Paragliding/ Other Games

Task 5 and 6 PWC Chelan

2010-08-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

So, I have been back in Vail now for a couple of weeks, trying to get back to working the tandems and lessons. I have great memories of the US Nats and the PWC in Chelan, and now I will try to update the last two tasks. On day 5 we had alot of wind, and the task was cancelled. It was a good thing because most of the pilots were quite tired from the long day before with some pilots in the air for over 6 hours. Even though you sit in your harness, there is still a lot of physical, and copius amounts of mental stimulus going on in a flight that long. Most of us either hung around the lake or by the hotel pool on the day off.

Day 6 dawned nice, and we all headed up to launch for task 5. The task was set as an out and return with a 50 km cylinder as the distance every pilot was to fly away from the start. This format allowed the pilots to go in any direction they wanted. The task was still over 100km. And why not, Chelan always sets itself up for long cross country flights. I launched at the end of the pack as usual and had no trouble climbing out, and had over 15 minutes to wait for the start. Winds again were forecasted to be lighter then they turned out to be. Once on course my track took and easterly direction away from the start as I thought that was the best direction to go on my outward leg. Crosswind the whole way. I kept getting pushed to the south as the winds again had a strong north component to it. Once I got clear of the out cylinder, a big northwest wind kept pushing me south and made it difficult to get back to the butte. There were several of us yoyoing again trying to make upwind headway. After numerous attempts to find a decent climb, I dirted after about 60 km. I was pushing more speed, but it just wasn't enough.

So, day 7 task 6. One more day of cross country flying. And, no, really, a short task under 100 km. The task committee called about a 77 km task out a return again. This time they took the north wind component into the task direction. We were to head north for 30 km, back to the butte, and land at the usual goal the soccer field. However, and ironically, the winds turned out to be strong south. Another great climb over the butte. Once on course I headed north on the east slope of the mountains with the whole group. Another couple of climbs and several of us crossed the Columbia river. We got drilled. Catching the rim several of grovelled 150 feet over dirt. 4 of us landed 2 climbed out, so I was in good company with lots of pilots around. My girlfriend retrieved us with my truck, and on the way back toward Chelan we ended picking up 13 pilots and gear on my truck as the organizers did not send out a van to the location close to the 1st turnpoint. So, we limped back towards Chelan and we finally got the organizers to send a van to meet my truck about 3/4 of the way back. Amazing!

The result party is tonight after the 6th task. Josh Cohn wins the event. Go USA! Nick Greece our USHPA magazine editor got 2nd. Our own Melanie Pfister got 2nd in the womens division. So cool.

A pretty impressive event. I figured that I was able to get over 600 miles of distance in the 13 days of the US Nats and the PWC. A record for me in such a short time. I had my longest duration flight of 6 hours and 5 minutes. The best thing about being at the comps is the camaraderie, the cross country flying, the retrieve and safety infrastruture, and personal bests that everyone gets. No need to be overly competitive at these events. You can always get want you want out of the comps, whether it's serious scores competing with the big pilots, or just achieve personal bests in the distance and duration of the tasks. Hope to see you all at the next event.

Cheers

Task 4 PWC Chelan, WA

2010-07-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

So Task 4. We have an ambitious task committee as they have a called over a 150 km task today. The weather for today looked great, but winds were forecast to be around 12 mph from the northwest. This made the task mostly crosswind, but it turned out the winds had a more northerly component and getting to the first turnpoint became very difficult. Most of the pilots landed in the vicinity of the first turnpoint. Jack Brown was the only one in goal before the 8pm deadline. He flew the task in a little over 6 hours.
I launched at the end of the pack today, but it was no problem climbing out from launch as I topped out at 8,300 msl and still had 30 minutes until the start. Once on course we crossed the river and ended up about 1,000 feet agl above the flats and several of us worked together to climb out and get established on the flats. Ironically we were south of the course line at this point, and fighting the north to northwest wind component we kept south of the course line for a long ways. We had some nice cumulus in the flats, but some of the climbs were broken and small cores. Cloudbase was around 12,000 msl. The first turnpoint was Barker, and Leahy was the town just before. Pushing into the wind I made ok headway, but at Leahy I got stuck, found a couple of climbs, and frisbeed back away from turnpoint 1. While I was climbing out of Leahy, several pilots were to the east, and I noticed one pilot having some action. Was it to be? Yes, another reserve deployment, as I watched the pilot have about a three minute ride from about 4,000 feet agl. I was worried he was going to land in the lake to the east, but ended up on land and ok. I would push into the wind and end up low where I had started the last climb. Around Leahy there is a big gap, and you go into areas where there aren't many roads. Not being high as I approached the gap and fighting the wind, I chose to stay near a road. After about 45 minutes of pushing and sinking. I landed near a retrieve van.
I got 50 km, and another great flight, and still learning alot about the new glider U4 2010.
Overall the US pilots are still doing well and there are around 7 pilots in the top 15. The top 15 pilots will go to the superfinal in Turkey. Josh Cohn is in the lead. Results and info here at http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/ .
Today the 22nd of July was cancelled due to wind, but the next two days look fairly good. Stay close for more excitement from Chelan.

More pics from Task 3 PWC

2010-07-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

We got to meet some great pilots from Germany, Jakob Hummel, and Gunter Klaus. Jakob took some pics from task three of the dark clouds and the rain. I will post them here!

Task 3 PWC Chelan, WA

2010-07-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

Yes!!!! Another 100 km plus task. Another several hours in the air, and another great abdominal workout. Today dawned with some clouds overhead. The forecast for Chelan was supposed to be mostly sunny today, but it turned out to be over 50% cloud cover most of the day. On the NWS forecast discussion they did mention a chance of thunderstorms and showers over the eastern slope of the Cascades, and the central Columbia river valley. That just happens to be where we are. I was curious to see if it would overdevelop, because where I come from if it's like these conditions, usually is over by noon with big cumulus. There were cumulus around noon, but it did seem it might make for a great x/c day with some cloud flying.
So, they called the task and it was 129km triangle. We were to fly north to Brewster, then southeast to 'bump in the road". then southwest to Goran Peak, and then back to the Chelan LZ.
Since I was very low on the priority list, I decided not to suit up for a while, which was the right decision since it turned out to be another slow launch day. The line was getting shorter, and finally decided to get ready, and then everything shut down. No one launched for 45 minutes, since there was little wind, and what there was was coming from the northwest. Finally, there were cycles coming from the lake side launch, and a few of us went over there. I got laid out, tried to pull up once and had a ground tangle. Tried a second time, and not enough wind, then the third time got a decent cycle and got off. I surfed the front of the west launch, and then sunk, so I headed to a saddle to the south, and hook a great thermal of about 800 to 1000 fpm. I was pretty psyched since the task had already started and I was 15 minuted behind. As I was climbing out there was another pilot to the south climbing. At about 9,000 feet msl I am circling and he takes a full frontal, glider goes behind him and then surges asymmetrically and he gets a big cravatte. His glider immediately starts to spiral and he then goes through the maneuvers of stalling to get the cravatte out. After two tries with no results, he hucks and is under reserve for a long ride. He gets on the radio and says he is ok, and another pilot lands next to him. Whew!
So I eventually climb to 10,000 msl over the butte, and I am trying to decide which way to go. The flats or the mountains. To go north to Brewster you can go either way. So I stay over the hills as I go north and find a great climb with two other pilots near the Chelan airport. We climb to cloudbase at about 11,000 msl. The two pilots stay in the hills, I decided to cross the river onto the flats. There seems to be more cumulus developing there. Once over the flats I see other pilots and find a great climb to cloudbase and go on glide toward Brewster. About 9 km from Brewster a few us find this climb to this huge cloud and to stay out of it we have to take a detour toward the Columbia river. Once on the edge of the cloud we made good headway to tag the turnpoint and head back. There was a lot of blue near the turnpoint and there was some sink, but on the way to the second turnpoint there was some great climbs with a big darkening cloud overhead looming. Since cloudbase was about 11,500 msl I went on glide at 10,000 feet msl and was climbing about 400 fpm. At about 10,500 I pushed 3/4th speed, the fastest I had pushed so far, and maintained for quite a ways. About 8 km from the second turnpoint began to sink, and I was concerned because now almost the whole flats were in shade. Once at the turnpoint I headed to the rim and was getting low, below 5,000 feet msl. I saw a dust devil and decided I would go towards it. I found a weak climb that got me over 7,000 feet and then headed 0ver the river to the third turnpoint and then, with all the dark cumulus looming overhead, and fairly overdeveloped it began to rain. I got over the river, and began to climb out in thermal in the rain, and the organizers called the task for safety reasons. So I made over 70 km.
It was an interesting flight having to stay out of big clouds, and pushing more speed, with the added bonus of flying and landing in the rain. Andre Rainsford from South Africa won the day with Yasushi Kobiashi getting second and our own Josh Cohn getting third. Overal Josh is first with Nick Greece being in third for the US. Stay tuned for more excitement from Chelan.

2nd task Chelan PWC

2010-07-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, another 100 km plus task. This one was a triangle with two turnpoints in the flats, landing back at the soccer field which is the butte LZ. Since I was low priority I had to launch later, but that meant I didn't have to circle in the air for an hour before the start. Conditions were light on launch and a little switchy, so it was taking pilots a long time to get off the hill. It took me three tries today, along with many other pilots. Today was awesome over the butte. The start was right over the butte, and the climbs were great with pilots getting to 10,000 msl. It was easy crossing over to the flats and get established.

Once over I set myself up with several pilots. Of course I am one of the slow guys, as I enjoy just the sheer excitement of going x/c. I wasn't pushing much speed. The first turnpoint was Farmer again. It was a little easier to get there as we got climbs to 10,000 msl on the way. Once there we headed north to Leahy, which is about 40 km from Farmer. I ran into a little trouble on the way there, and got low. Finally getting a climb we passed the town of Mansfield which is halfway between Farmer and Leahy. From 11,000 feet msl, I headed to Leahy only to get drilled close to the turnpoint. It took me close to 45 minutes to climbout finally getting the turnpoint, and go toward goal. Lot's of late pilots like myself were looking for climbs to get out of there and make it over the rim to goal. By this time it was 5:45 pm and the thermals were beginning to get light, but also much smoother. I got a climb to about 7,500 feet msl ,and saw a group going up toward goal, so I headed toward the pilots, and we climbed up to about 10,400, and thought we were going to get close to get passed the rim and make goal. But, of course there was a lot of sink still and could not find another climb to get back up. A few pilots I was flying with made it passed where I landed by working the light lift, but being this late it was going to be hard to make goal. While packing up I saw two pilots, really high, and thought they were going to make it, but they dirted just before the rim. I made a little over 89 km. Not good for score, but a fun x/c.

The US pilots are doing awesome with Josh Cohn winning the day Dean Stratton getting third.

So the top four pilots overall are all US pilots after two tasks. Let's hope we can show the world we have amazing flying, and great pilots here in the states.

The weather looks great for the next 4 days of the comp. Stay tuned for more blogging.

1st task PWC Chelan,WA

2010-07-18T22:23:00.000-07:00

And so it was, my first PWC task. The task was over 90 km with launch at the butte, start was just over the rim with Farmers being the first turn point, then to Coulee city, and goal being at Almira. I had been this way before and made goal, so I was hoping for a repeat. Crazy as it was, I got off launch safely, and there was great excitement, as we did not have to stand in line for 30 to 40 minutes. Since there is no priorityon the first day, there was a great free-for-all. While in the gaggle, with over an hour to start and a weak climb to get above the butte, pilots were at times flying pretty close. Next to me one pilot touched his harness pod to the trailing edge of another glider. It was ok overall, but I always tried to position myself in the thermal or the gaggle so I would have an out if I needed it.
Once above the butte, several of us left to get to the flats. It wasn't the best height to make the crossing, and arrived on the flats fairly low. There was still plenty of time for the start, but weak climbs and struggling I was worried. I saw a couple of pilots dirt just over the rim. The start had an entry cylinder and we could get some height above the flats before going for the first turn point. Just before the start I found myself inside the start cylinder and had to fly out of it, and back into the cylinder to get my start. I lost a little time, but not much. As the day was setting up, I was experiencing difficulty, either it was me or the thermals I was finding, because I wasn't getting as high as would have liked. It was a little turbulent, but I saw some pilots quite high, and somehow I was flying with a group that was stuggling. The thermals were broken, climbing at times at 800 fpm then sinking in 200 fpm down. So it was up and down. It was hard to make a symmetric circle to get a decent climb.
So, made the first turn point at Farmers, and found a climb right around the turnpoint with a few other pilots. Getting to about 8,300 msl glides were filled with a lot of sink. It was difficult to go on long transitions with so much sink. Just before a big crossing over a large canyon, a few of us got a climb to 10,000 msl. On glide I lost 6,000 feet in about 6 minutes. Low and in wind, short of the second turnpoint, I was getting drilled. Now what was difficult was to try to stay on course and find a climb without drifting with the wind too much. I was finding weak climbs and trying to drift a little and then fly upwind, find another climb and step up. Eventually I got back up to 6,000 feet msl. But I was off course line that I did not want to cross Banks lake without a little more height. I ended up landing about 10 km from the second turnpoint.
Well, made a little more then 59 km. Unfortunately, another reserve deployment. Pilot seems ok, but has a few broken ribs. Still Chelan is showing it's true colors and game on flying. No complacency here. Tomorrow looks a little better with a good lapse rate and less wind. Stay tuned.

Practice day PWC

2010-07-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

Today was the official practice day for the Paragliding World Cup, and we couldn't ask for better conditions. The official task was to fly to Mansfield and back to the Chelan LZ, and it was 55 km. Cloudbase was at 11,000 msl, and very light wind from the west. What was the biggest treat was to fly at my own pace, thermal with few pilots, which made it easy to core any thermal you found. It took a mere 15 minutes to climb to 7,500 over the butte to easily hit the flats. Once established there we were just hoping thermal to thermal to Mansfield. Climbing to 11,000 msl it was fun to fly into little cloud wisps, as there was just enough moisture to form small clouds at base.

The flight took about 2 hours 30 minutes. Thermal climbs were about 1,200 feet per minute. I wish every day was like this, but then again, variety is good too.

Tomorrow is the 1st comp day. Looks like it may be a little windy.

We had our offical meeting tonight with live classical music. Wish you were all here.

Day 3, 4,5,6 Chelan Nats

2010-07-17T09:56:00.001-07:00

I finally have a chance to update my blog. It's been quite the whirlwind event with long days, not much sleep, late dinners, and mayhem. I had some great days and some bombouts, but that's ok, as I reached some personal best during comps, and it's always fun hanging out with pilots you only see once a year. It's also nice to fly solo as most of the year I am on my tandem glider sharing the air.

So day three, dawned as forecasted. Winds were nuking at 5 am, and no one had to meet at the LZ to discuss the cancelling of the day. Sleeping in was great, and hanging out by the lake, getting some errands done, and driving some of the lake roads allowed for some recharge. In retrospect, the second task in my previous blog turned out to be a 600 point day, so just for launching you had over 150 points added to your score. So, if getting a good score in these comps is important to you, even if the conditions are deemed marginal, it's worth it to launch. And, many pilots did launch because they did not call the task. These pilots did not want to launch because of the marginal conditions, and would not have if it wasn't for the comp. Not good for safety.

