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Comment |
Kevin Frost
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Black Diamond flying at the King meet: days minus 1 and minus 2:
fireworks, a cure for AIDS, Triangles ROCK!, 2 miles over the
sewer pond.
At 02:01 PM 7/11/2001 , richard kalbus wrote:
>hi kev!
>how was king for you? did you bring home the gold like i hoped?
Hey Kalbasaur, you should have been there. Weatherman was predicting very
hot and high pressure from early in the week, continuing on through the
meet. I envisioned big turbulence and rare thermals down low, dead air
f-16 landings, but me, Cory and driver DJ went two days early anyway. Cory
after some fast talking with his new girlfriend who finally agreed to drive
his rig full of Jack Daniels paraphanalia, over for him after work the next
day.
Leaving early in time for a big XC day we found King all socked in with
clouds!!!!?? So we went to Moore park to see how many pilots had shown
up, geez there were a lot. Lisa was still worried about attendance, and I
was double worried cause everyone knew if we had a bad showing, it was
probably because of my scary black diamond article. We heard about some
Hood river pilots who backed out after reading the thing. We talked to
some young Kaliforina pilots, young HG pilots? They said they were not too
excited about the big drive to just another site, until they read the Black
Diamond article, thank you God. We messed around all day and finally went
up for a glass off, flew down range and over Arco and their July 4th
parade, made it past Arco airport with tons of altitude to land in a field
full of cheetgrass. Later a big gust in the middle of the fireworks
display.....
Thursday Cory and DJ were totally unappreciative about the 'discount room'
I arranged for them. It had air conditioning, and a sink and toilet and I
let them use my shower, two nicely furnished cots and a piano and the
ghosts of vengeful criminals all for $16 a night split half way $8
each. They each demanded private rooms and my driver expense went from $8
to $34 a day, plus food and beer.
The day looked flyable....but..... Low clouds down the range, cool and
medium winds kind of northwest. First we went to Coyote launch where Alan
Paylor, who moved to Moore and is now on the town council and is trying to
set up a HG business, was setting up next to a tall Viking with a Volkswagon
bus [Sonoma Wing's Derk. Ed]. We piled out of the truck and Alan pulled Cory aside, put his arm
around his shoulder and in a caring voice told Cory how bad he felt about
the AIDS and that if there was anything he could do....... Cory explained
that it was Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome..... It seems someone told
someone that Cory had AIDS without explaining further and the news spread
far and wide....Cory had a little explaining to do throughout the meet.
The wind switched as the boys were launching, they both got drilled, we
hopped in the rig and raced over to lower king launch, BSed a little with
lots of Kaliforina pilots, set up and punched off in better air. But there
was nowhere to go, not high enough for over the back, uprange was ODed with
verga, I quickly got bored with the easy soaring.....meaning that the
second I topped out in the first thermal I suggested to former AIDS
sufferer Cory that we try going into the wind downrange.
Not so easy as the glassoff and we went from 12,000' to 10K' and then we
were scratching the hilltops and looking at LZs. But we kept working the
little bumps we ran across and towards Arco found some better help.
We had promised the lady at breakfast that we would take a photo of her RV
park so I thought we would go do that, then and land in the big pasture
next to the sewer pond for about 16 miles. But as we flew over the middle
of town I got into a huge thermal that took me back to 12000'+, so I took a
photo of the whole dang town. I said "Hey Cory, lets do one of those
fancy triangle thingies and fly to Moore and then back to King." So we did
that and I got back on the radio and told Cory how cool it was to do
triangle flights.....well not in general, just this one time since I was
the one doing it and all.
Then I looked up range and saw that it had opened up so I said "Hey Cory,
hey Kurt, lets go to Challis", Kurt following our trail on the triangle with
his old Moyes said, "hey Nat let's go uprange" and they said ok so we flew
up to 15 miles up to Pass Creek, the dogleg jump on the route that always
give pilots trouble, and were surprised to catch up with a ton of tubejob
boys. I accompanied a small group from Invisible to Corner Mountain and we
all took turns getting low then getting high finally I got under a big dark
cloud and flew for about 5 minutes at 60 mph praying the lift wouldn't
increase and I passed the last of them at Corner Mountain about the 35 mile
mark, then I raced to Dickey peak trying to outrun some nasty dark stuff
headed in. But no good, the lift was gone, it was starting to rain. I
dodged squalls and finally landed at Willow Creek in a light sprinkle, two
flexie pilots closely behind [Sonoma Wing's Bob Stanley & Ernie Camacho. Ed]. I logged 45 miles to Willow creek, too bad I
couldn't count the triangle.
Tomorrow....What happened at Grandpa's, a very lucky glider, sleeping with
a big wet stiffie.
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Kevin Frost
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Black Diamond masticating at the King meet: still day minus 1,
What happened at Grandpa's.
Sorry kids, if you are looking for a droning laundry list of altitudes and
distances you will have to look somewhere else. I'm gonna talk about
food. So just stop now, read no further, I don't wanna hear about
it. You've been warned.
In our last episode we left our heros tearing down gliders in the rain
after a pre meet out and return/triangle/ XC storm dodging epic flight
through rocky mountain outcroppings and foreboding fog capped peaks to the
thousand acre and billion mosquito LZ at Willow Creek. Well one hero and
two other guys [Bob & Ernie] from away who may or may not be heros, ah heck they were
heros too cause we all had the flight of the day and bravely and all had
to heroically tear down in the rain.
Wet and tired with a glider finally bravely and heroically hefted over the
barbed wire and the pilot escaping another fence with manhood more or less
intact and glider securely tied down on the rack I was confronted with a
big decision. We were exactly halfway between Grandpa's in Arco and the
Challis hot springs. Should I warm my belly with authentic southern BBQ or
warm my cold wet bones with mineral water heated at the center of the earth
and seeping up through hot river rocks? As I stared dumbly at a rain
speckled windshield, trying to free up ram memory, the radio crackled and a
faint voice transported through invisible waves said "This is N7NAS. We
called Grandpa's........and told them to cook it family style!!!!". I
warmed my bones with the truck heater.
