Eating Humble Pie

Yesterday was a tight little window with a flush in the middle. First off, “launched it” and the second gaggle did well as well – Not amazing but nice convergence.

On the other hand I launched into the flush and just could not get up, landing just short of the piano with my tail between my legs.

Later we launched La Tore(sp?) the town site and I got a great glass flight with thermic lift to 9,000 feet, nowhere to go but a nice flight and a lake “landing”. BTW Don’t talk while landing.

- That was yesterday – and today was totally Blown Out!!!
- Tomorrow We Fly

Too Laid Back - You Decide.

Div.

Best flight yet - Out to Divisidero(sp?) at the end of the mesas. Then back to the lake. About 25 miles total. 1 hr 50 min. No photos, I forgot my SD chip in the computer.s

You can not do a flight like today's without good friends. Thanks Stefan and most of all Mer for showing the way.

P.

Don’t Leave Too Early

Always responding to fear I left early again. This time I was worried winds would get too strong on launch so I wanted to bug out before it got nasty. Good Idea – It got nasty a bit. But BAD IDEA I had to scratch for about an hour.

Great lift in front of El Peńon took me high with a friend direct over the mesa, high and East of the wall transition. – Ran the ridge way above and lost a bit near G spot. Gaggle of Norwegians were past the G spot working the NW corner. I couldn’t shoot the gap at first (too low) but then caught a nice one off the wall and eventually we all ended up in the same gaggle.

Ran the Spine. And watched as the Norwegians popped off the end and find nice thermal from the town trigger. – Tried to catch them but couldn’t – hung out on the spine till a ripper took me above the G spot again to over 10k.

I was now in the position to go or no go to div. or the lake. – Just flip for it in my head and decide my position was good and went for the far wall should have went for the hill but I will never know. – worked the inner wall and failed – found new friends at the bottom of the wash out who packed me out and gave me a ride home.

Might be a business for them. They seemed quite happy to see me.

More tomorrow.
P.

Great flying

Day 2 of flying.

Overcast but nice lift with low cloud base. Again I left early and topped house at 8.4k or so and bugged out for El Penon. Worked the wall and up over the Mesa. This time I was at the transition to 3 kings too early so I worked back and took the Mesa route back to launch.

– Gave a good Kaa, Kaa to my Eagle PG friends and cored back to departure altitude. One of the best parts of the flight was that climb. About half way up I hooked up with Tre or Ty or one of the Eagle Guys whoever flies a Orange and White UP comp or 2/3. – Anyway he was cranked over and was moving FAST – I put my wing on end and we went tip to tip for about 2 minutes right in the center of the core. No one was around us and it was just amazing to be cranked over at least 60 deg. Going up and going very very fast with another fast glider at close range. – What a kick. He was hooting as well – We Just had a blast.

Second best part of my flight was Ralph B. who really kicked it running the ridge and ending up with a fantastic flight. As Ralph was landing I had left the clouds and was in route to 3 kings. – Just prior to this I had been totally white out trying to keep a compass line but not to well and worrying about a gray and blue mantra below me. As I headed west for the hills behind 3 kings I made a good effort at keeping in the clouds and maximum lift but my initial heading was off by 90 degrees or so so I lost some initial altitude for the gap.

Had I know what the other pilots plans were I would have gaggled up but I didn’t so I struck out on my own and ended up on the far ridge scratching unable to maintain. The other pilots were Norwegians and their plans were the same as mine but they were working together.

Eventually 7 of them ganged up and went for the kings. – 4 made it and 3 ended up with me. I found a nice little field and within 10 minutes I was sharing with my ancestral kinsmen. One of them told of telling the other to land where I landed because he knew the owner.

Great call – I was lucky, they had the experience – At this field a nice young man named Juan loaded us up in is tricked out truck – drove us to San Pablo for lunch and then all the way to our hotels in Valle – 100 p. What a great place to land. Maybe tomorrow I will go over the back at some point and see if I can make the lake. All is well –

Waiting for Doc to arrive. Preacher

Valle Day 3 - great flying - quite quiet though

Day two was much more like what we had hoped for.

The day began with promise of 11k cloud base and overdevelopment. There were at least 150 pilots on launch and as soon as I figured I could stay up I boooggied.

