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.

Details of A Big Flight

Badlands at the End of the Day

A blow by blow account of Saturday's flight North from Chelan to 5 miles shy of Okanogan.

All good flights begin with weather. Wednesday through Saturday all looked good. More importantly the regional pressure was softening. Wednesday we had high pressure 1024hPa. This was the day the early bubbles of Baldy kicked me out of the sky and Mer and Frank went long with their launch 45-50 minutes after mine. (I'm learning)

Thursday looked good but I was bummed and winds looked a little strong so I took a pass and Mer went to Banks lake off Chelan, while Doc went to Bridgeport. Friday was also a bit strong on winds at Baldy and my flight to exit 11 was the best for the day - thermals were just getting thrashed and I may have gone a bit early.

Saturday like Friday was lower pressure in the neighborhood of 1012hPa but winds still looked a bit strong at Baldy so Chelan became the target. But it was Saturday and my wife and I really needed to spend most of it together. I asked and she was game for retrieve. We love driving together and Chelan sets up 5 hours together in the car and she seems to like the retrieve challenge. Yes I am blessed.

I put out a limited call for other pilots - I couldn't go for too many folk as the retrieve dynamics and Chelan could overwhelm my beloved driver. - The crew still grew to a posse of eight.

There were 3 or 4 hangs on launch when we got there. - A bit of a mess on launch because we forgot some stuff in the rig at the bottom so my truck left the butte and I had to switch from working out of the truck to out of my kit. No real big issue just a minor snag. The truck was back up in no time and we all got set for launch, it was coming on 1:00. Armon launched first and had no problem skying out early - He went due North for a nice flight.

Next I saddled up. Mer used a nice ploy setting up behind a hang making it set that she would not launch until good cycles were on deck. Quality move. - I set up for between the rocks and miss timed the cycle getting a limp wing mid run for the effort. I shut it down and hiked back up with nobody wanting to jump in. So I set up for second try.

Wing popped open just fine but I had a brake line snag on a rock. Helpful hands cleared the snag but I missed the tip cravat now waiting for me. I assumed the tip was clean but pulling up it became clear I had to shut it down again. Dam Dam Dam. - I swung over to Ants to see if alternating cycles would catch but they didn't - Sooooo - give in.

Now I was frustrated, hot and tired. - Best move now is let everyone go and deal with launching last or near last. - Took off my wing, coat, helmit and gloves and decompressed. - I watch while just about everyone launched and skied. - It was working out front and I could step into the game. - K and I were left after all had gone - now the launch was very straight forward as a number of cycles made a sweet set.

I had a wing climbing - think it was Steve, as a marker right down the ridge and caught the thermal even before I got to him.

A clean climb out ensued with a wing man at the top of the climb - great flying with you Mr. Thibault. - We topped about 7,800 with Thibault getting the last little pop. - He noted Mer breaking for the rim about 400 above and decided to take chase. - I took one more 360 and joined in from below.

Mer found a nice lifty line and we were all at the same flight level though separated by 1/4 mile each, as the three of us slid to the flats. - We were nice and high when we got to the rim due to Mer's great line. Got the rim at about 5600. Mer and Steve kept pushing in looking for lift but not finding anything. - I was in a bind at this point. - If I follow and they don't find lift soon I am doomed. If I turn back to the rim I might be on my own for the rest of the day.

Neither Steve on his 2-3 or Mer on her spicy wing found anything by the time I had to turn back to the best terrain on the rim I could find. - I had been there before so I thought I had a chance. - By the time I was maybe 300 over and heading for a dive over the rim with little chance of recovery I caught some soft lift.

Mer and I took a thermal at the same spot together last year. - This time I was on my own to start with. - I took a nice climb at this point staying happy till about 7,000 - I noticed that Mer was up and about 1000 over me and to the south of me by 1/2 mile or so climbing under a great cloud.