So a big percentage of the Boise gang with Arizona, SLC and Hood River
elements bellied up to the big long picnic table in front of Grandpa's
little converted house on main street Arco. And we started telling
embellished lies about our flights and pulled out the digital cameras and
had a little tiny slide show of the tops of each others gliders all taken
with the wide angle fully employed, our way of counting coup.
Grandpa and family greeted anyone who had been there before by name and
asked about the flying as they brought us heaping bowlfuls of BBQed
chicken, beef and baby back ribs, three different salads, swamp
water(lemonaid and iced tea mixed), along with imported southern
hospitality and lots of runny BBQ sauce. I don't like beef ribs, but I
gotta tell ya, I ate more than my share. We gorged and feasted like we
really needed the ballast.
Also we were eating fast cause, Idaho HG pilots being the keen observers of
nature and the sky, we knew a gust front was brewing.
You know us keen nature observers, our natural surroundings are as familiar
as our own neglected back yards, we are sensitized to the smallest
telltales, like a NOAA weather advisory, an ever blackening sky, a
stiffening breeze, and a huge fast moving dust cloud headed in our direction.
It hit just before the sweet potato pie.
We grabbed plates and bowls full of stripped ribs and chicken bones and
invaded Grandpa's kitchen, then retired to the tiny wind shaken dining room
with dirt and yes pebbles in our hair and watched as Grandpa's gangly
teenaged son donned swim goggles and collected flying plastic lawn
furniture from down the street and dodged killer tree limbs like a half
back running for a TD.
We had our sweet potato pie and peach cobbler, and Cory insisted we give
Grandpa nearly double the way too generous 12 dollars he asked per
person. Then those who had tents and airplanes tied down hurried off to
assess the damage. Me, DJ and Cory ran through the rain to the truck with
poor Hankie trying to stay dry with his rib bones under the gliders. We
had a big worrisome tree limb down behind the truck, and a block away we
found a tree lying on top of our motel. The wind still howling and thunder
roaring, power lines swinging like jump ropes, we decided the gliders would
come in for the night. Me and Cory, soaked to the bone, jockey the long
graphite lightning rods inside as he yelled how much he hates lightning and
told the story about being struck by lightning at a rodeo and ducked with
every blazing high voltage strike around us.
Anyhow it had been a big day and the gliders were safe and we were tired
and it was time to feed the critters and call it a day.
Err, did I mention Cory's kitty?
Tomorrow, Cory's kitty, the lucky glider and the big tree limb at Moore
park, Day 1, leaving low, an Opal mine
Kevin Frost - Boise, Idaho
15 flights - 10 Days Rock Kicking
39.5 hours - 607 miles
1580 MC-XC pts
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Lori Allen
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Black Diamond eating
Besides more big air than I sometimes know what
to do with (I'm slow, but I'm learning ...) ...
... for an area with such a small, sparse
population, I've eaten some of the best food I've ever eaten
anywhere.
Sally's Ramshorne Restaurant in Darlington has
AWESOME Mexican food and margaritas.
There's a restaurant in Mackay, Jim's Place???,
if you're really into really good prime rib.
Then there's Grandpa's in Arco -- that barbeque sauce is legendary and I
get a taste of being in the "sayowth" again.
Where else in the intermountain west can you get (now say
this with a deep southern accent) some good ol' "swayte tay"?
Lori
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Kevin Frost
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Re: Black Diamond flying at the King meet: days minus 1
Oops, looks like me and my two Kaliforina cohorts quickly went from 3 hero
pilots braving the elements and flying the good flight, to three pathetic
losers tearing down in the rain. Well it felt good at the time.
KF
At 10:32 AM 7/15/2001 , n4nv@pacbell.net wrote:
> > I dodged squalls and finally landed at willow creek in a light
> > sprinkle, two flexie pilots closely behind. I logged 45 miles to
> > Willow creek, too bad I couldn't count the triangle.
>
>I guess us Kalifornia pilots are not bothered so much by your mild
>Idaho weather. On the same day, Jon James made it almost to Challis
>(62.5 miles) after flying through miles of rain, and Kurt Bainum made
>a 110 mile out and return, crossing Willow Creek twice, over 6 hours
>in the air. Both pilots were on tube jobs.
>
>Vince
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Jon James
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King
>I guess us Kalifornia pilots are not bothered so much by your mild
>Idaho weather. On the same day, Jon James made it almost to Challis
>(62.5 miles) after flying through miles of rain, and Kurt Bainum made
>a 110 mile out and return, crossing Willow Creek twice, over 6 hours
>in the air. Both pilots were on tube jobs.
Well, the first day there (Mon) I was getting to 16,000 often and went to
17,600 once (personal best for the 6th time). Should have had O2 along.
I was over Borah when Vince said "Let's go back" and since Nancy
was my best prospect for a ride, I turned around too.
What is this O&R crap? Sure, it's convenient,
but since when is hang gliding supposed to be con-VEN-ient? After 3
hours, hypoxia took its toll and I didn't make it all the way back.
The Thursday Kevin showed up was the windiest day, quite west, so getting
across Pass Creek was slow. By staying low, 10,000 to 11,000,
under the wind, I just cruised and didn't turn much.
This was more like the King I'd heard about. Just past Willow Creek,
Kurt said "Let's go back". The hell with that. We were just starting to
pick up some tailwind component. I wanted to see Challis.
I encountered rain just beyond Willow Creek. Light at first, with lift
in it. Then heavier. My glasses were completely wet, couldn't see much.
The mountain was on my right.
I flew through rain for at least 5 minutes. It was getting lighter
when the drops got really big. I watched them splat on my arms,
thought "I'm going to be soaked."
2 minutes after the rain stopped, my glasses were dry and the glider felt
pretty good so I eased back in against the mountains and climbed back up.
Screamed up Victory Ridge without turning but climbing until I could see
over the top to the Lemhi Valley. It was black and raining there.
Out toward Challis, it was clear with patches of rain falling. There was
another big cell upwind, coming my way, so I headed out toward Challis.
It took forever to get there and I ended up short, by the reservoir south
of town. I barely made that, and for some stupid reason, got the wind
direction wrong, landing west-south-west in a northwest to 15 and pounded.