It turned out to be a great call - the lines started and it took a long time to get off launch. I just bugged out. 30 seconds after my launch I found my vario not working - no known cause but it meant flying all day with no audio indication of up or down. This is good practice but it makes coring thermals very difficult.

Even with the loss of my primary instrument I was able to punch a hole in the sky that made me happy.

No one else was really heading out for El Pinon and I looked at my GPS and it said I was at 9k. and El Pinon was on easy glide so boogied out and I took the rock to 10k or so near and over the wall - never pushed back into the g spot cloud base was sooo low on the mesa that it was not the place to go. So I pushed strait for crazy and found nothing. I had to go back scratching below the G spot and worked back to El Pinon at near treetop for a save to well over 9K.

Now push back again but this time the clouds were socking in. Took a nice street all the way to the end of the ridge but ended up quite low - had to scratch and finally snagged a thermal thanks to a local. Got back over 8 and pushed south of 3 kings hoping to get to the mountains. But I was too low on the crossing and landed about 16k from launch - a very nice 1:45 min flight.

My driver back a bit of the way was 12 years old - his mom seemed ok with it. Then right into a pickup that got me to Jovan's by 3 - a quick lunch and 2 beers and back to launch for a glassoff.


The air was very active and some of our crew picked landing rather than flying 3 or 4 made it to the lake.

Great Job Ya All. I know Ralph, C.J. and Paul made lake landings. - WAY TO GO

More later.
Preacher

Phaze Two

RAIN

Phaze One

The Scandahovian effort began with a couple of very cold 30 min flights at Saddle. Armon, Doc and I flew and top landed and Lori took the speed wing for a run down the hill after playing with it a bit. - doc where is your tracklog I wanted to see how much you tacked on to my 5k out and back. No video from the air - the camcorder came back with error - too cold. Realy there was "too cold" message on the screen not just ice.

After the cold it was off to Seattle for a meeting and then 6:00 AM flight out of SEATAC. - Got here just fine - Valle is in the middle of a big front and flying tomorrow is not looking very promising but you never know.

GAME ON!

Ok - The Packing is done - I will have to do two bags, no way the new pod and the xl cobra will come in under 50 so - Split-m and pay the extra 30$ for two bags.

Off to Valle De Bravo - Mer has groved the air and it is prime for flying.
First a little Ridge soar at Saddle to frost up the mug and get it ready for Cervesa(sp).

Watch this space the new net book should send off some nice pics - just bout everyone is going so we will have quite a party.

Till I post from Eliza's
Preacher

Merry Christmas

Christmas 2009
This year we had some of the grandkids, some of the kids, all of the traditions and lots of fun. The first video is mainly for family but if you would like the Gospel account read too you by yours truly then click below, it is a Norwood family tradition.


The other tradition is holiday flying and we got a sweet one. Doc and K went up Kiona round 2:00 and I joined in about quarter to four. Nice little lift, we all had nice flights, Doc and K froze for an hour or better while I kept my freezer time under 30 minutes. Everyone landed at their respective trucks to complete a perfect holiday outing. After a nice chat it was back to the home front for more Christmas Chaos and Cheer.
Preacher

Avitar - Didn't do it for me.

All the hype got me to use my late Friday afternoon to experiance the new Techno flick.
While the plot was reasonable there were two problems with the big effort.

1. from the perspective of a Pilot I wanted to see the flight scenes from the Pilots perspective. - This was only 10% of the flight sequences so it left me unsatisfied.
2. What was with J.I.Joe the evil commander. - WAY B movie!.

See it on dvd if you have to.
Preacher.

Plans

Cold and Dark - The flying window is very narrow these days. - A sledder here an hour there on a cold ridge - keep an eye out for nice light North days.

This is the time to get those projects done - yuck. - Need to repack the reserve - got my new Niviuk toggles from Doug - They are the Bomb.

Already starting to think about packing stratigies for Valle on the 8th of Jan.

I hope to get and take a mini computer so I can upload video and stories from the trip. Let me know if your reading the blog.- It helps me want to write more.
Dave.

Kold Kiona

Cold Cold Cold.
Had a very cold flight at Kiona Today

With WIND CHILL: -12

Set up on RC launch at about 3:15 today. Winds were too strong on top but down the hill about 150ft they were just right.