So Day 4, task 3,opened as post frontal type of day, with winds coming from the northwest at launch, which is not typical. Usually we are launching east or southeast in the morning. The forecast were for the winds to pick up later in the day, even though the front went through. They called an early task to a town called Wilbur. It was over a 100 km task with a couple of turn points. They moved up the usual start times a half an hour because of the conditions. What has been frustrating is being one of the later pilots to launch. Sometimes it hasn't been a problem, but this week so far being later has been more challenging getting above launch then being early. The only problem if you launch early, you have to hang out in a huge gaggle for 30 minutes or longer waiting for the start to open.

So once in the air on this day, I flew to where most pilots were climbing out. Since we were launching on the west side of the butte, and the thermals were on the east side, you had to ridge soar up and catch light thermals until you were over the butte and then catch the lee-side thermals from the east side of the butte. Pilots that launched early had favorable light conditions and found the climbs fairly smooth. Once I was out there the winds had picked up a little so once over the butte I found the thermals trashy and very turbulent. I was trying to circle and just managing to keep my glider open. I did manage a climb to above 7,000 feet msl. I then decided to head to the flats, and could not find anything. I crossed with my friend Rob Sporer, and both dirted just over the rim. Many pilots thermalled to find themselves out of the start cylinder, and could not get back into the wind to make the start. Even tough it was an interesting day, many made goal, and some pilots, like my friend Muzzi, made there first 105 km task. Jan(Loopy), and Casey from the the front range both made goal that day. Jan was flying well with the R10.2, and was scoring well.

Day 5, task 4, turned out to be a light wind day, and so a 106 km triangle was called. The day was forecast to be high pressure with very stable conditions, and a blue sky day. Climbs were not to really get above 8,000 feet msl. The task was to go from the butte to Leahy, then Withrow, then back to the butte LZ. I launched early this time, and had an awesome quick climb out. So, there were about 80 pilots at about 6,500 feet msl (3,000 over launch) circling for about 45 minutes trying to work together to stay up and get as high as we could to make the start and reach the flats.

I had a good start with most of the gaggle, and reach the flats not to high. But we had a big group on our side, and we were able to climb out nicely though not very high. At this time we were finding out that flying with a group would be helpful due to the stable conditions. The going was slow, as we would get a little low, about 2,000 feet agl, which meant it was time to find something. I choked my way to Leahy and made the turn point, finding the climbs snakey. You would core a thermal, and then it would be gone, and you had to change you circles all the time to find where it went. Thermals were topping out at about 7,500 msl. Just before Leahy, we found the best thermal of the day so far. Climbed in that, made the turn point, and then came back to it. It got over 8,000 feet msl from this one, and now it was a headwind to Withrow which was about 30 km away. Casey had landed around Leahy as there was huge sink over the turn point. I even thought I was going to dirt here. So I got to hook up with Bill Hughes at this point, and Cliff Curry from Salt Lake. We wtuck together pretty much until we all dirted after the Withrow turn point which was awesome.

So from Leahy we got to Mansfield, and I was finding that we would thermal, and drift further away from Withrow. Frustrating since we had to push into a headwind. I finally found a decent climb with my friends, and we pushed on, trying to core anything climb we could find. At this time it was after 5pm and we had been in the air for 5 hours. Weariness was setting in, but we were pushing hard. Goal was closing at 7 pm so there was a point Bill and I push hard to the Withrow turnpoint, and found ourselves low. It was about 6:30 pm and the thermals had faded. Plus wind had picked up, so I dirted about 14 km short of goal. Over 6 hours in the air, a personal best for me. I did have to relieve myself quickly once on the ground. Awesome flight 90 km, and a flight worth the trip right there. Jan did well, and made goal 5th. He was in goal an hour before I landed. Go Jan!

So, one more day, day 6, task 5. They forecasted some wind again, and today it was found to be way more stable then the day before. Since it was the last day the task committee decided to call a short task. 59.5 km with and entry cylinder from Withrow, to Mansfield, to Sims Corner. Everyone thought it was going to be a short day, but low and behold, it turned out to be interesting. Winds were south on launch so we were launching the side called the green monster. It seems that when we have to launch this side, getting up can be difficult. I got to launch within a reasonaable time, and like everyone else, yoyoed above, and then below launch height several times. Finally, I boated around for a while with the other pilots looking for something, and then decided to head toward the normal LZ where my friend Cherie was hanging out. By herself, she began you work a thermal very low. I hooked in with her thermal and it turned out to be a screamer (1,300 fpm) back to about 5,800 and enough, so we thought to make the flats. No way. Everyone except maybe two pilots, who had the luck of the day, scrapped and ridge soared trying to get on the flats, getting weak climbs on the rim, and getting sucked back into the river valley. Many pilots chose to land, and I just hung in there. We finally found a thermal and climbed over the rim into the flats low, but it wasn't enough for me. I lost the thermal, and dirted right on the rim. The pilots I were with made it a little further, and Cherie made the first turn point. Some pilots got the climb out and several made goal. Today was some luck, some excellent thermal skills, and all patience. Great experience!

So there you go, the end of the first round of the US nationals. I didn't score well, but had some great flights. Made goal one of the days, my longest time in the air, and learning to fly a new glider. Next is the Paragliding World Cup. Many phenominal pilots will be here. I will try to blog more regularly, since now I have wifi where I am staying. Cheers!

Day 2 Chelan Nats

2010-07-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

So Sunday looked like another great day to fly. Looking at the wind forecast, conditions looked favorable for a decent task. However, there were some reports that winds were going to pick up, but the wx service forecast said light winds to 12,000. Launch conditions were different today as winds were blowing from the south. It seemed there was a strong inversion at launch height, with no pilots getting above launch by noon, and smoke from a fire filling in the valleys below.

So, when the window opened a couple of comp pilots launched, but were not geeting any lift. The winds were increasing and it looked pretty stable for soaring. Eventually the inversion got higher, but that increased the wind and pilots were launching in 15 to 25 mph cycles. As pilots were trying to climb out, they got pushed back behind the butte, and would only top out about 1,000 to 1,500 over which makes it difficult to make the flats. Gliders were parked and some going backwards occasionally in the strong winds. I decided to hold off launching with strong winds coming through, and little glider penetration with the pilots in the air. Twice they closed the launch window because of many gliders in front of launch not climbing out. At 1:50 pm they decided to close the launch all together because getting off the ground became too dangerous. So there were several of us conservative pilots that chose not to fly. The meet director asked pilots in the air that were on the safety committee how the conditons were, and the concurred that conditions were a 2 out of a possible 3. 3 would have shut the task down. So, 2 or 3 pilots made goal. most landed in the regular LZ, we had a pilot air lifted by helicopter to Spokane after crashing in Leahy one of the turn points. So, true to strong Chelan condtions.

In two days we have had two crashes, and a reserve deployment. Today, Monday, we are completely shut down due to a cold front and winds 40 to 50 mph. Tomorrow looks breezy, but we should have a great lapse rate after the front goes through. Stay tuned for more excitment from Chelan.

1st day of Comp Chelan, WA

2010-07-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

So, The first task for the Nats at Chelan turned out to be perfect. We had great weather though partly cloudy, which was good because it made it a little cooler. Even with the flats in the shade the thermals were still working. There were definitely less dust devils in the flats. The task was about 89 km which is 55 miles from Chelan butte to Coulee city with a dog leg to Almira. I had a late start as launch opened at noon with the start at 1:30. A long line started and I was just a little slow suiting up, so I was one of the last pilots off. I had to wait in line for over half an hour, and once in the air I had about 25 minutes to get high enough to cross the river to the flats.
I got to 7500 feet msl which was not as high as the lead gaggle, but crossed the river anyway and got to the flats low. That put me a half an hour behind at the finish. Finally finding a climb with a few pilots we started on course toward Coulee city. The sky was more then half full with clouds so I was worried that the shade would shut it down, but it kept working. I had once excellent climb to 11,500 msl and pushed a lot more speed bar and was able to catch up to come pilots that were well ahead of me. I made it to Coulee city with good altitude, and needed at least two more climbs to make goal. At this time becasue of shade the climbs were weaker and I was worried if I raced hard I would hit the dirt. So being patient just to make goal I took my time, and made goal. It always sweet to make goal, as everyone there is great spirits.
Today is another hot day, so I will post tonight. Stay tuned.

Chelan Training Day for Nats

2010-07-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

Well today was for my first flight in Chelan, Washington 2010. Also my big first flight on the Aircross U4.

Conditions were very typical Chelan, with light winds on launch, dust devils pinging off the top, and super hot temperatures. But, as always, a great flight, longer then anticipated and almost a full triangle.

Once launched it took a long time to climb out above butte, and had a low crossing over the Columbia river into the flats. Once there we had an awesome gaggle that enabled everyone to climb out again. Winds were from the southwest, so my friend Jan, Casey, and myself headed to a small town called Withrow. I was slower then the boys, as I was trying to dial in this new ship, not pushing much speed. However, I was happy with the stability of the glider and surprised with this high aspect ratio wing. Not one collapse today. Once at Withrow we decided to go east toward Mansfield which was an easy glide since we had a nice tailwind. Awesome climbs to 12,000 msl with thermals pumping at 1400 fpm. What was amazing were the size of some of the dust devils in the flats. I saw a couple that were 30 yards in diameter or bigger. Cloudbase was 12,500 msl and reached it 3 times today.

From Mansfield the goal was to make it back to the butte, with a 15mph head wind it wasn't in the cards. So landed about 10 miles from Chelan Butte for a total distance of 30 miles. 4 hours in the air. Great training day.

Stay tuned for more blogs, and pics. I am hoping to blog daily.

Cheers, Greg

Update Finally

2010-06-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick update for the last month we have been flying. I can't believe that it has been a month. The weather has gotten a little better, but for a good part of June, we had wind. When the wind finally quit, we had thunderstorms. So, short flying windows have been the norm this month. We have had some afternoon flying, but minimal.

Soon, I will be leaving for the competitions in Washington state. Lake Chelan is one of the best thermal and cross country flying sites in the world. On the eastern slope of the cascades, on the bank of the Columbia river, Chelan butte will be the start for the US Nationals from JUuly 10th to the 15th, and after that the Paragliding World Cup will be taking over. Some of the best pilots who fly the World Cup regularly will be there. It will be exciting to fly with these guys.

The dates are from the 17th to the 24th. I think there are a couple of practice days and then the 6 day event. I will be blogging. Hold me to it, as long as I have a computer connection. So, please check daily starting on the 8th of July.

Here are a few pics from the last month of flying.

Cheers

June 1st update

2010-06-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

So, finally we have been having warmer weather up here, but the jet stream, the troughs, the pressure gradient winds are still buffeting us daily. The forecast from the National Weather Service, and the actual weather has been off quite dramatically. We have to take it one day at a time. We did have a couple of evening flights off Wolcott now, but generally we get blown out. Even our mornings have been short lived with wind blowing over the back by 9:30 am. That is 2 to 3 hours too early.

We have a nice evening at Wolcott on the 3oth of May. It was a late launch with strong winds steady at 18 to 25 mph. We got off about 7 pm and flew for about 45 minutes or so. I guess you have to say, take what you can get.

Now that Paraglide Vail is the Aircross high performance paraglider importer, I had the chance to now fly the U-Sport which is it's LTF 2-3, EN-D performance glider. It was the large, so I had to load up with 25 pounds of ballast. The high end weight wise is 253 pounds. I flew the glider at about 235 pounds which was low middle for the range. I was amazed at the stability of the glider, even though I was on the light end. It lunched like a charm. I loved how it turned, and felt like it cut through turbulence like a knife. I do think this glider should be flown on the higher end of the weight range, but I was never concerned on it's handling being light. For a 2-3 the brake length seemed to have a londer travel then other gliders, but all you had to do is fly with an extra rap around the hands. I can't wait to have other pilots give this glider a try and get some awesome feedback.

The Teva Mountain Games are coming to town. Unfortunately, we have been taken off the roster since in three years we never got a task off to showcase our sport. This year the weather looks better then ever, so we will be attempt to fly as if the games are on. Keep your eyes to the sky in Vail for gliders flying in, and stay posted to the blog for the daily flights and weather conditions.

Cheers

May 27th,2010

2010-05-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

So, with the weather and the wind being unfavorable for flying. myself and a student came down to Boulder, CO to get some work done. The weather was quite nice today with very stable conditions and light winds. Loren (student) got three flights in and then flew a tandem with Kris Husted.
Good news. Paraglide Vail is now the importer for Aircross Paragliders. Today I got the chance to fly the new entry level glider called the U-Fly. It was quite nice. Pilot weight is 87 to 110 kg. I hooked in at 98 kg all up weight so was in the middle of the weight range. The glider launched easily and seemed very pitch stable. Even though it was a short flight, the glider seemed to turn very easy and did not have a lot of roll reaction once releasing the turn. While flying it seemed to cut through the air nicely and was damp. Perfect for the beginner and safety conscious intermediate pilot. On the flare the glider retained nice energy and it was a very easy landing. I am hoping to get a soaring flight tomorrow, and I will have more info. I like the risers, they a thin and very easy to manage. Tune in for more info.

Local flying Update

2010-05-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Well, finally some good news. We had one day of great flying and Wolcott finally gave it up. Between weather systems we had a reprieve and last Thurday the winds turned out to be west at a reasonable rate. The flying turned out awesome, and we got an hour and a half flying window, with climbs to 2,000 feet over launch.

Unfortunately, we are in another stormy weather pattern with no precip, but high winds. It looks like this may move through by Tuesday of next week, and we can have a full 5 days of flying conditions. It looks dry and great direction for Wolcott again. Check out the pics.

Cheers!

Waiting

2010-05-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here is an update. No real update, excpet the weather has been basically snow, rain, and wind. It looks like we may get some nice weather, but there is some wind forecast for the weekend. I may be down in Boulder for the next few days. Will update as needed.

Flying over the Weekend

2010-05-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

We finally got some weather to fly over the weekend. Just one day. On Saturday several of us went up Bellyache, and got a couple of flights in, including tandem. Had my first two tandems of the year, and it felt great to get some airtime. Weather was cloudy, but it was unstable enough to get some soaring in. On my second tandem I was happy to get about 500 feet over launch. That was a surprise as the cloudiness was keeping most of the ground in shadow.
In the afternoon we went up to Wolcott as it seemed it was going to be a great day overall wind and weather wise. The afternoon cleared off and it was just partly cloudy skies. Right over Wolcott some nice lenticular and wave clouds formed, and of course the higher winds aloft reached the ground and we were getting gusts to about 30 mph at times. This was not at all what the forecast said. We waited at launch until about 6:45 pm with no diminishing wind. So we bagged the evening. It was funny, because there were no wave clouds to the north or to the south of us.
The road up to the Wolcott luanch is dry and in great shape. So when the weather finally decides to straighten out we will be flying in the afternoons and evenings.
I will be out of town until the 17th of May. I will be blogging daily after that. Blues skies everyone.

Flying May 7th

2010-05-06T16:18:00.000-07:00

We fly tomorrow, Friday May 7th. It finally looks like we will be getting a reprieve from the inclement weather we've been having. So, hopefully we will get some morning flying in with a chance of the afternoon working as well. Saturday looks like it may be descent at Wolcott. If we can't drive up to the upper launch, some of us may drive as far as we can and then hike. The other option is to launch off the small site Ravens Ridge and bench up to the upper ridge.
Let's hope we can get some air time.