Really pounded. Oh, well. Another black diamond day. Didn't bend nothing
(except my wrist and part of my helmet).
Note to self: Next time, use more oxygen. What are you saving it for?
Also, arrive at LZ high enough to do a turn or 2.
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Vince Endter
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RE: King
> Well, the first day there (Mon) I was getting to 16,000 often and
> went to 17,600 once (personal best for the 6th time). Should have
> had O2 along.
> I was over Borah when Vince said "Let's go back" and since Nancy
> was my best prospect for a ride, I turned around too.
Actually, I did not say "lets turn back". I had made my goal of 50
miles and had started my return leg and announced I was on the return
leg. You and Scot were still 15 miles behind me. My oxygen line had
exploded just prior to launch so I was flying without oxygen. I left
the thermals when I got to 14,500'. It took 3 hours and 50 minutes
to get the first 50 miles. The headwind was about 15 mph. The
thermals were big that day, between 1500 and 2100 fpm, but so was the
sink. Each time I got to 14,000+ feet it looked like I could glide
for miles and miles. But as I left the lift, I almost always hit
1500 to 2000 fpm sink. It was pretty depressing to only get a 2 to 3
mile glide from 14,000'.
Vince
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Kevin Frost
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Black Diamond low over the back: day 1 'and there I was.....'
A rigid wing glider is a pain in the ass roommate. My soaking wet ATOS
stretched from the back of the door, across the foot of the bed, across the
sink and mirror blocking the bathroom door and ended inside the
closet. Hank the cow dog gave me a put upon look every time he had to jump
over the glider to get to his water dish. After a hard days work truck
guarding Frisbee chasing and glider barking he wasn't in the mood to be
jumping obstacles all night.
The next morning, the storm was gone leaving a fresh clean day, I woke up
the crew, we all took care of the many morning chores and headed up to
Moore park. With the air still plenty wet the weather really had me
worried, would the sky stay blue or would it OD by launch time? Still
concerned about turnout, I was happy to see lots of pilots and gliders when
I pulled up to the park. Turned out to be 68 pilots plus free flyers and
paragliders. Like I said about 10 Idaho pilots, a ton of pilots from
Kalifornia, a group from Mass, a bunch from surrounding states and some
from all over.
Lisa has a new thing this year, a team comp. The Boise pilots are the
illustrious Soggy Bottom Boys, with local pig sticker driving superstars
Kurt Ziegler(Cyclops) and Ken Schreck(Streak), a world class sandbagger H2
rec pilot Cory Rose(Dapper Dan, the pedis familious), and me the humble and
affable guy without a snazzy nickname. Sadly our old bold teammate Dean
Tiegs(Babyface Tiegs) had to sit this one out.......but his place is saved
for next year.
Lisa unveiled the beautiful trophies and did the pilot meeting and we all
zoomed up to lower launch. Here is the deal. This was a light wind
day. On light wind days many pilots prefer upper launch. Upper launch is
a bit of a zoo and requires lots of traffic copping beginning with the trip
up. The rule is, everyone drives to lower launch and parks, Lisa and Terri
pack up the pilot meeting and a half hour later pass all the parked trucks
and go to upper launch where they allow 3 trucks at a time to come up and
unload and drive down the hill a hundred yards to park. After everyone is
unloaded we are finally allowed to set up gliders. Whew!! Actually
impressive that it works so smoothly, a bit of a military maneuver, with
Lisa as field marshal and Terri as drill sergeant. Meanwhile the laid
back guys on lower launch are leisurely setting up gliders and chilling.
Setting up I got to catch up with old king meet friends and met some new
guys. Best of all Kurt Wyberg was setting up his new Stalker nearby,
instruction sheet in hand. Very nice looking, but lots of moving and
delicate looking parts, lots of pins to insert, a very cool lever action
tensioning all ribs at once, the thing is heavy.
I'm on the task committee, but with Frank Gillette and Ken Schreck as
brains and experience I'm just a rubber stamp and lightning rod. The
upper level winds say route 2 or 3 (route 2 requires lots of range jumping,
route 3 is a bit of a flatland route with only 2 range jumps), the
overdevelopment in the Mts sez route 3, fairly low cloudbase (projected
13,000') sez not route 2 and route 3 may prove too difficult. We called
route 3 with dire warnings about possible killer rotor for those who leave
too low.
Mark Mason my old nemisis, passed me up in the arms race and bought a
sailplane, today he launches his Falcon way early and stays up. I launch
among the first handful and very quickly hit cloudbase and then drive
around worrying about the jump. I soar a couple hundred feet up the face
of a cloud. Shannon Raby goes over the back, drives around and comes back
low!!!!!! WOW!! The huevos rancharos on that guy! Shannon gets high
again and leaves. I decide to go, but decide to be a wimp anyway and drive
south of King, a bit into the wind then swing a miles wide arc avoiding
what I think would be the rotor zone. Baby's butt smooth air!! Cory
leaves as I do but in a cloud going up and straight over the back. We are
both a thousand feet lower than the altitude anyone would recommend, but
the upper wind was light perhaps only 10-15. Surprisingly I end up at least
a thousand feet higher than Cory as he joins me at the first bogus thermal
8 miles back in Howe valley.
Howe valley is unproductive with clouds at the end of their lifecycle and
we end up low at the base of Saddle Mt on the next range, the tailend of
the Lemhi's. Then we get lower and it looks bad. We parasite a thermal
that the IXBO pilot drifts back in and gain a little, he drifts back into
the mountain very low and while I was stuck in the foothills I was sure
glad that I wasn't back there low with him. Me and Cory work the foothills
low and sinking, make a mistake going over a saddle behind a big knob and
get rotored bad, oops Cory turned in it and got a rodeo ride and penalized
valuable altitude.
Just when it was looking like a long retrieve into the sagebrush I hit a
very nice bump. And all of a sudden there is our teammate, Kurt Ziegler
with his damn pigsticker (he has been doing that all year), me and Cory
left early with RWs and here is Kurt who left 15 minutes later passing us
with a ragged out extralite. Me and Kurt get up in a very sweet 1000+
smooth thermal that takes up over the top, Cory gets the dregs a thousand
feet under, then two thousand under, and we part company. Me and Kurt over
the back, Cory sinking on the foothills.
