Sunday at Baldy

Next year I will be at Tiger to do my share tandem. But as my T1 is just newly minted I figure the best I could do is throw one down with the XC crowd.

Sunday is a trick for me, my day of work as you may know. Making the hill in perfect time is not always possible. Today I was lucky and made the LZ by 12:20 - in time to watch Mer launch along with CJ and Martin. - Dave and Tim were already in the air.

Baldy was at its normal best in SW conditions. The wind was up a bit so it did help to wait. Dave fought the good fight staying above launch until the boomers really kicked in.

I was last off and had to play catch up but that isn't all bad. Later is better in terms of condition development.

Initial thermal was strong and topped at about 5,500 or so not real developed at mid altitude. Dave, Mer and CJ were above me and heading out and I lost the core which required a restart.

Down I went until I was well below launch, pushing out I began to wonder if that would be it. I was well high above the bumps in front the Airport and the pounder was waiting to kick my gluteus maximus. Normal bullet for the time of day - Now around 1:30. Rock and Roll to 5,800 and then a departure thermal to around 6,500.

This set up a lifty line to the normal route over the NW corner of the firing range (careful not to touch) and a set of clouds took me to the Boylstons.
The far left lift hill has worked in the past, though it is not the highest it seems most reliable. (check my track log if your interested) A real screamer took me very high almost 8,400 in two pops.

By this time the clouds were setting up for a great run. One after another they lay in wait up the Columbia. It is very common to see a convergence line right over the Eastern edge of the river running all the way to Quincy. This is the same line I took on my first flight NE of Wenatchee. Today however the clouds over the hills and West were really shutting things down and it was a race between OD and sun.

I pushed as best I could over Quincy and to the hills just North of there. The hills had just a touch of sun on them by that time, just enough to get a little bit of lift that cast me off for the next valley.

Not much more was left but a hope and a prayer - neither were to pan out as I dusted, but dusted just far enough.

One of my big time goals was to get a 50 mile point to point and a coveted USHPA XC award, what ever that is.

It was a great day of flying all around. - Both Dave and Mer had very nice flights, flying together most of the day which is one of our XC goals. Thanks to Martin for the retrieve and Mer and Dave for dogging it up the hill for the truck. -- You all are the bomb.

News from Pine is that Conrad nailed 115k and two others including Brian Webb bested 100k with a 4th going 60 or better. - Way to Go ya all.

Next year Tiger.
P.

Rat Day 4

Today was a great day to fly. – We had solid lift to cloud base at 6,000 and it was often a challenge to stay clear of the clouds. I left launch first, two seconds after launch open. Early paid off as I was able to climb to full on base and ride it all day long.

We never got low until the last of glide to goal. – Two or three gliders were in front of me as we came near goal. – A bit of sink set us down 2 ridges short of destination.

Now we had to work for the glory. Frank and I found a screamer after about 10 minutes of scratching. – The gap to Goal ridge was lifty and we had tons at goal.

Cold fingers early gave way to warm sun – puffy clouds and 50 points on LEO.


As for the comp check out the results at: http://visionparagliding.com/scorekeeping/

P.

Wood Rat Day 3

Windy day - a bit more than what we wanted.

Today was not my day. - While I launched 3 seconds after the launch open time I never felt synced up with any of the gaggles. -

Eventualy I made start after a bit of work and then taged Burnt after a save low but when I went over Burnt I didn't commit to down wind and tryed to retreat. BAD MOVE - I ended up scratching on a lea side second ridge.

I tried but couldn't get my wing to take out a low level set of trees. Below me were bigger trees and power lines.

I don't know but my best guess is that there may have been divine intervention that took me to a nice back yard.

That was no fun!!!

Tomorrow.
P

Woodrat Day 2

Amazing, Fun, Saves and Work – Just no points to show for comparitive success.

The day was so challenging that 90 pilots or so only got minimum distance points. There were 11 in goal and only 4 or 5 of us spread over the course line. This kind of scoring day produces a very low total points and the spread between those who dust and those who make task is almost funny.