Otto's Ridge

2010-05-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well, not much new to say except we spent two days at Otto's ridge, and got skunked. The weather was good, but the wind was from the west. Otto's faces east. However, it was kiteable so got some great ground handling in. This was nice as I have only had one flight since November. Garret, who is a Vail local, was in the neighborhood and decided to head to Reeder Mesa. There ws no wind there.
Back in Vail now, and the ind is still blowing. It does look like we may have the wx settle down for Friday and Saturday. Hopefully we can get in the air. I will post daily or every other day with updates.
Cheers!

Snowing Again

2010-05-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday afternoon and it's snowing again. So, tomorrow morning we are going to leave at 5:30 am for Otto's Ridge in Mack, hopefully for a little air time, and so warmer weather. We will be staying through Tuesday afternoon, when it looks like the wind and weather is going to take advantage of us again. I will take some pics and share them for those of you that have never been to Otto's.
Otto's is similar to POM southside. It faces east, and gets the drain from the mountains. The soaring window usually lasts until about noon. Conditions a typically smooth until about 10 am and then it can begin to get a little thermic. It is great option if you don't want to drive all the way to the POM.
After this next bout of weather it looks like the weather may stabilize for a little flying in the mountains. We'll keep you posted.

Been A Long Winter

2010-05-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, Well it has been a long winter, and I am glad it's over. Unfortunately, winter has not left us, and we had a foot of snow dump within the last 3 days. I have been excited to get airborn, but right after skiing had ended I had to go to Maine and visit the family, and it snowed there. Can't get away from it.

So big plans for the summer, and I hope we can get the Vail ball rolling soon with at least some descent flying weather to scrape the rust off our flying skills. Bellyache, our morning site, was in good shape and dry before the snow came in. So with some warm weather it should only take a couple of days to be launchable. Wolcott on the other hand looked good, but with the new snow the mud on the road will probably hold us off for a couple of more weeks. Usually we can drive up to Wolcott by mid May.

Though I have slacked on writing this blog, I will be making every effort to updat at least 4 to 5 times a week. So please stay tuned for local updates of the flying here in the Vail area.

Unfortunately, there will be no paragliding at the Teva Mountain Games this year. However, I am planning to have a fun fly-in, Colorado league comp during the Games. It is the first weekend in June. I will keep everyone posted as soon as I have more details.

I will leave a picture that Dale Covington took thermaling in the leeside of a 7,000 foot south face during the Nationals in Utah. Talk to you on Monday.

Cheers

US Nationals 2nd round

2009-09-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

So, I am sorry it has taken me so long to keep my blog updated. Being on the road, and just always trying to catch up with personal details back home, it seems the time just passes me by.

I thought I start with the US Nationals week long competition in the Provo, Utah area. The site we flew for the whole week is called Inspiration Point. It sits about one quarter the way up Cascade Peak, with a west facing launch. What makes this area so appealing is a north to south mountain range with 11,000 foot, plus peaks. Winds are generally westerly, so it makes for great flying since the front side on the mountains face directly into the prevailing wind. From the valley floor to the top is approximately 7,000 vertical feet.

Arriving a day early to get a training flight in, we were greeted with the weather wet, stormy and wild. Not a good start to a week long competition. Unfortunately, I had flown this site only once about 12 years ago, so a training flight was not in the cards due to the weather. I always like to familiarize myself to a new site just to get the feel for how it works. Fortunately the weather looked like it was going to be great, at leasrt for 5 days or so during the comp. Seldom do we get several flying days during a comp when in the mountains due to the ever changing weather. Maybe this one would be different, and it was. We had 7 total flying days. The comp lasts seven days.

So the first day, I was focused on getting familiar with the site, and was hoping for easy conditions to fly. I also had only about 7 flights on my comp wing, which is enough to get a feel for the glider, but not enough to really dial it in. After launching I was surprised that the climb outs weren't easy. I turned left right off launch, as a few pilots were actually climbing out, but later I found out the house thermal was to the right of launch. I sunk out to this hill that has a gazebo on it, which really isn't far from the bombout. I trusted that the gezebo was going to work for me, and it did, but it left me really far behind from the gaggle and start. Again, I was taking this flight as a training flight. Finally climbing out to about 2,000 feet over launch, I began the task. It was about a 70 km task to the south. I was thinking that the front faces of these big mountains as rocky as the were, would really work for lift, but I was unpleasantly disappointed. I worked and worked, scatched and scatched, much more closely rock faces then I like on a comp wing. I groveled to the first turn point, and tweaked my way to the second turn point, and sunk out. Disappointed, but it was a training flight, and I was happy with my comp wing, conditions were weak climbs with turbulent conditions, and the glider handled beautifully. Crisp, responsive handling, and probably the most soild comp glider I have flown to date.

The second day turned out to be another nice day. Still under the high pressure influence, I was looking a little more forward to the task, as I had a little familiarity on the site. About a 68 km task to the south was called to a little airstrip called Nephi. I had a rough start again with a botched launch. Conditions were light, and I tried to run hard on the uneven launch terrain, but tripped. I had to untangle my glider etc. Finally when I got everything sorted out, I was one of the last pilots on launch. I had an easy takeoff the second time, and climbed out alone in 500 fpm lift. Being so far behind, I reall didn't wory about catching up, but I surprising ly had good luck, and got to 11,500 feet msl, and went on course. Even though the task was a straight line, the mountain range made a 45 degree curve. You had two options, one to follow the mountains and the dogleg, or go across the flats. Terrain seemed like the obvious choice, and consequently all the pilots took that option. I was happy with my progress, as I was catching up to a few pilots as I was going. I was also noticing several pilots landing out, and so I was thinking I was making some headway. Goal was supposed to close around 7:30 pm so I was making progress and observing that I would make goal at around 7:15 pm. before the dogleg we had some flats to go over, and may pilots were getting low. I came over this spine with about 250 feet agl. I worked down the spine and found a weak climb at about 200 fpm. Working it I began to climb out, and finaly another pilot comes and joins me and it's none other the John Van Duzer who always flies serial class, but makes goal much of the time. as we worked together, we ended up climbing and helping each other, topping out on this climb a 4,000 feet agl, we went on glide, Trey, joined us as well, so the three of us could work together nicely, and got the climb of the day to 13,000 feet msl, which was about 8,000 feet agl. From the top of this climb we had the coolest final glide I had ever had in the evening light. My GPS was saying I was going to make goal before 7 pm which was good, but had plenty of time to spare. The glide turned out to be about 15 km, and I still had 3,000 feet of altitude when I got to goal. an awesome flight, one of the best of the year, and happy to be in goal.

Stay tuned for the next few days of the comp.

Great Flying in July

2009-07-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

It's been great, the weather has finally dried out a little, and we have had some consistency with the conditions. We did have two days in the last two weeks that we were completely shut down, but for the most part it has been great.

On the evening of July 18th, with the winds from the north, several pilots decided to make the trek up the gondola, and a 30 minute hike to launch at a site we call the Cascade launch or Chair 20 launch. Two pilots went up on July 16th, an had some great conditions to fly in with and hour of soaring. Several of us were hoping to have the same experience.

We load the gondola in Lionshead on Vail Mountain, and hike down the run Simba, and with a short bushwhack we arrive at a steep, semi grassy, shrubby launch. Unsheathed kevlar comp lines on the glider really do not like the shrubby ground cover. Lines catch on everything, and the glider doesn't like to inflate evenly. A little landscaping will take care of this.

Once at launch winds were a little on the strong side, but not totally unreasonable. We settled in to wait for the right conditions, and placed some wind indicators in strategic spots for safe launching. After about 40 minutes some of the lulls in the cycles were at an appropriate launch speed, with gusts to about 18 mph. I decided to get ready. As I laid my glider out, the little shrubs kept grabbing the lines, and because of the steepness of the slope the winds kept lifting my glider into a serpentine format. Once hooked in it was easier to manage. I got the straight in cycle, and inflated, and launched into lift. Conditions were smooth, and the lift was abundant, and climbed steadily to 10,700 feet msl, which is a little higher than the top of the gondola on Eagle's Nest on Vail Mountain. The other pilots managed to get off with some soaring. Unfortunately, the launch is small, and only two gliders can be laid out at a time.

I got about an hour flight with the lift shutting down abruptly, landing at about 8 pm. It's great to have a site that faces northerly, as all the other sites we have face a more southerly, or easterly direction. It was great that all the pilots got to fly.

It seems now we are in a dry cycle, so I will be blogging about any significant flights we have. Don't give up, the best is yet to come.

Major Update

2009-07-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a while since I have updated my blog. I am sure you all have been waiting with baited breath. Hopefully, all of you haven't given up on me, and trusted that I would update the blog someday. So, Here it is.

The last blog I wrote was at the Dunlap, CA Nationals. Alot has happened since then with the season opener at Villa Grove, CO, and the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, and just some great flying after and in between.

In Villa Grove, as usual for this time of year, we were tethered between the struggle of seasons from winter summer. Snow on the peaks, rain in the valley, thunderstorms menacing our short opportunities to get airborn, and gust fronts toying with us once we were in the air. It certainly did not dampen the spirits of the group. What I love about this event is the camaraderie between the hang glider pilots and paraglider pilots. Even with the challenging conditions everyone got some airtime, though it was short lived, especially for the paraglider pilots, as wind seemed to make it more risky for us to stay in the air. I remember deciding to go to one of the hotsprings close by, and watching three hang glider pilots setting up for a landing in front of a huge thunderstorm with the gust front clocking winds at about 35 mph.

One of the evenings saw a paraglider pilot getting caught by one of the said gust fronts, and managed to land his glider going backwards at about 10 mph. He just got dragged a little through the sage and cactus (ouch), but was ready the next day for a flight.

I managed to get two good flights in, but chose to be in the air for no more then 40 minutes due to the unpredictable nature of the weather.

What could not be topped, though, was the hospitality that Tiffany and Larry gave to the event. Most pilots camped on their property, which is right at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. We can use Lar and Tiffs property for a landing zone, which is wide open range land. Larry is a hang glider pilot that has devoted himself to making this site one of the premier sites in Colorado. The party they threw was unbelievable, with a huge bon fire, lots of grilled food, kegs of beer, and live entertainment. You can't beat the venue, with two hotsprings close by, including one that's clothing optional, a pristine setting of snow capped 14,000 foot peaks, and you know you are in God's country.

I will continue to attend this event as long as it's on the table. Hopefully, one year we will be graced with perfect conditions, and long cross country flights. The potential is infinite.

Two weeks after the Villa Grove event, the Teva Mountain Games came to Vail. Originally we were going to have a competition with a cross country race to goal. But due to the previous year's conditions, many pilots were relunctant to sign up. So, because of the small roster we decided to make it more of a fun fly-in.

Unfortunately again, the weather was not on our side. Wind and rain was the norm, and we struggled to get in the air for some excitement. The first day we spent down in Wolcott with the hopes of flying into Vail. Big cu-nims with rain shafts, cranked gust fronts through launch all day with hang glider pilots, and paraglider pilots trying to squeak a flight in between. Everyone got flushed, with no one flying for more then 30 minutes. The second and third day we were blown out completely with no one going to launch. On Sunday, we got permission to fly from Vail mountain, and luckily we had a window. Observing the realtime weather conditions and the forecast, I was reluctant to head up the mountain, but since this was a rare opportunity, the group decided to go up anyway. Even though the winds were strong at 12,000 feet msl, with launch being at 11,000 feet msl, we had slight cross but reasonable conditions, so we hucked and had about a 20 to 30 min flight into Vail landing at the Rugby field. We were psyched.

Another Teva Games, and not the greatest weather. I am convinced that one year we will have the great weather needed to sport paragliders all over the sky for spectators enjoyment.

I will continue to blog more often now as summer has settled in. Stay tuned for more fun tales. Cheers!

Final Day/ Nats at Dunlap, CA

2009-05-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

Well, with the comp being finished, and some great flying experienced, the top guys in the US shine again. Brad Gunnuscio was 1st, with Eric Reed 2nd, Rob Sporer 3rd, and Nick Greece 4th. All of the pilots are part of the Eagle paragliding team coached by Rob Sporer. All were flying the new hot ship from Niviuk paragliders, the Icepeak 3. I love flying with these guys, because of their infectious love for cross country flying and paragliding, and their genuine great attitude. Great ambassadors to the sport.

The second round of the Nationals will be in the Salt Lake City area of Utah in August. I look forward to flying with all the great pilots, and have some great cross country flying as well. Stay tuned for all the colorado events coming up soon in May and June.

During the Nats/ Day 4 and 5

2009-05-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

So, I have a moment to continue my saga, and boy it was to become a saga! Day 4 of the Nats seemed to be another high pressure day with an inversion close to launch height. An 80 km task or so was set, and we were off. The start was to the north of launch with the first turn point to the north as well. You had to enter the start cylinder when the race time started, and then tag the same start point at 400 meters. Many pilots were fighting for altitude as the thermals would form to the north of launch, and then shut down. There was a plethora of confused, organized chaos, of paragliders trying to stay as high as possible before the start. Most pilots were close to launch height to about 1,000 feet over launch at the start. No one seemed to be rushing on course. I saw some pilots climbing near launch so I flew over to that thermal and made a nice climb to about 1,500 feet over launch. That enabled me to tag the start and the turn point easily. I was a little behind the main gaggle, but was not worried because of the stable conditions. There were about 8 or nine of us searching to get a thermal so we could began to glide on course. It was a right turn day, but some pilots were turning left and just making due to stay up. Many of us were trying to stay close to each other as that seemed to be the only area of where the lift was.

Now, most of the time during the comp, you can be flying fairly close to other pilots. Sometimes almost touching wingtips. This usually is not a problem as everyone is a skilled pilot, and has done this before. Plus, we are all circling in the same direction. Well, I was making a bunch of turns in broken thermals usually keying off the other pilots in lift. I finally decided to go on glide to the north, and was flying straight. I knew there were no paragliders in front of me, and saw the other pilots flying straight as well. I looked over my left shoulder to clear my airspace. I then looked back in front of my flying path, and to my surprise, was a paraglider turning left at my level. I yelled, and made an evasive turn to the left. The other pilot then tried to keep turning left, and unfortunately it was not enough. The paraglider hit on the right side of my lines about two-thirds the way up to my paraglider. This immediately spun me to the right and I focused on getting untangled from the other glider's lines. In about 3 seconds we were apart and clear from each other. I had my brakes in hand, when I looked up I had about 4 riser twists. I looked at my glider and saw a cravatte on my right side with about two-thirds of my glider open. I knew I was only about 400 feet agl, so I decided to reach down and throw the reserve. In less then two seconds I was under reserve. It was a convincing tug on my shoulders. :-). So now, under reserve, I began the process of pulling in my main. I was drifting with the wind into the mountain, but had a nice smooth ride going with no oscillations. I finally got fabric from my paraglider and braced for the rest of the ride. I tagged a tall tree with my harness and then drifted for another 2 seconds into two of the tallest trees around. My paraglider lines grabbed one of the tall trees and my reserve came to rest in the other. Safe without a scatch, I was confortably suspended about 75 feet above the ground. A little shaken after having a mid-air. I composed myself for a minute, and then radioed to the safety director that I landed ok, but was in a tree 75 feet up. I then mentioned that I had a mid-air and was concerned for the other pilot. The other pilot had recovered, but there was no response from the other pilot. So, there was speculation that other pilot went down and was injured. I mentioned the other colors of the glider, and after about 15 minutes the other pilot was flying around yelling if I was ok. I realized the other pilot was Ok, but after about a half hour, the other pilot ended up throwing the reserve as well for reasons not related to the mid-air. The other pilot never contacted the safety diector the whole time they were in the air. Once they had the reserve ride and landed the radio finally worked. :-O! Both pilots should always report a mid-air especially if one pilot goes down. Interesting day for both of us. The main thing is no one was hurt.