I start flying the flatlands and the clouds, Kurt gets low and I get miles
ahead as he works his way back up. I hear Cory's story progress over the
radio as he guides his driver down a dirt road, gets ready to land and then
skies out in a lucky thermal and catches up with Kurt, they fly another 30
miles.
I work my way to a cloudstreet then hauled ass for 10 or 15 miles ending
with an easy glide to Dubois bonus LZ but I decide to go for it and try to
hit the foothills to the north. Oops, ran out of luck in a blue
hole. 64.8 miles. For a while I think I could have the flight of the day.
Heiner worked his way through and kicked butt that day 94.3 miles!! Eiji
Yokoda a Pocatello local and local skygod got 77.5 with a pigsticker. Lisa
Verzella flying a pigsticker got 70.4 and Brian Horgan got 70.6.
There is an opal mine north of Dubois in the foothills, with all the
volcanic activity in Idaho there are all kinds of gems around the
state. Anyhow we stopped by a little trailer next to the gas station at
Dubois and talked to the gal about opal mining and how they dig the things
and polish and set the stones. Smart pilots would include this stop for
their female drivers.
On the way back just east of Dubois it looked like the sky rained
hanggliders. For miles there were gliders on both sides of the road. Bout
wore out the horn honking at them.
KF
photos: http://www.geocities.com/hankmacnasty/King2001.html
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Kevin Frost
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Way Too Black Diamond, a shot of redeye, King meat, another personal worst
Ok, it was Saturday morning in Moore Park, the day was looking beautiful
and we were in the park early, the town of Moore was serving breakfast and
dozens of pilots and drivers were walking around with a plate in hand. The
link sausage was especially good and in plentiful supply. Also the usual
plate sized hotcakes etc. Driver DJ said they should call it "The King
Meat" cause all week our meat consumption tripled.
Oh, I almost forgot what happened Friday night.
We came in from the Dubois flight and hung out at the park as pilots
trickled in and scores were entered on the laptops. Kurt Ziegler and a
future pilot Seth (all set to make the trip to Lookout for instruction) had
worked for months and hundreds of hours to put together some dandy scoring
software, they were still hacking during the meet!!
Anyhow we hung out for a while then on to the King Mountain Jack Daniels
event at the Antler Club, next door to Moore park. Mr Daniels is testing
the waters this year, I hope he comes back. Anyhow Jack donated alot of
good prizes to Lisa and were giving away prizes at Antlers and there were
drink discounts and cheap shots.
Well, Ol' Cory Rose, who's girlfriend Rebecca is the rep for Jack Daniels,
had a plan. He snooped out his competition and started trying to buy shots
for the top dogs in the Rec class. I was dead on my feet by then, and
wanted to see how this played out but just couldn't keep my eyes open. We
left early as Cory continued buying shots.
Ok, back to Saturday morning. Breakfast, pilot's meeting, big dark tower
forming over King. "Gentlemen, start your engines!" Gliders quickly
juggled all around the perimeter of Moore park and the big race up to lower
launch. By the time we get to upper launch the sky is pretty much overcast
and I'm downcast.
Task committee meeting....My first impression was that the day could end up
being a best glide contest, even though Mark Mason is already off having no
problem soaring his Falcon over the western knob. The air smells a little
wet. Weather man sez there were already towering cells all around us at
11:00. We discussed alot of things and I'm one to let pilots make their
own choices to fly or not, but to me invisable thunder cells were a deal
killer.
So the day was called off. Poor Lisa had to make the announcement. And I
was preparing to catch a little shit. But all I heard was agreement and 15
minutes later we got some rain.
Now I had to decide if it was better to tear down my glider or finish
setting up and take a sledder. More rain decided it for me and I tore down
in the rain, 2nd time in three days. But alot of guys said screw that, it
is alot of trouble hauling a glider off upper launch. Ol' Cory was among
that camp.
Cory, who mostly has really good launches, impressed everyone a few years
ago and everyone present said his Warm Springs launch was absolutely the
worst successful launch they had ever seen. Over the last couple days he
had been having some sloppy launching, with a nose pop and a 2nd run at
lower launch. Day 2 of the 2001 King meet, he set another personal
worst!! All on video. And it was with my Exxtacy!!
It was still sprinkling rain a little, and we had 10-15mph launch winds.
Cory swung the glider around on the steep slope, navigated the big fur tree
and leveled his wings below the tree launch. Errrr, no, he forgot that
last step. With wingtip on the ground he started running and the thing
quickly yawed around, I thought it would just keep yawing for a quick
smack-in. But it didn't, he got popped up and was airborne, the slope gave
him too much altitude for a smack in to end happily, he was close to
trees, just looking horrible. MY EXXTACY!!!!! And somehow he pulled it
off, but I wouldn't wanna be standing down wind from him after he landed.
He said 'just a little rash' on my wingtip. (sounded like dragging a 55gal
drum on asphalt as he launched, so I'm not so sure) We went and ate more
meat at Grandpa's (there was hot cornbread cooling on our table when we
arrived) There were alot of pilots soaring around King when we left, no
one was hurt in the little gust front that came through, but Frank
Gillette's glider did roll away on it's WHEELS and had a little damage.
Next episode, Day Three, threading the needle up range, a broken and
bleeding software hacker, soap on a rope was made for hanggliding.
KF
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Kevin Frost
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King meet day 3
Sorry guys, been too busy, but here is the final installment. I now and
then get a few embarrassingly kind compliments about stories I post. But
sadly, stories of flying just don't get the conversation boiling like a
good argument, also you can whip out a flaming response really quick, but a
flying story takes time and rewrites. So the incentive isn't really as
strong. Just splaining things so those who complain that there aren't
enough flying stories can put on their thinking caps and figure out a way to
add incentive.
Ok, Day 3.
