| Author |
Comment |
| Ernie
|
Tuesday Morning
Tuesday, June 24, Riverside Camp:
The rain has stopped, for
now. It started up last night as everyone was sitting around the
campfire. A couple of us retreated to the awning on Ernie's
tent trailer. The rest stuck it out until they were pretty
well soaked and the fire was drowned out. Then the party
moved to Ernie's trailer until midnight.
Here it is the
fourth day of our adventure, and none of us has flown yet. The
adventure started for me on Saturday morning when I left
Windsor, pulling my tent trailer. I raised Kurt Bainum on
the radio as I went through Petaluma. Brian Padgett had gotten to
Kurt's house and they were still loading up on Kurt's truck.
An hour later, as I was passing through Sacramento, Kurt
called on the cell phone to tell me they were finally on the road.
On the way through the Sierras I made contact with Bob
Stanley and Albert Branson, with Allison, on the radio. By
the time we got to Reno, we were a convoy of three. My Land
Cruiser was a bit of a question mark since it had gotten out
of Rich Sauer's shop only a couple of days before. I was hoping
that the automatic transmission would hold up but I was keeping an eye on
the transmission temperature light, just in case. As we were
approaching Elko, the light came on. I pulled over and
waited about 10 minutes for the temperature to go back down. It
hasn't come on again since.
We stopped in Elko for dinner
after 8PM. We found a Basque restaurant - there's a bunch of
them in this town - and spent a couple of hours before we
could get back on the road. It turned out that while we were
eating, Kurt passed through, couldn't get us on the radio,
and kept going. He didn't find an acceptable eating
establishment in Wells, so they ate whatever they had in the
truck for dinner and found a place in the desert to spend
the night, about 15 miles short of Jackpot. Albert and Allison
wanted a room for the night so they went all the way into Jackpot.
Bob and I went to our usual Camp Sagebrush, about 14 miles
out of Wells, where we threw our sleeping bags down on the
ground and had a wonderful night's sleep under the stars.
The
next morning found us all at the casino in Jackpot for their buffet
breakfast - something of a tradition for us by now. Kurt and
Brian were there, along with Albert and Allison, Bob, and
me. From Jackpot it was on to Twin Falls, for our traditional stops
at the sporting goods store for Delorme maps and to Costco
for necessary, and unnecessary, supplies. We got
ourselves spread out along the road from Twin Falls to Moore,
getting into Moore along around two or so. We made contact
with the others who'd left home earlier: Greg Sugg, Todd
Robinson and Suzie, along with Todd's parents, and Charley Warren
and Donna Matthias, who'd hitched a ride with
Todd.
Everyone was camping at the BLM campsite along Big Lost
River, a few miles short of Mackay. At Camp Riverside there
are places to pitch a tent on both sides of the river. Last year
Todd had set up on the far side while the rest of us were on
the side nearest the highway. This year everyone - so far -
decided to join Todd on the far side. Before long we had our
own Sonoma Wings ghetto set up. Greg, Todd, and I had our
tent trailers. Todd's parents had their cab-over camper.
Everyone else set up tents. We had a low-key campfire and went
to bed. I found out later that Scot Huber had pulled in with
his travel trailer on the other side of the river about the
time I went to bed.
We woke up Monday to a promising day.
Clouds were starting to set up along the mountain tops. We
took our time getting ready. Not Kurt, though. He wanted to get up
to the launch on King early so that he could take Donna for
a ride and give Brian a glass-off intro flight. We kept in
radio contact so we learned that the wind at launch was crossing
from the left - coming out of the flats to the south-east.
Eventually, the wind switched more to the east and shut down
the chance to get into the air. Todd went fishing with his parents
and reported over the radio that it was snowing near Mackay.
In fact the unexpectedly cold weather dumped snow on all the
peaks. They'd done the same on Saturday night, but the snow
had melted. Maybe this dusting would last longer. Bottom
line for Monday was: no flying. Some of us went into Arco to
get food and gas. Albert and Allison went all the way back to
Twin Falls to get an air mattress that didn't leak, a warmer
sleeping bag, and other camping gear.