So hanging in the tree, I was reserved (pun) to the dilemma of what I was to do to get out. I was glad no one was hurt, I was secure hanging in the tree, and rescue was on its way. I did have a 75 foot perlon rope for just this occasion if it was to happen. I was able to lower that rope to the ground. There were limbs on the trees, but because of being suspended between the two, I could not use the limbs as an anchor. Since the rescue crew was on the way, I was not worried about having to self rescue, and was going to wait until they got there. Finally, two fire dept people got there, and assessed my condition. About this time two California State patrol helicopters started to fly around. I was the center of attention. Not really in the best way, though! :-O.

So, finally, the other rescue guys got there, and proceeded to cut some scrub to set up a belay. I was going to have to set my own rescue up with their equipment and use my reserve bridle as an anchor since I could not use any of the limbs. I pulled up three peices of webbing and secured them to my bridle with a safety attachment to my paraglider risers in case the reserve fell from the tree. I then attached a pulley to the webbing, with the rescue guys rope through the pulley. The question now was how I was going to secure myself to the rope. They had a cinch collar or yoke that I was going to put around my chest, under my arms, and when it was weighted it would tighten around my chest, and then I could be belayed down. It went without a hitch (pun), and I was lowered to the ground safely. They had EMS there to check me out, and I was given the A-OK.

The hike out was uneventful. When I got back to the vehicles, they had about 20 convicts there to help with cutting a path if needed for the rescue. I just can't stand all this attention.

Quite the event, and experience. The next day, went to get my stuff. A comp pilot, skipped flying the comp that day, and came to help. Another pilot that was there not in the comp, came to help as well. The meet director secured a local with tree climbing gear, and we were able to get the stuff out of the tree with no damage in about 2 hours. How lucky am I. I am so thankful for the support and caring these pilots and locals had. That is what going to the events is about. Pilots and people help fellow pilots in need. I am full of gratitude.

So, after this event. I was in need of repacking my gear, I had lost my reserve handle, and did not have another one. So, I was finished with the comp. I was able to help on retrieve, and enjoy hanging with the other pilots.

In retrospect, the outcome could not have been better under the circumstances. What's important is when flying close in gaggles, you must see and avoid other pilots. This is a very important rule. A mid-air collision is probably the most feared incident when comp flying. To know that both pilots can be safe, healthy, and OK when emergency equipment is used, and how to use it, is indespensible. An important learning experience for all of us.

Stay tuned!

During the Nats

2009-05-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

So, after the training day we all headed to our accomodations for the week. Most of the pilots were to stay at a place called the St Nicholas Ranch, which was a Greek Orthodox retreat. Many in the paragliding group are far from religious, but I thought it was great to have many of the pilots in the same accomodations. This not only built camaraderie, but enhanced friendships. Dinner and breakfast was to be served, and we had shared rooms with 2 to 4 pilots sharing a room. It made for tight accomodations. Unfortunately, they did not clean the rooms for the whole week, so room conditions were a little ripe by the 5th day. Never-the-less, it was still fun to have most of the pilots together for dinner, breakfast, and parties. Of course there was a daily keg!

So, the first day of the comp dawned beautiful. Scattered cumies were popping everywhere, and pilots were pretty excited to play. Since the organizer of the comp was going to fly and compete, we were going to have a new meet director, who ran the local club in the valley. Though her intentions were good, there seemed to be quite a bit of confusion in regards to comp organization, requirements, direction, logistics, and landings. This valley had plenty of options to land, but the locals were not very open to pilots using their property to land if needed. So, we had a lot of you can land here, but not in this field or that field. So, my consensus was not to land. We could land at the forest service property which was a nice field, but what made it interesting to land there was it was a perfect trigger for a thermal. Coming in there was a difficult set up as you were always getting lift. During the comp, I climbed out from the forest service thermal twice.

If you do make it to Dunlap, there is a pilot named Dan who had a beautiful landing zone and property for both hang gliders and paragliders. His friend Greg was super nice, and with permission you can land there, and set up camp for a reasonable fee. It's perfect!

After the logistics were sorted out, we had a task of around 68 km. Out into the flats, and then back to launch. The flying went well, but I sunk out at the second turn point after the start. I made 19 or so km. The hard part was right after leaving the Dunlap valley, several of us groveled for a longtime looking for lift over some powerlines in the next valley which is called Squaw Valley. It was quite interesting landing in private property. Almost immediately, the wife of the farmer rode out in her four wheeler with one of her dogs. When she arrived she was quick to ask what I was doing, and that I was trespassing. I apologized immediately, and said I would have landed elsewhere, but I really had no choice. When I told her that I, along with the other pilots she saw in the air, flew from Dunlap, she became friendlier. Meanwhile, her dog was barking and showing teeth. I began to pack up as quick as possible. She then left. After about 15 minutes, she came back and offered a ride, and apoligized for not asking if I was OK. She then gave me a ride to their house, and as I walked off the property the dog circled me, barking and showing teeth. The second I left the property, the dog stopped and watched me walk away. Good doggy. I was happy for my first cross country flight after a winter hiatus.

On the second day, not so good, weatherwise. We dawned to a lower stratus layer with launch in the clouds. Finally, we decided to head up to launch, and wait up there. I guess this place works even if it's cloudy. The ceiling lifted, and pilots were in the air. We were all cloud flying for about half an hour until the start. Once we got the start all pilots headed west out of the valley, and once to Squaw Valley, perfect partly cloudy skies were everywhere. It was so cool flying just below the clouds and around the clouds to stay out of them. The task was about 50 km give or take a km. This time we all seemed to do better once out of Dunlap. and I finally felt I was flying comfortably again. It was nice to make goal being 17th for the day. We landed in a town called Woodlake. Several pilots landed in a school, and all the kids came out and asked questions, and were excited. Even the teachers were happy to see us. An awesome flying day.

On the third day, a ridge run and then out of the Valley into the flats for an 80 km task. Conditions looked like they were going to be nice, with cumulus over launch, and when the launch window opened, but soon quickly stabilized. I unfortunately made a big mistake, and was in the start cylinder to soon. I had to fly out of the cylinder, and retag the start, and loss precious time. Conditions had stabilized so that it was hard to get back up in good position to hit the other turn points. I finally got the other turn points near launch, and then made it straight across the valley to to save time. There was quite the head wind toward Squaw Valley, I did not think I was going to get out of Dunlap. Many pilots were landing at the forest service. I found the thermal over the FS field, and climbed out. I saw one lone pilot to the south over a turn point called Ruthies. I hooked up with him and we worked the light lift. He left a light thermal thinking there was something better out front, but I stayed and worked what I had. The thermal organized and I climbed out nicely to 5500 msl. This enabled me to clip the Squaw Valley Cylinder, and head toward goal. But, I found myself alone. I could see pilots on some of the other ridges, but we didn't seem we were going to hook up. Conditions were totally blue at this point. I followed a line I had the previous day, and was able to make Woodlake. Then it was total flat land flying over many of the beautiful orange orchards. I was about 21 km short of goal with no organized lift. I decided to head towards goal hoping I would find the one thermal, but didn't. I landed about 19km short. An awesome flight almost completely alone. I was happy to have made the distance considering the stable conditions. Some interesting turn of events for myself the next couple of days. Stay tuned!

Before the Nats!

2009-05-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! So sorry I have been unable to post the California adventure until now. What a great trip it was with some awesome cross country flying, camaraderie, and epic experiences, both rewarding, and educational.

I left off from the last blog with planning on being in Utah for some training days. After being on skis for the winter, it actually felt good to be in the air again. Weather was ok, glider felt awesome, and to just be in a warm climate after the taste of spring we had in Vail was sweet. I had some great training flights at POM, a light evening southside flight with thermals, was perfect to dial the glider back in, and a ridge soaring windy morning the next day was excellent. Then it was on the road to Dunlap, CA.

The drive is still 12 to 13 hours from Salt Lake to Dunlap. So we stopped near Merced, CA on Friday night, leaving mid morning Saturday to Dunlap. We arrived in Dunlap, at about 2 pm on Saturday afternoon looking for signs of where the Nats headquarters were to be, and where the flying was. Dunlap is situated on the west side of the Sierras in central California. If you go west from Dunlap in about 50 miles you run in to Bishop, CA where the famous Owens valley is. However, it is tiger country between Dunlap and Bishop so flying a paraglider there is likely to pose some issues.

Once we arrived we saw pilots launching from the ridge to the west of town. Conditions looked epic with beautiful, friendly cumulus clouds everywhere. About 15 paragliders were in the air flying in, around, and over the valley. Finally, we ran into a couple of pilot friends, and they guided us to where launch was. Still, not being fully oriented, we followed two hang glider pilots that were obviously heading up to launch. Once the road was found, it was a piece of cake, with good access to get to launch. We arrived at launch at about 3 pm. Conditions were starting to cloud up a little, but it did seem soarable, I chose to watch, as it was a new site. Winds were crossing from the right. Typically winds blow in from the west to southwest, but with the passing of a cold front winds were northerly, which made for over the back and cross conditions.

On top near launch, there is a multi-cabin resort that made for perfect accomodations for the night. My partner Karen and I got a nice little cabin with a wood stove. It was a little rustic, but a pretty nice place to stay with great views. We finally caught up with some Colorado pilots, and met at a great pizza place. Pine, Tom, and other pilots were there, and the party had begun. After dinner, Karen and I went back up to the Cabin, and started a great fire. The cabin was warm, we were happy ,and I was looking forward for the next day of flying.

The next morning, Karen and I drove down to town, as Karen was going to volunteer as a driver for the event. We had to be at breakfast at about 8 am. Karen had to drive to Fresno to get a van with the six other drivers. After breakfast, I drove back to the cabin, closed up shop, and was on launch at 11 am. Conditions looked great. Several pilots were there getting ready. I launched at about noon, and climbed out with several other pilots in the house thermal which was right of launch. Conditions here seemed to work like a machine. It became soarable at about 11:30 am or earlier, cloudbase was generally about 1,000 to 2,000 feet above launch, and winds seemed to be generally from the west to northwest. At least that was the trend for the whole comp.

So, after launching, I had a great tour around the valley, and hit many of the turn points around Dunlap. However, there were many turn points outside of Dunlap toward the flats, near Fresno, that were a big part of the comp. Stay tuned for more.

Travel Plans

2009-04-21T15:47:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to hit the road. First stop will be in Utah at Point of the Mountain. Since flying has been quite lean for me, I am in need of a little airtime. POM seemed to be the best option to get some mileage in. I will be arriving on Wednesday the 22nd. I plan on heading to California on Friday the 24th sometime during the day, and hope to arrive in Dunlap, CA on Saturday the 25th. Hopefully we will get a little practice flight in on Sunday with the comp starting on Monday. There will be some live tracking with the Spot satellite system, and I will post the website as soon as I know what's going on with this system. Stayed tuned to the blog, I will try to post daily of the adventures. It's time to fly. Cheers!

Up Coming Events

2009-04-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well the time has almost come to fly full time. Ski season is winding down, and it's time to change the gears to be in the air. I will be leaving for the 1st round of the US Nationals in Dunlap, CA on April 20th. First part of the trip will be in Utah at Point of the Mountain, to dial in the gliders and get the dust and rust off. Then on to Dunlap, CA arriving on Friday the 24th or Saturday the 25th. Hopefully getting some training flights in on Saturday or Sunday. The comp starts Monday the 27th for 6 days. I will explain the new US National scoring format in subsequent blogs.

On Memorial day weekend beginning of the 21st of May, we have the Villa Grove freeflight open in Villa Grove, CO. This event is not to be missed. There will be fun flying, with a mini comp. We will also have a cross country skill development program offered. The course will be 4 days, and consist of GPS use, thermaling skills, cross country tactics, weather, etc.

On June 4th through 7th, paragliding will be at the Teva Mountain Games again. It will be a fun cross country race to goal format as last year. Unfortunately we were completely blown out last year. However the weekends before and after turned out favorable. We are hoping for better conditions this year. Check out the games website at www.tevamountaingames.com.

And the very next weekend, June 13th and 14th, we will be have the Roan Cliffs classic in Rifle, CO. This will be in conjunction with Adventure Paragliding. Fun mini comp, and guidance through the whole event. Call me for more info for all these events. 970-376-0495

This is just a few of the summer events posted so far. I will continue to update info as it comes available. Stay tuned!

2009-03-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

So, it has been about 4 and half months since I posted in the blog. It's not that I did not have anything to post. I had plenty that I could have talked about, especially about some of the epic powder days I experienced this year. Briefly, in the ski industry, it has been a slow season. The economy has taken its toll on skier visits, and skiers taking lessons, and I have been unfortunate to lose 50% of my winter client base. I have been fortunate to be able to fill in my extra time with training and skiing with peers, which is something I have not been able to do for many years due to private business. Now that we have blown the training budget, I am just plugging away at finishing the season, and getting ready for flying fulltime. I apologize for not posting for a long time. So, I must start where I left off from the Mingus trip. :-)

So, I remember from my last post that we had flown in Chucks Cessna 182 to Cottonwood, AZ, getting a low budget hotel room that even Chuck was ok with. Unfortunately, it did not have a hot tub, so we had to settle for the shower, which was borderline ok. It didn't have hot water the first night of which we complained. The next morning we had plenty! So, getting up the next morning, winds were still forecast to be from the east at a fairly strong speed, but since it was the first day we had to go check it out. Drive up was easy, a paved road until we got to the Mingus Mountain national forest turn off. Even though it was dirt it was well graded, which we were thankful as our little Nissan Versa was riding low with three pilots and three gliders. Once we got to launch we were fronted with an incredible view, steep launches, and strong winds. It seemed the forecast was right on. Once we saw this site, we were awe inspired to get a flight. 4000 vertical feet to our landing zone at the municipal airport where Chuck landed his plane. They had a drop zone landing pad, which if we followed the right protocol was open to paraglider pilots landing there. The managers of the airport were awesome, and were very supportive of us flying and landing there. We were amazed at the hospitality. Unfortunately, during the four days we were there, we never met any of the local pilots, which was surprising considering the forecast, especially hang glider pilots, because of wind strength.

So, after hanging on launch for about an hour, and realizing it might be awhile before the winds mellow, we decided to go have lunch at the little town perched on the mountainside on the way up. It was a great, hippie type place, with great restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and bars.

We grabbed a sandwich, ate, and decided to read for a time. At about 2 pm we decided to head back to launch, and see if we could get one flight off.