Big BBQ and a keg in Moore park Saturday night. The big show and tell item
was Mark Mason's motor glider that he pulled out of the trailer, a sleek
thing of beauty and lots of gadgets inside. A kingpost pilot from
Kaliforina got his finger stuck in the exhaust pipe, I dribbled hamburger
grease and mustard on his f-16 dashboard and dropped a sliced pickle down
between the seat and the joystick, a panty pilot barfed inside the upturned
Plexiglass windshield and Hank the cowdog hosed down the wheel. If I ever
find myself with a spare $50K I don't think I could say no to sailplane
driving.
After the burgers were ate there was an amazing hackie sac display staring
Lisa V, looking alot like that fast kicking gal in 'Crouching Tiger',
encircled by a dozen sac kicking thugs and taking no prisoners.
I spent the night worrying about my ATOS that I left under a tree at upper
launch. I knew it would bug me. But the next morning it was safe where I
left it, unmolested by lightning, falling trees, bear or elk.
We called Route 1, north up the range. Cloudbase was pretty
low. Team-Soggy Bottom put a lot of time into watching the weather
uprange. Clouds were moving pretty west to east and about every hour a new
cell crossed the valley and moved over Invisible Mt. The initial heavy
cloudiness seemed to be thinning over time and the big black cells seemed
to be getting smaller. We decided to give it a good long wait then time
our launches to get past the next cell. Others decided to go for it and
leave early, if they got drilled I guess they planned to do a 2nd flight
later.
Pilots were diving off so fast that what we thought was way late was only
2:30. The kingposted Soggy Bottom Boys, Kurt(Cyclops) and Ken(Streak),
went first. Me and Cory(Dapper Dan) delayed another half hour. Got right
up again and left King a little low, made the jump in front of Ram's Horn
Canyon and hit Ram's Horn pretty low, about 3/4 of the way up. There were
already a couple flexies working even lower. I worked a while just
maintaining and slowly outclimbing the tubejobs, and then WHAM!!!!!, a Mr
Nasty thermal. I put the ATOS on a wingtip and thanked God it wasn't an
Exxtacy, and then rode it out happy to be going up fast, but white
knuckling the shear nastiness. I left before I got whispied, cloudbase
still a bit low at around 12,000' and drove west of the ridge to the next
cloud rather than directly up the spine. Cory crapped out at Ram's Horn
and was working the foothills north low and slow.
I drove uprange in buoyant air near cloudbase, topped out again just before
Elbow Canyon and crossed the flatland with only a couple turns in ragged
lift. Got drilled by the time I reached the early crux past the Elbow
Canyon dogleg at Red Rocks, wow, since I went rigid I have never gotten to
this point so low and the nostalgia of how bad that sucks came back. I
made up my mind that I was no way getting any lower and scratched close to
the red cliffs and plowed into the big turbulence and turned around for
more. Red Rocks should be named Mr Nasty II. I fought it out there, it
was all roll around in the dirt, kick, hit, bite, spit and cuss to
cloudbase. And I'm sure everyone who passed that point had the same slugfest.
Remember those thunderstorms that passed every hour or so? The Soggy
Bottom Boys timing was pretty good. The Soggy Kingpost boys were now only
a couple miles ahead, crossing the path of the storms and doing fine. I
steamed on ahead past Invisible Mountain, onto the spectacular flat-topped
sheer rockface of McCalib and more overcast skies but the blackness was
still across the valley. Cloudbase lowered and lift died, there was some
sprinkles of rain. Me and some flexwing pilots saved ourselves in no man's
land with a little thermal. I sped on and by Corner Mountain. I had lost it
again, down to about 1000' and circling Kurt's accident site.
Here is what happened. Soggy Kingpost Boys, Kurt and Ken, were a bit ahead
of me and also had to deal with the large overcast no lift zone. They left
the range and went out towards a sunny area in the flats hoping for
different air. Ken made it across the highway and river and saw two cars
on a dirt road, the dust indicated a south wind. A minute later as he was
making a landing approach it felt wrong so he dropped a bomb and saw it had
turned north. He had a good landing. Kurt in the meantime had only made it
to the highway, got the strong southern wind reading, set up to land and
when it suddenly turned north he was too low... sidehill, downhill,
strong downwind, sagebrush and lots of rocks. Need I say more? Ok I will
anyway - ground tumbled his glider, sprained ankle, cut up back, knocked
himself out for a second, and a totaled Moyes extralight.
Anyhow I was circling above him in very light lift listening to the radio
traffic kind of in a holding pattern. It became apparent that he was not
horribly injured and that there was nothing I could do, so I got serious
about getting some altitude. I gained perhaps another thousand feet but
could do no better. I turned into the head wind and took a sledder without
one turn all the way to the ground about a mile and a half north.
Cory in the meantime a few miles back drove into the front part of the
storm and got rained on hard, 14,000fpm down all the way to the ground
where he took out DTs.
Heiner who launched way earlier won the day with a flight to the Willow
Creek bonus LZ, I think my flight was second place for miles - about
twentieth after the handicap.
Back at the park a bruised and bloody Kurt Ziegler (the ultimate Idaho
computer nerd) did some last minute hacking for Lisa on the scoring
software before being carted off to the hospital. After a bit of score
making, Lisa handed out the most beautiful etched glass and hardwood
trophies and it was all over. The end.