I called for her to not get too far ahead but we later confirmed that that transmission didn't get through. - We need better radio setups or I do anyway. As I was still climbing in that first thermal Mer headed out East way sky high. I couldn't follow her from 1000 below so I just worked up and over to her cloud.

A little slide down then into a massive good house thermal that took me to 10k - This was the thermal that found Todd Udd and myself thermaling tip to tip. At about 8,200 I saw Todd's Discus 18m sailplane about a mile south. After about 4 more 360 he had slipped into the same thermal that I was in now about 9,000 ft. Got the video going which is in the blog below. After the video shut off Todd and I took it to about 10,200 where he pushed out and headed due North.

North was the call for the day but the last time I saw Mer she was heading due East so I pushed out at 10,300 for points East with the hope of finding my guide. What I didn't know was that she had gone on glide East and didn't find anything and then went back to the rim. So I was left on my own. - I don't have very much flat land flying experience. Really this was my second or third flatland flight of note. I have been to Farmer and Eniat but that is it. I started to scan for terrain features like a farm house or draws in the flats whatever. - I headed for Nelson's Ranch and it worked catching a nice little lift from 6,500 to about 8 or so.

Pushing out further East still no Mer. This is going to be interesting - Ahead the flats are ending and I have no clue what to do. - More texture to the land, but will it work or what?
At the transition from flats to draws is the big farm - think it is the Douglas ranch. I figured a nice search around this ranch would pay off. - I caught some zeros but not much. - Hanging out long enough though let me pick off a dusty coming off a diagonal associated with the ranch. - This dusty provided targeting for finding a very nice but quite north leaning thermal to 8 or so sending me on the north track for the rest of the day.

The thermal leaned enough to get me half way to Mansfield. - The line was not bad, a bit boaty, but it was all blue sky flying at this point. As I passed 172 about five miles west of Mansfield I was getting low. - Not real low maybe 2500 over and spotted another very nice dusty. - Caught the thermal on this one but it was not well formed as earlier thermals. Things started to look a little grim as I headed back toward the rim noting a cloud or two and terrain with texture and power lines. - Nothing worked real well until I got under the cloud. -

This one was sweet - Took it big and strong - the cloud was actually top of two or three lift cores in one. The cloud had 3 different masses and at about 8,000 feet in a solid core crank I took a surprise dynamic asymmetric deflation. The cool part was that I had video of the wing to capture cloud effect when the deflation occurred. - ' I topped this one round 9,000 and could see that I had Bridgeport on Glide so I pushed North.

By the time I got to the rim just South and West of Bridgeport I was a bit worried about diving into the town which sits in the lea of the whole flats. Winds felt to be about 10 to 15 from the South based on dust trails and I was a little worried about rotor. As I slid over the rim I felt a bit of lift which made me very happy because I felt I needed the lift to stay safe, - I figured the day was done but just a bit more lift and I can be safe from rotor and just then it went off nice and solid.

The rim thermal took me well above Bridgeport and I topped close to 10k already leaning way over the river.

The hills North of Bridgeport are perfect - It is a ships prow that faces due south with a nice collector for heat to the West - No question there is a boomer here - I just have to find it. - And I did - Best climb of the day then set me up for what turned out to be final glide.

I tried to take the "liftyest" line I could but never found another thermal. -0 It felt like glass off at this point and I knew I would just have to be as smooth as I could. - Half way through the glide I had to decide to stay near 97 or go into badlands - Nasty ground near the end - Mer had taken it straight badlands 30 minutes prior and got a little climb mid tiger country - a very bold line in my estimation.

I had to stay river side and just slid north till I was on the side of the hill with power lines below and a simple swoop and turn to land into the wind. - Good field choice gave way to crossing 97 at about 50 feet, over a wet field on final and a final correction that put me over Railroad tracks at 10 feet for a perfect landing in median between the highway and the tracks. - Just sweet.

Good cell phone coverage put me in contact with Mer who was already headed south with Steve and Bill. Gail was headed North to get me so the crew stopped, gave me a beer (thank you) and left me for Gail's retrieve. - She did wonder why the kiss smelled of hops. - LOL - What a great day.