Once back at launch, the winds had dimished somewhat, and it looked like we might get lucky. The wind meters we had were showing about 12 to 18 mph, with an occasional 20 mph. Comfortable, if you know the site. This was to be our first flight, so we were being slightly cautious. I took my time, and began to suit up. Conditions were consistent so I laid out and launched. I was happy with butter smooth conditions, and a little lift, but we were late in the day, and since this is an east facing site, the sun was on the other side of the mountain. So a nice sledder to the airport, and within a half hour we all had our first flight at Mingus.

The next day opened as a repeat. Strong winds in the morning, giving way to diminshing winds in the afternoon. This time we were there a little earlier, and were able to get about 40 minutes of soaring with great views over the back of Mingus. This site is well worth checking out.

The third day was exactly the same, but even more soaring time. We definitely look forward to coming back to this area. The people were great, the access was easy, and we were always able to find a driver to bring us back up. Now that I am in the spring mode, and ready to get back in the air, I will be posting regularly. So, thanks for all you patient waiting, and stay tuned. Cheers!

Cottonwood, AZ/ Mingus Mountain

2008-11-17T21:23:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I have post some text, and that's because I haven't had anything exciting going on. I have skied a few days on the white ribbon of fun at Breckenridge and Loveland, but not much above and beyond that. Now we have something going on, back in the paragliding arena.

Mingus Mountain, just outside of Cottonwood, Arizona, is not far from Sedona. Sedona is a place known as having harmonic convergence, and energy centers everywhere. The valley in Cottonwood, not known for much, is at 3,500 feet msl. Launch on Mingus, 7,800 msl. So, about 4,100 to 4,300 vertical feet. A two wheel drive road to the top, and you have one amazing flying site. Let's put Cottonwood, AZ on the map.

We decided to come down to Mingus to paraglide. We were thinking of going to New Mexico, but their sites face west. High Pressure to the north, and with it's clockwise circulation, the prevailing winds up to 30,000 feet msl were from the east. What made it easy to come down to Arizona was Chuck's Cessna 182. Rather then a 12 hour drive by road, we have a 3 hour flight from Leadville, Colorado. That flight was an adventure in itself for Bobby Blount and I. For Chuck it was like a walk in the park.

So, we loaded up in Leadville on Sunday at noon, and we were off at about 12:40 pm. It was so cool taking off in winds blowing 15 to 25 knots from the northwest. After taking off, we flew south toward Monarch pass east of twin lakes. We had a heavy load with three paragliders, and clothing for 4 nights, weight was definitely an issue. We had 5 hours of fuel, but our climb rate was weaker then normal. We finally climbed out to about 15,000 feet msl, and Chuck decided to try going west over Monarch pass. We were worried about rotor over the big peaks, because winds were strong from the northwest. We finally topped out at 15,500 feet msl and made it over the Pass with no problem. The next step was to fly through the San Juans. So we stayed high and continued south of Telluride, Silverton, and actually flew over Purgatory ski area outside of Durango. It was all downhill from here. Of course at this time I felt the urge to take a bathroom break, and got teased by the boys, but I know Chuck would not have landed if he didn't have to go, so we landed in Cortez, Co near the 4 corners for a quick stop.

15 minutes later we were back in the air. Chuck felt like a bush pilot and we skimmed the ground over Navajo territory checking out the farms in the middle of the Arizona desert. They all have Hogans which is basically a sweat lodge, and are octogon shaped. As we got closer to Flagstaff, AZ we had to climb a little bit to get over a couple of mesas, and as we approached Flagstaff we passed a couple of flying sites called the Craters. Merriam and Sheba craters and low a behold there were three paraglider pilots getting ready to launch. It was about 3:30 pm. So, we buzzed around them a bit and then headed to Sedona to check out the cliffs.

The colors of Sedona were amazing with the setting sun. We encountered a lot of turbulence in the Sedona area as we flew below the cliffs which faces west, and winds were from the east, so we were definitely fighting the rotor. No problem with the Cessna 182.

We approached Cottonwood, AZ as the sun was beginning to set, but we had one more task to fly over Mingus to check out launch and landings. It was definitely strong from the east, but it certainly set up that excitement for the next three days. I will post more in the next couple of days about the awesome flying. Stay tuned.

Wolcott/ October 30th,2008

2008-11-03T09:50:00.000-08:00

It was great to have another visiting pilot from the front range. Allen Sparks (Sparky) came up and met us at the Bellyache LZ at 9:30 am. He had flown Bellyache before, but had never flown Wolcott. Hopefully, he was going to do both.

It was a good morning for flights at Bellyache. Andre De Lucinge, a former pilot, had not flown in 3 years. He had a shoulder injury, and was finally healed up and wanted to get back on the horse. So, Andre and I did a tandem. He was like a kid in a candy store, nervous, but psyched he got back in the air. Hopefully, we will be able to get flying solo again.

We decided to meet for Wolcott at 1:30 pm as it usually turns on after 2 pm this late in the season. Tom Vail, Braden, Kris, Bobby, came along, and we all went up in Sparky's truck. It was blowing in nicely, with some lulls between thermal cycles. Kris Husted was first to suit up and give it a go. Once in the air he flew around launch for about 10 minutes and then one of the sink cycles had him landing below launch. I took the honors next, and launched into strong cycles, but didn't get a ton of lift right off launch. I actually started to sink and headed to the north of launch to try to find something. Though light, I hooked a thermal and cored at 300 fpm lift which got me above launch. I then boated around north of launch, and was able to dabble in a couple of small light thermals getting a 1000 feet over launch. From there it was hard to getting anything. I topped out finally at about 10,500 msl, and that was that. What I liked about the day was playing in the light stuff. It was fairly smooth. Unfortunately, due to a high cirrus cloud cover, I think thermals were weak which didn't allow for big gains in height.

Braden, a new pilot with about 40 flights, had his first flight off Wolcott. He launched and flew toward the LZ with about a 20 minute flight. Way to go Braden.

Sparky decided to fly his hang glider, and did finally get a flight off Wolcott. He scatched hard, and flew for about a hour which was impressive given the light conditions. Tom Vail scatched, and was graced with about an hour flight as well. All in all, everyone else had about an hour to two hour flight. Amazing for this late in the season.

With a storm approaching it looks like Wolcott is done for the year. I have been amazed at the late season flying this year. Maybe we will get a few more flights in the area, but I think the best optin will be to head south. I will update weekly, and keep you all posted on what we are doing. Soon it will be skiing.

Cheers!

Wolcott/ Oct 29th, 2008

2008-10-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

So, after I have been talking up Wolcott, and all the great flying we have been having, several pilots came up from the front range for some west slope action. Casy, Rusty, Al, and Kiernan took the drive up to check it out. None of the pilots had ever flown Wolcott. Casey had been up here a couple of times, but got skunked each time due to strong winds. But, we have to give it up for the guys making the two hour drive in hopes of some great flights, and Casey secured his Tandem 1 certification. Congratulations, Casey!

Well, true to form Wolcott seemed to be setting up for a great day. The only reservations I was having is listening to the AWOS on top of Copper mountain as it was gusting to 35 mph most of the morning and early afternoon. We met at1 pm and conditons were still calm in the LZ. So driving up we were considering when it would actually turn on. Once at launch, winds were light and variable, with no definite direction. After about 15 minutes cycles started to come up the face, with the occasional 15 mph speed. Casey set up with Rusty, did his perfect tandem briefing, very comprehensive, and launched. Nicely done Casey! They soared in front of launch for about 10 minutes and then worked toward the LZ. A little soaring in the LZ area, and set up in increasing winds to a nice landing. Pilots began to get ready. Kris, set up and was first on launch, but bocked at launching due to the increasing winds. Cycles had kicked in and it was now blowing a steady 15 with some gusts to 25 mph. It was a good thing he waited as winds continued to increase topping out at a steady 20 mph with peak gusts over 30 mph. So, unfortunately we settled in to the waiting game.

Needless-to-say, we ended up waiting until one hour before sunset, and then with a little diminish of the winds, Dave set up and hucked. Winds were still strong as his penetration was not stellar, and launch conditions were still quite sporty. Gradually all the pilots got off, and one pilot reported he was going backwards at 5 mph at one point. So, speed bar was in use during part of the flight.

So now that this wave has passed through, we are hoping for the next couple of days to be good. It looks like after Sunday, the weather may shut Wolcott down for the season. At least you finally got to fly the site Casey.

It was great having the visiting pilots come up. Stay tuned for the last few days of the fall season. Cheers

Wolcott/ Oct 27, 2008

2008-10-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

You probably thought that we weren't flying anymore as we have been waiting for Wolcott to finally give up another day. Well today was the day. With winds forecast to be from the Southwest 12,000 feet and below, we decided (Mike Wiman, Alex Hintz, Chuck Leathers, Garret, and myself), to meet around 1:15 pm and give it a whirl. Chuck and I feeling fat and out of shape decided to hike up to launch, while Alex drove Chucks vehicle with our gliders in it. I can't imagine hiking two and half miles with a 55 pound kit. It felt good to breathe hard, and the ski season is not very far away.

Once at launch the winds were showing light and variable with some cycles up the face, but nothing very convincing. At about 2:30 pm there was finally some texture on the lake and we began to get some nice steady cycles. Finally it filled in about 2:45 pm and we got ready. There were some strong cycles which had us wondering if it was going to get stronger, but it didn't and we launched around 3:15 pm.

Conditions were definitely high pressure and the thermals felt like you were climbing through an inversion the whole flight. Alot of broken lift with sharp edges to the thermals. I managed to work myself up to 9,700 msl and boated around that height for about 15 minutes. Then another thermal came through and got me up to about 10,900 msl. It was definitely hard to get up as the other pilots couldn't climb above 10,300 msl. The conditions were a little choppy up to about 10,300 msl, but smoothed out above that height. I finally got to 11,300 msl at about 5:00 pm. It seemed it was beginning to glass off at that time and there was light lift everywhere. We all flew to about 5:30 pm. Alex Hintz got to fly his new glider. I hope to get pics soon.

It felt good to get some late season flying. It may not be much longer for soaring conditions, so we are going to try to get up as much as possible until the snow really flies. Stay tuned for more late season blogging. Cheers

Wolcott/ October 18th, 2008

2008-10-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

So, we went up again today, not knowing what to expect as NOAA hasn't been that accurate on the forecasts. Listening to the AWOS on top of Copper was leading us to believe that we would be blown out, with NOAA saying light winds at 5 to 10 mph. We went up a little later today, arriving at launch about 2:45 pm. Conditions looked ten times better then the day before, but it still seemed light. It was a popular day as we had visiting pilots from the front range, Dan and two Mikes, a new pilot named Peso, and a visiting pilot from Seattle, Rob, his girlfriend Jaime, and his friend Matt who lives here in Vail. Jaime and Matt were up for a tandem, so we hooked them up. It was awesome to see four Hangies come up for the evening,lead by the famous Thane Chase.

Cycles were fairly straight in, then a little south, and a little north, but mostly straight in and light. So the front range boys got their kit ready, and Mike and Dan launched and climbed out immediately. Though it was light, it seemed pretty lifty. Alot different then the day before. Then the tandems, then Rob. Climbing out was quite nice, Jaime and I had no trouble right off launch, and a climb out to about 700 over launch. After boating around a little, we found an awesome thermal just north of launch and climbed out in 800 feet per minute smooth thermal to 11,200 msl. Jaime was very happy, I was very happy, and we flew around launch for a while deciding to land after a 45 minute ride. Mike Jobin climbed to about 13,000 msl, and got the highest of the day. Several of us decided to land about the same time, and then the Hangies were off, catching a nice glass off that seemed to start around 5:00 pm. Peso launched about 6:00 pm and was happy to get four decent flights for a full day.

It turned out to be a beautiful fall afternoon of flying. It looks like the next several days are going to shut us down with a front approaching, but stay tuned. Until the snow flies we will be up in the air. Cheers!

Wolcott/ October 17th, 2008

2008-10-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

So, we decided to head up Wolcott early today to get the full afternoon soaring conditions. As usual, when you plan to go up early because of the forecast, you end up waiting for conditions to turn on. We got to launch about 12:45 pm, and the six of us proceeded to watch the wind cycles blow from every direction. About 2 pm a Red Tail climbed out to the Northwest of launch, and we thought things would turn on. We started to get some cycles, and Alex laid out, launched and boated around for a while. He then got low and headed toward the LZ, and hooked a nice thermal to climb out to about 11,000 msl. So, Dave was next and launched into the best cycle yet, and had no trouble just flying around staying above launch the whole time with out working very hard. At this time Alex came back over launch and just found sink which took him all the way to the ground landing in the LZ after about 30 minutes.

After Dave launched Chuck and I laid out, and then, nothing. Cycles were blowing from the North, and sometimes over the back. We were getting reports that the conditions in the LZ were light and variable with wind blowing down slope some of the time. Finally after about 20 minutes I had a south southwest cycle that I launched into just to get off, and found sizeable sink immediately. I flew past the big rock, and headed straight out from launch to the little knob, in front of the launch rock. I hit some broken lift and began turning aggressively to try to stay in it, after a couple of 360's with no appreciable climb, I began searching, and then WHAM, a full frontal and a front horseshoe. Since I had only about 200 feet, I thought reserve, but still had the glider in some sense of control as it opened up. I turned about 180 degrees, and then the glider opened surged, and began flying. I maybe lost only 50 feet. ACTION! The air just felt broken and unorganized. I tried to find that lift, but it was just to broken to consider, and I headed toward the LZ. The same place Alex and Dave found the lift was still there, and I turn vigorously to stay in it. I finally climbed above launch height, the lift organized and smoothed out and I was on my way. The air between 9,000 msl and 11,000 msl was fairly consistent and smoother. Below 9 and above 11 it was broken, disorganized and turbulent. It seemed there was an inversion that the thermals were trying to break through for 2,000 feet. Interestingly, I felt like I was getting pushed from behind most of the flight, and the lines would alcken if not continuously flying active.

Anyway, sporty flying is always interesting. Climbed out to 13,400 msl, and Dave was boating around up there, too. Dave took off toward the top of Red and White mountain, and I headed toward Edwards hoping to find something on the way to fly into Vail. Dave was working hard to core something near the summit of Red and White. I sunk to about 10,500 msl and found a thermal near the Singletree golf course which got me back up to 11,500 msl. I was heading toward Wildridge and I found a nice climb from 10,000 msl back up to 12,400. I was back on my way. Dave at this time glided out from Red and White mountain over Mountain Star and landed at the Christie Lodge. I continued on my way to Dowd Jct. hoping to find something, before heading into Vail, but nothing there. I arrived at Dowd Jct. at about 10,000 msl and searched, and found nothing. I landed at Battle Mountain High School, after about an 1 hour 45 minutes. Nice, but not the most relaxing flight I have had.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. It was nice to be able to go on a short cross country flight this late in the season and on a technically difficult day.

Stay tuned.

Wolcott/ October 8th

2008-10-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed, Wolcott gave it up for a beautiful flight on the 8th. I was being a skeptic about the winds. I was hearing so many conflicting reports in regards to winds strength, that I almost blew the day off. Winds at the Copper AWOS were gusting to the mid to upper 30's, and at Eagle there were gusts to 27 mph. Since this seemed like the best possible day out of the week, several pilots decided to rendezvous at the hang glider LZ to check it out. After watching for 15 minutes, even with the AWOS reports, we decided this may be the last chance in a while, so we went up to launch.