Matt and Lori
Jagelka came into town around mid-day and set up camp at Camp Leo,
or as they're calling it now, "Pherson's Ranch", for the
fellow who owns the land there. Jon James came in later in
the afternoon and joined them there. Lou Bartell and Caroline
came in towards the evening and joined the Ghetto group. Before
dinner time, Blaine Perkins from Boise joined our camp.
Blaine gave us a lesson in Dutch Oven cooking, whipping up a
fine pizza. Lisa Tate and John Spurlock came over from Moore
town park to join in the festivities. The small group that
had gone into Arco for dinner - too late - came back to tell
us rain was on the way, working its way up the valley. And so
went the evening - good cheer, meeting old friends, stories around
the campfire or packed into Ernie's tent trailer, beer and
wine flowing freely.
Right now it's 11am on Tuesday. There is
no rain, but the whole sky is overcast and a breeze keeps
the clouds moving. It's looking to be a lazy day. I've got my new
Harry Potter book to keep me occupied. Others are going on
hikes around the area. We're just marking time until the
weather gets more flyable. We're hoping that tomorrow will be the
day.
I'm glad I have my tent trailer here. It, along
with the two others, will make rainy day hang waiting a lot
more pleasant for the group. Bob Stanley went into Arco for
breakfast and I asked him to pick up a deck of cards. A
friendly game of poker will help pass the time.
Ernie
|
| Ernie
|
Thursday Morning
We finally had a flyable day yesterday, the first day of the
competition. It was flyable, but not as nice as we'd have liked. The
wind was from the northwest, putting lower launch in the shadow of
the knob, and the ceiling was not far above the top of the mountain.
About half of the pilots, me included, decided to launch from
Coyote, the ridge to the left of the normal launches, which faces
directly into the NW wind. The wind there was still a bit cross so
pilots had to wait for it to straighten out before launching. Lots
of pilots found themselves in the bailout, including Matt and
Albert. Others had to work hard and long to get up and over the top
to head on course down route 3 toward Henry's lake. And then there
were several pilots, me included, who figured it best to just pass
on the day and watch the others struggle.
We've been forming
up teams. One team, Team Anaconda, all got into the air and all did
well. Lou, first timer here, made it to four corners. Kurt took
forever to get high enough to go over the back but was rewarded with
a flight to Dubois (pronounced DUE-boys) airport. Todd struggled on the Lemhi's but
eventually made it past Dubois, but in doing so, missed out on the
bonus points so he didn't score as well as Kurt.
Scot isn't
on that team but he also made it to Dubois. Charley got up but
decided to stay in the area, eventually landing back at the
campground by the river. Brian, another first-timer, took off from
Coyote with his Mosquito harness. The deal for Brian is that he
launches, flies, and lands without power. Then he can fire up and
go. This time he waited until he'd sunk out toward the bailout, then
fired up, got into the lift, then turned off, eventually getting
over the top. On his way to camp he hit massive sink in the valley
so turned on and got to the hills next to camp, where he turned off
and set up for landing, only to hit a bump, work it into 1200 fmp up
back to 11K, where he got airsick then couldn't find his way back
down. He ended up deploying the prop to act as an air brake, spread
his harness as wide as he could, and eventually got out of the lift.
Those of us who blew off the day made a trip to the rock
arch, down the back road from launch.
Ramshorne Restaurant
is open today so most of us were there for dinner. The campfire last
night was more subdued and we tottered off to bed around 10:30 to
get rested up for today. Today we fly. The sky is looking good - not
overdeveloped like it has been at this time of day. Alan Paylor
arranged for a truck outfitted with showers to be brought in so
we'll all get a decent shower tonight. Today is Donna's birthday.
Everyone sang 'happy birthday' to her at the pilots meeting. The
turnout this year is good. 15 pilots from Sonoma Wings, along with 4
drivers, and about 80 pilots total.