P.

Sailplane and a Couple Personal Bests in my logbook.

It's All About the Money Honey

Everything Looks Better in Black and White

Today was a great day at Chelan - Lift to over 10,300 and a flight East then North that popped 140 on the Leo scale. - Personal best for duration of 4:45 and XC over 58 miles with dogleg, almost 40 miles point to point. - All that good stuff and Mer still flew further. Anyone ever have that happen?
Some fun events included two botched launches, a nice rim save and even better flats save. - Soared with a sailplane and had a fun asymetric colaps under a great cloud.

Best part of the day was that Gail, my lovely wife drove retrieve.
Happy Camper
P.

XC - Making the call, Payoff and "Loss"

In poker there are good lay downs and bad ones. A good - that is winning or profitable poker player is one who is able to calculate the odds of his or her hand winning against a particular opponent's hand and play or betting on those hands while laying down or quitting on the rest.

You can win a poker hand with a bad bet - putting money into a pot when your sure your friend has 4 of a kind and you are hoping for a one-outer to make your straight flush and win by getting that one card you need but it was a bad bet. On the other hand you can make a very good bet or call getting all you money in with the best hand only to loose on the river.

Yesterday I made what I felt were 3 good calls and walked away from the table without much left in my pocket.

Good call #1: Baldy - as the weather was shaping up it was clear that Baldy would work but possibly East which is not good - hard to fly and routes are interesting. Then in the last 24 hours it turned North and possibly stronger. I spent at least 3 hours working weather to make the call and was still 52/48 coin flip on Baldy by the night before.

Good call #2: Stick to your guns. Play tight and aggressive. All morning was spent texting and talking with the crew who wanted to go to Chelan - or most did. I reworked the weather including very current trends and came up with the same call and at the coffee shop decide I would fly Baldy regardless the crews decision. (at which point I got the message that they were coming to Baldy as well)

Marginal call: - Weather was just as I figured - backing off to light and variable with lots of high pressure. On launch at 12:15 - good times and all the prevailing North was backing down to the heating up of the South bowl - It is going to be very hard to get off soon. We wanted to launch together so we call 1:00 - I am ready and feel the last of the puffs and go at 12:50.

This was marginal on two accounts - first, launching first you never know and it was a mega sink fest all the way to 500 over the North LZ - I have never had that much sink on a North launch at Baldy it was so bad that my right leg couldn't stop shaking for 10 minutes. When I hit the lift it was hard and nasty. - So launching first I got to fly for 45 minutes waiting for everyone else to get their puffs - rather their first puff, I flew alone for most of my flight.

Which was the second marginal part of that call - by leaving first I was worn out fighting the low pressure lift bubbles by the time everyone else was launched.

Good call #3 - well I think it was good - after 50 minutes or so of flying in the most disturbing lift, sink and winglessness I can remember - except one other very High pressure day last summer I had had it. Toping at 5,500 and remembering that prior bad day I decided there wasn't a flight to be had that was worth another 2-3 hours of this kind of struggle. At least it wasn't worth it to me. So I decided to land. Even though the others were in the air and struggling to get up just as I had - two made it big and 3 didn't in the end, I would top land (if safe) and drive down.

It was a good call but the river hit and Mer and Frank took the pot. Mer worked a long time at Baldy then went South late toward and eventually to Sunnyside and Frank took bold lower than usual line to Vantage working all the way, had a save at the crossing then boated all the way to just short of Moses Lake.

In the end I walked away putting 6 hours into weather and 6 hours of driving to get a 17 point FAI triangle and one lesson - Keep making good calls and maybe add some patience to the mix . If you walk away happy with your calls and all-ins it is not a loss in the long run even if your friends scoop the big money on a given day. Great flights you guys.

Baldy Spring - Ya all come on in the water is fine!

