glide way, and there were some
small cumies at the end of the mountains down by Napa. but XC was
too much of a pain - we had no driver. A sailplane flew by below.
Matt went off on a glide to the north end of the valley. I'm sure it
was a 30 - 40 mile day.
There was a lot of lift over the
valley and LZ too, I flew over Joe Montana's castle, and found it
hard to lose height. On the ground it was warm with a strong and
very gusty NW wind. The trees were all waving around and below tree
height it was pretty rock and roll. We all landed, in various
interesting ways, on the mowed strip - you would not have wanted to
land in the paddock today!!
We tried but could not finish the
beer! A great day and a great weekend though. Thanks
everyone.
Leo
|
|
Chris
Gallagher
|
Quatro de Mayo
Fly-in
Just a few lines to say what a good time I had at the fly in. It
was great meeting all of the club members and putting faces to all
the names. This was a day of firsts for me. First time to fly with
the Sonoma club, first time to fly Mt. St Helena, first time in my
brand new used Sensor and the first time in many years my daughter
has come along with me.
The food was good, the company great
and any airtime is good airtime. Thanks to Ernie, Matt, Leo, and all
the others that worked hard for the party and especially thanks to
Jane for her kindness in letting us gather on her ranch.
I
look forward to more flying with the club enjoying the air with you
guys.
|
|
Barry Levine
|
Cinquo de
Mayo--the Owens (long)
the short version:
-Owens season is here
-eyewear does
matter
-don't eat at La Casita in Bishop
-carrying one spare
tire up Paiute is scant insurance
-climbs to cloudbase at
16k
-flights 40 miles north through Montgomery, 30 miles south
past Big Pine
-May is not PG season in the Owens
the long
version:
Ryan, Dan, Kurtis and I left Thursday night, met Nord in
Minden, drove down to Mammoth, camped at the hotsprings. Friday
a.m., we saw the first cumulus development at 8:00 a.m., with no
evidence of wind. We drove to Paiute, found Kari Castle setting up
on launch with a flock of PG pilots from the Bay Area. I find out
that my PTT is flaky--I can transmit, but only hear intermittently.
Around 12:30 Dan launched, went quickly up, headed North, staying
out front to avoid the clouds developing over the peaks. Ryan and I
follow, quickly climbing up to 13k. Nord is finding his way up as
Ryan and I head north. I get to cloubase (16k) passing in front of
White and head onto the Flats. Nord gets up, goes deeper into the
mountains, catches Ryan, and the two of them overtake me somewhere
around here. Each of of discovers that the hoses from our Camelbaks
have frozen (I now make it a practice to blow the water out of the
line after each drink). I glimpse Nord getting low in front of
Montgomery as I arrive. I get onto Montgomery at 13.3k, look out
through the Pass, and don't like what I see--it's dark over there.
Looking around, I find that it's dark everywhere, but there's not
much cloudcover. It's not the weather, it's me. Just around now I
hit big sink, find myself at 10k, and need to get back up before I
can work on this mystery. I climb back to 13.5k and try wiping my
glasses. Alas, it's not frost on the glasses, it's my eyes.
The
world is kinda dark, I have very little resolution, very little
contrast, and there are halos around bright objects. I can no longer
ready my altimeter. I'd read about the possibility that--in windy
dry conditions--you can lose enough moisture from the eyes that the
cornea (and the lens?) grow translucent rather than transparent. I
remember that it's reversible, but that's small comfort right now. I
don't know how far or how fast it might progress while I'm in the
air. I think I can see the water tower by Janie's, but I don't
remember if there are wires or fences near the airstrip. That
doesn't sound so good. I can see a big pivot-irrigated field by
Benton, but each pivot field has crops (not my worry) and a dark
boom that I couldn't see agains the dark crops. I'm feeling like
Tommy Walker here, but this deaf, dumb and blind kid has a mission.
I'm going back to Paiute, where I know there's an unobstructed field
with good landmarks. (Technically, I'm not dumb at this point, as I
can transmit, but the chase vehicle has gone over the Montgomery
Pass, out or range). The bad news is that I'm flying half blind. The
good news is that it's afternoon in the Whites, there's no wind, and
everything's going up. I zip back along the Flats, pass White,
arrive at Paiute, and identify my field. There's the HiHead Hydro
road, cutting the alluvial fan, that tan blob must be the generating
station, that's my field. Now I just have to go land. Alas, it's
4:30, and Paiute is pumping. I could probably fly to Black mtn
without turning at this point, and have a good chance of jumping the
Westgard pass, but the field I want is right below me, and I can't
get down. I wrap an elbow around a sidewire and slip spirals for a
while, but I can't even keep the sink alarm (600fpm) going. I have
to fly out to the Owen's River, lose altitude, then come back to my
field. I can't see the streamers or the flag on the generating
station, and circling gives me no indication of wind. I prepare for
no-wind landing, and chose to face West, as that seems the most
likely direction to meet a gust (because Paiute is sucking up air).
I manage a pretty good landing for a blind guy, dropping the nose,
buy finishing on my feet. Not it's park the glider, shed
oxygen/PTT/flight suit, get out the hotrod. I manage to contact the
guys in Benton, where they're searching for me. They find me as I'm
still packing up. Nord and Ryan had made it through the Montgomery
pass, but found nothing there for flights of 40 and 35 miles. Dan
had stayed too far out front, landed north of Chalfont. Nord thinks
he might have frostbitten a finger or two, Ryan discovers that his
harness allows airflow where it's not wanted. Peeing hurts, but he
suffers no lasting harm. I suck down 60 oz of sportade and a beer,
close my eyes and wait for the eyes to rehydrate.
After two
hours, I'm improving. I can read the menu at the taqueria "Las
Palmas" in town. Good food, a couple liters more water, and it's
back to camp at the Mammoth Hot Springs. In a couple more hours I
can watch the OD from the south stealing the stars from the sky. By
morning, vision is normal. I elect to drive.
Saturday, we get up
to launch to find that I've punctured a tire in the last 100 ft. At
least I have a nice level place to change the tire at launch while
the guys get ready. Kari's back with her flock of worshippers.
Kurtis is jazzed, as he gets to fly when I drive. Kari launches,
hits a thermal 100 yds out front, cores straight up to 14k. The PGs
follow as fast as they can, followed by Dan, Nord, Kurtis, Ryan.
Driving down, I hear Kurtis report that he's at 13k at Black, his
hands are numb, and he's going to land at the warm springs with the
pupfish. Pretty good for his first flight at the site--on a Mark IV.
On the way down I'm interrupted by the hiss of my second punctured
tire. I'm on a stretch of road where I couldn't change the tire even
if I had another spare. I chose to keep rolling to some place more
benign, even if it costs me a rim. By chance, I find not only a
near-level turnout, but I overtake a PG pilot driving down. I flash
the lights, I honk the horn, I jump out of the truck and wave my
arms. He stops. I grab a radio, wrap the first flat in a tarp, and
throw it into the back of his truck (wishing there were room for
both flats). He drives me down to the LZ, I transfer the flat to
Nord's van, drive into town, get it mended, drive back, he drives me
back to the Montero, change the second tire, and he escorts me back
down. By now Dan has hitchhiked back to the LZ and taken the van.
Kari is down, reporting that conditions were way too strong for PG.
One of her flock has broken a foot landing in a field while it was
ripping off. I drive back into town, get the second flat mended, and
take off on chase, wondering why I don't hear anyone on radio (I'll
later find out that my antenna hadn't been screwed on right--for
now, my 50watt unit has a range of a couple of miles only).
I
drove toward the Warm Springs where Kurtis had been last reported,
but get confused on the dirt roads, end up at the wrong clump of
trees at the foot of Black, and elect to go chase the lead pilots
first. I radio to Dan that I don't have Kurtis. I find Ryan and Nord
in Big Pine, drinking. There's a cloudstreet leading right across
the Westgard and heading for Darwin, but they had found themselves
fighting a headwing as soon as they passed Black, and came down in a
nice field by a bar. As we're loading the harnesses, Nord notices
that I have a third puncture. It's now 7pm Saturday night, there's
no place to get it fixed, so I change the tire. Dan finds us while
we're doing this, and goes off with Nord to retrieve Kurtis. Ryan
and I follow after picking up the gliders. I again get lost on the
way into the Warm Springs, but we get there to find that the others
have left via Big Ears. We get a dip, then head for town. By the
time we get to Bishop, the others had eaten. I make my best decision
of the day, and have only water. Ryan shares part of Kurtis's
enchilada, and we head back to camp.
The night is interupted by
a very noisy party using the hotspring, and by the sounds of Ryan
being violently ill. I get up in the morning to watch the sunrise
from the hotspring, as is my habit, only to find that the jerks had
drained the tub and left it empty. I get back into my sleeping bag
to wait for the fill, while Kurtis makes an urgent trip to the
bushes. He has been poisoned, too, but both he and Ryan are rapidly
improving, and think they'll be feeling good by launch time. Nord
announces that he's driving back home, so the rest of us pack up,
head into Bishop to find someplace that'll fix our third flat on a
Sunday morning. Turns out its irreparable, so I buy a new one, take
the dead one back to exchange at Big-O in the Bay Area, and we head
for launch. Sunday it's clear that there's North wind aloft, and
even some North drift on the valley floor. On the drive up, Dan
discovers that he's been poisoned. We pull over a couple of times
while he pukes by the roadside. We go to the upper launch, where Dan
pukes every fifteen minutes while we set up. He insists that he's
fit to drive, so Ryan and Kurtis launch, climb up, head South. I
launch--this time with motocross goggles over my glasses--find
nothing, land in the LZ in 11 minutes. Dan has a harder ride down.
While I'm tearing down, Kurtis gets on the radio to report that he's
puking voluminously in the air. He comes back to land by me. Dan
eventually arrives at the pumphouse, staggers out of the Montero,
and collapses on the grass. When I go over to him, he doesn't look
good. He remembers stopping urgently at least nine times on the way
down, and only six of those were to vomit. I urge him to drink more,
then go help Kurtis pack up (he's looking pretty bad himself), load
the gear, and take off on chase. By the time we get to Bishop, Dan's
thinking he'd rather just wait for us at the Vons--they have a nice
bathroom. I park him in a room at the motel6, load his icebox with
drinks and icepops, and leave him there with instructions to push
fluids.