The pilots meeting just
got over and everyone is heading up the hill. I'm at Boyd's store
typing this in on his computer (he has DSL access), while Bob and
Greg wait for me in my truck. We finally got a name for our team
(Me, Gregg, Robin Taha, Bob). Greg just informed me that we're the
Soaring Emus. Now we just have to live up to that name.
Peter
Swanson of Wills Wing is here with demo gliders and Kenny Brown has
a Doodlebug to demo too.
The longest flight yesterday was
made by Joe Evans - 75 miles. Joe is from Oregon.
At upper
launch, Frank Gillette had his glider flipped over by a fast-moving
dust devil. Frank, DJ Frost (Kevin's brother, videographer of the
Glidaho videos), and Lisa Tate, meet director, were all hanging on,
to no avail.
The only downer was a close call between two
gliders near the top of the mountain. Seems neither wanted to yield
as they approached head on. Luckily one of them dove out of the
approaching collision. They're still talking about that
one.
A few other pilots, mainly from Montana, decided that
Big Southern Butte would be the ticket. They blew off the comp, with
at least one getting 19 miles from there. That's what's nice about a
best-3-out-of-5 comp. like this - you can take a day off, especially at the start.
Later,
Ernie
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| Ernie
|
Friday Morning
The weather this year has not been epic - at all. They called route
3 yesterday. The clouds were forming higher than before and didn't
OD. That's good. But it was real mild on launch, with weak cycles
coming in at widely-spaced intervals. Still, lots of pilots got up,
but not necessarily away. With the recommended altitude for going
over the back being 12K, it was hard work getting high enough. The
air up around 10K - near the top of the mt., was real rough, giving
some pilots the worst shocks of their careers - slack wires,
slamming turbulence, all that. Some pilots fought it for a while
then went out front to play around and then land in the bailout.
Many others, me included, got to the bailout the direct way, by
sinking out directly after launch. If you were'nt lucky in timing
your takeoff, there wasn't much out there.
There were a lot
of shakey launches, with pilots running off nose-high and mushing it
into the weak condidtions. Scot Huber didn't run long enough and
bonked it, but nothing was broken and he dragged his embarrassed
self back up and tried again - successfully.
Here's the day's
results, as best I remeber them:
Charley - got to 4
corners
Todd - boated around and landed at Alan Paylor's shop,
near Moore.
Kurt, Ernie, Brian and Albert all landed in the
bailout. Kurt and Ernie sank out. Brian and Albert got high first.
Brian, flying his Mosquito harness, was no-power his whole flight -
nice.
Matt - 15 miles, base of Saddle Mt. He just couldn't get up
on that second range.
Jon - longest flight for our group, landing
at Dubois airport.
Bob Stanley - landed in the valley behind
King, where lots of pilots found themselves.
Greg - 12 miles, not
far from Howe, behind King.
Scot - 56 miles, getting close to Hwy
15.
Lou - 33.5 miles, near 4 corners.
Bill Vogel - 49 miles,
about 10 short of Dubois.
The longest flight of the day was
made by Steve Rudy, from the Reno area. He went all the way to
Henry's Lake, I think - something over 100 miles.
Since
yesterday was Donna's birthday, we partied at the Ramshorne
Restaurant. The flying may not be the greatest, but we're having
fun!
Today the weather looks much like yesterday. We're
expecting conditions to be pretty much the same, so it may well be
another route 3 day. I do hope we get to go up route 1 before the
meet is over.
Again I'm typing this in on Boyd's computer. He
put on a great BBQ last night - all you can eat hot links, saugages,
etc. for $7.50. I have to get up the hill, my truck is loaded and
pilots are waiting.
Later,
Ernie
p.s. I have to
make a correction. The Soaring Emu's are:
Me, Greg, Jon, Matt,
and Robin Taha. With Jon's good score yesterday, we're finally on
the leader board.
|
| John Blacet
|
Friday Morning
Thanks for the reports, Ernie!
Congrats to Jon for getting
the "Soaring Emus" off the ground. (What a droll name, Emus seldom
even get airborne...)
It was 100 in Guerneville yesterday,
real hot already today.
|
| Ernie
|
Saturday Morning
Saturday Morning.
