Second vol bivi

Going to world first showing of Babu's NG flight from top of Everest program here in Nepal at Blue Sky - had a nice easy flight today - video to follow - All's well will be flying wind tec for Russian Open for next day or two - Brad off on vol with Nick we will see what they get - gust fronts this afternoon with rain - "on the ground by 3" glad to be back - had great second adventure - this time in a poor little two hut terrace set with a husband and wife and a few friends - best potato stew so far!!! - lovely folk.
P.

Today - big sky's - happy to come down early - lots of big ears at the end of day.

Had a nice night out in a two hut terrace last night. Pic's to come but not much time right now

I'm Back and I'm leaving

SINGDI from the Air

Three days ago I launched myself into the unknown. After considerable consideration and consternation, leaving sleeping bag and most gear on the ground for weight reduction off I went.

Launch was fine but lift was marginal and it took three attempts to finally get up and established at toriponi. - From there the glide was good and with a spin or two at Dicky Danda I was off to the Green Wall - No worries there - two others were mega high and lift was abundant. - Late to the party I buzzed East.

I clicked through way points till I passed my first top landing way point(TL0). On I went till about 3:45 or so and over the ridge past TL1 I looked across the valley at a top landing option that I had not marked. - I had seen this place months ago looking at the route but had lost it. The place is called Singdi.

My approach was plenty high and I had nice lift on the lea/primary thermal on the Singdi point. I overflew the school and found expected rotor to be more than what I felt was safe and I aborted my attempt in the soccer field. - I buzzed about until I found calm flat air with a touch of down on the east side of the ridge where there were lots of terraces. After a couple of passes the air felt good and a shot or so gave me a nice little stall it in landing on a postage stamp terrace with a thud.



The children were on me in an instant. The first person to land from the sky in Singdi. Quite a stir. As time went by the news spread through the mountain village of 2000 that and event had happened. The landing made me a very special person. The elders said my name would be part of their history. They put flowers on me and gave me shawls of welcome. I was made to sit with the men of the village as they had tea for a wedding to occur later that day.



I was then escorted by the village Brahma who was also the teacher, having studied sociology and political science in England, to a top house. At this hut I became the guest of honor. We had fine food, dahl bot with special spinach. Go ahead and laugh Gail. The night was very comfortable in a prime sleeping place.

The next morning I hiked with the massive contingent of children and some curious elders to launch. - It took 2 hours and 5 different launch attempts to get off and up. The house thermal worked in 1 and 200 up but not enough for me so I dove for what I figured to be big lift only to get slammed with nothing but sink.

The next thing was to spot a landing in the bottom of the valley. No worries but from Singdi it was a two day hike and drive with an overnight so I just now am getting back to Pokhara. - Had dinner with Arnie and while waiting Brad Sanders called and hooked me in on a second effort, this time with partners, for the route to KMT leaving 8:00 sharp tomorrow.

Charge the Gopro and I will check in in a week or maybe sooner - we will see. More Vol-bivi - what am I thinking?

Adventures abound.
Preacher

very quick

battery almost gone on laptop - Yesterday great day to fly - took the green wall from toraponi cap at 2300 - easy - but I was way over weight - have to loose some gear - chucked sleeping bag and extra stuff in exchange of plan to only land with people or valleys. - Leaving on Vol-Bivi today if first day works well.
Saying safe - love you all
Dave

Comp is Over - read the one after this as well - two posts today

GOT MILK?

The Nepal Nationals ended today. I flew the task very fast and low, ending up with Claudio and the R10.2 at the 2nd to last turn point. Aggressive moves both made and blew the day. At 1450 I skipped the house thermal on Sarinkot and bugged for the conference center hoping to ride the ridge up on the waning hope of a dying day. The house at Sarinkot did not look too productive I was way out front which is closer to the conference center so the move was not without merit, it just didn’t work.
I bombed out scratching the ridge under the last turn point and got a nice walk across the valley for my efforts.

My porter named Nurgen took me direct to the pontoon boat that crosses the river. Quite an easy retrieve actually.

At the LZ where the awards ceremony was conducted, again lots of speeches in Nepali as well as perfunctory safety meetings. On landing the spot was an egg. Break the egg you get the spot. In the Sport class the women took 1,2 and 3. Not in the women’s class but they took the sports class. Claudio won the open and Arnie Frankenburger took second. If we had computer scoring I figure I would have placed top 10 or so finishing 8.7 short of goal on day 1, In goal with 5th day 2 and one turn point short day 3. No day had more than 12 in goal so I was quite happy with my flying.