I find Ryan just South of BigPine, and we head North.
Apparently puking up dinner early was the right course, because he's
fine, cheerfully eating half a roast chicken on the way back to
Bishop. It's a few more hours before everyone feels fit for the
road, so head north a bit after 9pm, arrive at the hangar at 3 am.
By this time Kurtis and Dan seem to be on the mend. They're a bit
wobbly, they look like they're going to live. By 4:00 I have dropped
the guys at their homes, and have found my own bed.
Ah, flying
season.
Barry
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Elk report
5.11
Elk proved excellent on saturday. At least 20 gliders flew - a nice
turnout. The wind was SW, but there were nice cycles coming in up
the south launch. Larry Smith launched first at about 1.30, and
boated around about 200' over, I followed and sank out 500ft before
scratching back up. Bill Vogel took off and climbed right out with
Larry as I was doing this, then Vince and I wrestled with small
stuff off the west end before we both climbed out in a thermal that
got better and better and I was soon at 7000ft between Elk and
Horse, and after about 20 mins I got to over 8000ft.
Nearly
everyone got up in great air, with altitudes of over 8500ft being
reached. Lift away from Elk was far less reliable however, with most
pilots finding little lift on Pitney or Mid Mtn. However Rich
completed a triangle from Elk - High Glade - his house - Elk, and
Scot almost did. Bill and Vince landed in Clover Valley, and a
number of pilots landed in the creek bed near the green fields where
the wind was a steady southerly, with switchy winds and broken
aluminum being reported from the main LZ.
Afterwards we all
gathered for a nice feed and bull session at Bill and Cathy's house
- what a nice end to a great day's flying. Thanks to you both, and
to all who showed up.
Leo
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Re: Elk 5/11
flight report
Finally got to fly Rich's MRX 2001 Laminar. It's a rocket ship with
a monster glide, although when we left Elk and went on glide into
the wind toward Middle Mt., Rich pulled away from me enough on his
new MR700 to make me order one today!! I should have it in a couple of
weeks. Sorry Rich no sale on your 2001!!
Anyway, here's the flight report: I launched
last I think after Rich and I put the MRX back together. Most
everyone was skying out by this time and I had no trouble joining
them. I boated around the top of Elk getting a feel for the glider
as it flies somewhat differently then my ST. It requires more input
and control corrections to turn it but the air was pretty rowdy also
so I was having my hands full. Finally headed toward Pitney at
around 8G where I found nothing, but with this performance I didn't
need it. I glided to the base of High Glade and worked it back over
the top to 8300ft. Rich and I had talked about doing a triangle
before launch so with the fly-in and all I decided to stay close to
the LZ and try to complete the triangle.
Headed back to Youngs
Peak on Pitney ridge where Rich had reported finding something on
his way over but I found nothing so I headed for the main LZ hoping to
find something to keep me in the air. Not much happening so with the
south wind, I went to the base of Elk real low figuring the heat from
the creek would be releasing off the knees. It was and I slowly
worked 100 up till it turned on to 600 up and I was over the top
again at 8000. Rich was there also, having already completed the
triangle. We both left for Middle Mt. and this is when I decided to
"Go For It" and order a new 700, as Rich left me in his wake. He
continued on to near Blue Lakes and I headed for his house after
climbing out on Middle Mt. I got there around 5G but after getting low
there headed back to Sleeper Peak which is the last knob on Middle
Mt. I found some lite ridge lift on the end but I was losing ground so
I turned down-wind toward Bill's house thinking the thistle field in
the river bed was make-able. I passed over some of the earlier party-ers in
Bill's back yard with about 300 ft. and landed in the thistle field
with no problems.
I'm very excited about the performance of
these new gliders and am really looking forward to some great flying
on my very own MR700. Rich Burton has another one or two on order so get
in touch with him if you're considering an upgrade and want the
best. Although Rich's MRX wouldn't be a bad choice if you don't have
6G.
Thank you to Bill and Cathy for a wonderful party and to Lori
for for coming for a visit from SLC.
I'm claiming an out and
return to High Glade of 16.8 mi.for the day. hh
|
|
lijianliu
|
Re: Elk 5/11
flight report
Elk mountain is the Best site I've ever flown:
(*) 8609 feet
MSL made my nose bleed!
(*) 1062 feet/minute Max vario
(*)
- 1352 feet/minute Min Vario
(*) 2 hour flight, had hard time getting
down to the LZ.
(*) At Bill's party, a humming bird landed on my
fingers, drinking water.
Lee.
|
| derk
|
Elk Report
5/12
Just for the record and for everyone else who missed it:
Elk on
Sunday was quite different than it was on Saturday. It was very windy
already early in the morning at 10 AM when I went up to get a
paraglide flight in. That was too much for PG so we, about 10 HG
pilots, went up again around noon. It was blowing even a bit
stronger. Everyone set up and I launched first into perfectly ridge-soarable
conditions. It was fun flying around close to the mountain
for a while until everyone had launched and it got too crowded, so I
retreated to higher altitudes. Thermals were quite strong in places,
but choppy and the drift over the back was significant. I couldn't
make it above 6k and doubt anyone else could make it much higher.
Finally I headed out into a headwind towards Pitney where I didn't
find anything good. The wind gradient in the creek bed LZ was
surprising but I had a good landing with an agressive flair + hard
run.
Thanks again to Bill and Cathy for a great party and a
great flying weekend.
Derk
|
| Derk
|
Hull Mtn
5/18-5/19
Arrived Sat. noon at Hull LZ. Winds around 20 miles from the west.
Roger, Roy and Tom went home but I drove up. At Timberline it looked
great. Approx. 15 gliders were already set up. The Berkley group was
there along with a bunch of other pilots. Everyone launched and sank out. I
asked the last Berkley pilot who launched for the frequency they
were using, which prooved to be beneficial for him. I launched 5 min
later and noticed that he was not going to make it. He landed in the
canyon behind the knob. Bad area but the landing didn't look too
bad. I informed the rest of the group in the LZ about it andthe
position, while circling overhead. I was waiting for a movement but
couldn't see anything. Eventually someone got on the radio and said
everything is okay, which I assumed was him and which I relayed down
to the LZ (They didn't hear it because he was somewhat in the
canyon). He later said that he was waving after unhooking to
indicate that he was okay. I couldn't see that at all. Just as a
note: if you ever want to let someone in the air know that you are
okay after a bad landing MOVE THE GLIDER around.
Camped with
the Berkley folks on red spot where it was raining Sunday morning. I
went up to the peak which was in the clouds and everything up there
was covered under an inch of ice on the side facing the wind.
Later down at Oak Flat campground I found Gunter with some guy
and a Quicksilver ultralight. The guy just bought the ultralight
used and was determined to fly it. He never received any instruction
nor did he have a manual for the Quicksilver. But he spent 100 hours
or so on a PC flight simulator. He wanted to take off in a small
opening in the campground "because the Quicksilver needs only 60 ft
to take off". Gunter told him that the opening in the middle of the
campground, although a little bit longer than 60 ft, is not so good
because it is surrounded by HIGH TREES. Obviously a scenario which
didn't occur in the flight simulator, I gather.
However, I
decided to not want to watch a suicide attempt and went
home.
Derk
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Memorial Weekend
Flight Reports
Flew McLellan on Friday evening with Lori Allen. Lori went first
and wasn't aggresive with her run and subsequently came back to
terra-firma shortly therafter. Landed on her wheels without whacking
but bent her basebar and broke a wheel. She only recieved minor
bruises both physically and mentally.
I launched after making
sure she was fine and flew around for an hour before top
landing.
Sat. was overcast so we drove around Tahoe and had
dinner at Ceasars Palace and caught the Pat Benatar concert. Good
show!
Sunday started out looking much better but the winds picked
up and high clouds moved in so I boated around McLellan for 2.5 hrs.
before landing in turbulent conditions in the campground. I managed
to get to 8G but not enough to go over with.
Mon. was overcast
again so drove home early.
Hope the Owens was better for flying.
hh
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|
Ernie
Camacho
|
Fri, Sat, Sun in
the Owens
Thursday:
I loaded my glider on Kurt’s truck and we (Kurt,
Kimberly, Kelsey, Spencer, tent trailer, motorcycle, and me) pulled
out of Petaluma by 10AM. We made radio contact with new Sonoma
Winger Clifton, as we went over the Altamont Pass. Clifton dropped
his vehicle off at a friends house in Newman and jumped in with us.
At Tuttle Creek we met up with Mike Kunitani, Bob Stanley, Bill
Vogel, Vince Endter and Nancy, and our driver, Charlie Gutierrez
from Delano, who’d brought his three kids. Clifton was the new kid
in the Owens, this being his first time here. Since the only
mountain flying he’d done was at Hull and Elk, he was full of
questions, which allowed us old-timers to expound at length on all
matters XC.
Friday:
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Walts Point, Friday
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Conditions at Walts looked good.
Pilots had to work to get up, but they were getting up. I launched
and on the way to the saddle made a 360 in a false thermal, arrived
too low to get over the saddle, made a few passes with no luck and
headed over to the switch backs. I wasn’t right. I was puffing like
crazy, my arms were aching – nothing felt right. After trying to
work the switchbacks for a short while I gave up, strangely
exhausted, and headed out to Lake Diaz for a dry landing.
An
hour later Clifton landed near me. He’d launched immediately after
me in his WW XC, arrived at the saddle too low, and had spent the
rest of his flight trying to get up on the switchbacks. He was
frustrated that he couldn’t get up (how many times have we all felt
the same?), but his 6.5 miles to Diaz was his longest XC so he was
happy, until he learned he’d bent a downtube on landing – his first.
Totally bummed he was (no spare), until a group effort was made to
straighten it at the campfire that night.
Kurt managed to get
up at Tinemaha and made the crossing to Black, a personal best, but
couldn’t get up on Black, landing north of Big Ears.
Bill,
still getting used to his new Laminar MR700, got beat up in the
rough air and bailed at Whitney Portal feeling exhausted and
confused about his glider’s handling. Later we convinced him that it
was the air, not his glider, that was weird.