We just had a great breakfast, put on by
the town of Moore, at the Moore town park. They've been
doing it for the past 3 years, as a way of raising money for their
volunteer fire department / EMT's. But that's not what you want to
hear about...
I was wrong about the task yesterday. Instead
of it being a repeat of the previous day's route 3 call -
which takes us to the NE along the edge of the desert to Henry's
Lake - the call was for route 1 - up to the north, along hwy
93 and along the high peaks of the Lost River Range. A cheer
went up when route 1 was called. The wind was forecast from the west
so there would be a crosswind or maybe even a headwind
on-course, but it seems the crowd was in the mood for a
change of task, and this one is especially scenic. Of course,
it ended up being especially difficult too. There were nice cycles
at both upper and lower launch, getting lucky pilots up to
the top of the mountain, where they could fight with the
turbulent layer there, but there were also nasty dead cycles that
flushed a number of top pilots to the bailout. Here's a
brief list of where our pilots ended up:
Ernie, Jon, Albert,
Bob, Robin and Bill all ended up in the bailout. Albert whacked and
had his glider flatten him to the ground. The nose wire tang
hadn't been secured properly so the nose wires came off. He
had to wait helplessly until the glider could be lifted off
him. Bill tried to duplicate what I did yesterday. Coming
into the upper bailout he encountered the switchy, lifty,
hot conditions, hit the windsock and landed a hundred yards
further than he'd planned. I broke another downtube when I
ran out of LZ, flared while still screaming along in ground
effect, climbed up, then dropped onto the control frame. The
other bailout landings were uneventful. I'll mention in passing that
Kenny Brown is here with his family to experience King for
the first time. He was super-nice to join us in the
bailout.
Charley - Mackay Airport
Greg - Lower Cedar Crk.
Rd., closer to the mountains than Mackay airport.
Kurt - up near
Mackay Reservoir. He was cruising along at 15k when he got flushed
just past McCaleb, all the way to the ground.
Matt - up
by May-Patterson Rd., past Borah Peak, for about 45 miles
Eric
Froelich - almost to the gorge, past Willow Creek Summit, for a
personal best.
Brian - power off again, went half-way down Sunset
ridge before bailing, for his first real XC.
Todd and
Suzie went fishing
Lou and Caroline went hiking.
Kurt had a reception after he landed. It seems that
someone reported his landing as an accident so the Mackay
volunteer fire department and ambulance rolled up to his location,
up a dirt road away from the highway, about the same time as
Lori Jagelka in Kurt's truck. A quick verification that he
was OK, and they apologized for barging into his day and left.
Nice practice for them, I suppose, and nice to know that
they're fast responders.
I've been taking pictures with my
new digital camera. I have over 500 shots so far.
I'm sorry that I can't post
any photos to this report. I'll add images to the report
after I get home. The shower trailer has been a big hit.
There are six showers in a truck trailer, parked right here
at Moore Park, so we can get ourselves decent after we come in to
post our landing forms.
The Staff Choice Award - also
called by some the "Suck-Up Award", is a wonderfull quilt,
hand made by Lisa Tate, with a hang gliding motif. It'll go
to the person who does the most to make the staffs' life
pleasant. You can take that any way you like. There has been
stiff competition. I'm nowhere near the top, having only
given each of the 3 ladies a bottle of champagne. Wine,
posters, flowers, neck rubs, and who knows what else (the ladies
aren't talking), have been heaped on them. I'm told that
there are a handful of contenders at the moment. I must
admit, Lisa and Terri had a good idea with that award. It appears to
be worth the hours Lisa put into that quilt.
Back to
the competition, I haven't been reporting the daily scores 'cause I
haven't bothered to check them. Lisa's crew is doing a great job of
compiling and posting the scores each day. Maybe I'll jot down the
standings and post those later. or not. At any rate, our Team
Anaconda is doing well, I believe, and the Soaring Emus might still
be in contention, if we do well today.
Gotta run, I'm going
up to upper launch today so I can photograph the crowd up
there.