Tomorrow I will fly over to the Green Wall and beyond pushing down the course toward the vol-bivi. If I crank the day then I will continue but if not it will be a overnight or just mega retrieve. It will be both a test and an opportunity to fly some deep stuff. This in preparation for 3 days out and a full on effort in 3 to 4 days to fly to Katmandu. Dave, Claudio and Bella are all in the loop regarding the flight. They will be the local check crew with SPOT updates going to their local phones. They like to keep track when wacko foreigners come to play in the hills. Nice folk.

Back to the experience of living in Nepal. – I have taken to the lovely cashmere shawl I bought Gail. It is “uni-sex” in Nepal and it dresses up my cashmere sweeter that mom bought me a number of years ago. The neat thing about the shawl is that I can cover my head, shoulders or just wrap the neck and keep my body warm through about a 10-15 degree difference in the evenings. Very nice.

Tonight I am eating at Shiva a waterfront restaurant that is open air but somewhat smoky from the fire in the middle of the space. – I am having chicken butter massala my standard favorite along with a beer or two. When I got here the lights were on and music was quite interesting and fun, then the power went out a communal sigh was echoed and we are now in very romantic candle light. – Where is Gail when these times occur. Eating alone and thinking of my love. Here comes the food. – Wonderful – rice and flat bread with a sautee pan’s worth of spicy hot chicken butter massala. You have to try it when you get to your local Indian restaurant.

Almost all the crew has left. – I think Patricia, Conrad, Randy and Jeff are still about but they are short timers. Conrad and Randy are nursing a cold (to minimize it.) Nasty bug. Our prayers go out to Tom for his recovery. Sickness or injury seems to be part of the game we play here and about the world. Speaking of the world the language dynamic is interesting. – This is such an international sport. Sitting in the restaurant I am listening to animated conversations in French, German and Spanish. The common language is English so the Germans speak to the Nepali’s in English as to the French and Spanish. English seems to be the key.

The mountains were out in the morning – stunning view of real big mountains.
More later.
P.

left over post from pre comp

Matty’s tour is over tomorrow and Doc and some others are leaving. Half the group will stay on a bit which will be great. I said good by for now to Ralph and Maggie. Matt is leaving on the 24th and others also are leaving. It is looking as if I may get lonely at some point here.

This week we are flying the Nepal National Paragliding Competition. There were lots of formal speeches during the opening ceremony, all in Nepali. It isn’t clear if the competition is a competition or just another way for the paragliding association to extract a tax on foreign pilots who want to fly the main launch.
There are over 140 pilots in the comp and today was practice day. It seems there are 3 elements to the comp: XC ACRO and Spot landings. – I don’t know what ACRO I will do on the M4 but it will be fun.

Today I attempted to fly the Curshon route. (sp?) Lovely glide and ride on the Green Wall ending in a white room visit. I had only one event, a 60%er while entering into a thermal. I hit it straight on and the wing just wouldn’t pressurize. I hung there waiting, waiting, waiting – frozen and time with that bad feeling, then wam-bam-thank you dam hang on.

Went on down the route as Jeff Smith and others who had launched the Green wall joined in on the task. – Flying with vultures was interesting – had one try and scare me. – They dive at you and just as they get there they rotate pointing their talons at you, screech and flap. – and then they are gone. – Real life was just like the video when the Russian was brought down by a similar vulture action.

I landed out as far and deep as you can go on the route. – The hike back was about ½ hour with porters for the bags. – Jeff and I landed together. – hopped on top a jeep for 2-3 river crossings – by the time we got to taxi there were 24 people on top/in/hanging on the jeep made for 6.
All in a day’s flying here in Nepal.

Breakfast with Ritkita and off for another day.
P.

sorry about spot - didn't seem to be tracking till eod and then tracked rather than ok

Quick note on plans

Today was a great day of flying - I snagged 4 or 5th in open class A great route and crew to chase around the mountains.

It looks like tomorrow will also be a good day to fly then the day after is looking like the big day. - If all goes well I will begin a solo vol-bivi for katmandu on that day. Seems few have made it all the way - I have the time and energy. I feel great after today and the experience that Matty's crew described about their vol-bivi was very encouraging.

Rock on
More tomorrow.
P.

Day What Ever?

What day is today? I have been here long enough that I have lost touch with time. I know it is somewhere around the middle to the end of February and it is the middle of the afternoon but beyond that you would win the bet if I had to guess the day and time. It is a good feeling to be timeless.

The days in the North Lakeside district of Pokhara are quite simple. It is a somewhat upscale and less hectic part of town. Here there are many are more foreigners and tourists. The hotels and guest houses can be found for about 300 npr to 1,000 npr a day, maybe more but my room is quite nice at 300. exchange is 75 npr to the dollar. The room is simple and you don’t have electricity all the time but when it is on the internet is up and works well.