My radio battery
was dead so after Bill picked me up, I spent the rest of the day
rigging a dry-cell 12 volt battery. Charlie chased the rest of the
crew. I think that Mike landed near Big Pine and Bob landed near Big
Ears. Vince had Nancy chasing him. I think he landed somewhere near
Bishop.
Saturday:
We arrived at launch early, around 9AM,
to find almost 20 gliders already set up. Conditions were definitely
better. When pilots started launching around 10:30 they were
rocketing right up from launch. We all set up to the left of Walt’s
Rock, figuring we’d launch from the left side of the rock. Vince was
at the front of our line, launched with his wings not level, mushed
his left wing into a bush and ended up in the bushes down below. Bob
Stanley launched nose high, clipped Vince’s bush with his left wing,
and managed to muscle the glider into the air to a round of applause
from the on-lookers. I launched, flew straight to the saddle, hit
really rough lift, and went straight up to the top of Wonoga. I was
in the same situation as yesterday, exhausted immediately, arms
aching, really strange. I left for the next ridge, Owens Point, but
found that I was too weak to control the glider as I tried to work a
thermal. I bailed out to Lake Diaz again, but once out over the
Alabama hills I found smooth lift and let the glider circle as I
drifted along, eventually landing short of Manzanar for 16
mi.
Bill got too winded helping haul Vince’s glider up so he
decided not to fly. Bob got low somewhere around Lookout Pt. and
headed out to the highway, landing in a beautiful clearing at
Taboose Crk. Rd.
Kurt made it across to Black again, but
again couldn’t find any lift on Black’s west flank, landing just
north of Big Ears.
|
|
Clifton & Kurt at Big Ears
|
Clifton was able to make his way down the
Sierras. At each position report, we’d encourage him on, especially
when he was doubtful about making it all the way across from
Tinemaha. He made it, landing near Kurt – 55 miles on his second
XC!
Mike, of course, went his own way, starting the crossing
further south from Goodale, climbing the SW flank of Black, and
continuing on to Basalt. Rich and Linda had arrived. They were
flying with Rich Burton and Kari Castle from Piute so Linda chased
Mike. I believe our Rich made it to Gabbs.
Linda was urging Mike to continue on past Basalt to Gabbs (there was
plentiful lift under a cloud street), but Mike was too tired. As it was, he had
to fight to get down.
Everyone agreed that
today was much rougher than Friday.
Sunday:
I’d determined
that my problem was a too-long hang strap. I’d have to order a new
hang strap from Rich Burton, hopefully before I went to King. Then I
found that Burton had pulled into the campsite across from us in the
night so I went over, introduced myself and sure enough he had a
whole range of hang straps with him. Oh Joy! I swapped out hang
straps on launch (we beat the crowd by getting there at 8:30) and
was ready to try again, figuring I’ll go as long as my arms held
out, then bail.
This day was more mellow. Pilots were getting
up at the saddle, but not with the rocket rides of yesterday. I
launched, headed over to the saddle, found nothing, and decided to
work the right-hand ridge (toward Timosea Pk.) instead of jumping
immediately over to the switchbacks. I found light lift, worked it
for all I was worth, and eventually got above the ridge, up to 10k,
and drifted back over launch. I was back to my old self, no limp
arms, no huffing and puffing. The hang strap gambit worked! But, I
found that my radio wasn’t working right. I could hear but I
couldn’t transmit. Then, as I was climbing up over Wonoga my vario
showed low-battery and a short while later turned off. Great! It’s
over for me. I headed out to the switchbacks, figuring I’ll just go
out and land. Then I decided to see what my GPS could do for me. I
turned it on, went to the page that shows altitude, and studied it
for a while as I boated around. Sure enough, the altitude seemed to
change quickly enough that I might be able to find thermals with it.
I figured I’d just go as far as I could until I lost the lift, then
dash out to the highway. I climbed back up over Wonoga and headed
downrange. I caught a glimpse of my Camelback tube swinging out
against my left downtube, then continuing on toward my rear. I
reached for it but couldn’t find it. No water for the rest of this
flight! BTW, I’d lost a hose clamp for my wing-mounted camera so
that wasn’t along either. Oh, and my zipper got stuck so it wouldn’t
close all the way. What else could go wrong?
Conditions were
great! The thermals were nowhere as ratty as yesterday. Cloud base
was up around 16K. I was feeling fine. Maybe I’d be able to get past
my personal barrier – Onion Valley. After the first few radio
reports it was evident to the others that I was out of radio
contact. Mike (who was driving today) figured that if I could
receive I would probably continue flying. I figured that as long as
I didn’t stray too far from the group I’d be close enough once I was
on the ground that they’d be able to retrieve me, so Mike was right,
although they all figured I’d most likely landed at Lake Diaz again.
I had circled for a while with Bob over Tuttle Crk, but since he was
below me I wasn’t sure if he’d seen me. Then as I got to Lone Pine
Pk. I found myself all alone. Kurt was a few ridges ahead of me. If
I could catch up to him they’d know where I was. He managed to
always stay ahead of me so that didn’t work. Crossing Onion, in
spite of the clouds’ westerly drift, proved to be a non-event. The
GPS was working well as an altimeter / vario, as long as I was alone
– I had to constantly look at it, calling out the altitude to myself
so I could tell if I was going up or not. I didn’t get to do as much
sight-seeing as I wanted to. Kurt announced leaving Tinemaha at 13K
while I was still a couple ridges away. When I got there I was low,
getting too close to 9K, my bail-out altitude. I drifted along
Tinemaha’s flank, anxiously watching my GPS, until I found very
light lift. I worked it, eyes glued to the GPS, and eventually
worked my way up to 15K, drifting out away from the peak toward the
valley. I was crossing!
By the time I arrived at Black, I was
down to 9.6K. Kurt had arrived at Black really high but found no
lift at all, cursing his fate all the way to the ground at Big Ears.
I drifted along the west flank of Black, where Kurt had failed 3
times, and found a very light area of lift that I was able to circle
in. I slowly, slowly climbed out, watching Mike’s trial and error
approach to where Kurt was. Too bad I wasn’t able to talk to them! I
was now in a quandary. It looked like I was going to be able to
climb out and go down the Whites. How far should I go with no radio?
We had no plan for this so should I keep going? Then I heard that
Bob had made the crossing. Good! As long as I stayed close to Bob,
I’d be OK. Problem was, I couldn’t hear Bob while I could hear the
chase truck. I figured my antenna had come loose (which proved to be
the case), allowing me to hear the truck (50 watts output) and Kurt
(5 watts), but no one else. I was hoping that Mike would be talking
to Bob enough that I could tell where Bob was. No such luck. I was
on my own again. I managed to work my way along the Whites, working
more than I thought I would (I was expecting to just dolphin-fly).
Whenever I got down to 12K I’d look for lift to take me back up to
13, then 14, then 15, then 16K. I wasn’t topping out; I was just
choosing to leave higher and higher as the mountaintop flattened out
making the glide out to the valley tougher. The clouds were above
16K, but I didn’t want to get too close to them – they were too
rough. I’d find myself circling in lift that felt like I was being
shaken by a giant hand all the way round the circle. It was much
nicer down at 12-13K.
So, there I was, approaching the end of
the Whites, with one more tall peak to get around (later I found
that it was Dubois Pk, 6 miles away from Boundary Pk.). As I was
working my way up its SW flank, around 12K or so, I noticed a glider
– the first I’d seen since Whitney – heading out into the valley,
wobbling around in the air, going fast. Wassup? I thought it might
be Bob, but what was he doing? Then I looked around (I hadn’t looked
out toward the valley for quite a while) and saw a big gust front
right at Benton heading down the valley toward Bob and me. The front
was racing along and a tall dust cloud behind it was climbing up and
drifting slowly east toward the Whites. Overhead was a big cloud
dumping rain. Then as I glanced down the valley to the south I saw
other smaller clouds with virga and a gigantic cloud in the middle
of the valley to my south that hadn’t started dumping yet. What do I
do? If I could find a strong enough thermal I should be able to go
over the top of Dubois and skirt the cell. I was so high that I didn’t
think I could get on the ground before the gust front got to me.
I wasn't even sure I'd feel the gust front, this high up in the mountains.
Didn't the gust front just stay on the ground, in the valley? Could I just
continue cruising along? I'd hate to be proved wrong with these
jagged outcroppings right under me. I
ran to the next ridge to the south but found no stronger lift there.
Then as I was trying to decide whether or not to continue on (100 miles!)
or turn tail and run (gust front!), I heard Linda
on the radio saying “It’s really dumping on Benton, with thunder and
lightning!” That’s it! I ran. VG on, bar to my waist, head down, I
angled out to Hwy 6 and the nearest decent-looking field. 8 miles
later, I arrived at Hwy. 6, over an area of alfalfa fields. I picked
a nice big one that had just been cut and set up my approach. The
nose popped up as I went vertical (damn, not again!). I drifted over
the adjacent field of fresh alfalfa and by the time I was back in
control I was lined up on the far edge of that field. Luckily there
was one mowed strip between the tall grass and a dirt road. I was on
final, perfectly calm wind, and going way too fast for legs that I
knew would not work (they’d been cramped in my harness and my knees
were aching). At the last moment I decided to not try running it
out, flared right near the ground, and let the wheels do their
thing. I got grass stains on my harness. When I stood up I almost
fell over. My legs just didn’t work. Bob was still in the air,
heading south. I gave him a wind report (calm wind, and later, light
from the north from the advancing gust front), but he chose to land
toward the south, downwind, and broke a downtube.
Both Bob
and I were within spitting distance of our first 100 mile flights. I
determined on the map that I turned back at the 90 mile mark while
still 7K above the ground. I think Bob was even further ahead when
he turned back. Still, 83.5 is a new personal best for me – I’ll
take it!
Clifton also had radio trouble. He had independently
researched and built a harness antenna that was exactly the same as
the one many of us are using (1/2 meter base load Larson with a
flexible wire), but the nut had come loose. He was in the same radio
situation as me, but he chose to bail to Independence.