Ernie
|
| Ernie
|
Sunday Morning
Sunday Morning
Yesterdy turned out to be a route 3 day, the
3rd one. Cloud base was relatively low at 13.5 K and the clouds were
coming down the valley from the north.
I wanted to take some
photos of the activity at upper launch so Bob Stanley and I went up
there. I got some good photos, and even better, I managed to get up
after launching. I'm sure the extra altitude gave me the room to
find a ride out of there. As I was scratching in front of the knob,
the last chance to hook a thermal, I saw that a pilot had landed on
the shoulder of the the knob. Poor bloke was sitting under his
glider, waiting for someone to come help him haul it down to the
road. I found out later that it was our own Matt Jagelka. I'll let
him tell his story of working a bit too close to the hill and paying
the price.
Bob took off right after me and after some work we
both got above King. When I reached cloudbase I pulled VG and headed
across valley 2 to Saddle Mt. Unfortunately, there was a big cell
heading down the valley, with a big shadow covering most of the
valley and rain dropping out of its center. I didn't know which way
I should go to get around it, eventually deciding to head to the
south, downwind side. I was flying at over 50mph airspeed with a
tight hold of the basetube 'cause of the sharp bumps, but I didn't
quite out-race the precipitation - hail it turned out to be. I
headed straight for a pivot (large green circle of irrigated land)
at the base of Saddle. I was drilled right down to the ground,
almost. I saw three other gliders already on the ground there and
was sure I'd be joining them. I tossed my streamer, watched it hit
the ground while doing 360's, then made a few more to lose altitude.
But, instead of going down, I was now holding steady. The cloud
shadow had passed me and the sun was heating the ground again. I
worked the weak lift and found it to be steady. After a long slow
climb, I drifted right over the top of Saddle to 13.5K, cloud base,
and headed out across the next valley.
Another valley, same
story. A big cloud shadow covered the valley, with rain dropping out
of the center off to my left. I tried again to out-race the cloud
downwind by heading straight for 4 Corners instead of straight
across the valley. Again I didn't quite beat the cloud with rain
hitting me for a few miles until I got past the center of it. I
found lift on the other side and worked my way over to the main highway
heading to Dubois, my next turnpoint. As I drifted down the road, I
found more lift, and more rain. It was neat to see it way below me,
lit up by the sun like millions of silver bees. I was working a weak
thermal at the time and didn't leave it until the rain got to me,
then it was solid rain until I was looking at a landing again. There
were several cars strung out along the road here. I started circling
over the last one, yelling down for the wind direction. Holly and
Nat Wells held up a steamer showing the wind coming from the south
directly across the road (and directly opposite the cloud movement).
With their help I had my best landing of the week. My 43 mile flight
finally put me on the board.
On the radio, I could hear the
chatter as other pilots continued on or landed short. Here's the
results of the day's flying, as best I know:
No one landed in the
bailout today.
Matt - biffed it in on the side of the
knob
Greg - broke down and went to help Matt hike the glider and
gear out. I'd say Greg is due a Club Service Award nomination for
giving up his day, while I'm sure Matt will get a Turkey Award
nomination.
Bob - made it across valley 2, but he went to the
north side of the cloud that I'd skirted to the south, and ended up
on the ground at the base of Saddle.
Charley - He was one of the
three gliders in that pivot that I thought I'd land in. The other
two were Eric Froelich and Kevin Frost. I'll let Charley tell the
story of the herd of curious cows he had to contend with.
Bill
Vogel - hung back over King until that storm cell had passed, then
went straight across to Saddle. But, on the crossing over the next
valley, he couldn't get away from the rain and found himself on the
ground at 4 Corners.
Jon James - landed at DuBois airport, after
fighting to get down out of the abundant lift all over DuBois. Silly
boy, 'cause ...
Kurt and Lou took that abundant lift up to 14.5K and
continued on past Kilgore to land at the 93 mile mark (just 20 short
of Henry's Lake). They'd have made it to Henry's Lake but for the
big blue hole, 50 miles across, that it was in the middle of. They
headed out from Kilgore into that blue hole from 14K and ended up on
the ground 11 miles later. BTW, Lou is now in first place in the
Recreational class - a class he'll never compete in again after this
flight! (Rec pilots are those who've never flown further than 75
miles).