The children in the families that have Guest houses learn English from tourists and in school. At my Guest house my friend is Karina who is a sweet 17 year old girl that acts much more like a 14 year old. Very nice, doesn’t like to work too much but keeps the place running while her folks are doing other things. There is also an older and younger brother both of whom are involved in school. Karina said she quit school because she didn’t like it.

The continual sound of hammers, saws and tuk-tuks overwhelm the quiet of the lake side view during the day, though the mornings are quiet lovely. Everywhere in the town building projects are active. The quality of construction is like you might have seen in Mexico 50 years ago. Some brickwork, some cement, some bamboo and wood construction. Almost no power tools except saws and they stop when the electricity stops.

If you have never seen them a tuk-tuk is a small but sturdy diesel engine on two wheels with long handles that come back to the driver. Well a picture might help. – Some tuk-tuks, unmuffled are so loud I can not imagine the drivers have any hearing left.

And the matching Cement Mixer.

I have spent most of the day just lounging around. I spent a couple hours putting together a set of waypoints via Google earth that will be my starting guide for the vol-bivi which I will start in 2 to 4 days. The general plan is to go from Pokhara to Katmandu via paraglider on a tack that will put me over 2-3000m foot hills. Not many have done the route but it is quite doable. We will see.

More later.
Preacher

Quick Update

Past three days were spent flying from a site about 30k South of Pokhara. The site is very sweet but the launch road which includes a river forging by jeep is by far the worst site access road in my experiance. - From now on when we find ourselves on a bad road the comment will be "Yea, but it isn't as bad as the road up to Sirkot." Time up the hill 1hr of bone jaring terror. JEEP OR BETTER ONLY
Day one - Doc and I had sledders after I botched a forward into a stone wall - brused ego only.

Day two - Skied with Randy - team flew with tops to 3,000k - lovely day of flying - landed at lake just before a gust front / swirl hit - Doc spanked by it and ended up in the lake - again alls well but likely lost his gopro and vario. - packed his reserve on the montain top and we flew again.

Day three - I was lazy and lucky - I just waited until it seemed some were getting high - launched and buzzed fast at the "top" of 2000 to 2100m lift - not realy enough, but just enough - lifty line and great glide on the M4 made for an easy day back to lake -
I popped up over the house and pushed back toward the green wall - didn't make it and had the best part of the day given to me via a roof top buss ride back into Pokhara - WILD.

More video and blog will come - today it is the Nepal National Paragliding Comp - 5 days of XC ACRO and Spot landings. - LOL - combined score - 144 pilots - look at me to be on the podium for ACRO.

Plans are coming together for Vol-Bivi following or during comp. 3-5 days from now for 4-5 days.
A couple videos from the wedding are attached - (out of disk space on my computer I have shot so much footage. - )

What would you do if your couldn't fly.

Arnie and I went to a Hindi wedding as honored guests

Dateline Nepal

This is the licence plate for a hit and run.

Dateline Nepal


Ok so the where in the world game is over. The crew in Nepal with Matty had their suspicions, some were sure I would show up at some point and others were less committal, but I don’t think anyone was surprised.

With the crew that is over here while I am “between work commitments” there could not be a better time for me to do this.

The picture on face book with Big Ben in the background was not as much a tell as I thought. I may have been the only person getting here via London. My travel task, like everyone’s was arduous: Early start to take the Airporter from Yakima. Good seat on bulkhead scored by being first in line, waiting most of the day for British Air to open the counter at 2:00pm. Flight out at 6:40pm on time to London, arrive with 9 hr lay over (time to take the tube into Westminster for the pic of the clock, back and on a second redeye to Deli India, 2 hour wait for 737 to Katmandu, and now it gets interesting.

In Katmandu at about 3:30 local time, Nepal is not just off set by x hours GMT but also by 45 min or 15 min depending on how you look at it. This place is actually out of a different time, and is a different world. The sites and sounds can not be described, they are completely other than anything I have ever experienced. The city itself is a seemingly unending maze of energy, a cacophony of attempts to sell and or make money amongst squallier, noise, signs, bodies moving about, cars, tractors, animals, children, and many motorbikes.

We drive on the other side of the road but the roads are so small that each encounter with the next vehicle begins with an apparent head-on followed by a negotiating honk of horns and then a near miss of 6 inches, Over and over and over. Amazing that this doesn’t happen more often:

I promised my cab driver in Pokhara I would try to get this hit and run up asap for his needs.

Good evidence but I don’t know if it will help his cause.

