“Go to Cruise” Dec, 2011

Sometimes you have projects that just never seem to get done. Mine…. putting together of a “little video” that captures the spirit of our favourite flying site in Mansfield Washington.

I had plenty of excuses that contributed to not getting the project done. Thing is, I truly believed we had something worth showing off and sharing with the flying community but I could never satisfactorily capture it with the quality it deserved.

Then along came the GoPro sports camera. A filming tool for idiots. Quite frankly, its an amazingly simple piece of video equipment. Just turn it on and “roll camera”. Its strength is the high quality wide angle image that is captured by this simple point and shoot video camera. On the other hand, It’s only weakness turns out to be its high quality wide angle image! (IMO), the wide angle field of view is pretty much the sole purpose of this camera. Well this image can be breathtaking…. after a while it becomes boring. Kind of like riding a roller coaster? Once a year is a thrill?……. continuously, over and over? becomes a bit fatiguing. So, how to use it and take advantage of its strengths? Keep it short, keep the tempo fast, and never dwell on any given shot for prolonged period of time.

With lots of material hogging almost 40gig on my hard drive, I still had one more excuse/hurtle to overcome. I need a computer that would not spit sparks trying to render the massive files that the GoPro produces. It was time for an upgrade. Dell XPS15z, Intel i7, 8gigs of ram and 2gigs of dedicated video…. bundled with Adobe video editor (simple enough that even I could figure it out!).

To inspire a tight script I decided on a sound track that doesn’t give the viewer time to think… just enjoy the view.

In my opinion …. it appeared to work. (BTW, the title?…”Go to Cruise”?….. it is the first command the pilot uses to begin the take-off roll…..)

To view the film, please go to my Vimeo link to watch in HD.

"Go to Cruise"

Cheers

Last Kick at the Can, Part 2:

Sept 4th (Sunday). Hot and Blue, no wind.

My turn to run the rig but both Mia and Mike where un-inspired. With a little prodding, I convinced Mia to at least tow up the PG and got Mike to act as a "Spotter". 

We found a nice spot on L-Road where Mia could layout the PG  in some cut stubble and not on the road.  I'm still a little rusty on towing PG's and have not gotten a perfect technique figured out so I really like having a second set of eyes on the ground to "spot" the takeoff sequence. As it turned out, Mia took a frontal on her first attempt (came up a little too quick and she failed to "check it") so she had a short "dirt surf" .... bounced up and had just got in the air as I shut down the tow. Her next attempt (in near zero winds) was much better and she was up clean. 

Mia was hitting strong lift on tow and decided to pin off at only 700agl... almost connected but soon drifted in a very light south wind back to the start and landed. 

Her second attempt was much smoother but again, pinned of early (less then 800ft agl?). This time she successfully scratched her way up to 5000ft asl (3000ft agl) and decided she was going to try and make the 14km flight over to Mansfield her goal for the day. 

Mike and I set out on a "low speed pursuit" and watched her make several saves low out of the dirt but never getting that high. Mia said the air was plenty active and she was choosing to fly supper conservative for the whole flight.  Eventually she managed to do the glide into town, landed in a wild grass strip near the house where Mike helped carry her gear back to the front lawn. 

Victory.... Mia claims her first goal flight on the PG!

Nice breaking down on the green grass of home! Ended the day with a trip to Chelan for swim and dinner.

Sept 5th (Monday), You guessed it... Blue and Hot!

Same theme as yesterday, except my turn to be the Paragliding "victim" and Mia was running the rig. Mike still not enthusiastic about rigging the VR for a hot sweaty grind agreed to crew as "spotter" again.  Jeff on his RS also decided to join us, hoping to scratch out a flight on his hang.

With a little better procedures, I managed to successfully tow with my first attempt. I completed a 1400ft agl tow but despite having dusty's kicking off all over the place managed to drive through what ever lift that was there down to the start point.  (My excuse?... vario was acting up ;-)

A little bit of drama on my second tow with a blown weak link just as I pulled up.  No big deal, new weak link and I gave it another shot. This time it was nice launch and again a strong tow. Even more dust devils in the area but still was not able to connect. Admittedly, I felt a bit intimidated with the sight of devils cracking off in the area and decided that conditions where getting potentially above my comfort zone so I called it a day.