If you made goal today you got around 180 to 200 points and if you only made the LZ you got 89. For those of us who worked all day and almost cracked the nut we got around 130 to 140.

So having a great day coming in 11th over all and 3rd in class only gave me 45 more points that just launching --- well it sounds like I am whining – It was just such a great day of flying that not getting points makes it seem strange.

To the flying. – Continuing with the plan, all things equal, get off early. I was in line 3rd and after a launch hold I ended up first in the slot and launched 20 seconds after launch opened.

This worked well. I was able to sky to cloud base which was about 5,200 at that point. Over the next 20 minutes or so the best pilots launched and were up with me. We boated about made moves to Rabies and I went with them once but retreated to the hill to tank again. I just didn’t think we had enough altitude to get up at Rabies with the strong West flow.

When the second gaggle got established on Woodrat I let them go and followed. However, I made a tactical error on the top off of the thermal. We had been working well and it seemed that the core was leaning to the South so as I came round I extended South. I didn’t get much lift but didn’t go down so I just tracked South figuring I was wining against the rest of the gaggle. I knew they weren’t getting higher but they were behind me so I couldn’t tell for sure.

When I finally turned I found I had left them in the dust – that is, they hit their top and pushed out front. – Now I was higher by a bit but way behind as they pushed across. By the time I got back to the center of launch they had found a bit of lift out and to the NW of launch and were working it and I was further behind than I wanted.

I had to top off again and then finally left for Rabies with 3 or 4 others. – We were behind and a few from the early gaggle made the hill just before us. The problem was that a lot of folk just were getting crushed. – I found a lifty line that got me to the hill well above ridge top but it wasn’t great. – The wind was strong from the West so the thermals from the West face were ripping off and most of the wings in the area were really struggling and most fell off lea side. – I kept forward figuring that lea was a total no win proposition but the windward wasn’t much better.

There are few landing options on the West side of Rabies and my worst landing ever was up there last year so I was not happy as I surfed the ridge just maintaining. I watched as one yellow wing frizbied windward side up the ridge to the North but I just couldn’t get there so I pushed out and to the South.

This worked for a bit – Nice strong lift when it pushed but then thrashing. Just wasn’t working. – Now the call was to push all the way out to the South and give in to the winery or give it one last hope for glory scratch and swing deeper into tiger country. – There were a few LZ up high so – well you guessed it I went deep and with a great deal of effort I finally scratched out. When I finally crested in lift I found a naked sky. There were no wings on Rabies any more except my Cobra.

On top of the ridge I just skied – I found some of the best lift of the day and after topping at 5,800 or so I pushed back for an easy tag of RAB-PK 2K cylinder. As I did this I caught site of Matt Cone coming back from tagging the same.

Now back to Woodrat to get the big rock. – On the way I relocated the Rabies boomer and punched through the inversion nailing 6,177 to get what I figure was likely high for the day. – remembering that my figuring is seldom right.

The naked line back to the peak was nice and lifty and I was at least 400 over when I got to launch. – The thermals were leaned over to the extreme at this point and the many high wind thermic days over the last month paid dividends. As I surveyed the situation it was clear that most pilots were just not going up and most were loosing ground.

The day was getting long in the tooth – More wind, less lift, so it became a do it now or die very soon. – I may have touched 5,400 on my last spin off the Rat on the way to Burnt. I knew it was a gamble – Matt Cone was already over there and was low, if he didn’t make it I figured my chances were slim. I made my best line and got to the ridge just over which was key to getting a bit more. If you come in below ridge you are just toast on that Burnt piece of rock.

There were two other wings working above the ridge at that point. They were together and a bit further West. – They had been there for a while and on one frizbe back the red wing – think it may have been Chris A. pealed off and went town wind. The other wing was the same color as Mer so I figured it was her but it wasn’t. As “she” was coming back to push windward I figured – toss up – lets work together.