We got to launch about 3:15 pm. Checking the winds, we recorded a gust to 27 mph, but the average most of the time was about 15 mph. Bobby Blount geared up and decided to launch as we felt there may be a surface compression, and the winds were mostly steady at 12 with gusts to 18 mph. Calling the Eagle tower winds were not on the increase, so conditions were after all looking quite favorable.

Once Bobby launched his penetration was excellent. As we were gearing up, Tom Vail arrived as the only hang glider pilot. Perfect conditions for baggies and hangies.

Once off I could not believe the conditions. I was getting 10 mph ground speed into the wind. Conditions at launch were definitely stronger then in the air, and the air was as smooth as a glass off. It was easy to climb out right from launch, and finally hooking a decent thermal I climbed out to about 11,000 msl. There seemed to be an inversion at this point as the lift stopped at this elevation. However, it was easy to stay between 10,000 and 11,000 msl as the air seemed really bouyant.

We could actually chat with the boys BJ, and SF at Williams and they were saying it was rowdy over Williams Peak, but nice over the valley.

We were lucky, it seemed that this was the only day we were going to get for the rest of the week. Maybe next week will work out to be decent after this winter like storm goes through. Stay tuned.

Sept 30/ Wolcott to Vail again

2008-09-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

Well, sometimes you get lucky. After yesterdays cumulus clouds with streets all over the sky, I convinced Tomas to go up to Wolcott today to see if we could go somewhere. We decided to meet at 2 pm at the LZ. Conditions looked light, but straight from the west in the LZ. The forecast today was for northwest winds in the valley with the winds aloft forecast light and variable up to 18,000 feet msl.

Once we got to launch conditions looked great with light winds straight into launch, and cycles to about 12 mph. So we got our kits ready, and like on cue the winds turned north. A dust devil came through launch and Tomas had to jump on his wing so it didn't fly away. So we just sat there for a while. I did not hook in and considered packing up and bagging it. What was interesting is the valley ponds were showing southwest. So, we hoped for the winds to straighten out. Finally a cycle came through that was straight in and Tomas launched. Sticking close to the hill he ridge soared for about a minute, and then of course the winds lightened up and turned north, and he sunk out near launch.

By this time I was hooked in and watching the wind blow from the north again, and my GPS was not working. It would acquire sattellites and then friz out. It's a good thing my vario had an integrated GPS, but no detailed map of the area. Not thinking I would get up anyway, I watched as cycles straightened out a bit, but still had some north in it. I decided to launch. I guessed that there maybe a thermal out front as it was light and there really wasn't a north face to work anyway. Once out in front, I hooked a light thermal climbing at about 200 fpm so I did one 360 degree turn, still climbing, another 360, then another, and still climbing. Then it kicked in, and I was climbing at about 600 fpm, a perfect climb to 14,500 msl. It was quite turbulent to about 12,000 msl and then the thermal smoothed out. Unbelieveable! Maybe a north day would work if you get the right cycle, and thermal. What was nice about this climb was the flat bottom cumulus that was right over launch. I started toward Vail toward another cloud and found a weak climb to 15,300 msl. This is where the thermal petered out, but cloud base was still 2000 feet above me. So I continued to work toward Vail. Unfortunately I realized I had wind from the Northeast and I was trying to go east. I probably should have turned and headed toward
Aspen at this point, but I was thinking to try to make it to Copper Mountain and then on to Breckenridge. As I passed Avon, I noticed a small plane coming up the valley. I had talked to Chuck Leathers and he flew to Crested Butte today for lunch. I thought this couldn't be him, but as he got closer I recognized his plane. I was at 15,300 msl, and he was circling around me trying to get to my height. His Cessna 182 was trying. Just then I found a climb to take me to cloud base at 17,400 msl and then I lost him. What treat to have him flying around. It's kind of fun to out climb a Cessna without a motor. :-)

At this time I was torn on which way to go. The cloud street led into tiger country, and the options along the road were blue. I was not in the mood to hike so I stuck I-70 corridor. I flew to the top of Vail mountain the toward the top of Benchmark which is east of Two Elk Lodge in China Bowl. I could not believe the lack of landing options toward Copper, so I was going to try to find one climb around Benchmark and then go for Vail pass. As I approached BM I hit alot of sink and then decided once near east Vail to jump the highway to the cliffs above the Vail Mountain School. No Lift. So I hit speed bar and landed back in Ford Park. Launched at 3:30 pm and landed at 4:50 pm.

It was interesting flying into the wind where generally you would have a tail wind. An amazing flight with the colors, perfect clouds, and a friend with a Cessna. Let's hope we can have a few more days like this before the snow flies.

Cheers!

Sept 22, 2008/ Back in Vail

2008-09-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it was an amazing trip to the Owens Valley. Unfortunately, the high winds allowed us only two comp days. Of course the week before was epic, and this week was setting itself up to be awesome with less wind. Out of three days of flying I was able to get some decent cross country flying. 25 miles the practice day, 35 miles the 1st comp day, and 65 miles the 2nd comp day. So, 125 miles in three days.

The week before, there were a couple of pilots that had two 100 mile days. So it can be quite an amazing place when the weather cooperates.

The results for the Nationals:

1st: Dean Stratton (defends his title)
2nd: Josh Cohn
3rd: Peter Schaefer

Women

1st: Meredyth Malocsay
2nd: Melanie Pfister
3rd: Kari Castle

So, the weather is shaping up for flying in the Vail area this week after some rain and snow on the high peaks. This weekend I am planning some thermal and cross country flights from Wolcott. We will see if the fall holds true for some great flying. I hope to get some nice fall pics, so stay tuned.

Cheers

Day 5/ Sept 18th Nationals

2008-09-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Today we went up to Gunter, with a half decent forecast. The drive as the previous day went uneventful, and all the pilots got to launch sucessfully. I thought the task commitee was going to try to keep us closer to Bishop today, and they followed through. A couple of turn points near town and then a down wind glide to Hammil and then Benton.

The day seemed favorable, but what we all noticed is the clouds moving faster then yesterday. Wind at launch was also stronger. So of course we sent the wind techs out into the blue, and guess what, no forward speed or penatration. After about 15 minutes of watching, the task was called off. Now the long drive back down to the valley.

One of the comp pilots, Honza decided to suit up and go for big distance. He is from Czech Republic, but flies in the XAlps cross country race in Europe for the US. Last I heard he had flown about 50+ miles toward the north near Mono Lake and still at 14,500 msl. He may get the California record.

So, I will include more pics from yesterdays flight. Hopefully we will get another task off, as tomorrow looks to be windier.

Hang tight. Cheers!

Day 4/ Sept 17th Nationals

2008-09-17T22:02:00.001-07:00

After three days at Flynns, which is in the valley and suseptible to valley wind, the decision was to go to Gunters today. It was the right decision. Winds were strong on top of the Whites. There is a remote weather observation station on top of White Mountain, and winds were blowing from 15 mph with gusts to around 23 mph until about 10 am. Gunters sits about 8,280 feet msl. This gives the pilots alot more room to find lift. The valley is about 4,000 feet below that.

Checking the weather there were as many different forecasts as I have fingers on both hands. Light and variable winds, strong gusty winds, favorable winds for cross country, which was it going to be?

The drive up to launch went uneventful, and all the pilots made it to launch easily. But the next issue was to get all the pilots off launch. You can only lay out two gliders at the main launch, and there are other small areas that you can lay out only one glider, but at least we could spread out to get the pilots off.

There was some cumulus developing over the Sierras, and over the Whites, and there seemed to be more moisture in the air then yesterday when some showers developed. The heights of the cumulus seemed even higher, but the cloud street forming up range looked enticing. The valley was staying clear, so it looked like we might actually get a task off.

The task commitee called about 103 km task into Nevada, a small town called Mina, with one turnpoint in the valley. The clouds actually settled down the conditions enough to easily get all the pilots off, and there was no rush as no one was climbing out. Thermals were taking pilots to about 2,000 feet over launch, but no higher. The clouds seemed to holding the lift at bay. So many of the pilots were gaggling about 500 to 1,500 feet over launch waiting for a better climb and for the start to happen. Finally the start time came, and I was about 500 feet over launch, but still in the start cylinder. This was an exit cylinder, so if you left the start cylinder before start time you would get penalized.

We did have a major event at launch today. One of the more experienced comp pilots did not clip in his leg loops and belly strap, and fell out of his harness from about 10 to 15 feet. He ended up spraining or breaking his ankle which was a small price to pay for his mistake. What was interesting was his glider flew for about 3 to 5 minutes on its own with just the harness attached. I will submit a picture above to show how well these gliders will fly even without a pilot. ;-). It is a maroon glider.

I was nearly one of the last pilots off launch, as I helped get the pilots off launch. I wasn't in any rush as none of the pilots were getting high anyway. Once off I climbed to about 2,000 over launch, but after that, I boated around launch waiting for a better climb sinking to about 500 over launch, once the start opened. About 6 minutes after the start I found a climb to finally get me out of there, and thermaled to about 11,000 feet msl. I started to work my way up the range and low and behold found a climb to 13,000 feet msl and I was on my way.

Pilots were really working together today at the start as getting up was not a given. A few pilots sunk out before the start, so patience was key. Jan Voegli, one of my mentors, had a hard time and sunk out making minimum distance.

So now on course, heading to the first turn point, I found some decent climbs that were taking us to cloud base, and even had to fly away from the clouds to not fly into them. Cloud base was at about 15,500 feet, I would leave the lift at about 14,500, and still flew around some of the clouds to avoid dealing the the white room. What was bothering me was not the clouds, but the vertical height of some of the clouds. They weren't that flat so you never knew if they would suck you in. In hindsight it all turned out ok.

So making it to the first turn point was fairly easy, which was in the valley, and then back to the hills to continue on course. The winds were southwest so I was working the ridges that faced that direction and finding reasonable lift. As I got closer to the end of the range the lift got more turbulent, and I actually left one broken thermal that was just too turbulent to find a core or a climb. I just had a few asymetrics today with no major recovery issues. However, as I mentioned above about the turbulence at the end of the ridge, we had a reserve deployment on the Northwest side of Boundary Peak, the pilot landed ok, but had an epic hike down a canyon with cliffs, and streams. I think since the winds were from a southerly direction, we were encountering rotor issues near Boundary Peak. Sometimes after a reserve ride, the adventure can start after you land.

Several pilots including myself decided once at the end of the range, to flyout to the valley and work the middle of the valley. What turned out to be awesome as every pilot that was there worked together to the head of the valley where Montgomery pass was, and eventually we climbed out and flew over the pass. Back on course, after the pass there was still 40 km to go to goal. Weak climbs, but there was lift. I did get high over the pass, about 14,000 feet msl, and went on glide. I was able to pass many pilots because of my height and really gain some distance, but you can't take that for granted. I found another awesome climb, and had the benefit of several pilots coming to join me, and climbed out to 13,000 + feet msl. Other pilots climbed higher, but because of the ugly cloud above, I went on glide. What was interesting at this point was it seemed very dark ahead on course, so pilots mentioned they got rained on or snowed on at this point. I felt a sprinkle, but no problems, I could have climbed higher.

At this point there were more clouds, lots of shade, and very weak lift. I sunk to about 9,000 feet msl, and started searching. I kept looking at my vario and checking my glide to goal. 11 to 1, 10 to 1, what would I need to make it. I would get to 9 to 1 glide goal, and with a high performace glider I thought I would get close. I also thought the air would be fairly bouyant due to the cloud cover. But, I was wrong. There was more sink then I anticipated, and I kept struggling toward goal. More weak lift, I finally climbed out to a height with 8 to 1 glide to goal. I went for it. 30 to 1 glide, and then 4 to 1 glide, I was going to make goal, no I was not going to. There was lift, but there was more sink, so my net glide landed me about a kilometer short. Pine, Andy from Golden, CO, dirted close to the same spot.

1 Km short of goal, but a 65, 102 km mile flight, an amazing experience, and a beautiful flight. Flying the topography, flew the clouds, and a long retrieve.

Kevin, the meet director, had to go get the pilot that threw his reserve, so four us were stuck at goal waiting for a retrieve. So, what do pilots do while waiting. You buy Coors Beer, at the small store in Mina, NV, and party.

When Kevin arrived, he had several other pilots, so 9 pilots crammed ourselved into his truck, and we headed back to Bishop. An hour and a half retrieve. We almost ran out of gas, but once in the Owens Valley we found gas in Benton, and were able to tank up enough to make it to Bishop. Got back to town about 9 pm. What a day.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventure. Cheers.

Day 3/ Sept 16th Nationals

2008-09-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

Today we went up to Flynns to try again. Forecast was for thunderstorms in the afternoon, and stronger winds as a Low pressure system was moving into central California. Like clockwork it happened. Still we hung on launch trying to make a task to happen. Pilots launched, but didn't get very high and were drifting back quite fast with what thermals there were.

Kevin finally called the task when pilots weren't pentrating and not climbing out due to too much wind. By this time the showers were showing over the Sierras, and cumulus were developing over the Whites quickly. It didn't take long for the valley to close in with clouds and outflow from the showers throwing out gust fronts.

Stay tuned for tomorrow. Cheers!

Day 2/ Nationals Sept 15th

2008-09-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

Today the winds forecast was higher then the previous day. Weatherwise we have been under the influence of High Pressure, but it's to move out of our area, and a closed Low Pressure area to move in. This is forecast to give us some wind and maybe a thunderstorm or two. And yes, the wind came in today. A tight pressure gradient the culprit.

We went up to launch as usual, and the task commitee set a task for 112km race north with the wind. It was quite calm early on, but as the wind techs launched before the window opened for competition you could tell it just wasn't like the previous days. No one was really climbing out and the wind speed on launch was increasing. Once the window opened about 20 comp pilots launched, but you could see there was penetration issues, and no one was climbing out easily. One of the wind techs, Vail's very own Tomas Pecinka, climbed out on one thermal that took him 5 miles north of launch and to 12,000 msl. From there it would have been a little hard to make the start cylinder into the wind near launch, as the wind was now blowing a steady 18 mph with peak wind of 25 mph. Many pilots with non comp wings were not moving forward anymore and parked into the wind.

Kevin decided to call the task. I never got off the ground, which I was not too disappointed considering the conditions.

Tomorrow doesn't look good for a task, but we will see. I will keep you posted.

Cheers.

Day 1/ Nationals Sept 14th

2008-09-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

So, the first day of the US Nationals has come and gone, and it turned out to be a good day, a challenging day, with a perfect task called. The task was about a 100 km race to goal from the Flynns launch to Hammil, a small town to the south, then a return to the north end of the range to Big Ears, and then finishing at a place called Fish.

Kevin the meet director, decided to go to Flynns as it is much more user friendly to get the 80 pilots off launch safely. Flynns is only 1,500 Vertical feet from the valley, so it makes for maybe a more chanllenging climb out as you don't have as much vertical as Gunter. Gunter has approximately 4,000 vertical feet above the valley, with about 2,500 vertical feet to the alternate LZ. Quite a bit more room to find a thermal and climb out. Plus the road up Gunter is very narrow with no real turn around at the top. With about 15 vehicles it is logistically a nightmare.