Jeff saddled up on the tow rig just after 1pm and took a nice tow directly into lift and was up and away. His goal was 30km south to Park Lake and the golf course LZ. It was a slow grind, only breaking 6000ft asl on one occasion. Mia, Mike and I backtracked to Mansfield with the tow rig, picked up some swimming gear and eventually took up chase with the lake as goal.  We stopped in Saint Andrews to monitor Jeff's progress. Eventually we got the go-ahead to head to the lake as Jeff had it on glide.  

Jeff styled a nice landing at west side fairway

Again... dip in the lake, beer and slow trip back up to Mansfield to finish the day where we packed up the rigid's for the trip back home. Not our last trip of the year but it signalled what was the end of summer for this year. (heading home...)   :-( 

Last Kick at the Can (Sept 1st to 5th) Part 1:

The good old September Long weekend is always a mixed bag. This year, the forecast looked promising.... perhaps too promising as a big high pressure was building onto the coast and I figured there was a very high probability of things stabling out.  Still, any airtime is better then anytime spent at work!

Sept 1st (Thursday), the high was still building in and the Jet Stream was driving straight down over Washington State.  Big winds on the ground, monster dust devils eating up the dirt  so flying was not in the cards.

After we got our acre of lawn cut, Mia was in a shopping mood. She had been eyeing up a good deal on a bicycle (fancy road bike) so it was off to REI in Spokane, where she picked up a nice little Cannondale Synapes... strange tho... no peddles.... apparently that required further research ?.... On the return trip to Mansfield, passed an old "red neck" in a Toyota pickup. The canopy and tailgate was plastered with all the usual right wing slamming of Obama. We stopped in Davenport to do some shopping and the truck was there in the lot, so I walked around it checking out the political statement when I noticed in the top left corner of the rear a small decal that read "Free Tibet"... left me thinking, America, "land of the political extremes" .

Sept 2nd (Friday). Well I guess I blew this call. We woke up to strong 30km North winds, forecasts all indicated pretty much blown out for the day so we decided to go on a road trip with Mike from Spokane down to what the locals call Saddle Mountain about 100km due south of Mansfield (north facing 2000 ft ridge site). We took our PG's.  Turns out the forecast was shit, and it was only light east up on launch. Still Mia and I got to get a little ridge flying in (I managed one touch and go top landing attempt), Mike did not bother to setup the ATOS as it was way too lame to make the effort.

Meanwhile, back at Chelan Butte we could hear some fellow Canadians (Alex and Rob) working on a 70km OR over Mansfield (Mike heard something on the radio about watering our lawn from the air by some smart ass....). Oh well, explored a new site. 

Sept 3rd (Saturday), Hot and blue... not looking great but we decided not to blow the call and committed to some aviation.  Mia was crewing the rig, Mike (ATOS VR) and Jorge (Light Speed) from Spokane joined us.  Still NE on the ground... I towed up first and much to my skeptical  surprise, connected into a smooth 2oofpm up... real smooth.... down right pleasant. I knew it was going to be a soft day so after hitting 5500 ft asl (3500 over) I headed cross wind to the south (in what had turned into 10mph east wind aloft). Despite what was a very slow go and plenty of low saves (like when I dug myself out of the dirt north of Douglas) it turned into a very nice day.  At the end of the day I landed back at the tow site (to retrieve Jorge's truck) for a 114km FAI triangle. Meanwhile, Mike had completed  a 86km FAI triangle and Jorge had flown a OR west of Withrow and back to join Mike on the grass on the front lawn in Mansfield.  Beer and steak dinner... life is good.  (Oh... getting even for the bad call the day before.... the Butte was blown out..... would never have guessed that, must have been "karma"?)

August 21st....

In search of the elusive "two thumbs up" it was my turn to run the tow rig.  Today's judges would be  Mia and Mike B (from Spokane).

We had a real mish-mash of weather forecasts with the only constant being they all agreed it was going to be hot (mid to upper 90's F).  To that end we decided to go with the NOA soaring numbers (Spokane Soaring Forecast ) that called for light winds (with a morning northerly) and good lift up 10,000asl.