Todd - flushed to the ground 2 miles short of Dubois by a
gust front.
Scot - I believe Scot landed somewhere in Valley 3 -
about as far out as 4 Corners.
Albert - landed at 4
corners.
Robin Taha - landed just past Howe.
Brian Padgett - a sad story:
All suited up, getting into line with Kurt's topless Sensor, ready
to join all the pilots twirling up in front of launch, he reaches
for his helmet and finds it gone. Where did it go? When did he have
it last? Brian ended up not flying. This morning he and Bob went
back to where he'd landed yesterday and there it was. Brian is
feeling much better now - he was feeling miserable last
night.
About 6 pilots made it to Henry's lake, so it was a
good route 3 day.
Last night at Moore park the Town of Moore put on a barbeque for us,
with steak, chicken, and all the fixings. It was tasty. But, there may have
been a few pilots who didn't get to taste it. At least I heard that they were
running low on steak after a lot of the local folks showed up unexpectedly to
get in on the feast. I forget who the proceeds went to, it may have been to the
town itself to help with improvements in the park.
Today is looking like it might be a Route 1
day. There is more of a southerly flow so we're hopeful. A couple of
announcements were made at the pilot meeting this morning:
- Matt
and Lori are celebrating their 23'd wedding anniversary today.
-
Albert and Allison announced that they plan to wed.
I've
heard that a few pilots weren't happy with the route 1 call 2 days
ago. They didn't like flying into a headwind, so I'm told. Oh, well.
Most of the pilots (as far as I know) were happy with the call. I
guess competitions and complaints go hand in hand, but I find it
unusual in a low-key recreational event like
this.
Later
Ernie
|
| Ernie
|
Monday Morning
It's all over. I'm here at Boyd's store on my way out of Moore.
Most everyone else is already on the road. It'll be a long 15 hrs
before I'm safely home in my bed.
But, that's not what you
want to hear. I'll make this short - we can fill in details later.
We had a wonderful Route 1 day yesterday. Cloud base was up about 16K,
the wind was steady from the South, and I was able to get up and
away from the lower launch in that elevator to the top of King that
I love. I was able to get to 15K at most of the peaks along the
route that I've had to scrape by before. It looked like I'd make May
for sure, and maybe even Salmon. But, after all that wonderful lift,
the Ginzu ridge shot me, and a lot of others, down. I, Jon, Kurt,
Bill, Charley and Greg all fell victim. Charley thought he was a bird and
tried to land on top of a fence post at the Willow Creek Pass LZ. He's limping a bit today.
Bob was setting up to land at Willow
Creek Pass LZ when he got a low save and made it all the way to May,
where he joined Todd and Lou. I thought Lou had 1st place in the
Rec. class all sewn up, but it turned out that his main rival
continued on to Salmon at the point along the Salmon River canyon
from Challis to Salmon where Lou, not knowing quite where Salmon
was, turned back to May. His rival (don't have his name right now),
beat Lou by 3 points. So, Lou took 2nd place - and a magnificent
trophy, on his first trip here. Reminds me of Greg a couple of years
ago getting 1st place on his first trip here, and of Scot losing out to Zippy by a couple of
points for first place in the Open Class last year.
Scot took off
early today, maybe being the first in the air around noon, and it paid off
for him. Scot got the longest flight of the day, almost making it to
Anaconda with 139 miles.
Charley made a tremendous effort and
sucked up so big that he got the fabulous quilt Lisa made as the
Staff Choice Award. Lisa said it was Charley's consistency, sucking
up every day, that clinched it.
The week started out weak,
but ended on a strong note with yesterday's great conditions. Sadly,
the condititons are supposed to be even better today.
I'm
hitting the road. We'll all report more later.