Kiona is a great hill for high winds from the North - they tend to be very smooth and consistent. This was just what I got. - Pushing out front with no need for speed bar I ended up about 1k over and flew till I froze. - It was just about sunset when I set up for a nice set down and a cup of hot coco.

The only thing worse that cold fingers is when they warm up again. - Ouch!

Looking forward to Valle De Bravo
Preacher.

FYI these are the corresponding wind tables for my favorite Kiona predictors

Weather Conditions for:
Hanford Emergency Operations Center, WA (HEOC)
Elev: 1240 ft; Latitude: 46.392; Longitude: -119.537

07 Dec 4:45pm 13 NW 10 G12
07 Dec 4:15pm 14 2 NW 9 G12
07 Dec 4:00pm 14 2 NNW 9 G12
07 Dec 3:45pm 15 NNW 8 G10
07 Dec 3:15pm 18 5 N 12 G17
07 Dec 3:00pm 19 6 N 13 G20

Weather Conditions for:
Rattlesnake Mountain, WA (HRMTN)
Elev: 3560 ft; Latitude: 46.394; Longitude: -119.593

07 Dec 5:15pm 5 -20 NNE 33G41
07 Dec 5:00pm 5 -20 NNE 32G38
07 Dec 4:45pm 5 -19 NNE 31G36
07 Dec 4:15pm 5 -19 NNE 29G33
07 Dec 4:00pm 5 -18 NNE 28G33
07 Dec 3:45pm 5 -18 NNE 28G33
07 Dec 3:15pm 5 -19 NNE 31G38
07 Dec 3:00pm 5 -19 NNE 30G38

More - nothing better on TV - Video

Well it seems that 15 to 20 of you have nothing better to do than watch PGs go round and round. -

For your viewing pleasure a 6 installment video of a flight from Baldy to Boylston Ridge in Eastern Washington. -

Humm..... - That was Interesting!

After a long week or so of watching grandkids - doing turkey and only flying a sledder or two I was ready to bug out and fly as soon as the last little one was buckled into my daughters minivan.

Rick had called to give a heads up on Eagle - likely to be blown out, but anything to clear the head and get out with a chance to fly. On launch an hour later two hangs were thinking about folding up and Rick informed me that it just really started to blow 5 minutes prior.

We chatted and waited for the sun to set hopeing that the lack of sun would have a calming effect on the excess wind. This is a common scenario at Eagle and a 30 minute flight with a flashing light seemed in the offing. Just before the sun went down I had my wing kitting over head - except for some strange reason I was kitting away from the hill - 180 degrees over the back. - - Next moment a South flow got strong and I was hop hop hopping down the flats working c-ds as I had a good time high wind kitting in the "correct" direction. - Hmmm switchy winds. - Strong winds - What is wrong with this picture????
-
Off goes the wing into a bundle and further assessment - use your head and listen to the wind some more.

While I stood at the lip Rick was setting up and the wind simply calmed down slowly to a gentle 8-10 and held. - Rick is going to fly! - Winds consistent now - getting lighter now - Ok back in the saddle and let us see.

Rick is ready - wing over head - looks good - I pull up as he sets his down. - Good wing clean pressure - two hang buddies willing to pick us up if we bomb out (likely scenario as winds seemed to be dropping in route to calm)- - Turn and aggressive launch.

Clean launch - Winds from South South West - a bit of a problem at Eagle but if you push into them to get round the corner to the South face and it should be fine. - Nice lift - 150 over and out front - Big wind increase - still holding my own not getting blown back and no speed bar required, THEN Whack - wing tip - on the right - pump it out - Lift Lift Surge - Whack 20%er on the left - Push out a bit more - get further from the hill - Whack - Surge Back - big surge forward - Brake to Catch it - Almost frontal - Right left I am getting WORKED! - Push further out and now, I guess, run - But run from what?