Today the sky gods rolled their cumulative dice? (how do you spell the possessed object plural form of dice, die? di? dye? hmmm.) Anyway the gang was nearly all there including a Baldy newbie and score keeper of renown Bill, he,having never flown the site, with new wing in hand out flew us all.

Several in the neighborhood of the truck stop others to Thorp - some in the LZ and one fool went south. - Everyone was ducking boomers and all had great tales of how their cloud was the most menacing.



A little vid of what the sky looked like. - Launch at 11:15 out of the sky by 12:45 or better.

DD2

Doug on Launch

While Doc and Mer were flying amazing flights to the North from Chelan, Doug Hoffman and I took on a site which has tickled our fancy and mostly Doc's fancy for a long time.

DD2 - the name you will have to ask, AKA "Sunnyside" is a marginal peak for launching PG's but it sits on a major SW facing solar collector between the tri-cities and Yakima so it has some convenience factors and as Doug showed today can be the start point for North flights toward Saddle and beyond. -

Doug took the Route one which is Due North toward Mattawa and I went West toward Yakima.

We got a bit of a late start (clouds shut us down an hour after we got started) but for a first thermal flight from the site it was great. (Doc was first off last week during a Paradriving day)

When things start cooking for real it may be a quick alternative launch site for Tri-Cities pilots who don't have time to go to Baldy but do have a driver.



That is one of the problems - 1/2 hour or better off road to launch. 4wd only

Great Air though, great collector and lots of room to fly!

Tomorrow - SADDLE for Some wimpy points for the XC league - Lots of ridge early in the morning.

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/league/US/2010.04/brand:all,cat:1,class:all,xctype:all,club:0.6

Check out the standings - quite a race and Mer hasn't posted her big one.

Kiona Works - Big Smiles

Today was a great Kiona day - winds were a bit strong but for those who like such things it was great.

A crew came via Saddle which was blown and I think most flew - some benching up from down low.

Rick and I continued our battle for bragging rights. - LEO is down right now but we both gave a run SE after 2 or more down and backs - and thanks to Bob B for the retrieve.

Thermic conditions were quite exciting - lots of strong lift but it stopped near 3,000 or so MSL.

Good lift band out front and another on the ridge top. - best lift was out front but you needed to be 3-500 over to work it well.

John K had an amazing tandem. - took it low and skimmed all the way to the LZ from way low in front of TOY BOY - I would have given 10 to 1 that he would dust, but he pulled it off - Amazing.

There were a couple of draggs and snag with the winds - - My only advise is start lower and make sure your wing is dead into the wind on launch. - HANDS UP!!!! - and have total stable control on landing or abort. - If you are even a bit off balance you WILL get dragged.

Hope everyone had fun and got a feel for how fun Kiona can be.

No video today - but Here is a Kiona video if you haven't seen it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQW1gswQz3o

P.
Check tomorrow for points. - I think we topped at about 3400ft msl - don't know if I got that high but it was just soooo much fun I am still giggling.

Baldy Fires Off - OD

Today a toe was dipped in the thermic waters of Eastern WA. - A small happy crew launched.

We were early - My fault - three of us paid the price and one went too near the Columbia. - Guess who.

My second flight (video) was seek and avoid. - Lots of lift - but to go above 5,000ft was to commit to the clouds and 25,000ft or more. - By the time I made it to 82 sliding in and out of the edges of lift I was in the only blue except the firing range. -

Nice looking clouds, right? - Well.

Even in the blue I had nothing but "suck" - two sets of spirals - see below - got me nicely down to a LZ with great access for a ride back to E-burg and Mexican food.

This kind of flying is not for the faint-of-heart nor those who haven't been "sucked" and survived prior flights. - Flying skies like these is not recommended.

More Lift Than I Wanted

Spring has Sprung and XCSkies indicated a window of moderate winds and conditional instability today. - The next week or so didn't look good - or at least I won't be able to fly for a while so I bit the bullet and went to the only West facing hill that would get me up in the STUFF.