Mia was ready to tow at 1pm and with a 5-10 mph north wind, we started from L-Roads mid point setup.  From midpoint, we don't have as much road as we like but there is the option to cross the highway for an additional 1 mile..... with Mia checking for traffic (our own "eye in the sky") I got clearance to cross the highway. Mia only used a few additional yards then pinned off into lift and was soon climbing out.  Mike also towed north but decided to pin off without making me cross the highway .  For his reward, he proceeded to immediately sink out!... Personally, I thought he was just trying to show off his low save skills as he saved his flight by doing some dirt tango at 580ft agl, connecting and climbing out. 

Both pilots drifted south, describing the air as broke but regularly breaking through 7000ft asl.  At about 20km out, the number improved to 8000ft+, all in the blue (no Q's). Mia was first to decide to cross to toward Farmer (In the mean time, Mike continued south to our JBSR turnpoint on top of the Beezly hills).  After having returned the tow rig to Mansfield I was dutifully pursuing my team around the course in our trusty air conditioned Jetta Diesel Wagon...

Both pilots picked their way back to the tow site in light broken condition, occasionally getting over 9000ft asl.  Of course, by the time they arrived back at L-Road, the nice smooth wind that had been blowing ALL day, had dropped to nothing (Light and Vacuum... and hot). Landing in these conditions is a real challenge but both Mia and Mike, after more then 4 hours each in the air, did admirable jobs pulling off clean "nose up" landings.  For there reward... both were immediately served ice cold Becks beer from the ice filled cooler!

Mia's 92km FAI Triangle and Mikes 107 km FAI Triangle

Mikes Video of his flight:

I think I earned myself the double thumbs up for service. To be safe I also tossed in a trip to Lake Chelan for an evening swim and bought everybody dinner... man they are a tough crowd to please! My happy campers:

31 years.....

I'm married to a saint, Celebrating our 31'st anniversary the tradition of Johnny Walker Blue in Mansfield continues.

  With Hot stable looking air on the coast Mia and blasted over the Cascades for 2 days dirt and dust devils. NOA soaring is predicting some very nice blue conditions... XC skies ....not so much, we will see (I crew for Mia).

Last Flight (for this trip, August 13th)

Nothing inspirational in the forecast. Blue, south winds and only only a marginal soaring forecast.  Since we got blown out yesterday, we thought we should at least put in the effort.

Today when we arrived at the tow site, winds where way less then the previous day. There were some big dust devils in the neighbourhood but not as many in previous days.  Randy was expecting the wind to pick up, but I was hoping we could still do some flying so I rigged and was up on the truck before 1pm.

Mia delivered me down the tow road directly into some 1200fpm up while on tow.  I was near 1000ft agl when I pinned off. Of course as soon as I pinned off, the lift was gone?..... a quick downwind search and I was back into it and was climbing in a smooth 400fpm.  I found the lift surprisingly smooth, but there was definitely some drift (10-14mph out of the south), By the time I peaked out at 7600ft asl, I had drifted 3 km's north.  I decided that I would press directly south.

Heading south, given the winds, pretty much kept me in the thermal source/street. I managed slow progress south for about 20km's, consistently being able to top up and continue. (Randy decided that given my ATOS was having a slow go, he didn't bother to setup) . At the 20km mark, the bottom fell out and I could find no more thermals to further my progress. I landed after a brief unsuccessful attempt to pull off  a low save (drifting north 5km's in the process at less then 3500ft asl... or 800ft agl).

My short little XC.

After packing up, Mia and I headed back to Mansfield, picked up Randy and headed for one last trip Park Lake.  Later, Mia created a fantastic fish dinner on the barbeque. Life is good.

Sunday, August 14th looked like the weather was going to change for the worse, so this was our last flight for this trip. We expect to be back for an extended September Long Weekend... perhaps the weather God's will smile for that trip?

Will try to get a photo album up in the next few days along with a  whole bunch of GoPro footage.

Blown Out... (August 12th)

Didn't look to0 bad first thing in the morning but by the time we got to the tow site the devils where drifting at a pretty good speed from the south. The airspeed on the truck was 10-15mph... you can pretty much count on 20 -25 aloft so we called the day.