Bill
flew with Rich Sauer, Kari Castle, and Rich Burton. He reported that
he flew himself into the ground trying to keep up with them, landing
somewhere near Bishop. Rich and Kari landed at Janie’s, before the
cell dumped that gust front.
For me the weekend started out
miserably, with my questioning my ability to stay in the air, but at
the end of this flight I was feeling physically much better than I’d
felt yesterday after the first 10 minutes! From the agony to the
ecstasy for sure! All deemed this weekend a success: Kurt made his
first valley crossing – 3 times. Bill finally felt good about his
new glider. I got a PB and now my equipment was (kinda) ready for
King. Clifton’s first 3 XC flights were fantastic. And Mike broke
100 miles yet again. Only Vince had a bad outcome (he and Nancy
headed home on Sunday). Thanks to both Kurt and Bob for talking me
into coming to the Owens instead of working on my house.
P.S.
I'm finally on the Go-For-It: 16.3 to Manzanar; 83.5 to past
Chalfant.
|
|
John
Blacet
|
Re: Fri, Sat,
Sun in the Owens
Way to go Ernie!!!!!
You get the "Victory in the Face of
Everything Going to S**t" Award.
Let this be a lesson to all
you young'uns!
|
| Vince
|
Incident at
Walt's
I had a short flight from Walt’s point on Saturday, about 100’. I
launched into what felt like a decent cycle. After a few seconds I
felt my left wing start dragging in a bush. My first thought was
“Shit!” My second thought was “this is going to be embarrassing with
all those other pilots watching”. My third thought was “this is
going to be expensive!” My final thought before “landing” was “I’m
glad I am going to hit that big bush”.
I came to rest under
the glider on my left knee and my right leg. The glider was facing
up hill. I tried to flair just before impact. I don’t know if it
helped. I was on the outside of the control frame, to the left of
it. Both down tubes broke in two places, the base tube broke as
well. The control frame absorbed a lot of energy.
My wife
was there a couple of seconds after I “landed”. Other pilots said
they were more concerned about how fast she was sliding down the
hill to get to me. She unhooked me and I walked back up the hill.
Several more pilots climbed down and helped retrieve my glider.
Thanks to all who helped.
I have a bruise the size of a
football on my right thigh, a small bruise on my left knee, a bruise
on my chin from my chin strap, and a red mark on my right hand from
the down tube. The glider has a broken right D-cell, minor flap and
spoiler damage, broken nose catch, dented keel, and a lot of tears
in the sail (from dragging it back up the hill). None of the ribs or
tip wands broke. The control frame is not salvageable, even the nose
and rear wires were kinked when the control frame smashed.
It was very crowded on launch. I was launching just to the
left of the big rock. My left wing was hitting the sail of another
glider. I was trying to keep my left wing up so I would not hit it
when I launched. As I started my run, my right wing dipped a little
bit. When it corrected itself, the right wing continued past
level and the left wing dropped, hitting the bush.
What did I
learn from my short flight? I should have waited a little longer and
made sure I was in a good part of the cycle. I should have waited
for the launch to clear more so I was not so crowed. I should have
made sure my wings were static before launching.
Many pilots
told me how lucky I was. I did not feel lucky. Lucky was the two
pilots who launched after me and also had their wings drag in the
bushes, but managed to fly away. After watching all the scary
launches, 3 pilots bagged it and drove down.
Now I am
looking for a new right D-cell for an Atos.
Vince
|
| Vince
|
Flying
Friday
I made a 61.1-mile flight on Friday, to just short of Bishop. This
flight should replace my 46.9-mile flight in the Go For It. I had
the longest flight on Friday from the Sonoma Wings group. Kurt and
Bob S. landed past big ears for just under 60 miles. Mike K landed
in Big Pine. The air was very rough on Friday. Saturday looked like
a 150 mile day. Mike K was the only pilot from Sonoma wings who was
close to 100 miles and still in the air when I last heard. We left
for home Sunday Morning.
Vince
|
| Bill
Vogel
|
Owens
The flying was good and Sunday was by far the best day. Both Ernie and
Bob had excellent flights but were brought down before reaching a hundred miles
due to a very scary looking thunder cell. For me, I rung out any
issues between me and my new MR700. We are working together very
well now. All days (Friday to Sunday) were good and there was plenty of
lift. I want to fly more in the Owens as I am learning more about
what to do there. Thanks to Mike K who has much experience there and
does very well. It was a fun week end except for Vince's launch
problem.
Many Sonoma Wings pilots were joined by others from the
Bay and LA areas. Rich Burton and Jerse were up from San Diego and Kari
joined us too. We had about thirty gliders on Saturday but many
pilots did not fly.
Can not wait to go back.
Bill
|
| Dallas Willis
|
King Mountain
5/25
Hi all,
I drove to Twin Falls, Idaho Friday afternoon to my
parent's house. I slept for 3 hours then we loaded up and drove to
Moore. There were about 15 hangies and 6 paras there for the
Memorial Day Fly-In. We went up to the upper launch around 11:30am,
and people started launching around 1pm. One paraglider collapsed,
threw his chute, landed ok and the other paras in the air came down
to land right after.
Setting up my tandem glider, I noticed that
I'm missing a tip strut! Handing my dad my Leatherman, he sets to
work crafting a new tip strut out of a thick semi-green branch. We
duct tape both ends of it to keep it from splitting, push and pull
and bend the new strut quite a bit to make sure it will hold up and
go ahead and install it. I ask a couple guys on launch if they think
it'll be ok and they're all in agreement. We have a great launch and
for the first time my dad not only got to see me fly but also got to
fly himself. We got to 11,500 msl or about 700 ft above the peak of
King Mountain. Soooooo much snow is still left on the back side. We
fly around for 45 minutes or so, while my dad is puking his guts out
but having too much of a good time to want me to land. We get out
over the valley and warm up and find some smoother air so I can let
him fly the glider for a bit. Then we come in to land and on final
watch Kevin Frost take out both downtubes on his Atos. We come in
real hot and as I go to flare the big wheels hit the far side of a
ditch and *whack*. My dad lands on me and is A-OK. I take out the
right downtube and my shins get to know the control bar *real* well
(they're still swollen and bruised).
I did a good post flight of
the glider and just the one downtube was the only casualty (in
addition to my pride and shins, hehe). I've never seen my father
smile so much or be so increadibly happy and at peace with
everything around him. Oh, and I finally got to fly King!
Sunday
we worked on a camera mount and basically just relaxed while I iced
my shins most of the day, then Monday we went to Indian Springs, it's
a 700 ft. west-facing ridge-soaring site about 20 mintues from Twin
Falls. The Weather Channel is calling for WNW 8-15 all day long
w/partly cloudy skies. By 2pm it's still cranking at 20-25 from the
EAST and lightning is bouncing all around us. I call a friend on my
cell and have him check the internet for weather reports and they
all still call for WNW winds at 8-15. So we wait till 7pm and
finally just bag it. Drat. Oh well, stop in Jackpot Nevada and play
some craps then drive on home.
Can't wait to go back to King
again!
-Dallas
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Hull sunday (
OK, it ain't the Owens!)
Firstly -
>Clifton was able to make his way down the
Sierras. At each position report, we’d encourage him on, especially
when he was doubtful about making it all the way across from
Tinemaha. He made it, landing near Kurt – 55 miles on his second
XC!<
Way to go, Clifton. Awesome dude! Now you'll have
to get a bigger helmet! And good flight Ernie too. Those darn Cu
nimbs!
Well, Hull on Sunday turned out to be nice, but at
first it was really rough and difficult in front of launch, with
strong thermals too small to 360 in, wire twangin' jolts when you
didn't expect them, and long sinky cycles. I got to 8,300ft after
about 20 mins but then lost it in less than 5 mins and was back down
in front of launch again. There were lots of morons around on the
ground 'cos it was Memorial Day, and some folks skeet shooting from
Upper Launch made some of us nervous, as we were pretty low and
right in their line of fire, it seemed.
Eventually it got
better. I suspected from the temps aloft that there was an inversion
around 6K, and when this broke up things improved. Several of us
eventually got to cloudbase at well over 9K over Windy Ridge. Matt
attempted a triangle on Albert's glider and landed at the airstrip.
Albert skied out on Matt's Fusion. Diana flew Hull for the first
time on a rather H2-unfriendly day, and did fine, landing south of
the shooting range.
It was pretty windy and a bit turbulent
in the LZ. John B tried to hit a big tree but only succeeded in
hitting a small one.
Sunday was cloudy when we got up and it got
cloudier and cooler. Only Charley and I were there to fly and we
decided it wasn't looking too good. On the way back home there was a
traffic jam from Ukiah to Hopland. Even the snails were leaving us
behind. I think it was caused by the Miss Nude Sweden cheerleaders
team parade, but they had all gone by the time we got to
Hopland.
Leo
|
| Derk
|
Further North on
Highway 395
Sounds as if I missed some good flying in the Owens. Great
flights!
I decided to go North for this weekend. So, Friday late
afternoon I flew at Hat Creek. I took off a little bit before the
glass-off set in and was able to get to about 3000 ft above launch
in still strong-enough thermals, enjoying the spectacular view of Mt
Lassen to one side and Mt Shasta to the other. After about 1.5 hrs I
whacked into the LZ because I tried to avoid a bunch of stupid
grazing cows there - no damage to man or aircraft.
Next day I
went on to visit Roger and Debbie in Modoc County and Roger and I
went to Sugar Hill that same afternoon. No flying because of cross
winds. Sunday looked much better but no other pilots around. After
both of us climbed out over Sugar Hill we went over the back towards
Lakeview in smooth evening air along the beautiful Warner Mtn Range.
It took about 1.5 hrs to Lakeview and we landed at Hunters Hot
Springs, the regular Lakeview LZ at about 8PM. A truly enjoyable
flight over 28.9 miles and my first 'interstate flight'.
The new
owner of Hunters Hot Springs happened to stop by and before I was
even out of my Harness he organized us a retrieve.
With the
people so hang-glider friendly, the excellent flying and spectacular
scenery and all this in still a reasonable distance from the Bay
Area (approx. 6hrs from the North Bay) the Lakeview and Modoc County
Area seem to me to be ideal places to go hang gliding. Definitely a
close candidate in future considerations where to go hang gliding.