KF
2001 King Mountain Open
TEAM STANDINGS
1-Salty Dogs 96.4
Heiner Biesel,
Tom Vayda
2-In Sinc 71.1
Kurt L. Bainum,
Jon James,
Matt Jagelka,
M. Leo Jones,
Greg Sugg
3-The Soggy Bottom Boys 68.6
Kevin Frost,
Cory Rose,
Ken Schreck,
Kurt Ziegler
4-Team Turbulent 65.5
Steve Rathbun,
Lisa Verzella,
John Woiwode
5-Cloud Street Drifters 61.3
Bill Snyder,
Will Lanier,
Mike Branger,
Dan Gravage,
Craig Hines
6-Mother Loded Sky Riders Dream Team 56.3
Doug Prather,
Brian Horgan,
Ken Muscio,
Jay Bass
7-D-Team 49.5
Steve Rudy,
Dennis Harris,
Jim Paddock,
Mathew Teats,
Todd Robinson
8-The Mother Lode Ryders 40.5
Shannon Raby,
Harold Froehling,
Joel Perez,
Jimmy Pricer
9-Go For It 39.6
Vincent Endter,
Scot Huber
10-Girly Mons 0.0
Joe Bob Staeutemyehegeie,
Brett Durango
OPEN CLASS STANDINGS
Rank Name Score Miles Bonus Penalty GliderClass
1- Heiner Biesel 117.6 139.0 5 0 Rigid
2- Dan Gravage 102.7 92.7 10 0 Kingposted
3- Brian Horgan 92.4 103.8 0 0 Topless
4- Eiji Yokoda 86.7 97.4 0 0 Topless
5- Lisa Verzella 86.6 86.6 0 0 Kingposted
6- Doug Prather 86.4 86.4 0 0 Kingposted
7- Todd Robinson 84.9 95.4 0 0 Topless
8- Kurt Ziegler 84.2 84.2 0 0 Kingposted
9- Matt Jagelka 83.1 83.1 0 0 Kingposted
10- Jon James 82.1 92.1 0 0 Topless
11- Kevin Frost 81.3 100.4 0 0 Rigid
12- Mike Davis 80.4 80.4 0 0 Kingposted
13- Steve Rathbun 75.8 73.9 10 0 Topless
14- Frank Gillette 75.1 84.4 0 0 Topless
15- Tom Vayda 75.1 80.4 10 0 Rigid
16- Don Lepinsky 69.6 78.2 0 0 Topless
17- Gregg Brauch 68.4 76.8 0 0 Topless
18- Alan Paylor 65.6 65.6 0 0 Kingposted
19- Steve Rudy 63.9 78.9 0 0 Rigid
20- Craig Hines 63.5 71.3 0 0 Topless
21- Peter Swanson 63.3 71.1 0 0 Topless
22- Shannon Raby 63.1 70.9 0 0 Topless
23- Wayne Lueth 62.5 77.2 0 0 Rigid
24- Leo Jones 62.0 69.7 0 0 Topless
25- Dennis Harris 60.7 68.2 0 0 Topless
26- Karl Hallman 57.6 57.6 0 0 Kingposted
27- Will Lanier 56.4 56.4 0 0 Kingposted
28- Hank Butzel 52.7 52.7 0 0 Kingposted
29- Kurt Bainum 52.6 52.6 0 0 Kingposted
30- Harold Froehling 52.4 58.9 0 0 Topless
31- Ken Schreck 46.0 46.0 0 0 Kingposted
32- Scot Huber 42.8 42.8 0 0 Kingposted
33- Vincent Endter 36.5 45.1 0 0 Rigid
34- John Woiwode 34.0 34.0 0 0 Kingposted
35- K.C. Benn 33.9 33.9 0 0 Kingposted
36- Ken Muscio 33.0 37.0 0 0 Topless
37- Mike Branger 30.2 33.9 0 0 Topless
38- Mathew Teats 22.7 25.6 0 0 Topless
39- Jim Paddock 15.4 17.3 0 0 Topless
40- Kurt Wimberg 15.1 18.7 0 0 Rigid
41- Mark Mason 13.8 11.0 0 0 Single Surface
42- Joe Decleur 13.5 13.5 0 0 Kingposted
43- Jimmy Pricer 13.4 13.4 0 0 Kingposted
44- Clair Packer 13.0 13.0 0 0 Kingposted
45- Joe Bob Staeutemyehegeie 0.0 0.0 0 0 Rigid
RECREATION CLASS STANDINGS
Rank Name Score Miles Bonus Penalty GliderClass
1- Greg Sugg 75.7 85.1 0 0 Topless
2- Peter Bovingdon 65.6 65.6 0 0 Kingposted
3- Craig Hines 63.5 71.3 0 0 Topless
4- Cory Rose 63.1 77.9 0 0 Rigid
5- Joel Perez 59.9 67.3 0 0 Topless
6- Bill Snyder 51.4 51.4 0 0 Kingposted
7- Jeff Shapiro 44.6 44.5 5 0 Topless
8- Bob Stanley 41.1 46.2 0 0 Topless
9- K.C. Benn 33.9 33.9 0 0 Kingposted
10- Calvin Mills 33.3 33.3 0 0 Kingposted
11- Stephen Koehler 32.7 32.7 0 0 Kingposted
12- Doug McClellan 25.2 20.2 5 0 Kingposted
13- Blaine Perkins 23.2 18.2 5 0 Kingposted
14- Bernhard Sterling 22.8 22.8 0 0 Kingposted
15- Lee Minardi 20.9 20.9 0 0 Kingposted
16- Nat Wells 18.8 18.8 0 0 Kingposted
17- Lori Allen 16.5 16.5 0 0 Kingposted
18- Ernie Camacho 15.9 15.9 0 0 Kingposted
19- Eric Froehlich 13.9 13.9 0 0 Kingposted
20- Jay Bass 13.5 13.5 0 0 Kingposted
21- Jimmy Pricer 13.4 13.4 0 0 Kingposted
22- Derk Steggewentz 12.0 13.5 0 0 Topless
23- Gary Staten 11.6 11.6 0 0 Kingposted
24- Ron Allmon 4.0 4.0 0 0 Kingposted
25- Foster Hardie 0.0 0.0 0 0 Kingposted
26- Brett Durango 0.0 0.0 0 0 Rigid
SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
Kurt Ziegler for going above and beyond the call of duty and pain to help with the scoring.
AERIAL CHAIR DRIVER'S AWARD
A tie between Chilli and "EC" Ernie Camacho. Chilli won the tie breaker drawing for the Aerial Chair
donated by Craig Hines, and Ernie won a consolation "I WAS GOOD" glass.
"I WAS GOOD" AWARDS
Kurt Ziegler & Seth Factor for developing a compterized scoring system just for the King Meet.
Char Elliot for Helping on upper launch
Chilli for picking up trash
Doug McClellan for fixing the lights and stocking the bathrooms
Eric Froelich & Rob Wolf for helping on lower launch
Craig Hines for loaning Frank Gillette a hang strap and giving up his launch slot in doing so.