As it turned out it wasn’t Mer but rather a Check pilot who I didn’t know. – We tried but didn’t work well together and after a few tries I just didn’t see it working. I caught a little bubble as he was pushing forward and loosing ground and I split. (this turned out to be a major mistake as he eventually made goal and I didn’t). But we were not working well and I didn’t know who he was.

The rest of the flight was just frizbee down wind toward the Cemetery waypoint. I was looking at the hills and trying to guess what would give lift. – They all had a bit but none had enough to build on. I ended up getting low with a down valley flow coming from – I don’t know where but it was exciting.

I tried to get video because it was just a cool dynamic end to the flight but the camera was not on and you will have to take my word for it that I threw down some serious scratching effort before landing sweet as a bug in a huge LZ.

The only problem with the LZ was the gently grazing cattle some 500 yards up wind. They caught sight of me as I was packing up and the game was on. The first contingent was 4 or 5 mommas and a similar number of 2 month olds.

The biggest of the mommas came close but I was able to bluff them off with a few fast movements with my wing folding arm. Eventually something I did spooked them enough to get them running away from me. Back to folding.

Just about the time I was loading the last of my gear in my pack – having already called my GPS coordinates into retrieve, a much larger contingent of cattle was heading my way. This time they brought the big boy. One BIG BULL who was not looking for a fight but clearly willing to back up momma if a fight were to ensue.

I learned that I have a strong growl that seems to stop approaching cattle for a moment but they were winning, much like the day over most of us gliders. It was the most sketch part of the day as I sideways retreated toward the big 5 line electric fence. – I made it to a post set that might provide an escape route but no guarantees.

I learned that while all cattle are bovine not all are benign!!

P.

Rat Race - Day Won

Home Sweet Home

Well not realy "won", but for me it was a good day - I made my goal and that was goal.

Our Northwest Team of Doc K, Steve Thibault, Chris Amonson and myself, AKA as the Baldy Bast...ds did well Chris was second to goal, Steve and I made it as well and Doc K on his 1-2 came in just a few hundred m short.

It was a fabulous day of flying. The conditions were perfect and the task was set to give everyone a chance. Some folk got unlucky on timing and were flushed but a large number of pilots made goal.

Top of lift was between 7,400 and 8,000. My best was in the neighborhood of 7,400. As planned both today and yesterday I was near the front of the launch line. Even so I had to wait for a couple of wings to fire off before I was up on launch.

The cycle I took was just enough to get my wing over head but that was it. – I ran down hill backwards keeping my just inflated wing as dead center over my head as I could until someone yelled “Turn Around.” – I did and timing was just right, I threw my hands up to give the wing just enough speed to get it over the lip and off I went loading the wing as I ran off the lip. A smattering of applause was heard as I headed into the blue. BIG GRIN.

The lift on launch was strong and steady and about 20-30 wings topped around 6,300 and headed for Rabies to set up for a LZ start cylinder. – Lift was easy to find with that many wings in front of me and we topped that around 6,500 thermally in the cylinder at start. I was a bit further North than the crew and was about 300k from the waypoint on the way to the second waypoint as the start bell rang on my vario.

That would be the last time I could fool myself into beleaving I was in the lead as the next turn point was crowded with the lead gaggle when I was still topping off. – My strategy for day was simple: STAY HIGH – never leave lift and never leave first. It worked like a charm.

We took a direct line to Burnt and that was only one of two times during the day that I even thought about not having enough altitude. Even so we had no problem finding windward lift from the NE flow and were soon high on the way to a short glide to Woodrat. More lift and topping in gaggles and off for Rabies again and more climbs.

The last 1/3 of the task Martin and I were best buddies centering every lift we could find. It wasn’t until final glide that we took slightly different lines and ended in goal within minutes of each other.

I am not sure either of us realized how high we were over goal. I was at least 2000 over when I looked nearly straight down and saw the crowd and vans and I looked at Martin who, about the same distance from goal, was across the valley turning circles in lift. I should do a better job of altitude management at the end of the task.
Landing was uneventful and the beer was cold.

Tomorrow day two.

P.