Saturday, March 19, 2000

The weather around Northern California has started to improve (after what seemed like 2 months of non stop rain). I was getting tired of the local coastal site and was itching for some mountain air time. I called a couple of pilots from Sonoma Wings and asked if anyone was flying Elk yet. Elk is about 12 miles North of Clear Lake. Bill said they flew it for the first time last weekend, but there was still snow on the road and it was a little tricky getting to launch. The weather had been warm all week so I figured the road would be better this weekend. Bill said there would probably be several pilots going so come on up.

So I get up at 5:00 AM and get ready. By 6:45 a buddy and I are on our way for the four hour drive. As we get about an hour away, we can start to pick up other pilots on the radio. It sounds like there will be six or seven pilots. We gather at the LZ at 11:30 and wait for our drivers to show up. By 12:00, seven pilots, two drivers and several children are squeezed into two vehicles for the drive up. Winds were predicted to be strong and on the drive in it looked to be so. At launch things looked much better. Winds were about 10 to 15 and just a little cross from the right on the North launch. Fortunately and unfortunately, Jon found a couple of dents in his leading edge and decided it was better not to fly. So the remaining six of us started to set up.

Bill was the wind dummy and reported smooth air (for a mountain site). It did not take the rest of us long to get in the air as well. The conditions were mostly ridge lift with small thermals trying to break through. Most everyone was getting several hundred feet over launch. It was a little tight with the six of us sharing one ridge, but everyone seemed to have their head on a swivel. As Albert said later, you kept counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 over and over. When you counted 1, 2, 3, 4 you got nervous until you saw number glider #5.

For the first hour I seemed to be always lower than most of the rest of the pilots, especially Albert in his Ram Air. Nothing I was doing would get me up past him. At one point I saw him fly over the back. I had seen some hawks flying the back when I was setting up, and I figured Albert must know something I don't so I followed him. BAD move. I got a good taste of the rotor and barely got back, with my tail between my legs. Later, I asked Albert about it and he said about a half a second after I got dumped, he got the same treatment. So much for follow the leader.

Since it was not a screaming day, I decided to work on a lot of the things I had read in Performance Flying. (A good read, even for Hang 1 and 2's). After I tried everything I could think of, I remembered I had a disposable camera in my harness. I pulled it out and started taking pictures of the other pilots and the surrounding area. I had totally ignored my vario and the conditions and focused on where everyone was and how to get in position for a picture. When I was done with the camera and had put it away, I looked at my vario and noticed I was at my highest so far that day. I also saw I was at the top of the stack! For the next quarter hour I was able to stay high by flying real slow and not chasing any thermals. They were so small that by the time I made a 360, I was lower than when I had started.

I was in the air for almost 2 hours and my neck was getting sore from holding my head up and looking for traffic. Bob had left about 20 minutes ago and had made a very nice cross wind landing. Bill was on his way down, but had stopped to work some small stuff toward the LZ. He seemed to hang on for ever. He finally headed in and landed. I headed down also. Jon was in the LZ with the wind report. It's nice having a pilot giving the wind direction and velocity for once. The wind was a little switchy, about 0 to 8 mph and changing direction 90 degrees and an occasional dust devil blowing through (typical for the Elk LZ). At about 1000' over the LZ I headed North to lose the rest of my altitude. That's were I hit my best lift. Here I was trying to get down and could only go up. Later, looking at my barograph, it was about 450 fpm up with my bar pulled in.

I worked my way back to the LZ and made a standard aircraft entry. On base at about 150' I hit a real boomer and back up I went (I now can believe the stories of really low saves). I had dropped out of my harness to get as much drag as I could. I extended my base leg to lose some more altitude when I got a big wire twang. First time I got one of those when I was in my leg straps. I made an S turn to get back on final. Every thing looked good. I was just about to cross the small fence so I lifted my legs to keep from hitting it when I got another good pop back up. That was the last one and I managed to hit my spot with a nice no step landing. Albert and Roy landed about 10 minutes later. Rich was trying to get ready for the Nationals so he stayed up another hour. Conditions had gotten a little better after we left and he was able to get 1000' over launch. But the dust devils in the LZ were getting more frequent. He made a great approach and landing in spite of the conditions.

Break down took longer than the entire flight. I guess that's typical, each pilot relives every moment with every other pilot. It was a great day and a great first mountain flight of the year. I'm sure in a couple of weeks we will be able to go XC and start racking up some miles.

Vince