Doug Prather for loaning out his spare glider to a competitor and for fixing Frank's tire.
Jon James for loaning Frank his spare glider.
Nancy Ferguson for scooping the poop in the town park even though it wasn't all from her dogs.
Ken Schreck for all of his work as IHGA President and his work with the Forest Service.
**UNSUNG HEROES**
Kevin Frost for loaning us his laptop computer to help with scoring for the Meet.
Lisa Verzella for recycling the cans for 2 years in a row.
Jimmy Pricer for making the Sportsmanship Award, helping Lisa put together the Programs
and the Pilot Packs.
Ernie Camacho for offering to download GPS waypoints for everyone.
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MattsFlyin Jagelka
(7/10/01 12:53:45 am)
|
Sonoma Wings at
King Mtn.
Sonoma Wings did very well at King this year with one of us winning
the Recreational Class (25 pilots) , three of us placing in the top
ten of the Open Class (42 pilots) and our five man team "In Sinc"
placing 2nd out of nine team entries! "EC" Camacho tied for Best
Driver! Lori Jagelka also drove as did Vince's wife Nancy, and Brad,
a friend of Kurt's (and
of all of us now too). Brad even managed to get some airtime this
past week!
I'll leave the details to those who know them best but
here is a quick Sonoma Wings list:
Gregg Sugg #1 Rec Class
Bob Stanley #8 Rec Class
Todd Robinson #7 Open Class
Matt Jagelka #9 Open CLass
Jon James #10 Open Class
Team "In Sinc" #2 Team Class
Leo, Matt, Jon, Gregg, Kurt
Driver With Most Pilots Retreived
EC Camacho
It was a treat to have 4 efficient drivers in our
group! We are really getting a solid core of x/c experienced pilots
and drivers!! Thanks again!
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Vince
(7/13/01 7:17:29 am)
|
My take on
King
This is my take on the events at king. Scot arrived at the Moore
park on Saturday. Nancy and I arrived Saturday night. Scot and I
both decided to try for 100 mile out and returns on Sunday to rack
up a bunch of Go For It miles. The lift was good all the way to the
50-mile turn point, with a head wind the first 35 miles. It took me
about 2 hours and 45 minutes to go 50 miles. The return leg was a
blast. I made the 50 miles back in 55 minutes. I had to spend about
10 minutes getting back up after re-crossing Pass Creek. The last 8
miles back over King, the air was so smooth I was able to fly with
the bar to my waist. My ground speed was about 75 mph. Total time
for out and return was 3 hr 40 min. I landed in a field a quarter
mile from the park. Scot flew about 5 miles further out (for a total
of 112 miles). I believe he crossed over King in 6 hours. He landed
in a field next to the park, a little after 9:00 pm.
Several
more pilots showed up Sunday night. Monday Scot, Jon, and myself
tried for another 100 mile out and return. The air was much more
turbulent. There were 2000 fpm thermals with 2000 fpm sink in
between. My oxygen line exploded on launch so I was flying without
oxygen. I was leaving the thermals at 14,500’. Scot and Jon were
reporting 16,500’. Even from 14,500 I was only able to glide a
couple of miles after each thermal due to the sink in between. After
almost 4 hours I was at the 50-mile turnaround. Jon and Scot gave up
and turned around at Bora (35 miles). I made it back 26 miles before
the lift gave out (the winds were strong from the North). Scot made
it back to King. Jon made it back to Invisible.
By Tuesday
most of the Sonoma wing pilots had arrived. All of them but Scot,
Todd and Myself (with Nancy) moved into a homeless encampment by the
river north of the town of Moore. I don’t know what kind of
debauchery went one there, maybe someone else can fill us all in.
Scot and I decided to take the day off Monday and rest (Scot had
over 12 hours in two days). The day did not look very good, but
later I heard someone got to 17,500 over King.
I was
planning on flying Wednesday, but the day did not look good for XC
and I did not want to just boat around. Several Sonoma Wings pilots
flew.
Thursday did not look much better than Wednesday, and I
did not want to fly the day before the comp so I did not fly. Nancy
and I went to explore the caves at Craters of the Moon. Jon made it
to Challis, and Kurt made a 110 mile out and return, so the day was
better than it looked.
Friday was the first day of the comp.
The day had lots of low clouds with cloud base a little over 12,000.
Route 3 was called. I left King at 11,500 over the back (am I the
only one that stays the legal distance from clouds?). I made a bad
decision and flew too far south. Scot had left ahead of me and I saw
him soaring a small ridge on the lee side of Jump Off Mountain. I
joined him there. For the next 45 minutes I slowly worked my way
down from 9,500’ to 7,800’, the entire time in turbulence from Jump
Off. I finally could not take it any more and headed out to the
highway north of Howe. I made it to the highway at 7,500’, but as
soon as I tried to cross the fields towards the Lemhi’s, I hit big
sink. I turn back and landed next to the highway for 12.5 miles.
Scot hung out for another 30 minutes and finally got to 10,500 and
made ridge 2 (the Lemhi Range). After ridge 2 he made it most of the way across valley
3 (Hwy 28). Most of the rest of the Sonoma Wing members made it 40 to 60
miles. Heiner won the day flying 95 miles.
Saturday the comp
was canceled because of solid overcast and imbedded thunderstorms.
Sunday, did not look very good with rain shower and
lightning. Route 1 was called. Scot and I waited until almost 3 pm
to launch due to the rain and lightning we saw up the valley. Most
everyone else launched between 1 and 2 pm. Again, cloud base over
King was 12,000’. I left to cross Rams Horn at 11,500’. We had a
strong south wind so the crossing was quite easy. I got back to
11,500 at Sunset and headed across Pass Creek. I got to the base of
Invisible at 8,000’. I then spent 30 minutes ridge soaring the
foothills waiting for a thermal to come through. I gave up and
decided to try to make the Mackey airport so Nancy would have an
easy time finding me. About half way across the flats I hit a smooth
thermal. I rode it from 7,000’ to 12,500’ (cloud base was about
13,500). From here I just flew up the valley above the highway. I
had a ground speed of 45 and was only sinking at 100 fpm. I could
see the sun shining on Dickey peak and thought I could make it. Just
before Corner Mountain my ground speed dropped to 12 mph and I made
very little more headway. I landed 32.5 miles from King. The first
12 pilots were between 32.5 and 35 miles (except for Heiner who flew
44 to win the day).