Derk
|
|
John
Blacet
|
Sat
flying - 6/1
It was blowing way strong and cross from the NW on Saturday. No one
flew.
I can't see any improvement for today, but ya never
know...
|
| Derk
|
Hull on
Sunday - 6/2
Hull on Sunday was excellent. Maybe 10 or so pilots were there and
most of them got up to cloudbase and some way above it (e.g. Leo),
soaring the cloud edges. Even triangle(s) were flown (e.g. Matt).
And lots of snakes were caught in the LZ.
Lessons learned: If it
isn't good on a Saturday doesn't mean it won't be good on
Sunday.
Derk
|
|
Hangfly
|
Hull
report
No one showed up Monday to fly with me, so I didn't go up the
mountain. I suspect it was unlaunchable anyway as it was blowing
from the trees in the LZ by 12:30.
I really just wanted to add a
comment about Sunday's flying.
Scot's landing! He landed last in
front of the whole crowd and nailed the spot. Nice job Scot. It
reminded me of my landing at our Hull fly-in last year. All the
factors were similar but I got to see it from the other perspective.
Cool.
Charley
|
| MattsFlyin
|
Sierra Soaring
and Comp Update (Slide 6/9)
I spoke with Dennis Harris on Sunday at the Slide launch and he
gave me a flyer about the Sierra Comp. The info is the same as the
List post and here are the email addresses.
Dennis is
heliumharris@aol.com
Rose is carter@hotmail.com
After
Dennis (Fusion) launched and climbed out I took my glider off Todd's
truck and set it on the ground. After I zipped open the bag I
noticed Dennis over the bail out LZ?! and sinking fast. I started to
zip the bag back up but then asked him if he was sinking on purpose.
A good 30 sec later he said "Negative". He had just hooked one at
500agl and was rapidly climbing. I began to set up the "Talian".
Gordon Stits (Fusion) showed up and was setting up also. Todd wanted
smoother conditions to test his new harness so with driver (F350
Crew Cab Power Stroke) available the X/C was a "GO".
Afew
minutes later Dennis was topped out at 10.5k slightly south of the
bail out and headed south. I finished my set up in record time,
doublechecked my work, hang checked, guardrail vaulted and was off.
Turned left into the northerly wind at launch and began a slow
smooth climb to 9k. Tried to follow it to the slide but lost it at
sunk back towards launch. Found it again and stayed with this time
to 10.9k over the slide with 15mph NE wind and 34°. Went on glide
towards the south end of Washoe Valley stopping half way to work a
strong small core. Continued "on sink" arriving at the "pass"
foothills at 8k. By this time Dennis had landed and Gordon soon
followed both in the last field of the valley.
Caught a small
strong core at 7.5k and took it to 8.5k drifting towards the peak
there. Lost that one before I was high enough to continue on and
dribbled back to the foothills. Was back down to below 8k when I
caught another small ripper. Stuck to it like glue and topped out at
10.3K making a beeline for the Highway 50 pass. Did I mention it was
"COLD"? My left hand was beginning to feel it but otherwise I was
comfortable. Sunk like a rock towards 50 and scrambled to find
something. Of course since I was on the south side of the ridge in a
northerly wind I knew I better head towards the center of the valley
and 395. Too little too late as I continued to sink at 700-800fpm.
Pulled on some speed and crossed over 50 at 7.5k. I could see a
large green field right next to the road a few miles south but had
to cross a wide field of trees to get there. Or I could continue on
towards 395. Decided to head for the field (Jack's Valley) and made
it with about 800agl. Caught another weak core at 600agl and climbed
up a few hundred while eyeballing the next lz. Did I say it was
"COLD"?
By now it was warmer but my left hand was aching
painfully. The wind direction was evident on a few small ponds and
was drifting me in my weak thermal away from the Sierra. I decided
to stay with the "Green Acres" lz and concentrate on a good landing.
After descending through the gradient I was rewarded with a classic
no wind landing. Then my fingers really started to ache! Five
minutes later I was fully recovered, breaking down and enjoying the
awesome snow capped sceney. Took one pic on the ground of the
"Talian" with a great backdrop.
Jon tally me 16.7 mi (1h 23m)
please!
Did I say it was "COLD"!?
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Flight Reports
6/14 6/15
St John 6/14.
It was looking very stable and inverted in the
central valley on the drive up but cumys started forming over Goat
by 10:30 so I knew it would be decent. The road up is much improved
since the fire. Launched in nice cycle at about 1:45 and climbed out
before the switchbacks to 7500. Headed to the mother lode where cues
were forming and climbed to 9400'. Hung around for awhile waiting
for some clouds to form down range which they did soon after. Left
around 9200 heading for a cloud to the north, major sink for a few
miles but then pretty bouyant air. Got to the ridge and climbed to
8500 under a nice cloud, more were forming north so off I went
staying deep. By Alder Springs road the clouds were way deep and I
didn't have enough altitude to go for them. I was down to 4600'
before a hawk showed me some lift and I climbed back to 6' right
over Alder Springs. I tried for about a half hour to get higher but
no luck so I headed down the ridge toward the valley where I landed
for a flight of 16.8mi. Thanks Lori for chasing me.hh
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Airtime (6/19)
Here's the weather forcast for Arco this weekend. Matt Rich and I
will be in Carson with Linda driving. I'm hoping to fly Winnemucca
Mt. Monday so come and join us Arco looks wet:
Fri
Jun
21 Isolated T-Storms 79°/45° 40 %
Sat
Jun 22 Isolated
T-Storms 75°/45° 40 %
Sun
Jun 23 Isolated T-Storms
75°/46° 30 %
Mon
Jun 24 Isolated T-Storms 76°/47° 40
%
My new wing made it here also, Yahoo!!!!! hh
|
| Leo
Jones
|
New Wing Wet
Dreams!
There was a young (old) pilot named Scot
Awaiting a new wing
he'd bought
When it came he said, "Wow -
They won't catch me
now,
Hey King and Wyoming, I'm hot."
|
| Vince
|
Scot's new
rocord (6/22)
Scot set a new record on Saturday. Between me and my brother, my
truck went 426 miles to pick him up from a 60 mile flight. The
previous record was 346 miles for a 63 mile flight.
Vince
|
|
Gregg
Hackett
|
Elk 6/23
Made 1 flight Sat........north launch........not much to work but
flying is better than sitting. Timothy and Raye came up from the
city and Sterling and I from SR.
Gregg
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
King Meet and beyond: Flying in Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado 6/25 - 7/8
Three weeks of Western States XC. Flying at King, Crawfords, Dinosaur and Echo Cliffs.
It is all on a separate page. Click Here.
|
|
John
Blacet
|
Flying in Wyoming, Colorado 7/5-6
Kurt and I had 24 and 20 milers from Dinosaur on Friday. It was a bit
smokey and high cloud cover but Kurt made it to 16.5K! I stopped at
about 14.5K. A bit of work getting up initially but very nice
lift.
Saturday, it OD'd early. Jon flew a bit and landed on
top.
The Crawfords was nice with a late afternoon flight to
11K or so. Camping was bad: hordes of mosquitoes at night due to
swampy wetlands/river below.
|
| Linda
Sauer
|
New St. John
site record, Thur. 7/4
Todd Robinson Flew 90.3 miles today from St.John. Rich played
follow the leader and landed with Todd in the last available field
before Lake Shasta. Matt flew around 59 miles to Redbluff. Lori and
I drove for these top pilots. Just in case Todd doesn't mention it,
ask him about his close encounter(s) with the CHP plane. Awesome job
guys.
Linda
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Way to go
Todd!
Yee- Haa!
|
| Linda
Sauer
|
Going going
gone!
Faster than the speed of light, that Vince is. Yes, he broke the
new record. Thanks for a wonderful dinner Vince. His full story will
appear soon.
Linda
|
|
John
Blacet
|
Re: Way to go
Todd!
Wow! Who says local sites are "limited"?
|
|
John
Blacet
|
Re: Going,
going....
Come on Linda, just a few details puleeeeeze!
|
| Greg
Sugg
|
Vince's New
Record
I'll let Vince tell you the details, but he too ran out of LZ's
going up Hwy 299. There, but for unlandable terrain, we would have
had three 100 mile plus flights in one weekend. The weather was
poor!!
|
| Vince
|
St. John Record
Encampment
The St. John Record Encampment
Todd organized the SJ-RE. On
Thursday, 7/4, Matt, Todd, and Rich flew with Linda and Lori driving. I
had to work on Thursday, so I was late getting into camp. On the
drive up I could hear the action as Todd and Rich were passing the
70 mile mark. Matt was passing 50 miles. It was really exciting
listing to all three of them as they continued on there record
setting flights. Matt set a personal best close to 60 miles landing
on highway 36 north of Red Bluff. Todd and Rich were in the air on
what looked like a 100 mile flight. At 93 miles Todd realized that
there were no more LZ’s and turned back to land at 90+ miles. Rich
joined him a little latter.
Friday only Greg and I flew.
Rich had gone home and Matt and Todd were going to rest up (Matt and
Lori went fishing with Matt trying to swim and fish at the same
time). Todd had to have a flat fixed so he offered to drive. Greg
and I left the top around 10,000’. I found a convergence line and
was able to glide to Red Mountain before I needed to turn. Greg had
a little busier time with it and landed near Chrome. Todd picked him
up and they both started to chase me. Since Todd needed to go to Red
Bluff, I tried to fly in that direction to make the retrieve easier.
The thermals were OK but got weaker and weaker as I headed north. I
started jumping from one east-west road to another. I told Todd to
head into Red Bluff and take 5 north. I thought I could make it on a
glide. What I thought was 5 was in fact a railroad track. I was low
and about 4 miles from 5. I managed to drift northeast and get over
to 5. At the 68 mile mark I was too low to jump to another LZ and
had to land. I was 68.9 miles from St. John. Todd was a little
nervous until I landed.
On Saturday, John D and Charlie were
in camp. Rich came back for the day. Linda, Nancy, Lori and Suzie
were on the retrieve. Gregg, John then me launched, followed by
Matt, then either Todd or Rich. I left first at 9,300’ with everyone
else leaving later around 10,000’. I again found a convergence, but
it only took me 10 miles, after that it was a struggle. I could hear
everyone else behind me struggling as well. I arrived at Newville
too low to cross the small ridge toward Paskenta. I started thinking
about where I would land. I hit some week lift that I drifted in for
2 miles and gained 400’. This was just enough to make it over the
small hills toward Paskenta.