Randy for some deep R+R....

Mia catching up on the Laundry....

I worked on the Winch, trying to work out some bugs....

Weekend weather not looking good.

Beware of the Big Blue Hole... (August 11th)

Mia and Randy are up in the tow rotation and yours truly running the rig. Conditions looked spectacular .... but things were not as they appeared.

Both Randy and Mia had plans to do a Banks Lake Crossing and return to Withrow or Waterville then back to Mansfield.  Mia towed first and connected immediately (with a 1700ft tow) and was up and away (getting to 7500ft asl before leaving the tow site)

Randy was next, with a 2000ft agl tow connected and climbed out to 8500ft asl and joined Mia heading east.

I packed up the rig and by the time I was out on the road for chase support Mia was crossing Banks heading east, soon after Randy also joined her. I did a quick trip down to Coulee city, short wait and they both announced they were heading back..... straight into a trap!

A big blue hole had formed on their return leg, along with a stiff south wind of 10 to 15 mph and the west side of the lake was scrubbed of lift. Randy landed first, Mia followed shortly there after with a sympathy landing (same field as Randy). With Q's surrounding the area Randy was in a grumpy mood.  It took three Beck's to cheer him up.  At least everybody was packed up with plenty of time for a nice afternoon at Park Lake.

Mia's Flight and Randy's Flight

Now That's More Like It.... (August 10th)

Today I handed the keys for the winch over  to Randy. It would be his first solo introduction to operating our winch. He took several training tows last year and had "volunteered" to do his turn at the wheel.

Conditions have taken a real change with some sort of system passing through overnight.  Early in the day we had development over the Cascades and the Methow valley. Not much wind in the forecast and various soaring forecasts did call for some pretty good lift.

Randy gave me a real good tow to 2000ft agl when he got his first initiation to being a "Tow-Master".  The towline chute failed on release (we refer to the failure as "chute is snivelling") Some times the chute will pop open.... sometimes not. As it turned out, it when all the way to the ground. As I climbed in smooth cool lift, Randy had to trudge back down the road (I estimated at least 3000 ft), unclip the chute and trudge back in the hot sun to rewind the dropped line.  Oh well first tow resulted in the first pilot away!

Next Mia towed up. Again Randy got his initiation... Mia took a weak link failure at 900ft agl. She almost connect but had to land back at the setup for a perfect no wind landing.  Randy was quickly back, but this time Mia released at 900ft agl in strong lift and was up and away.

By this time I was heading west nearing Waterville (averaging 8500ft asl in the thermals).  About 75 miles north toward the Cascades there was spectacular over development. It caused me to keep a very careful eye on the conditions. Fortunately it stayed north for the whole day. 

Mia was soon out on her course heading Withrow, I turned Waterville and was on my way to the SE. My route brought me into the "blue" and things began to fall apart quite rapidly. Soon I was clinging to every thermal trying to make my planned turnpoint and head back to the tow site to the north. Meanwhile, Mia was enjoyed some nice climbs to over 9000ft asl and decided not to venture in my direction to the east. Instead she back tracked toward the tow site under a solid line of Q's.

After my turnpoint, I ended up real low and drifting north up the tow road (as low as 3600 ft asl /1000ft agl). Eventually, my luck came back and I managed to arrive back at the start meeting Mia at 8000ft als. From there we both took our separate ways back to the Mansfield to arrive at the house for good landings and got to take down on the green grass of the front yard.

Nice to see some Q's for change.

Mia's Flight and My Flight

Weather... or not.... (August 9th)

Here in the Columbia Basin we are sitting under a bit of a weather high but  an inversion has set in, pushing the top of usable lift down.  It's not "real" hot and just enough surface winds that seem to scrub off the thermals before they get a chance to get powerful enough to bust through the inversion. Useable lift forecasts have dropped below 8000ft asl while theoretical thermal tops remains high (10,000 +).  The net result is your lift is unreliable, often broken and you have to spend allot of time finding new lift and at the same time dealing with drift.  So? what can you do about the weather..... nothing..... you just give it a shot and see what happens.