To the task. Launch window opened at 1:00 pm and the Start was at 2:15 pm. Wind techs launched at about 12:15 pm and started to climb out nicely. The launch window opened and the valley wind started to kick in. The first few pilots off launch had a nice 10 to 12 mph southwest wind. However in about 15 minutes the winds increased to 15 mph with cycles to 23 mph. It quickly became sporty with a couple of pilots getting blown back and one landing on the hill, a couple getting dragged on launch. No one got hurt and everyone did get off the hill.

I luckily had no trouble getting off and had a great climb out launching at about 1:40 pm. It seemed a fairly slow climb as I topped out at about 14,000 msl which is about 8,000 feet over launch. I only had 10 minutes until the start instead of an hour, which made it nice not to have to wait an hour before the start. I hate having to wait after getting high. Once the start opened it was a cruise north up the Whites toward Gunter Launch. That area always seems to work and the few pilots that were ahead were already climbing in next thermal. The second thermal was nice and another climb to about 14,000 msl again. On course I found myself staying on the upper third of the mountain range as it seemed to be working nicely. Some pilots were going to the very top over the range to climb out, but I felt since it was working in front it would be easier to get the turn point which was out in the valley. The third thermal was excellent and I got a climb to 16,000 msl which made it an fairly easy get the turn point.

It doesn't always matter how high you are, you can lose the altitude you have gained faster then it took to get there. From the turn point you have to come right back to the mountains to climb out. It was down wind to the 1st turn point, now coming back down range it was going to be a head wind. Again, today the winds were forcasted to be from the southeast, though light it was still putting us slightly in lee side conditions. It feels very unusual to crab into the hill to stay on course and in the mountains instead of crabbing away from the hills.

Once back to the hills I found a climb out with a few other pilots including the famous Rob Sporer from California. Rob has been instructor of the year a few times and was a poster child model for Old Navy. His bright green wing with red tips is unmistakable. So, on course we were flying together a bit, I would continue to climb, but Rob would push ahead. I thought the higher I could get the better even though it was making me slow. On the second thermal coming back I had my ass handed to me. Some time there are thermal monsters out there. I noticed ahead a couple of pilots entering a thermal climbing wildly, then sinking as fast. I wasn't there yet, but expected some action. I wasn't disappointed. Just as I got there I was greeted by a full frontal right into a front horseshoe, about a second later I turned 180 degrees as the horseshoe snaked out and the glider began to sort out, but still was not flying. So, I said fly mother )(%^&%. The glider handled perfectly, not letting it surge too much , also not letting it get behind me, she flew nicely out of the event. Back into that nasty thermal and let's climb.

A few of us pilots were still in front, and many pilots chose to go to the top of the range, which was the best option in hindsight. I decided since the front was working so well why not stay in front. I finally got another great climb to 16,500 msl and so I thought cool, I have plenty of altitude to find something else. This is where I should have gone to the crest of the ridge as there probably was either a convergence, or the southeast wind would help from the back side. Why, because I went from 16,500 msl to the ground in about 20 minutes. No thermal and just a strong head wind. I ended up making it to the Flynn LZ. It turned out to be about 55 km flight. I guess around 35 miles. About 3.5 hours in the air. About 35 pilots made goal. Eric Reed won the day.

So, a great first day, every one was safe. Let's see what the rest of the week brings.

Training Day in the Owens/ Sept 13th

2008-09-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day in the Owens Valley. Not an offical training day, but almost every pilot, many who had never flown here, headed up to Gunters launch in The White Mountains. There was no task really, just personal flight plans were the norm. My goal was to get high and go north to White Mountain which is a 14,000 foot peak and fly back to my car at the "offical" Gunter LZ.

Other pilots flew to the end of the ridge which is Boundary Peak in Nevada, and flew back to town. Some pilots were in the air for 4 or more hours. I enjoyed a two hour flight with a relaxing pace, about 25 miles.

The climbs were well spaced and fairly consistent above the ridges. Some pilots went to the top of the range to get some height. I stayed about 3/4ths the way up the range which was nice. I didn't get too cold. Some pilots complained of numb hands. My highest point was about 14,500 msl, and some pilots made it to the 17,999 msl threshold.

Some pilots flew from Walts Launch which is on the Sierras and east facing. About 6 pilots flew 100 miles. So the Owens valley shined big.

Tomorrow is the first day of the comp. Conditions look similar to today. We will be using a different launch then we did today. It's called Flynns. Gunter launch is almost an hour 4 wheel drive road. So logistically it takes quite some time to get up there and organized. Plus there really isn't a good turn around up there, and you can only lay out 2 to 3 gliders to launch. Not very friendly when it you need to get 80 pilots off the hill in a about an hour.

Stay tuned for updates. Cheers!

In Bishop/ Sept. 12

2008-09-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

Made it to Bishop today. What an easy drive it is from Colorado. Even though you have to drive some two lane roads, the roads are so straight that you can cruise an easy 80 mph. So the time from Vail is about 12 to 13 hours. Not bad. What I love about the drive is the desert colors. Through Utah, right off I-70, the views are amazing.

I love Bishop. It is a small town that reminds me of Steamboat, CO. The Sierras are to the west and the White Mountains to the east. I took a picture of the Sierras where there seems to be a wildfire on the west side of the mountains west of Bishop. I hope this doesn't become a problem for us. We will be flying the Whites.

I drove up to the Flynn launch LZ, and saw a few pilots that flew from Gunter launch south, where the comp will be flown from. One pilot landed at the Flynn LZ. Conditions seem very stable with a big inversion but pilots looked to be up fairly high.

I am going to rendezvous with the Colorado group and hope to have a good training flight tomorrow. I will keep you all updated.

Cheers

Leaving for California

2008-09-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

Lauren Flies Bellyache!

Vail Valley Paragliding has special fall rates! Call 970-376-0495, or 970-845-7321 for more info.

We have had some great flying here in the Vail/ Wolcott area. Just the other night, five of us went up to Wolcott, and only Phil Horsman got off launch and had a great flight to Avon, topping out at about 13,500 msl. Chuck launched right after Phil and sunk out. That evening was one of the strangest and fastest wind direction switch I have seen in Wolcott. What also was amazing was the convergence and dust devil it created in the valley which worked it's way right up to launch. A cool dust plume stretching to the skies moved its way right up to the ridge. Once it reached the ridge the wind went from south and west to hard north at 25 mph. Karel was trying to inflate right at that point. His glider would yaw wildly and he didn't launch, which was a good thing due to the switch that occured.

Getting ready to make the big drive to California for the US National Paragliding Championships in Bishop, California. The Owens Valley! I am excited to see and fly with friends that I usually only get to see once or twice a year at these comps. Tomas, Karel, and Chuck with be there from Vail as well, being wind technicians for the comp. They will fly before the competition to show the conditions to the meet directors and comp pilots. Pine, Cherie, Loopy (aka Jan), Andy, Chris (xc skies), and myself will all be there to compete. Team Colorado.

Stay tuned as I will try to update daily. I just heard that Jeff Wishnie flew 100 miles yesterday. It should be a great time.

Cheers

Wolcott/ September 2, 2008

2008-09-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

So, it seemed it was going to be an epic day at Wolcott. The masses, all six pilots, met at the LZ at 2:30 pm hoping to get a long xc flight, maybe jumping over the Gore Range into Summit County. In the LZ the conditions looked quite favorable. Light cycles from the west and south west at about 5 to 12 mph. Optimistically, we loaded up headed to launch.

Once at launch, conditions looked similar to what the LZ was doing; however, we noticed cumulus clouds in the distance all around us with a big blue hole over us. Cycles were consistent, but many of them cold, so we anticipated a lot of sinking air. Tomas, (Czech militia), got ready and launched. If anyone could climb out it would be Tomas. He worked hard, but unfortunately found sink, and ended up flying toward the paragliding LZ. Low, it seemed he was finding some small bubbles that may get him to climb out, but there was just too much sink and ended up in the LZ. Karel (Czech militia) was next. The lulls on launch, between cycles, were getting longer, but the cycles that came through launch were consistent and stronger. Karel launched right into a thermal and began to climb out. Karel flew in front of launch for about 5 minutes, and then to the north, of launch hooked a nice thermal and began to climb out. The thermals were there after all. Alex was next and had the same fate as Tomas. Timing seemed to be the issue. Bobby then launched and sunk out not making it to the LZ.

After Karel was in the air for about 20 minutes the valley started to show signs of wind, and the prevailing wind seemed to be kicking in. This should make it easier to soar in the ridge lift while waiting for a descent thermal to climb out.

Flynn, a new local pilot, was kind enough to pick up the pilots that sunk, so they were on their way back up to hopefully have another stab at it.

Once I noticed the ponds in the valley showing texture, I decided to suit up and hopefully be lucky to get up with Karel. By this time Tomas was back on launch and willing to give another go.

I got a descent cycle and launched into a thermal and began to climb in broken lift. The air felt broken, with holes in the lift and it wasn't easy to stick in the thermal. It felt like right off launch you were climbing through an inversion. Tomas came up to join me and with a little help from each other we found the climb to take us above the broken lift. At 9,500 msl the lift smoothed out, got broad, and was easier to core. We topped out at 14,500 msl. You could really see where the inversion layer was as you could see the top of the brown haze.

Not getting high enough to think about hoping the Gore Range. We all decided to hang around the valley. Up high there was tons of lift and it was easy to stay up. Bobby had come back up and was now soaring. Flight times ranged in the hour to two hour range. It was another great night.

August 30, 2008/ Steamboat Fly-in/ Day 2 P.M.

2008-09-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

After lunch, we went back to the LZ, and waited for the afternoon depart to launch. Some of us were a little skeptical since the winds did seem strong and launch was now blowing in at about 15 to 25 mph. However, what was interesting, the winds were now blowing in from the Northwest which is perfect for Mt. Werner. Just maybe we were going to get lucky.

We all met at the LZ at 4 p.m. and loaded up. We got to launch and winds were still quite strong with some cycles to 20 mph. After about 20 minutes on launch, lulls were getting longer and the cycles did seem to be diminshing in speed. So guess who was up first. It was Chuck again. This time he was graced with good lift off launch and proceeded to climb out for an awesome evening flight. What seems interesting at this site is the launch cycles diminish quickly, which makes it more difficult to launch and possibly miss the soaring potential. I launched about 6 p.m. and climbed about to about 1000 feet over launch. Views were amazing and the air smooth, I began to shoot some pics. It was fun to fly over the mountain with many of the other pilots, and finish with a nice evening flight before the party festivities.

This site is 3,500 vertical feet from launch to landing. We figured it is about a 5 or 6 to 1 glide from launch to the LZ. None of the pilots had any problem making it to the valley. What a phenominal site.

After flying we all went to Mark Cahur's for some apps and a keg, and enjoyed a movie Marks girlfriend, Debbie, put together for the group. Great camaraderie, and fun. It's not just the flying that makes these events, its also the gatherings after.

Unfortunately, the weather did not turn out favorable for flying the next two days. So Karen and I took a drive north toward Wyoming to check out Steamboat Lake and Pearl Lake. It is tucked in hills very much like the landscape in Montana and Idaho. It is a beautiful area to get away with lots of options for fishing, hunting, camping, etc. And of course you can't forget the pig roast at Eric Olsons ranch to finish the weekend. Unfortunately it rained, but the bonfire still raged. The rain stopped at about 10 p.m. and the band soon kicked in with some awesome music.

You got to check this event out next year. It is one of the flying highlights of the year.

Now being back in the Vail area it is time to get ready for the Paragliding Nationals which will be in Bishop, CA starting on the 14th of September. The weather does look good for some flying before then, so I will keep you updated often. Cheers!

August 30, 2008/ Steamboat Fly-in/ Day 2

2008-09-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of the the Steamboat Fly-in dawned a beautiful day. Many of the pilots were anticipating long flights with maybe a little cross country. However, when we got the winds forecast, it wasn't as promising as the day before. The weather gurus were forecasting stronger winds and from a more southerly direction then what is favorable for Mt Werner.

I arrived at launch at about 10:30 a.m. and some pilots were hooked in and ready to go. Chuck Leathers was first in line. There were some fairly strong cycles coming up launch and as forecasted it had a southerly component to it. It seemed it would be better to huck earlier rather then later, as the strength of the wind was forecasted to be increasing through the day. Chuck took off and flew to the gondola with not much lift. He found some small bubbles but nothing really to bite into, so ended up flying toward the LZ. Unfortunately, he was unable to find anything over the valley and landed.

The more advanced pilots decided to hold off from launching as the intermediate pilots were now encouraged to take off as the cycles were getting stronger with a more cross for the south. The crossing from the south did make launching a little more sporty. About 6 pilots took off close to each other including Sam Crater, who is one of the front range pilots who takes excellent pics. They began to climb out so I proceeded to finally lay out and get ready. A few pilots were still waiting and I finally took off at about 11:30 a.m. My launch was quite amusing as I had a nice strong cycle on the inflation, but as I ran down the shallow launch slope the cycle had abated and then turned 90 degree cross. I had to run at least 50 yards before I got airborn with my wing tips flapping as if to say fly-fly. The wind definitely had alot of south in it.

So, thinking I would get something to climb out and join the pilots above me, I was gifted(ha) with a nice sink cycle and proceed to descend with nary a hint of a decent thermal to turn in. I got hit with a couple of sucker pops, but as I turned my sink alarm sang out. So, I continued toward the valley, being even with the gondola terminal as I went by it, which is low. Thinking this was going to be a quick flight I headed to the last trigger point, which is a hill southeast of the landing zone. There ahead of me I saw Rick from Grand Jct. working some lift so I went over to his area. Yep, there maybe some lift after all. By this time I was probably 1500 feet over the LZ, and began to circle in broken lift at about 300 fpm. The valley seemed to be working and maybe we will be able to climb out. The thermal took us to about 9,500 msl, and seemed to end there. A valley inversion was still there so I searched up wind for something to break through. The air felt strange with a lot of holes and switchy, twisty, lift and sink. Subsequently, I flew around the valley for about an hour banging my glider against this ceiling. Many of the pilots including, Marko decided come out from Storm Peak and land, and they had to use half speed to get over the LZ, losing a lot of altitude. Ross went from 13,500 msl to 9,000 msl in about 3 miles getting to the valley. Winds were increasing.

I decided land, and was happy with the hour and twenty minute flight. Time for lunch. Over all not a bad morning and some interesting flying.

August 29, 2008/ Steamboat Fly-in

2008-09-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Just arrived back from Steamboat from another awesome airfest and fly-in event. Friday afternoon and evening really shined and Saturday turned out to be quite nice as well. We arrived in Steamboat Friday, late afternoon, just 10 minutes after the hang gliding and paragliding group left the LZ. Since there are a few permits allowed to use the road to launch, I settled into thinking I would watch the festivities from the LZ. Karen and I decided it was a good time to get our condo situation set up and drop off our bags and belongings. We then made it over to the the Whistler Park LZ which was the designated landing area for the weekend.