I waited on the hill for an hour and a half to give the freight trains a chance to calm themselves and then with much trepidation and a bit of "damm damm damm" I gave it a go.

As soon as I was off the hill I knew it was a bad call. - Big sink - big lift back and forth and Selah Butte is not forgiving. - I pushed out hoping for a smooth one but got a rocker instead.

If you watch this video note how my feet go up as the wing rock backs. - And I was giving back to the wing as I rocked into the big T. -


It may be that winter has shaved my bump tolerance down a bit but I just was not ready for this much activity.
P.

Fly as much as you want

Today was a great day at Kiona. - Bill flew early -
Winds pick up and created very strong conditions. - I even broke my speed and had to land to fix it.
Second launch was highest wind I have taken on yet apx 22 - Pluck straight up and onto speed. - Great fun if you know what to expect.
Mini video for your enjoyment:

Total Air time almost 4 hours

Parked and Climbing

Just remember, just because you can launch high winds does not make it a good idea.

No flying - lots of rain and a window late in the day with SW winds just about max.

Off I ran to beat sunset and launched Bob's bump low.

UP I WENT - 1/2 bar and so little forward motion my vario recorded 5 short flights each less than a minute because I was parked!!!

Actual likely better than 20 minutes start to finish and happy to be down. I never went backwards "for long."

Dave

Mixed Bag - Speed & Saddle

Today was a mixed bag. Saddle was a hard call; first it looked great then as time went by wind projections and measurements indicated blown out city.

This was the second time in a week that early hope-filled projections turned into fringe flyable conditions. Very frustrating.

Friday night I was in Seattle for a meeting so it was on the way home at E-burg that I needed to make my own call for the day. Just before heading South and home on 82 I got a call from launch with a 10mph N report. Redirect and check it out. Off to launch.

Sure, it was OK early, but when I got there it was top-end and NNW which is not good. I set up for launch but couldn't control my poorly stuff sacked wing in the high winds and almost fed it to a barbed wire fence near the towers. (Back she goes into the stuff sack)

Two hangs took off while I was thrashing about and by the time I was back on launch two other friends (Armon & Mark) with speed wings were ready to huck.

I don't know, those little critters just seem sketch - They had a great time and I packed it in. (late report of a break in at the LZ - Armon's rig)

On the way home just past the Sunnyside cutoff in the burn area South of HWY 24 at Black Rock a new "fire road" had just been cut up the hill. Only the cat had traversed, no 4-wheel tracks yet. I always wondered about that hill .... - Up I went - no signs - just no hunting "public use of private lands is a privilege not a right." The hill took everything my Tundra had and at the lower NE facing ridge I found it soarable, just. - Future will tell if I go back but as for today I flew. Think I will call it "Black Rock One."

You can go to Leonardo if you want to see site details.

After I flew I went to the top of the ridge where it was blown out, but the shape is great - just access and permission issues - also if it is working on this ridge it is likely Saddle will be working as well so I don't know how useful a site it will be. Watch this space for future site reports.

P.

Ridge Soaring

Back from Valle and back to the hills.

On my return as part of my welcome home Gail took me to Bob's for a sledder and then it was day on and day off ridge soaring.
Check Leonardo for the details but basicaly it has been 2 flights a week. Most not worth noting even a full on day of parawaiting with only 10 minutes in the air to show for it.

Today was another good one though - as with the long flight at Saddle last week, Kiona was predicted to be good this Thursday afternoon. - Actualy too good. - Winds were a solid 18 to 20 out of the NW.

Now NW at 12-14 is ok at Kiona but 18 to 20 - Launchable but not landable. The points for toplanding were covered with nasty lea rotor from finger ridges. - Kiona faces NE so NW is a bit nasty. - Lift was great and strong but lots of Parking.

On my first pass East I didn't go all the way down the ridge because the cross would clealy not sustain a return. - Pushing NW was almost stand still till 1/2 bar. Then the issue was where to land - I worked up to the Hang launch and nothing - not even low on toyboy would work - As soon as I approched ridge the rotor started to kick up.