Back to the story – In Katmandu the attempt to find Matt’s recommended Guest House begins with the cab driver saying, Oh Yes Sir, No Problem and ends with a – “Just Let me Out where someone speaks English and there is a bed. This is a city without street names and endless Katmandu-ness.

Once my bags were in my room it was beginning to get dark and I learned my first lesson in Nepal. – always have a flashlight. The power is on based on a schedule, maybe. – No power for a while so out comes the flashlight and I head off on a walk looking for a restraint named ORK2. – I find it after another interesting story of looking about and trying to get a cell phone – Got one right quick and about 17$ US with 200 min or so. – Now I know why Matt said bring 4 passport photos. You need one for most official transactions.
The first went to the Entry Visa, second to Cell phone guy, third to Paraglider documents, and I have one for a souvenir for now until the Elephant trek guy needs one for Insurance.

I bought an Air ticket for the morning which was a bit of a mistake, but after a long wait at Katmandu airport, another experience that knocked me over I was in the air and then quickly setting down in Pokhara about 30 minutes later. – There Fish Tail element of the Hymilalias were out in stunning form – Incredible.

That’s all for now – Flights ok – I need to build bump tolerance following a spin/stall event 700 or so over the ridge on my first flight – All is well but back in the game later today. – All is well - Love you all –
P.

Crash in Pokhara

This is the licence plate for a hit and run.

It is cold - where to go?

Winter is the time one needs to get on a plane. I am one of the "lucky ones" who can leave anytime. - But where to go? - Late for the best of Valle De Bravo. - hmmm - All my buddies are headed to Nepal - hmmm - a little late to book that flight. - We will see - maybe OZ - I better make up my mind soon or it will be spring and my log book will be empty.
Any suggestions?
Preacher

More Rampart

Condition report: Thanks Matty, Gordon and Milroy for making the call (I actually don't know who got it started)- Those wanting advanced warning should have picked up my tweet just after I heard rumblings at 9 or 10 Sunday morning. - I don't tweet everything but if you follow me @ewpg you will get heads up on some great flying. - We met up at the Gold Creek bridge around 12:30 and rocked to launch to find two hangs set up and just about ready to go. (Tom and Brian) - Some snow on road but no problems whatsoever for any rig that can make the run when it is clear.

Cycles were coming in west when we got to launch so I made a "rapid" departure following two botched launch attempts. The first Hang just couldn't quite scratch it out. (ten minutes too early, I figure) - I found lift very light early and with aggressive efforts, gain 20, loose 10ft. for the first 15 min to 25 min I was able to push back to the base of the ridge proper and up to about 5,000ft. From that point on it was nothing but lift in all the right places. Dave M and Matty beat me to the top of the ridge and then booked for the West side of the valley for one of several circuits.

By the time I made it back out to 1/2 way between launch and ALTA all 6 bags were making their appearance in the air, Heather, Gordon, Matty, Dave, Dave and Jeff and me (Dave), 3 Daves, what's with that, a very fine crew and everyone got as much cold as they wanted. I flew about until I had to come down due to an appointment back in Yakima at 6:00. Everyone could have flown easy an extra hour or so. We flew back in to ALTA and I think everyone busted 6k or better, I didn't get very high at ALTA, when I went back the valley was shady which kept things quiet until it opened up later. - The video is at about 1 hour into my flight. Boy do I love my mits. -

Bottom line, Cold, Beautiful, Lifty to Base at 6,500 or better. - Wisppys, Smooth and fun. - All bags landed at the bridge to the best of my knowledge.

Video is around 3 min, unedited and simply to provide a condition report
Preacher.

Lucky day

Rampart is one of the more challenging sites we fly and when winds are up it is down right dangerous.



I almost always rely on XC Skies ground level wind speeds. They were showing 7 mph, (I double, plus a little, that number for launch wind speed which gave me 14-17 on launch and for Rampart that is a way way no go prognosis) I would ever think to fly based on those number, revising strategy now. - But it was Saturday and Gail was working so with a gaggle of Hangs declaring their intent I figured why not check it out. Part of my reasoning was to build more data points in my own mountain WX synapses.




5 hangs in the end and when I walked up to paralaunch who did I find but Dave M. and Jeff Spear. - Yippee it was a lovely day. Max Altitude: 6060ft.

The Season is Wraping Up

or

I GUESS IT IS GOING TO BE A LONG LONG TIME

Over the next few days I will be doing some writing - Already have one article thumbnailed on safety issues and wing upgrades. - Stay tuned. -
For now just a quick fun one from this summers video archives.
Can you guess the pilot?