Pilots behind me started
landing. I was set up to land in the first field after crossing the
small hills when I hit my first real thermal since leaving St. John.
This is the same spot where I got my low save last year. I climbed
to 5,000’+. From here on the thermals were pretty good, most of the
time I could climb above 5,000’.
The night before Matt had
got out his Delorme and found a promising route for a 100 mile
flight. Todd had come up with a similar idea. The proposed route
would cross south of the redding airport and head up a road that
parallels highway 5 (Dechutes Road), from there it would hit 299. I
was flying the same route that I flew the day before and passed the
68 mile mark at 4,000’. I headed up Dechutes road until I came to
hwy 44. From hear I was at 82 miles. I could see 299 and the other
road that Matt was talking about (Topo USA calls it Palo Cedro, it
is the first road north of the 44 intersection). Now I was in a
quandary. I was at 5,000’. I could either go for the coffee can and
head north, or go for a 100 miler and go east. I chose the coffee
can. I figured I could glide past the 90 mile mark with the south
wind I was seeing.
I headed for the last possible LZ I could
see on 299. I arrived over it at 4500’ (I found another thermal on
the way). This LZ was at 92.3 miles. I went up the road to the 95
mile mark, but could not see any more LZ’s. I could see more LZ’s up
Palo Cedro and I called Nancy and Lori to see if they could get from
299 back to Palo Cedro. My radio batter went dead. Rather than risk
a longer retrieve than I was already on, I headed back to the LZ on
299. It took quite a bit of work to get down due to the thermals, so
much so that I finally threw my drogue chute. As I got lower I saw
my nice LZ had rocks in it that stuck up like tomb stones over 6’
high. I landed in the best spot I could find and it was still
covered in rocks the size of bowling balls. I had a great landing.
My flight time was 4 hours and 11 minutes.
Rich managed to
get past Paskenta and found the better lift. He followed my line and
landed at 68 miles on hwy 5. He or Linda can tell the story of the
paramedics responding to his landing.
I felt bad for Lori.
She was in the truck with Nancy and did not get to see Matt land and
we did not get back to the top of the mountain until 11:00 pm. I am
glad she was there because she kept Nancy focused. Nancy wanted to
stop and look at every critter she passed. Lori kept her driving in
my direction. She was also a great navigator.
Everyone
headed home on Sunday, except for John and Charlie. They were going
to try to fly. As we passed Williams, we heard that they were
driving down. Charlie said the wind shifted from the West at launch
so they bagged it.
So the stats for the ST-RE were Matt, 60
miles (+ Saturday) , Rich 90 miles and 68 miles. Todd 90 miles (29
miles on Saturday), Greg got three enjoyable flights. I think John
got his best at St. John. Charlie had a nice flight. I got 68.9
miles and 92.3 miles. I am off to the Worlds in Chelan. I will be
back in a couple of weeks.
Vince
|
| Linda
Sauer
|
Help is on the
way
Timing seems to be the thing. On thursday, Rich's landing managed
to break a down tube. We got this on film! Then on Saturday he had a
perfect landing in a field right across from the truck wieght
station in Cottonwood. About halfway through breaking down the
glider, a CHP car and firetruck show up on the side of the freeway.
3 firemen jump the fence and come over to Rich (he's in the second
field on a frontage road) rescue gear in hand. Rich tells them there
is no emergency here. Within 3 minutes the CHP plane is flying
circles around us, there are 2 sheriff vehicles on the frontage
road, and another firetruck. Chase excitement!
Linda
|
| Scot
Huber
|
St. John
Great flying guys. I'm glad the record has been raised to a new
plateau, 90+ awesome. Lori and I went back to King to try for the
site record as Wyoming wasn't looking too good. I got a 124 miler on
route 2 outrunning a squall line before the whole sky blew up at the
end of the Rubys. Landed in Alder Mt. 3:37mn. We're now in Kamloops
BC and hoping for some good flying today at SunPeaks and then
Deadmans tomorrow. Will be in Chelan after that. See you later, Stay
high, go far. Scot@Lori.
|
|
John
Blacet
|
Re: St.
John
Well come on Rich and Todd....more details on your
flights!
Altitudes, thermals, routes, encounters with the
CHP....
At least the rescue squads and CHP planes know about
us now!
|
| Todd
|
coffee
can - my 7/4 flight at St. John
The day didn't look very good but I thought if I could stay in the
air for five hours I should be close to a hundee. Got off the hill
about 1:20 and went right up to 9700 the going was good up till 45
mile mark. I got low just before the bad lands and had to work it to
5500 a little low to jump the bad lands but went for it.About half
way across I thought what am I doing Linda will not like this if I
go down here. were there is sink there is lift is what Rich said on
the radio and wham got a good one bake to 7500.SO now I am around
the 60 mile mark and flying the valley, the lift was great over the
flat if you could stay above 6000 so thats what I did all the way to
Redding.My flite path took me right up I-5 and I had a close call
with a C.H.P. plane he dident see me so I made some turns, as soon
as he saw me he turn my way and got to close for comfort.Over
Redding and the Sac. river I was getting low right over a rock
concert but there was a thermal that smelled funny but I got real
high in that one.so now I am over the south end of lake Shasta
looking for an L.Z. on the north side but its just a sea of trees so
I called it a day and landed.my dream of 100 miles from ST.JOHN is
so close!!! thnx Rich and Linda!ooohh yahh whats a guy have to do to
keep the coffee can for more then two days!!!
|
| Vince
|
St. John 100
miler
I flew a possible 100 mile route for St. John today. I picked one
of the worst days to do it. The visibility was so bad that I
remained on my IFR flight plan all the way to Red Bluff. I could see
the ground but the smoke was so heavy that I could not see a
horizon. I would guess the visibility was a little over 4 miles. I
had to fly at an altitude higher than the highest mountain in the
area just to be sure I would not find a granite cumulus.
I
found Palo Cedro road and followed it as best I could. There were
LZ's all the way to Burney (I think I found Burney), but getting
retrieved will be tricky as there are a lot of dirt roads through
the area and it would be difficult to describe to your driver which
one you were on. When I landed up that way last July, there was no
cell phone coverage.
If the smoke from the Oregon fires does
not clear out, St. John will not be very flyable over the Labor day
weekend.
Vince
|
| derk
|
7/9: no flying the
next weekends
I managed to bend my 1st downtube since 1994 (when I started
flying) last Friday at Sugar Hill. Sounds not too bad, doesn't it?
Unfortunately I did it with my right shoulder, which in the process
got severly dislocated. Even a piece broke off of the bone. Very
painfull. A few hours later they popped it in again in the Hospital
and it seems as if everything fell perfectly in place again. Looks
as if no surgery nor cast is necessary. Anyways, I guess that at
least for 4 to 6 weeks I can't hang glide, if not even longer. At
this point of time my shoulder is completely unusable and in a
sling.
The reason for me whacking so badly on landing was very
bad judgement and poor reaction in a no wind (high altitude)
landing. I was very tired all day long and didn't really want to fly
but then the conditions on launch were looking so good that I forgot
about all the concerns and simply couldn't resist to fly. A painful
lesson I guess.
Many many thanks to all the pilots and drivers in
the LZ who were super super helpful. I don't know what would
happened without there help.
Hopefully my shoulder is sooner
ready to help out as a driver.
Derk
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Ouch!
Hey Derk, that's a heck of a way to get out of having to compete at
St John! I hope you heal really fast.
Don't they say "Hals
und beinbruch" or something like that in Germany? They don't really
mean it, surely!
Leo
|
| derk
|
compete at St.
John
That's right Leo. At least I have a really good excuse if I won't
show up with a near 100 miler from St John this year :-)
BTW:
Awesome flights guys. Maybe the Wyoming Record Encampment should
have been taken place at St John.
Derk
|
|
Charlie
Nelson
|
Lakeview July 5
-7
Re: Dirk's shoulder............meanwhile ,up range, the human ham
repeaters,
my wife Kathy and I , and Robin Taha were taking that
same day, Friday the 5th off from flying , and had hiked to the
summit of Crane Mountain , about 18 miles North of Sugar, at 8200
msl, when we heard, over Robin's HT, Roger Jackson talking about
Dirk's minor accident in the LZ at Sugar . Apparently Roger 's wife
Debbie was driving down the hill and happened to be on the back side
of the mountain, and could hear Roger calling her but the
transmission was unintelligible.
So as luck would have it we
could relay Roger's message over to Debbie that Dirk's truck needed
to be brought down to the LZ. Debbie just happened to be passing his
truck at that very moment,(Lassen Creek campground) and had another
driver available.
Long live the hams........
The down
side was that Dirk ended up waiting for Debbie to get to the LZ,
about 30 minutes , while giving instructions how to break down his
fancy Bautek glider.
According to my wife Kathy, who is a Reg.
nurse, the proper thing to do in this 'non 911' situation was
:
don't: wait for a glider breakdown or a vehicle when 10
pilots were standing around their trucks right there in the LZ. That
destructive swelling starts immediately. {Come on Kathy, we're on
vacation for Pete's sake}
do: get the injured to the hospital
pronto. Any pilot there would have gladly driven the 27 well paved
miles to Alturas, if asked .... and ice the shoulder immediately.
Even if it means the beer will be warm.
{HMMM, Kathy. well how
about just half the ice.}
This will dramatically reduce the
healing time for a dislocation.
and maybe get Dirk flying again
sooner.
at the emergency room, depending on how busy they are
, they still may make the patient wait, perhaps even an hour, {which
is the estimated lost time in this case.}
but that hour would be
the hospital's fault, not ours.
Otherwise we find ourselves
assessing the injury , and its severity ,and none of us is qualified
for that.
Roger J called out to the bystanders "is there a
medical professional here?" but there was no response. So no one was
clearly 'in charge' but Dirk.