Back to the East - If it wouldn't sustain before maybe it would also be less rotor - well it was - hovering over the ridge top 3/4 mile from my truck I settled in for a full on shutdown with C/D's in a tumble to land stop. - Work just as planned and with a bit of a hike I was back in my warm truck - another hour in the log book and looking for more.

Can anyone say "crack addict."

Good thing I have never tried it.
Dave.

Till we meet again.

Well that is just about everybody. When I count my XC friends, they are almost all here or have been. – If you weren’t here, you know who you are. (dangle away)

Last day and it seems like the party is just starting, though it has been going strong for several weeks.

Two contingents of big boy sky gods arrived in the past 36 hours, or so, and they have been and will be tearing up the sky.


Today's flight began with a relaxing wait after a minor wing repair. Then the flight was on:

It was a "fair thee well" for me as I said good by and explicative deleted to Crazy.(If I ever suggested you go there, don’t, we can talk later) That wall tried to kill me – three times!!! Finally, I said enough and ducked around the corner and had a pleasant ride to the rim.

Next, a bit of a battle at the wall proper but nothing too extreme. The main gaggle arrived as I was popping the wall and we gained 1200 or more above as we worked on a clean climb. Just about mid climb a Green snake (Boom or N) blew past my right wing at mach-one, a bit lower than me to "join us." As he(she) did, I was waked to kingomcome and ended below the bottom of the stack, never too recover. [Curse You Red Barron].

Anyway, it blew the climb and I had to reengage. At some point I ended up on the way back past the rock and climbed back to position to assault the upper mesa again.

Chatter on the radio called(ended) the task (another story) so we were “free.” Poised to strike I figured with my altitude I could give it another try so I dove back in and cranked the wall and back to G. Not bad, enough to transition to the spine and worked the prevailing and lea side stuff till crazy had me again. Ratty, good lift but not enough for the transition to Maguey. Got up a bit, maybe 8400 or so but only enough to rock a ride back to the rock where lift was sweet.

Over the back and toward Sacamacatie, nothing - so a slide to the field East of the little rocks. = Out past me a wing looked to be climbing - so rather than think about landing I thought about climbing.

I hooked in and slowing moved into a nice ride up! After 4 or 5 turns in clear lift I noted a wing on my quarter inbound. My though was - “here it is,” just as I realized it was Mer.

Nothing better than a friend showing up to show you the way home at the end of a hard day’s work.

We floated the convergence and hooked a few on the way back, Mer having gone to Salcos first. Pushing further looked dicey so I held back as Mer checked out the Westerly ground – not much happen there so I called Lake and I soon had company home.

We both had plenty, Mer took the lake side and I took La Torre. I got to play the ridge/thermal game and watched as she floated like a dandelion puff, back and forth cross the city.

On landing, with a comic tackle, a perfect two weeks has come to an end.

Thank you all for doing what you did to help me be as happy as I am.

P.

hmmmm.

Well, much has been learned. - The effort round the lake was fun but not completed yet. Today was another day for it but due to my own stupidity my vario died mid effort half way between Megui and Divs

Without a vario I should be very happy to have made it back which I did but it feels like I went to a great play but the lead had a second for that night only. It was just a great day with potential and I had to quit mid stride.

One day of flying left. Then massive depression - Friends should call me on Tuesday and see if I am alive.

Love.
P

They Say Ya Got to Call it.

Round the Lake on Tue.
We will see.

Today it was Div and step one.
P

Today was the day - Not Yesterday!

Yesterday was trash - good lift but everyone wanted out of the air due to wind layer shear at several levels. - no fun.

Today was more fun - 20 or so miles xc up east of a town called Almonarco. - Nice - Lots of flying and thermaling in the clouds. - Got wet and had a wild landing in thermic valley winds.

More flying tomorrow.
P.

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.