Check the Go For It to see how each
member did.
Vince
|
Greg
(7/13/01 9:16:03 pm)
|
King Mountain
Adventures
I took two days to drive up to King. I don’t know what to think
about those guys who drive it in one shot. It’s over 700 miles! Any
way, my first flying day was Thursday before the meet. I launched
from the lower launch and climbed out easily in smooth thermals.
Upon cresting the mounting top I was immediately awe struck with the
beauty and ruggedness of the very sharp angular peaks. I suspect
that the Lost River Range is quite young in geological terms.
Because of low cloud base, I crossed Rams Horn canyon at 12,200’
giving it a wide berth.
I easily climbed out on the other
side back to around 12,000’ over knife sharp Sunset Ridge but
decided to stay out in front and lower because the wind was so
strong. When I got up the range a ways it was time to cross the dog
leg at Pass Creek. As it turned out, I screwed up by cutting the
corner too soon and arrived on the foot hills near Invisible Peak
low. Because of the strong winds I was reluctant to drift low back
into the hills and eventually put myself on the ground at Bar Road
about 14 miles out from King.
Friday was the first day of the
comp. Most SW’ers set up at lower launch. Again cloud base was low,
about 12,000’. Route #3 north east was called. It was windy from the
south, and Lisa Tate warned everyone not to go over the back without
at least 13,000’. Gradually cloud base rose some. As I climbed out
from lower launch, it was the crappiest bitchiest air I have ever
climbed out in. At one point, struggling to regain control of my
glider and not climbing much, I considered going to the bail-out LZ.
I probably would have but couldn’t get the glider pointed in that
direction. By the time I could steer the glider I was climbing and
forgot about the bail-out. Things smoothed out at about 9,000’ and I
was soon near cloud base at 12,600’. I followed Jon and Leo over at
12,600’ in reasonably decent air.
After working some lift
half way to the Lemhi Range I arrived on the sharp ridges beneath
Saddle Mt. At about 8,600’ to find Leo there working to get up. Jon
was long gone. Leo and I worked up and down all over the area for 45
minutes until Leo caught a thermal which gave him a scary low
climb/drift to the top of the ridge where he flew around the peak
and was off. I hung out for another 15 minutes until out of
frustration I decided to try to go around the southern end of the
range. As I was heading toward the end, I ran into a ripper that had
my name on it. I worked it jealously so as not to fall out deep back
in the canyons. Soon I was directly over Saddle Mt. summit at
12,200’ and still climbing and drifting. It took me to cloud base
at13,700’ a mile or so beyond the peak.
I then flew out to
the four corners area at speeds of up to 70 mph. Past four corners I
found some thermals but was alarmed by a large wall of rain off to
my left about 10 miles away. I ended up flying fast through all lift
and just making a long final glide down the highway toward Dubois.
As fate would have it, once I was too low to get back up, the rain
stopped and things looked much better. At 100’ AGL over power lines
I turned 90 degrees onto final and had a two step landing for about
52.8 miles which put me in third place in the Recreational Class for
the day.
Saturday the comp was called because of 100 percent
overcast with embedded thunderstorms to 30,000’. Later that evening
two hellacious gust fronts blew through the valley. Vince said that
it blew 60 mph at the town park breaking off a tree. At our camp up
the valley protected by cottonwood trees it blew at least 40 mph
with lots of dust and light rain also breaking off a
tree.
Sunday had much lighter winds with a 30 to 60 percent
chance of rain at Mackay. Route #1 up the range was called. As we
milled around at lower launch huge tall cunims could be seen
towering up the valley. Word from upper launch was that the course
up by Invisible Mt. was already black, OD’ed and raining. Wonderful.
I climbed out slowly to the peak to see 80 percent cloud cover with
towering dark cunims and two to four cells raining at any one time.
I don’t like this stuff. I made my way up Sunset ridge staying lower
than most others and watching the clouds. When I was up to a good
crossing point for the dog leg, I couldn’t get high, so I had to
work the hills all the way around the bend onto the flanks of
Invisible. I never did get high after that but kept finding small
ratty thermals and working low on the mountains. Eventually I landed
at the base of Leatherman Peak about a mile short of Jon and Bob
Stanley for about 33 miles. That was good enough to give me second
place for the day and first place for the meet in the Rec.
class.
Our drivers were an absolute delight! On Thursday Brad
arrived with a cold beer before I had the vario off my base tube. On
Friday E C (Ernie Camacho Jr.) arrived with a cold beer before I
could get my helmet off. On Sunday Lori Jagelka arrived shortly
after I got my harness off so I sent her on to get Jon and Bob who
were almost bagged up. E C soon arrived with a cold beer just as I
was zipping up the bag. It could not have been any better than that
unless it was Julia Roberts arriving with a cold beer and a travel
trailer.
King Mountain is good.
|
Scot Huber
(8/3/01)
|
Flying with birds
I think flying with birds is one of the most gratifying and spirit
lifting experiences about the sport. This year at King Mt. at 15g
between Leatherman peak and Borah I was circling in a thermal when I
noticed something following me. I look back and see two turkey
vultures, one with gray around his head and the other a much younger
bird 50 ft. behind me circling up with me. They appeared to not be
timid in the least, I figured later it was an old timer taking his
nephew out for some mt. soaring lessons and when he spotted me he had
to give junior a thrill of a life time. We circled about seven times
together and I tryed to keep them very uniform to not scare them off.
They progressively got closer as we topped out and I couldn't see
them anymore. Then the oldtimer comes over my out board wing about
ten feet off it and drops in front of me while giving me a slow once
over. Junior was farther away but visible.
It was very cool and I'll
always cherish my flights with the true skygods...hh
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