Mia and Randy where scheduled to fly, my turn to run the rig. Being a good "Tow-Master" I gave it my best sales pitch to encourage the team to do some flying, Randy was sold and took the bait. Mia was a sceptic (and familiar with my "blowing smoke" sales pitch) but she did decide to set up.

Randy towed first, took a nice tow up to 2000ft agl and started scratching with a 10mph south wind. Later I found out he released after running into a "goofy spot" on the drum.... a section of loose line that was improperly rewound the day before. No big deal but he decided to pin off to be safe.

It was pretty clear that the day was soft as Randy almost sunk out back at takeoff, so Mia decided to "bag-it" while Randy worked with what he had.  He latched onto a big one and was climbing at 1000+fpm but it gave up at 7000ft asl so he headed toward the house in Mansfield. He landed at the house, not too impressed with the day so we all decided to trade the gliders in for towels at the beach and call it a day. Randy's Flight.

While Randy broke down, Mia and I took the tow vehicle a short distance out of town to pull all the line off of the winch (found nothing that would have caused any issues.... I think Randy cleared what ever was lurking on the drum!)   We pulled all the line off (down to the backup) and with Mia standing on the road 5500 feet from the truck holding the recovery chute, I hit the rewind and kite the towline back onto the truck.  The usual source of problems can be caused by letting the drum free wheel just prior to rewind, kind of like getting a birds nest on a fishing reel. Several big loops can form, then get covered over by the rewind. Most of the time they will just slip though and everything is fine, sometimes they can knot up and lock the towline blowing the weak link.  Not a bad thing if your taking a greedy tow to 2000 ft! but not a good thing if your just off the truck!

Projects completed we set off with steaks and beer for Summer Falls for some R+R at the beach. 

As usual, nobody down at Summer Falls. One sad point tho... the Park has been seeing more use this summer and with it has come the fact that people = garbage and abuse.  It's always hard to understand why people don't take the time to look after such a beautiful place . We arrived finding barbeque pits were full "stuff" with people tossing plastic, cloths and what ever else they could find into the pits. Well not obvious at first glance, the park is definitely showing the abuse.  We took the time to clean up one of the picknick areas, that we decided was the least gross... people can be pigs.

Summer Falls.... something to protect? :

Billy Burgers.... (August 8th)

Mia's turn to run the rig, Mike had to return to work, so his team replacement was newly arrived Randy Pankew (our token flex pilot). We had blue skies with lots high thin cloud and a forecast that produced mediocre numbers for the day. Not too inspiring but any day flying is better then a day at work.

Harvest has shifted into high gear with the town of Mansfield buzzing with trucks and activity. When we arrived at the tow site, the combines were cutting to the East of the tow road. Good news when it comes to thermal triggers (IMO), lots of machinery tends to create more trigger points. Even if this is not the case we suddenly have allot more landing options ;-)

Randy snuck in ahead of me for the first tow (the little weasel ;-) . He pulled a 2000 ft tow, released and was soon climbing through to 7000+ft als. I followed about 15 minutes later (excellent turnaround by the tow master Mia), I had been climbing like stink but Mia had to pass some traffic on the road so I hung on for another 1/2 mile for a 2000 ft tow. Having passed through and area of lift, I had to back track the 1/2 mile to source the lift and soon climbed up to 5500ft asl. For what ever reason I consistently found myself unable to get through 6000 so I decided to leave the tow site and head east to Banks Lake (after Randy). As I blundered along, Randy was on the radio saying things were not looking good and he was getting low (he eventually landed near Sims Corner). Not inspired, I continued east in a somewhat recreational mood.

I arrived at the edge of Banks Lake low and unable to continue on. For the next 45 minutes I played with low save after low save (I think my lowest save was less then 400 ft). Normally my stress level goes up when trying to dig it out of the dirt but the situation was quite relaxing.... LZ was right under me, the air was not radical, Mia was only a short distance away. If I sunk out I had a nice place to land, good wind (from the S-SE at 10-15km) and best of all cold beer and Park Lake where only a short drive away. After multiple excursions to 5500ft asl I made the decision to plunge east across banks lake (a very low crossing indeed).