I have asked Mrs. Kathy why SHE
didn't 'take charge' of the situation over the radio, and get Dirk
an immediate ride to town. . I got a smirk. I hope she'll drive for
us again some day so I backed off.
P.S. at last the
interesting stuff........ I got my FIRST EVER XC flights at Lakeview
. 18 miles {from Sugar up Rte 395, trying unsuccessfully to keep up
with Ken Muscio on the 6th, the day of the trophy dash}, and a Sugar
to Hunter's 28.8 miler in the glassoff on the 7th ( following Roger
Jackson ).
Thanks Ernie C. for the encouragement to "escape
from Funston/ Alcatraz"
BTW , the trophy dash went
:
1st , Mike Tingey
2nd, Toni, female aussie, awesome pilot!
going to Chelan.
these were the only flexies making goal.
3rd
Ken Muscio, landed at south end of Lakeview
........'the
other' Charlie
|
| Vince
|
Go-for-It (7/2)
It looks like there will be a lot of point from King for the
Go-for-It. I had a 65 mile flight to May airport that will replace
my 53.5 mile flight. May was the bonus LZ so I do not know if it
will count as a goal flight.
Vince
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Goal
Flight
By the rules it only counts if you declared May as a goal (to
someone else) before you took off. You don't have to land there. You
can only have one goal, not multiple goals, or the concept has no
point.
Leo
|
| Vince
|
Go-for-it
I double checked. May is 66 miles from King. I will be happy with
that.
Vince
|
| MattsFlyin
|
Flight
List (at 7/9)
6-26 King towards Challis Straight Distance 62.9 mi
7-4 St John
to past Red Bluff Straight Distance 59.0 mi
I'm posting only
"50 pointers" or more this year in case you're wondering about my
shorter flights.
My flight at St John was on my own this time
as opposed to the last +50 miler I did there with Jon.
Todd was
brilliant with his assessment of the day and his performance. The
only thing that stopped him from completing his declared 100 miler
was the lack of an LZ! He led the whole way and I refused to follow
his path.
Rich and Vince were also demonstrating awesome command
of the "Low and Slow" technique needed this past
week.
Charley, Gregg and John D. also did well considering
the conditions which I think we would all have agreed were marginal
at best at least for the run to Paskenta.
King was a lot of
fun even though I only flew the first two days. I was 7th on day one
and 5th after day two. I decided to rest on day three (mistake!),
was blown out on day four and chickened out on launch day
five.
Carson was frustrating due to my inability to
consistently climb fast at launch. One bright moment was not failing
under pressure on day two when Ken Brown tried to climb thru me
(NOT!) and I made it to goal but he didn't. I should mention though
that Ken did not fly with a GPS, just a vario.
What a
vacation!
Where are we flying next!!!
Matt Jagelka
|
| MattsFlyin
|
Driver
Appreciation
Many, many thanks to Lori Jagelka and Linda Sauer for an excellent
job retreiving the scattered masses. I know they put in long days
and had to deal with all of our sometimes "difficult" personality
defects (which we all have to some degree except for maybe Jon James
and Charley Warren whom I've never seen pout, get frustrated or even
a little cranky!) Thanks also to Nancy Endter and Suzie for help at
St John. You all make flying a lot more fun.
We have an
AWESOME club!!!
Thanks Again,
Matt Jagelka
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Drivers
I would like to second Matt's appreciation of drivers. Without them
XC is kinda tedious! Thanks Linda and Lori and Nancy and Donna, and
everyone who drives.
If ya can't find a driver to put up
with your "difficult personality", then ya gotta drive more
often!
Anyway, I've made Charley cranky, (I had to work on
it)but I haven't yet succeeded with Jon!
Leo
(I used to
be conceited, but now I'm perfect....)
|
| MattsFlyin
|
One More
Driver
Sorry I forgot to mention Donna! Thank you too Donna for driving
and putting up with us. We had agreat time with you and Albert.
Let's get together this weekend. Lori and I are planning to go to
Hull this weekend. Need a few days of non-x/c, easy retrieve flying.
Well maybe just a few triangles but that's it!
Matt Jagelka
|
| John
DeAguiar
|
My First XC of
2002
7/6/02 -- 22.7 miles from St John to north of Chrome. (Is this the
right way to register the mileage for the Coffee Can?)
I was
second to launch and got up to 10k fairly quickly. I didn't leave
the mountain at that point because I wasn't sure of the route north
and wanted to follow another pilot. In the process of waiting, I
dropped back down to under 9k and spent the next hour trying to get
back up to 10k. In that time, every other pilot left the mountain at
or near 10k. Frustrated, I decided to leave at 9300 anyway. The lift
away from the mountain was light and scattered, and the thermal tops
seemed to be around 4500' between St. John and Red Mountain. I
generally use speed-to-fly, and I surprised myself by catching up to
and passing some of the pilots who left earlier and higher.
I finally got to one ridge short of Red and I could see Rich
and later Todd scratching at Red near my altitude and not going up.
I evaluated my situation: either stay and risk having to go
backwards to the nearest road if I sank, or use my altitude to angle
towards the main road and add to my distance. I took the safe choice
and made the main road on a glide. I ended with a good light wind
landing in clean field just north of Chrome.
My last XC at
St. John was 16 miles 2 (3?) years ago at the St. John Fly-in.
|
|
Ernie
Camacho
|
An entry for
Ernie
Jon, I did a 53 mile flight at Dinosaur the day after you all left.
I think it was Sunday, 7/7. I landed just short of Maybell. It was a
great flight, one I'll never forget. It had everything, great
altitude (16.4K), danger (out of radio contact, flying back over the
gorge east of Tanks Pk to get under a cloud) low saves, and a
cliff-hanger ending (almost blowing my turn to final, and a downwind
pound-in).
I'll write it up later.
Ernie
Oh, yeah,
there were several flights at King. I'll pull 'em out of my brain
and write 'em down ASAP.
|
|
Albert
Branson
|
Flight
Report
Just to mention my two measly flights at King. 6/27 17 mi. 6/30
16.6 mi.
|
| Derk
|
One entry for
Derk
40.9 mi from King Lower Launch to just past Willow Creek.
|
| Chelan
|
Chelan Worlds - 7/13 - 20
Here's
Vince's diary of the Chelan Worlds competition.
It's on a separate page.
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Dust Devils at
Hull (7/20)
Saturday 20th July saw more than 20 hang gliders set up at
Timberline, one - Steve Bickford - setting up on top. "Why up
there?", we thought, because as we were setting up the wind was
blowing in at Timberline, though not very strongly.
Steve
launched and climbed out, but by the time we were ready there was no
wind, except a ENE, over the back! It was hot. Dust devil
conditions, some of us knew.
Fearful of long lines with
launch potatoes in these conditions, Greg Sugg was first on launch.
The wind was by now mostly nothing, or a two mph easterly. Sometimes
it blew over the back. One or two small dust devils went by in
front. Several pilots voiced confidently that "conditions would
improve", but he had to wait a long time. It was hot. A dozen or
more pilots took shade under Greg's wing. Finally Greg launched in a
5 mph crosswind, and notably failed to climb out immediately, much
to our disappointment. But he didn't go down, and after about 10
minutes was maybe 100' over, out in front.
The rest of us
began to slowly walk back to our gliders, when a big dust devil
appeared behind launch and tore through the parking lot and setup
area. At least four gliders went airborne, including, to my
amazement, one that wasn't even set up but was only resting on the
control frame, with all the ties still on. It was Kurt's tandem
glider! It was flipped vertical so that the entire glider was
several feet in the air with the tail straight up! No one could hold
onto the gliders, and at least one, a Falcon, was severely damaged
when it was picked up to probably 15-20 feet and then nosed in.
Surprisingly all the other gliders escaped relatively unscathed,
including Kurt's.
Fearful of long lines with launch potatoes
in these conditions, Paul Sussman was next and I followed. Mindful
of dust devils, (and by now there were few helpers on launch - all
the pilots were staying close to their gliders!) I didn't hook in
until I was ready to go. Paul, Greg and I climbed right out, in a
big smooth thermal, as the conditions really turned on. I was at
10,000 feet in a little over 5 minutes. It was pleasantly cool up
there.
Everyone flew and nearly everyone got up, some to over
11,000 ft. There were two or three good cycles which people got high
in, and some went over to Sanhedrin, though it wasn't great over
there, and sinky coming back. Winds aloft seemed very variable. I
managed to do a triangle. Kurt took his daughter Kimberly to over
10,000ft, and also gave a ride to Martin, a 15 year old visitor from
Sweden, who claimed it was, "the coolest thing he had ever
experienced in his life!"
Paul Sussman convinced me that
Fusions land much better with some VG, and I think he is
right.
Leo
|
Hangfly
| Hull
Report
I was only there Saturday but can report excelent conditions with
pilots getting over 11,000' Friday and Saturday.
Saturday on
launch there was a hugh dustdevil. It picked up four gliders! One
glider, Kurt's tandem, was picked 12 feet into the air despite
setting on the control bar with the wings folded in. It was an eerie
sight!
I stood on the wingtip of Steve Acton's glider while
holding down the leading edge of another. It just raised thier noses
but they stayed on the ground. Then it turned and headed up the road
toward more gliders in the setup area next to the cars. The gliders
sort of rose up in a wave and then bunched together. The three
assembled gliders went up about 20'. People trying to hold them down
had to let go, or get lifted off the ground, and run for cover! :eek
When
it passed and the gliders fell out, one hit Justin's truck and put
some nice scratches in the top. The glider, a Falcon, also sustained
enough damage to be unflyable!
I hope Sunday's flying conditions
were just as much fun as Saturday.
Charley :b
|
|
Daniel
Pifko
|
Re: Hull
Report
Good flying weekend, bad equipment weekend. I was the winner of the
Dust Devil Lottery this weekend, with my Eagle being the unflyably
injured glider. Looks like five battens busted and two luff lines
snapped. It landed vertically on the keel, so I'll be having a close
look today to check for more serious damage. On the other hand, Paul
Sussman and I flew from Timberline on Friday, topping out at the
11,000' cloud base several times. Cumies were big enough to identify
the lift, but not tall enough to suck us into danger. In other
words, good scud running conditions. We flew with two sailplanes
nearby over Windy Ridge. We appeared to have each other on visual
most of the time, avoiding possibly unpleasant meetings between the
aircraft.