Dan, who is a local and has been flying Wolcott with us for the last month, called me and said he could come down and get me so I could fly. It's a half hour trip down and and another half hour up. I told him not to worry and go fly, but he insisted. Due to Dan and Ken 's kindness I was going to get a flight in. It was Kens truck that Dan drove down to get me. Karen came up with us and was a sweetheart to drive Kens truck down from launch. From the LZ I could see pilots taking off as soon as they arrived at launch at approximately 4:30 p.m. Conditions were excellent and many began to climb out. It looked to be an spectacular evening of flying.

Dan arrived at about 5:20 p.m. in the LZ, and we made a quick turn around and made it back to the top of Mt Werner at about 6:15 p.m. By this time most everyone had launched except for two hang glider pilots that were just finishing up their pre-flight. Dan and I got ready immediately as Mark Cahur was very encouranging over the radio to get our butts up there. Cycles were light and were now crossing from the north. The launch directions on top of Storm Peak is from Southwest to Northwest. But even a little cross wind is OK. Dan and I took off, and there was not much lift, but the air was smooth as silk as we made some turns near the gondola to try to gain some height. Lift had shut down a bit by this time and we made our way toward the valley with plenty of altitude. Making some lazy circles and taking pictures of the valley we had a nice extended sled ride for about 30 minutes of flight time.

Pilots that afternoon and evening got over 16,000 msl. A beautiful evening and an awesome flight. The Steamboat fly-in weekend had started.

Bellyache/ Aug. 25th,'08

2008-08-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

Another great day at Bellyache. Unfortunately for the monsoon the sky is quickly developing with Cu-nims, but is making for excellent instability and great morning thermal conditions.

I launched about 10:30 a.m. this morning and went over to the west ridge. I was skeptical to get up because we did not see many soaring birds this morning and the ones we did see were flapping away. Once over to the west ridge, I worked some scappy thermals that were poorly organized and managed to get about 100 fpm on the vario. After a few figure 8's I got above the ridge and was able to core a broken thermal with 400 fpm to about 9,300 msl. It seemed there was a low ceiling that hadn't broken yet and was boating around for about 5 minutes not finding anything more.

At this point I decided to go over to Prouty point and managed to find more broken thermals to about 10,800 msl. Damn another ceiling and by now it was blowing over the back at launch and the thermal drift was definitely going toward the east. I decided to make it over to the Wolcott launch site and arrived there at about 9,350 msl. It's really a little early for Wolcott to work but was able to find some light thermals back to 9,800 msl. By now the winds were definitely coming from the southwest, and at Bellyache out of the northwest. I then made my way back to the bellyache LZ and landed after a nice hour flight.

It's great to get these soaring flights even though the valley inversion doesn't allow huge heights, but never the less the air has a sporty feel to it with alot of mixing which really helps dialing in the glider. Let's hope it keeps being this good.

Cheers, Greg

In Vail/ Aug. 24th, '08

2008-08-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

Flying has been awesome in the Vail area. Wolcott and Bellyache have been giving it up for long soaring flights with some good heights.

With the unstable air due to the monsoon circulating moisture under the high pressure, Bellyache has had soarable conditions by 10 am yesterday and today.

Dan, a visiting pilot from Steamboat, had his personal best flying at Wolcott Friday, getting up to 16,000 and getting nausea to boot. But he still came in with a big smaile on his face.

Next weekend is the Steamboat fly-in over Labor day. This is a great end of summer bash, with hang glider and paraglider pilots having fun.

I will keep you posted as more significant flights happen here in the Vail area.

Cheers

Back in Vail

2008-08-20T13:23:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone, just got back to Vail on the 19th, and Wolcott and Bellyache are showing great flying conditions. Yesterday (19th), four of us went up Wolcott, anticipating marginal flight conditions. It was light and variable with cycles coming from the northeast as much as south and the occasional cycle from the west. Once we got to launch, conditions did look better, but still very light with winds not much stronger then 8 mph.

Bobby launched in a southwest cycle and climbed to about 500 feet over launch with not much effort. So everyone was hopeful. I layed out, and launched in a similar cycle, but began sinking right off launch. So it was time to head toward the landing zone. I felt some small bubbles but not much that I could turn in. The winds at this point were mostly south so really there wasn't much dynamic lift to soar in waiting for the right thermal.

About half way to the landing zone I found a bubble decent enough to turn in. A slow climb with the drift heading straight north, but I was climbing in about 200 fpm lift. Once about even with the ridge, the thermal got much stronger and the climb was about 500 fpm. At about 10,500 feet there must have been a small inversion as the climb got weaker yet again, and the thermal was moving around, but kept climbing slowly with the broken lift. Finally after about 500 feet of slow climbing, the thermal organized again and it was easy climbing at about 600 fpm to 16,000 msl.

Excellent conditions to do a nice triangle around the valley, gliding to the top of Bellyache ridge, getting there at about 11,300 msl, and then gliding back to Wolcott launch. It was getting late at this point, but it was still working. Found another climb north of launch again to about 11,500 msl. Heading to the landing zone, it seemed the lift shut down, but heading over Raven point I found another climb to 11,000 msl. in smooth light thermals.

A nice flight for a weak lift day.

This morning even Bellyache was nice, but became soarable late. Launching about 11:30 a.m. found a nice climb on the west ridge to the north of launch. A nice easy climb to 10,500 msl. and a nice tour around the Wolcott area.

It looks like the weather is going to be awesome into the weekend with some afternoon showers today. I will update on the conditions each day we fly.

Cheers!

More Pics from Chelan

2008-08-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Now that I am back in Colorado, the monsoon has really kicked in. Right now the Vail area is seeing the most precipitation it has all summer. Go figures it was good flying here while I was in Chelan.

So, here are some more pics from the comp. If you look closely you may even see a dust devil in one of the pics on plains. I will be in Maine from Sunday the 10th until Monday the 18th visiting family. I will update the blog when I get back. Cheers!

Day 6

2008-08-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

The last day really, truly, shined, as Chelan finished on a high note for epic conditions. With an excellent lapse rate, cloud base between 10,000 and 11,000 feet, the task commitee took advantage of the conditions and called a 118.4 km triangle. Light winds aloft really made this possible.

I launched about 11:50 a.m. and the start was called for 12:40 p.m. It was an easy climb out as a perfect cloud was forming right over the butte at 9,000 feet. We had the usual gaggle hanging out above the butte and many times we had to leave the cloud so we did not climb into it. Just before the start ironically the cloud dissapated and the climbs got weaker, and we left the butte on task at about 8,500 feet. It was much easier making it over the flats with that altitude.

The first turn point was a farm called Farmer. It was about 25 km from the butte. Cloud base was getting higher as the day progressed, and reaching Farmer was not too much of a problem. It was easy to stay between 8,000 feet and 10,000 feet while on glide. From Farmer to Leahy, it became more difficult, as there was a big blue hole. I got low at one point, about a 1,000 feet above the deck, and had to slow down and wait for something to come through. I circled in zero sink for about 15 minutes waiting for a descent climb to come through. Funny as there were many dust devils to the west, and they weren't drifting much due to the light winds. Melanie Pfister had the lowest save I saw during the comp. In the same area she was no more the 200 feet over the deck and climbed out. Our thermals met and we both climb out to 10,000 feet and we were in business again.

When I finally made Leahy I was graced with a thermal right over the turn point. Other pilots weren't so lucky as I saw maybe 4 pilots get drilled near the turn point. From the last turn point to goal it was still over 40 km, and I thought we are heading into the wind, the work is really starting now, but was still getting good speed on trim and with half speed bar about 15 kph more.

What was nice, with this being my sixth flight on my new glider, it felt good to dial it in and get truly acquainted with its handling.

By this time on the final leg of the task, it was getting late. I had been in the air four hours already, and fatigue began to set in. At this point making goal was a priority no matter how long it took. Even if I came into goal after it closed I was going to finish the triangle. So, with the pilots being spread out all over the flats, I was flying the last leg alone most of the way, which made for easy thermaling and no stress about racing to goal. The air became much smoother and the climbs definitely weaker. It was interesting flying through the strongest part of the day into the late afternoon thermals as you could feel the difference in strength and turbulence.

I began final glide into goal about 13 km out, and with the height I had was just able to squeak by the rim of the Columbia river valley into goal at Chelan Falls Park. 6 hours and 6 minutes in the air, 118.4 km triangle. By far my longest duration flight, and my longest triangle, and my secondest longest distance.

Doesn't matter how I scored the fun and camaraderie was there. Time to look forward to the Nationals in the Owens Valley in Bishop, California. Time to head back to Colorado. Cheers.

Day 5

2008-08-01T10:17:00.001-07:00

Well, another blown out day. Winds are forecast to be gusting to 30 mph through the day today. We all met at the LZ, and didn't even load the gliders and go up the mountain. Tomorrow looks much better for the last day.

Day 4

2008-07-31T16:18:00.000-07:00

We flew today. The weather was sunny, dry and high pressure. We got to launch at the usual10 a.m. and settled in to wait for the day to start. The wind techs begin to launch about 11:15 a.m. but were having a hard time climbing out. So we knew that today was going to be tricky.
The launch window opened at 11:45 a.m. and the start was at 1:00 p.m.

I launched about 12 noon, and climbed out on broken light thermals. Not much more then 500 feet per minute max. The ceiling kept lifting as we were climbing, and the gaggle topped out at a little over 7,000 feet msl. It was an interesting start gaggle today as the start was an exit cylinder only 1 km in diameter. It must of looked interesting from the ground as basically the whole group was together. The thermals were drifting toward Lake Chelan, so once topped out you had to get back to the top of the Butte.

Once the start alarm went off everyone went on glide for the task. It was a 69 km task from the Butte to Okanagan, north of Chelan. The interesting part to the start was you could cross the Columbia river to the flats, or follow the foot hills on the Butte side then cross the river to the flats. Once at Brewster you had to cross the Columbia river again north to Okanagan.

I unfortunately, got drilled again today on the first glide from the Butte and landed at Chelan airport. Last word I have received at 4:30 p.m. is there are 40 pilots in goal.

Another tricky day, and patience is what is paying off. Forecast is for cloudy and windy on Friday, but let's hope we can get two more tasks in the last two days. Cheers!

Day 3

2008-07-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today is Day Three and no task today. We went up to launch in hope that winds would be on the decrease. Unfortunately, it seemed to stay strong and the powers that be called it after about an hour and half on launch.

There is a Low pressure system to the north off the Britsh Columbia coast, and with a High to the south a strong westerly flow has set up. Tomorrow, Thursday looks to be a better day, but they are calling for an increase of clouds. The rest of the week looks OK but it is too early to tell right now with this Low just hanging there.

On day two we didn't fly as the winds were strong and increasing through the day as the cold front passed. Stay Tuned.....

1st Task

2008-07-29T11:05:00.001-07:00

Chelan was true to form the first day with very light winds, and small dust devils skirting the launch area by 10 a.m. It turned out to be a blue day, and a cap to about 7,000 feet, but some pilots managed to get to 8,000 feet msl over the flats. It was my 4th day on the Tracer, and the 1st day in the thermals that were stronger then 400 feet per minute. The glider flew well, and felt perfect.

The task was about 58.1 km race to Leahy with one turn point, and a third of the field made goal.
Jeff Wishnie won the day.

Launch window opened about 11:45 a.m. and the task start at 12:50 p.m. I finally got off launch about 20 minutes before the task started and had a good climb out over the butte. The top of the butte is about 3,900 feet msl, and I climbed to about 7,000 msl. Still a little low to make the flats comfortably. The main gaggle left right at the start time, but I lingered over the butte to long, and lost 500 feet in the process. After finally crossing the Columbia river to the flats, I was low and not many other pilots there to mark thermals. I found a weak climb over Mcneil canyon that finally got me onto the flats, but there I was thermaling alone on a blue day. We also had a cross wind to make it to Sims the first turn point which made it difficult if you're low, as the thermaling drifted you way off the course line. I scratched for a while and then dirted about 9 miles from the butte.

Even though I landed early, I was happy to have a flight on the new glider in stronger air. Also, it takes me a while to adapt to flying in the big gaggles again, and programing the GPS's for scoring
The group of pilots are experienced so all of our pilots meetings have been short and to the point. Chelan is showing to be the perfect venue for comps again.

Right now day 2 we are on hold due to a front moving through. We are meeting again at 12:30 p.m. to decide if we can get a task today.

In Chelan

2008-07-27T17:44:00.004-07:00

Finally made it to Chelan, Washington. It was a 20 hour drive with a stop overnight in Boise, Idaho. It was a pleasure to come into the campground called Beebe, which is on the Columbia river, to friends and a site for my tent. We had six tents crammed in the area for the site. Unfortunately, I could only set up half of my tent as the spot they saved me was for a two man sized tent. My tent is a 4 man. Anyway, it worked for last night, and a another tent site opened up and I was able to secure that, which enabled me to complete the full set up.

This morning we woke up to a nice day, but to wind. It did not look promising to fly. A couple of pilots launched, but were not getting anywhere due to the strong wind. Of course the goal is to launch from the butte, get at least 3,000 to 5,000 feet over launch and then cross the river into the flats. If I remember correctly the best hieght is around 8,000 msl. The higher you are the easier it is to get to the flats with enough altitude to find a descent thermal to go on.

We ended up hanging by the lake, and swimming. The water was a pleasant 75 degrees. We have now downloaded the waypoints into our GPS and will soon have the pilots meeting, to go over the comp details. Stay tuned for more info.

2008-07-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

A beautiful morning flying in Wolcott. Tandems have been going great with a little soaring. But, what's really new is the Sol Tracer that I will be flying at the Chelan XC Open. I have only had three flights with this glider, but all three have been soaring flights in light thermals. The real test will be in the big air in Chelan, WA. I still have some kinks to sort out on the glider.

The handling is amazing, turns on a dime, or flat which ever you need for the thermal size, shape and strength. The brake handles are soft which is new for me. I have been used to a brake with a rigid handle. Since I like to fly with a rap of the brake line around my hand, the soft handles squeeze my hand so much that I lose circulation in the fingers. So I will change the brakes to a rigid handle.

The speed system on this glider is the most user friendly I have had. The pulley system is set up to increase pressure the more you push on the speed bar. It's very easy to go to half speed, and then the pressure increases progressively until full speed. The speed system on the other gliders I have flown with have always been very difficult to push from the beginning. They really found the right combo to make this system functional for long transitions when going XC.

I will be on the road Friday with a stop in Idaho, and then on to Chelan, arriving Saturday in the afternoon. The weather has been sunny with highs in the Upper 80's and 90's. I hope the conditions stay favorable for a good comp. Keep you all posted.

Cheers, Greg

Pre-Chelan

2008-07-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

Greetings Everyone! Well, it's time to get ready to go to Chelan, Washington to the Chelan XC Classic paragliding competition. Chelan, WA is a beautiful area. Not only is the flying amazing, but the town of Chelan is on a beautiful glacial carved lake. There is lots to do if the flying is shut down. However, the many times that I have flown there, the weather has cooperated most of the time to have 4 or more good days of flying.

Chelan is a butte on the west side of the Columbia river, and on the east side of the Cascade foothills. We launch on the butte, cross the Columbia river onto the flatlands of eastern Washington, and fly the flatlands sometimes landing out there or flying traingles landing back at the butte. Tons of wheat fields with talcum powder like soil allow for excellent thermal production, not to mention dust devels that mark the thermals.

I will keep you all posted as we get closer to the comp.

Cheers, Greg