Ernie
|
| Ernie
|
more
I forgot to mention... Cathy Vogel got the award for best driver,
having picked up more pilots than anyone else. She got an Air Chair.
|
| Lori Alan
|
Even more -- two years together
Thanks Ernie for reporting it all. It was nice to re-live it
all.
Besides Donna's birthday and Matt and Lori's wedding
anniversary, Scot and I met at a field just slightly north of Arco
just before the King Meet two years ago so I guess we also
celebrated an anniversary of sorts as well.
I gotta admit
that my favorite moments came when there was a little confusion as
to which Lori was talking to which pilot during the chase
Scot's Lori
|
| Ernie
|
King Mt. - call for your stories
Well the King meet is over. Lots of interesting stories were
generated during the week of flying, and non-flying. The reports
that I posted were just a small sampling of what went on.
Please take some time and post your stories about the meet.
Don't be afraid to talk about the controversies as well as the
accomplishments.
For example, communications became a topic
of concern. There were some conflicts when there was too much
chatter on the club's flying frequency during one flight. There was
also some conflict when some pilots decided to use a different
frequency, splitting up the chase / pilot pool. There were some
interesting side trips taken on non-flying days (hiking, fishing,
etc.). And, I'm sure there was lots of juicy gossip that I'm not
aware of, being the socially-impaired fellow that I am.
As a
start on tying up loose ends, my last report was too hastily
composed. I should have mentioned that our club did an outstanding
job in winning awards. The awards given out at the closing party
were:
Recreation Class (top 3): Lou Bartel took 2nd place,
almost getting 1st place.
Open Class (top 3): we didn't get
an award here.
Sportsmanship Award: Greg Sugg took this for
selflessly breaking down (not flying) and going to help Matt
retreive his glider from the Knob.
Eiji Yokada Memorial
Trophy (for longest flight during the meet): Scot Huber took this
with his 139 mile flight on the last day.
Driver Award: Cathy
Vogel picked up more pilots than anyone else.
Staff Choice
Award (known affectionatly as the "suck-up" award): Charley Warren
set a standard that'll be hard to beat.
Team competition: we
didn't get this one, but we tried - Team Anaconda did pretty well, I
think.
|
| Charley Warren
|
King Mt.
OK Ernie, it's kinda long but you asked for it.
My King 2003
Story
By Charley Warren
The days leading up to the meet were
mostly cold and wet did camping hiking and rock hunting.
Wednesday, the first meet day, I was hot to fly. Conditions were
good but rapidly developing. The moment of truth came for me in this
flight when I was at cloudbase at 12,500’. I was poised to go over
the back on Route 3 with Todd. I looked down the course-line and saw
lots of over-development and hail falling. Todd and I were getting
hailed on quite hard by now. Looking out into valley 1 I see there
is more clear sky here than to the east. As I look, Todd says on the
radio that he just saw lightening strike next to him. That’s enough
to make my decision. I radio that I am heading upwind to land at
camp. I pass through more hail and actually take a small hail stone
in the eye. OW! I make it to camp and land after 2:30hrs and 10.2
miles. No one is in camp and it’s the first warm day since we’ve
been there. I break down next to my tent, naked. :b
Day 2. Route 3 again. This time I it’s drier and I make it to
13,200 and go over the back. This was my first time over the back at
King. The strong NW drifts me toward the Arco Hills where I pick up
good altitude and am able to get to Saddle Mt in good shape. I work
it until I’m drifting over the back of Saddle into valley 3. Strong
sink mellows after a couple miles and I work my way across the
valley. I end up at the Four Corners bonus LZ for 32 miles, 2:45hrs. :D
Day
3. Route 1. This flight begins with the coolest climb-out of my
life. I start circling in strong, tight lift, right in front of
launch. As I drift back over launch a couple hundred feet high,
gliders are streaming off launch in two lines just below me. I
continue to climb right there for several minutes, in a steep bank
and watch about a dozen gliders launch into the same cycle. Too
Cool! Too Awesome! I get to 13,900’. Going is tough with a headwind
on route. I make the MacKay Airport bonus LZ. 18.6 miles. 1:50hrs. :)
Day
4. Route 3 again. Once again climbed right out, this time to 14,500.
As I was going over the back I got into a cloud and got scared! I
should have gone back to King to gather my wits but continued on
course. Made it across valley 2 only to get flushed down on the
flanks of Saddle Mt. with about seven other pilots. There was
thunder and rain, then pilots who crossed later made it, no problem.