I am not over the back really - This could be rotor from the south face but I am 1/4 mile out now and not in line with anything. -

Later analysis suggests that I was in the lea-side of a strong East / West convergence. Winds had been strong WSW at altitude and we were experiencing strong South to South East on Launch. - Out in the valley where I was now 2k over it was East vs West and I was in the middle. - The East was blocking and I just got thrashed as I flew away from the hill on a SW heading. What I was doing was flying along the convergence line but just in the lea - If you want turbulence do this it will work every time. - As I pushed further West/North I went through the blockage climbed strong and continued to get worked but less than on my SW heading. I made an initial efforts to get down via spiral but that failed (more about that later).

I pushed further West and it finally settled down just a bit and I was able to get I nice spiral started and got down. 400 over - push further out - still a bit rocky but under control - Nice big field with winds from 2 or 3 directions and a soft landing. - Finally on the radio "I am ALIVE."


14 minutes of high adrenalin and a few lessons learned:

1. Let your buddy launch first! -You will live longer.

2. Eagle can throw real curve balls.

3. If you kite in two different directions prior to launch - See #1 above, but consider cutting your buddy's lines as a second option.

4. If you are flying to fill an emotional need those emotions might mask the correct go-no-go decision.

5. I love my DHV-2; please never sell me a 2-3 or above.

6. Learned a wing control dynamic that was interesting: On my first attempt to enter a spiral to get down and through the turbulence it just wouldn't crank in. - I tried for at least 30 seconds leaning and pulling but it only turned and wouldn't crank over. - At the time I just figured the wind / turbulence were in control and I was at their mercy. - Later, as it smoothed out, I cranked in just fine. What was up? -

On the first attempt I had been and was still carrying a good amount of brake which I needed to have to have something to give back to control the big back surges I was catching. - When I tried to turn spiral left I was still holding right brake and the wing wouldn't crank in. - Lesson learned:if you are going to spiral to break through turbulence don't forget to let up on the outside brake. - Duuhhhh!!!! but - at the time - well that's what I learned.

7. Let me have it!

Dave.
nb: Rick had already learned #1 above and didn't launch but enjoyed the show.

Nothing To Do - No Good TV - Watch This

Last January I flew my brains out in Valle De Bravo - So much flying and so little time to process videos and stories.

As the winter sets in and plans to return ramp up I figured I better get something up from last year - soooo. - After watching a long video of a nice Rampart flight I figured I would grab a Valle flight and throw it up and see if anyone watches.

Youtube limits us to 10 minute videos so I split a 85 min video into 9 segments. You should be able to click through them in sequence as their names end in 1 - 9. You may need to click on the YouTube Logo and go to dnorwoodxx videos to see them all.



Hope this works - the first video is almost all on launch - Good memories for those who have flown and an introduction to the gaggle for those who haven't been. - Unfortunately the last 10 minutes of the flight are missing but so goes paravideo efforts.

Enjoy. P.

Beauty

Something about this video just gets to me.
Thanks for Shooting it Mer.

Bob's Bump in November

Saturday Bob and I went out and put in our time in High winds. - No Flying just an attempt to get draged. We were not even successful in being draged putting the wing away before it had a chance to win.

Sunday was the pay back for our showing on Saturday.

Winds were perfect S to SSW at 12 - 14 - Just what the bump loves.

When the sun was out we got extra lift from little thermic bubbles.
Back and forth and in the end we had a total of 5 flights between us one each lasting over an hour.
Great early turkey day gift.

Saddle - Flying in Fall

After a couple of very long weeks the schedule loosened up just when the winds shapped for a perfect Saddle Day.

XC-Skies winds at surface were NNE 6-8 in the AM and 6-4 in the afternoon clocking N. Winds at 6,000 were S @ 14 - this cross over raised my eyebrows but 6-8 NNE tends to translate to 12 to 14 on launch.

We got to launch at about 11:30 and flew till 3 or so.
Lots of Touch and Go's and Mer got a nice 5 mile out and back.

Rampart - 48 minutes of beauty

Ben just caught a great flight on Video - I love video and my readers do as well.
Here is what it is like to fly at RAMPART!
Nice flight Ben!!!
Click Here to View!

Need to Fly

No one had had any air time - or very little so!
Break away Thursday Afternoon for some light stuff.
Baldy worked enough for Dave to get a top landing after 30 min or so working bubbles.
The rest of us just sledded or extended sled.
Then we went to Bobs for another sledder and a comp.