Shoulda Woulda Coulda

Rampart to Stevens pass, my first attempt. Conditions looked to be excellent for the effort. XC Skies was calling for lift to 11,400 to 12,000 on route with generally low pressure and South winds over the Cascade crest.

Up pass winds from both the West and East on the surface were to be 4 to 7mph. This is a little strong but you get that with good lift. The conditions on launch were a bit challenging - nothing new there, but a bit of a stronger East push kept us sitting on our hands until the West face really started to move. Until then we had cross winds out of the East.


3 minute video above, 1hr 45min below

When cycles started to come from the SW it was after 2:00. I really had hoped to get off by 1:00. Next time I think we will launch East just below the Hang launch.

Climb out was fast and easy and the crest was boaty and lifty. - Strong windy lift with undetermined, lea and windward sources were the name of the game all day. For one who is not use to mountain flying it was quite disconcerting to not have a clear read on either the direction of the lean of the thermals or their actual source. - After a couple of turns I could figure it out but I was never sure when they kicked off and some were as strong as 5.5 m/s up.

The view up there is just amazing but to give you an idea of the work involved I can honestly say that I spent almost no time looking about and almost all of my energy flying and working for best lift and line.

After my initial climb I got a nice lift in the bowl just south of Alta and then flew on a lift line just east of the peak. I didn't have to turn again until past Chikamin where I was back to ridge level. This is at the back end of the major bowl that you see when you look up valley from the freeway. From the freeway it looks like the last high hill but it is a ridge / bowl that has a S and SW face.

Chickamin faces S and I had to push past it to its West face to begin to pick up my next lift. It was slow to develop but eventually really took off and was my first climb that had a strong SW to NE lean to it. This one sucked me farther into tiger country which was good and bad. It was forcing me to make a call and with the extra lean I began to imagine valley winds in the back of my mind.



Flying high in the mountains is easy, the big problem is at the end of the day and you have to make your calls way before you have all the information. This leaning thermal told me that the West winds were winning and going to pick up. - I was facing a push now to the North that had about 20k left (though I didn't know the distance for sure).

I was certain I could make the next transition to Chimney Rock having over 9,000ft at Lema Two. But it was becoming the point of no return and I just didn't have the guts or other apparati required to continue on. I was already at a point where I wasn't certain I could make it back but thought I could. In hind-sight I should have pushed on.

Back to the challenge of valley winds. - When you get low they can be very strong and I was worried that if I got stuck in big sink I would not only have limited landing options but they would involve major winds based on the lean of my last thermal. So I turned about and ran like a little scared kid hiding from the bully.

The return was quite nice, though I wanted to go West side of Mt. Thompson, but again didn't have the guts. I dove in for the lea side ride back to the mid section of Alta where I knew safe lift was waiting, assuring me of the LZ.


ALTA ALMOST HOME

It was there that I caught the best lifter of the day cranking all the way to 10,300 or so. On the way past the summit I chatted with a hiker who had a dog. Didn't get the dog's name though. (6,250ft) From Alta I pushed West along the crest over Snoqualmie peak and on to Granite Mountain thinking about making a run for North Bend. I was at 6,500 when I decide to play nice and join the crew back at the cars and turned back to land about 3k West of Hyak. (parked in West winds by the way)

I don't know if I would have made it back to Mailbox, the Winds at ridge level were not bad and the sun was baking the ridge between Bandera and Mailbox so I figure it should have been easy but those are more might-have-beens. It was a great day of flying.

Next time, maybe.

Preacher

Short video of Mt. Si from the air

Mini Adventure to Switch Ridge

Always fun to try a new launch. A site near Imbler Oregon was on Doc's bucket list and with high pressure dominating the region, well why not.

We trundled up our wives for retrieve adventures celebrating Doc's Birthday and Gail's and my Anniversary (29 year for both). We hooked up with an old school local hang for a site-O and we committed aviation. Doc got about 35k and I came up 10 short of that. - Nice lift to around 7,500.



A lovely day. - We still have to find a less frustrating launch however. We will be doing this again, the place is just 2 hrs from the Tri-Cities and sets up lovely from NW to SW.


Dreaded T-Boomers were well South - we kept our eye on them Dr W.

P
(Switch Ridge is the name I gave the launch - Switchy cycles made for a very frustrating launch - fake straight up, then blown launch with a North cycle, then same to the South, then finally straight in again and off into the sky - 4 or 5 wing setups on a hot and steep slope)

Planning an adventure

Tomorrow Doc, Mag, Gail and I will head for a spot east of Pendelton for a bit of mountain flying. The T-boomers that set up are due to line up sw to ne on a track that should give us nice lift out in front.
The boomers are due to reduce later in the afternoon so we should be fine regarding OD. - We will see.