My shortest flight of the meet, 15.3 miles, 1:00hrs. :o
Day 5. Route 1 again. Good conditions for the route. Waited at
King for an hour for more Team Anaconda pilots to launch. Left at
14,500’. Got low crossing Pass Creek. Lots of lift from there to
Victory Ridge. Got to 16,200’ over Leatherman Peak. Flew all around
Borah, no lift there. Got low crossing to Dickey Peak. Dickey was
working good. Got back up there to 13,000’. Victory Ridge was not
working at all. Tried to get back to Dickey but was too far past it.
Ended up at the Willow Creek bonus LZ with Greg for 44.7 miles,
3:10hrs. :D
A note
about my landing, I landed close to the fence at the end of the LZ.
I mean close! I was on one side of the fence, my glider was on the
other! For this reason I will not be flying this next weekend. As I was
coming in to land I was watching the GPS to find where they had
marked zero. I forgot to take the VG off, when I turned over the
fence the glider drifted past it. Now behind the fence and low I
pulled in to try to hop the fence. The wind was keeping me from
gaining as much ground as I had hoped. Then I started to fixate on a
fence post in my glide path. I tried to look away but the glider
kept going toward it. Ultimately it came time to flare. I flared
high and early (still fast) and would have cleared the fence if it
had not been for that post. I was on a track that was taking my
crotch right into the post! This would not do. As I came to the
post I planted my right foot against the top and pushed back. The
momentum of the glider continued to pull its weight and mine into my
foot. As everything settled to the ground I could feel that I had
just sprained my ankle. In retrospect I think the tops of my toes
were right up against the front of my shin! OW! It is now quite
swollen. X-rays show no breaks. I have an air cast for a while and
will spend this weekend iced and elevated. :\
Oh
yes about that Staff Choice award. The prize was the most awesome
quilt, hand-made by Lisa Tate. It has a King Mt. scene on it with
twelve gliders and a full moon in the sky! I’ll let you all in on my
secret to winning it so next year there will be more competition.
Each day I did something for each of the staff members, not just
Lisa.
So, 11:15 hours airtime, 125 XC miles, the quilt, and I won
two great shirts at the morning drawings. What a great time!
Hangfly the Airhead :b
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| Ernie
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Road Rash
To make this document complete, I have to mention my further adventures trying to get home from King.
In the weeks before the meet, I'd had trouble with my Land Cruiser's automatic transmission. It overheated
on an attempted trip to the Star Thistle meet in Oregon,
burning up most everything inside. Rich Sauer rebuilt it, but on the trial run afterward - to St. John -
it overheated again. Back to the shop for an external transmission cooler and I was set. On the way
to King, the transmission temperature light only came on once, and a 10 minute wait was all it took to get back
on the road. Then all
week during the meet there was no problem, but then there were no long retrieves either.
So, I'm expecting a nice easy ride home - 15 hours and I'm in bed. No chance. About 20 miles out of Arco, that
damned light came on. And it came on over and over again for the next three days. The first day I was only able
to make it to Elko. I had gotten to the point where I would drive for 10 minutes, then wait for 10 minutes.
The second day, it took me 13 hours to go from Elko to Auburn, where luckily a guy I work with lives. I crashed
at his house that night and put in a half day's work with him the next morning. I left Auburn around 2PM and got
home at 8:30 that 3rd night. I didn't realize it but I was beat. I'm sure glad I'd bought that new Harry Potter
novel. I'd read it while waiting for the transmission to cool. I finished the book and started over, getting several
chapters into it before getting home.
I still don't know where some of our pilots ended up on the last flight, Sunday. When I find out, I'll add that
info to this report. I'll also post the final scores for everyone once I get them from Lisa.
Ernie
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