Winner of the Psychic Smart Alec comment is Ben
Rogers. With the setup area crowded, I was choosing to put my glider
down either near the road or up and to the left of the parking area.
Ben sarcastically suggested that where I set my glider up would be
the single biggest choice of the day, and would certainly affect the
flight. Turns out he was right. Go figure!
I had good
airtime, so will consider this a successful first Hull trip. Thanks
and see you again soon (as my Eagle is fixed).
Daniel
|
| Scot
Huber
|
McClellan/King
/BC./Chelan Flight reports 2002
Got the new MRX 700 at McClellan and did some test and tuning
flights during the regionals.Finally got it to where I had some bar
pressure with the VG on and felt great about it's
performance.
Tried Winnemucca on the way to King but launched the
east side and sank out on an awesome looking day. Bitch.
Was
primed for King. The first day I came up a little short of May
airport so was in 7th position. Broke my MR carbon control bar over
my vario which also cracked on this landing. Bitch, Bitch. The
second day I hit the lift along the squall line just right and was
on the Rubys when things totally OD'd. Headed back to Dell airport
and landed before the rain got to me. Mylar sails make great
umbrellas. I ended up in Pocatello with some other pilots who
retrived me. The next day I was dragging because I didn't get much
sleep and was sill wearing the same clothes. Conditions looked windy
and route 1 was called which I know is ridge soarable most of the
way so I decided to fly. I got to May airport easy enough and
decided to try for Salmon as I was in the lead and wanted to stay
there. I made it in high winds through the gorge with no mishaps and
hit a glassoff in the Salmon valley. I was confused about what was
the bonus LZ and thought it was the airport because most of them are
airports. I checked my vario and the airport was just under a 100
miles and since this was my first straight distance 100miler I
didn't want to not get it. I figured I could make up the bonus by
flying 10 miles farther and that's what I did. It turns out the
bonus is the rodeo grounds which I flew right over and the bonus is
15points so I come in third for the day with Heiner and Zack landing
there.
Day 4 is called thankfully and I sleep most of it. Sunday
the winds are strong again with route one being called. I take off
early thinking their likely to get stronger. I make it to McCaleb
and the Mackey resorvoir is all whitecaps and I'm getting no where.
I'm 60 some points ahead of my nearest competitor who I figure will
have to make May airport to beat me. He does as the winds lighten up
later after I bail to Mackey. I flew more miles them him but got
beat because I didn't land at the bonus LZ on day 3. Bitch, Bitch,
Bitch.
Wyoming was mosquitoes and ridge lift and Dinosaur was
smoke and high pressure and I never got my wing out of the bag.
Whiskey Peak had high winds from the north predicted so I decided to
go back to King after picking Lori up on the fourth. The day was
looking good with clear skies to the east and an approaching squall
line from the west which I just beat from pinning me on launch. I
got in front of it and would leave when the virga started hitting
me. I took route 2 which looked the best for some distance. Got low
at Bell on the Lemhis but was patient and finally climbed out of
there. Lori headed to Dell to intercept me. Made Dell easy enough
but was low after crossing to the base of the Rubys which are really
low at this point. I saw a road arond the south end which I could
land on so moved over there basically ridgesoaring the lower hills.
I finally went around the corner as the road angles northeast and
hit strong lift which took me back to 14g. The Rubys were enveloped
in the squall line with thunder and lightening and snow instead of
virga at this altitude. There were gust fronts blowing in the
valleys. I was just to the south of the main storm and happy I had a
fast glider to run with, I probably only stopped once in 45 miles
and this to check on conditions behind and to my north. I was
reliving John Woiwoode's account of his record flight in my head and
planning how I would beat it. When I got to the end of the Rubys it
all fell apart like a house of cards as the lift petered out and the
skies OD'd. I tried for the Tobacco Root's but was dropping fast so
turned back to the valley and landed beside the road in Alder. Used
my wing as an umbrella again but was feeling great making 124miles
in 3.5 hrs. Lori was miles behind me but got to me before I had it
in the bag. I love King.
We headed for BC. where we stayed with
Ian MacArthur near Kamloops. Great host and pretty good flying, but
bring some bug juice if you go they're nasty. I got a 5hr. flight
from Cornwall Mt. to Chase on a blue sky day for 73.6 miles and Lori
and I flew together for a flight off SunPeaks to the LZ at Ians
place.
We headed for Chelan where we arrived on the evening
before the Worlds began. Lori wind dummied the first day and I
rested up for day two. I launched a little late and got stuck on the
Butte for 1.45mn before getting high enough to head to the flats.
Once there the lift was easy to find and I headed southeast trying
to stay in the flats. At Coulee City the winds turned SW at 16 so I
was being pushed toward the Columbia river to the north. I
eventually landed before crossing it just north of Wilbur. Lori had
day three to fly but after watching her friend Judy abort a launch
and then almost seriously blow the next one she decided flat slope
no wind launches weren't for her. Lori and I had dinner with Linda
and the Womens World team that evening and Judy announced she was
done with Chelan. She went on a Harley ride instead with her and
Loris friend Mary. Day 4 I offered Ken Muscio a retrieve with Lori
chasing both of us. We launched from the top to avoid hassles with
the comp and stay away from the stress levels which were
skyrocketing. We both climbed out right away as we launched early.
We headed for Withrow hoping to stay in the flats again but after
getting near there the winds were consistently south so we turned
and headed north up hwy 97. As we did I said Canada here we come
thinking it might be doable. There was a large fire to the northwest
of Chelan and the smoke was thick to our west over the range. Ken
and I stayed pretty close for the first 40 miles but then he took a
different line and I got high and lost him as his radio died also.
We were following the highway so figured he'd land along side it or
catch me later. As I hit Tonasket he comes on the radio saying he's
ten miles behind on the ground at 57 miles out. I tell him I'm high
and to be ready for a long wait. I'm doing great hitting lift when I
need it and making long glides with Lori in view on the road below.
At the canadian border I finally catch up to the smoke line and the
lift peters out leaving me low trying to work ridgelift to no avail
I land in the back end of a cattle feedlot as the sorrounding fields
are all vineyards. I'm a few miles south of Oliver 94.1 miles out.
Great day which we celebrate at a Mexican restaurant in Omak after
picking up Ken. Lori and I head for Mt. Rainier the next day and do
some sight seeing and hiking. What a beautiful place. We head down
to Pine Mt. Oregon where I make 11 miles and Lori gets a flight the
same day! I take her to Portland after we make a pitstop in the
Columbia River Gorge for her flight back to SLC. Bummer
On
passing St. John on Monday with cloud streets to Shasta I decide to
give it a go Tuesday but struggle for 33.6 miles to Paskenta as the
high pressure blows the instability to my NW and out of reach.
I
had a great time and look forward to trying for some miles off St.
John in the near future.
My flight totals for the Go For
It:
Elk 4/20 45.7m
McClellan 6/21 43.9m Short of
Fallon
McClellan 6/22 59.1m N Walker Lake
King Mt. 6/26 64.9m
Short of May
King Mt. 6/27 72.6m Dell airport
King Mt. 6/28
110.4m N Salmon
King Mt. 7/6m 124.3m Alder Montana
Cornwall
BC. 7/11 73.6m Chase BC.
Chelan Wa. 7/14 60.9m N Wilbur
Chelan
Wa. 7/16 94.1m S Oliver BC.
Scot
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| Scot
Huber
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McClellan/King
/BC./Chelan Flight reports 2002
Lori wants a correction to my earlier post. She says she didn't fly
after Judy's mishaps because she was emotionally upset about her friend
almost eating it big time and not because she is afraid of flat-slope no-wind launches.
What a great friend!
Scot
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| Lori Allen
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Personal thoughts about Chelan launches (7/25)
Since I was there, I pretty much got a good idea about the launches.
Since the "flat slope launching in high altitudes" aspect of my few
years in hang gliding have been minimal spending most of my years
cliff launching and aerotowing near sea level, naturally I've had to
think about my launches. After blowing my launch at McClellan, it
was good to have a good solid launch off of the lower launch at King
for my one true blue soaring flight this year (bless you Peter
Swanson for being such a great guy in making it possible for me to
fly!).
I had Ian critique my launches up in BC and he said that I looked
pretty good, that I controlled the pitch and stayed on the downtubes
preparing to run again in case I hit a sink pocket (which I did
launching off of Sun Peaks "Top of the World" on a day that it was
light and cycly).
When we got to Chelan, I looked at all the launches and naturally
Lakeside and Ants in the Pants were the two I felt safest launching
from. The others gave me a little concern, especially the launch the
women were using on Day 2 of the meet which was downright spooky (like
many of the launches when the pilots just simply quit running). One
launch that caught my attention was one where I saw one pilot's glider
fly seemingly sideways, but she simply kept running it out which
pretty much saved her from blowing the launch). My heart was in my
throat a number of times.
On Day 1 of the meet when I wind dummied and launched off Lakeside, I
felt it was an easy launch in light conditions because it's nice and
steep. Of course, I did the uncharacteristic thing of launch
potatoeing forever (nobody was in a hurry to fly that day so it was no
problem) because there wasn't a lot of thermal action happening on
that side that I could see and I was following the advice of one of
the launch guys (those pine trees weren't even jiggling a little
bit!). Then Tryg Hoff came up and helped me finally pick a halfway
decent launch cycle although I ended up sinking out to the soccer
field -- I made the mistake of flying to the back side to try to catch
a leeside thermal the same time that Kurtis (the other wind dummy) got
flushed out. Anyway, I felt like my launch was okay, although Scot
mentioned I could have been more aggressive in my run. My launch at
Pine Mountain was in a crosswind across the slope, but it was blowing
so hard, and the launch is so smooth with no obstacles, that it was
easy. Don't ask me why I flew away from obvious ridge lift to try to
find thermals that I couldn't find (eyes crossed). My soaring brains
were obviously left in SLC this trip.
However, I am slowly getting more comfortable slowly but surely flat
slope launching in light conditions at high altitude, but it's really
been more of a journey for me rather than a destination. Having a
control frame that fits me has really helped my launches a lot.
Lori
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