As it happened, lift did get better on the east side of Bank's with climbs now getting me up over 7000ft. I slowly worked my way east to Wilbur Airport (my new goal for the day). Mia and Randy where waiting the airport when I arrived (of course now I was having trouble trying to find some sink!) As I approached to land I had to share the pattern with a V tailed Bonanza. I took advantage of a thermal to let the Bonanza go first then found sink to spiral down. There was a nice south wind and I lined up on the taxi way next to the hangers (the Bonanza was at the fuel pumps). Everything was looking sweat until a dust devil caught my right wing on touch down, a little bit of a skid that gave me some road rash on my right knee... then penalty for landing on the pavement (grass looked to be a little too tall between the strip and the taxi way). The peanut gallery had a few comments to chirp about my landing, to which I answered "I see a low tow in your future". ;-)

A nice little flight of 70+km and 3.2 hours of lazy touring over the highlands of the basin. Thing is the real reason for Wilbur being goal was our tradition seeking out of the quintessential American classic burger joint....

Billy Burgers, the Classic American diner. Simple food..... that you can eat with your hands! Definitely a "must stop" if your find yourself in the Wilbur area.

The trip home included the mandatory swim in Park Lake and the late evening cruse up L road (combines were running well into dark). Sad thing.... the days are getting shorter.

In the Blue (August 7th)....

We had the typical morning north wind, classic "blue" conditions. Forecast, light with top of usable lift in the 7-8000ft asl range.  Mia and Mike were going to be my "children" for the day.... I was hoping to earn the coveted "two thumbs up" as Tow-Master.

Our morning briefings include laptops and smart phones all doing the XC Skies link and anything else that we can find.  Usually this process has two conclusions.. go flying .... or .... go to the lake.  It was close, but the "Go flying" vote was cast. 

Before loading up, we had a visitor this morning... the bird worlds version of an attack jet fighter:

We were pretty sure this was an immature Coopers Hawk , the smaller cousin of the infamous Goshawk. They mainly hunt small birds (strangely none around during his visit?)... he seemed to be eyeing up our Cat Mber but was probably calculating the mayhem would probably be not worth the risk.   After about a half hour he blasted off in pursuit of breakfast, not sure if he was successful.

Our buddy from Chelan, Jeff showed up but was not flying and joined the ground crew for the day. We towed up Mia and Mike with 1200 ft tows, both had trouble getting away, but soon connected and were climbing through 7000 ft asl. With no real plans, Jeff and I where surprised that Mia suddenly decided that she was going to cross Banks Lake and head east to Govan (near Wilbur). Mia took off in the lead with Mike having to grovel near the West edge of Banks. Today our pilots had the pleasure of sharing skies with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner , as it cruised up and down Banks Lake.... really need to look up how far the turbulence extends below these big birds. 

With Jeff and I crewing in the Suzuki, we chased our team out past Almira.  It was a slow go, broken climbs and not much of any sort of drift. Eventually Mike turned Govan and  headed North to get to the high ground, Mia turned short of Govan and started back on the south edge of the highlands. Mansfield was goal....

Mike was first to arrive for the Banks crossing, just over 8000ft asl, lost 500ft for the 2 mile gap, on the west side gained back to 8000..... then got hammered with turbulence (as he put it... with lots of vigorous hand gestures later that evening!). He got through the turb's and continued scratching toward Mansfield.

Mia was further south, crossed the lake with a similar experience... lots of turb's on the west side, but not so lucky to find anything more.   

Mike landed Mansfield, Mia landed just east of Saint Andrews.  Both describe landing in a total vacuum on the ground... from the sounds of it both had tail wind / thermal events. Mike tilled some soil with a nice soft belly landing, Mia much more enthusiastically terminated her landing with the pointy end stuck in the ground.  No bent parts so everybody was happy.

Mia's flight ended with a 91km flat triangle / out and return  and Mikes flight was not up as of my posting (there had been some issues with the OLC server.... looks like it was being "looked at") but I'm guessing his flight to be around 125km OR (both pilots logged 4+ hours of airtime).

More of the same weather is predicted over the next 3-5 days.

One Week in August Begins....

It has been a mixed up season this year on the "Flats" of central Washington. Wheat harvest is way behind, the ground has moisture, the days are getting shorter.  We are down in Mansfield for one more week of trying to log some distances for the OLC.

For a change today was a typical August day (6th), with morning north winds, forecast included lift to 8000, hot and blue (no clouds expected).  The only thing that was a bit of a negative, XC Skies predicted a case of the "Blue Meenies" to the south across the lake (Blue being the colour of poor lift).

Mia was supposed to fly but was a little under the weather and agreed to be "tow-master" for the day. Mike and myself (two VR's) were the only ones on the rig. I did the first tow, had a real hot launch, not sure but our airspeed indicator may have been sticking?... with a 1400ft tow I connected and was climbing out. Mike towed next, again a 1400ft tow (pretty good tow for our mid-point north tow). He struggled a bit but was soon up and away.

Mike took this picture of me on the "Rig":

Plan was to head to Wilson Creek (50km SE) despite the poor GFS forecast. We figured if we got the height we would rely on the "Thermal Tops" forecast instead. As it turned out, what ended up being poorly predicted was the low level winds. The closer we got to Wilson Creek the more the ground was being scrubbed off by 10-15mph winds.  I was ahead and 6km short of Wilson creek turn-point, struggling below 5500ft asl, I had made the mistake last year of trying to push my luck under these conditions an knew if I pressed any closer I would be toast so took the light lift and converted it to a nice gradual down wind drift... destination Wilbur.  Mike took my warning and abandoned the Wilson Creek turn and joined me on our next leg to Wilbur (Airport).

We both completed the 40km run to Wilbur and joined up over the airport (for me its pretty rare that I ever end up having to share a thermal out here!).  While we climbed I spotted some very high Q's that had formed NW of us and told Mike if we could connect we might have a very good chance of staying high (on the north edge of the plateau. The high ground (3000 ft ) is often very productive late in the day.  We both switched our "go to destination" to the tow site (50+km's) and left Wilbur at 8400ft, plunging NW  against a 10-15mph Westerly.   The clouds had disappeared but the lift remained.  I managed a climb to 9400, Mike struggled a bit and did not get quite as high  as I pushed west.

As it turned out, getting out ahead got me back to Mansfield, Mike being a little behind got the short end of the stick (lift) and got stuck on the East side of Banks Lake unable to get enough height to cross.  My faster line was not keeping me that high but it did get me near the edge of the lake where I managed a good climb past 8000ft asl, allowing me to cross west and into good smooth evening air near Sim's Corner.

Mike on the other hand, fought for more then an hour trying to climb out, unfortunately being stuck between 2800 and 5500ft meant having to fight 10-15mph drift and nothing would break through to allow him to move west.  Mia was dutifully providing support to Mike by having a windsock  at the ready.  Eventually, gravity won and he was forced to land.

At nearly the same time, I landed back in Mansfield and had carried my glider back to the front lawn. (5.7 hours 162km FAI triangle).  Cold beer, cool green lawn.... life is good.

Mike's Flight and My Flight

Mia arrived back with Mike,  disappointed as to not having made it back but happy to had a good landing, first trip across the lake and his longest flight ever on his VR (time wise)... and of course cold beer.  Looks like tomorrow... more of the same. 

Our Flying on August 1st....

Late report on our flying on August 1st. I don't know how the others keep up with daily posting but I tend to find myself scrambling for time to make posts, especially when I have to take time out for editorial retractions ;-)

Mia's turn at running the rig. This morning Nicole (Nicole's Blog) stopped by after spreading bad weather over every contest she attended in the Rockies and Utah. We immediately told her to leave town as we were hoping to fly! We both skeptically eyed a 20kmph North wind that was blasting through Mansfield. I felt confident it was going to lay down (well sort of confident)... Nicole decided to head off toward the Butte and maybe back to Canada.

Mike on his VR was going to be my wing man for the day loaded up and headed off to L-Road. By 12, the winds started to subside (pretty typical event when we get north winds in the summer). It was basically "blue" with a few scattered Q's in the distant north. XC skies was all over the map when it came to the GFS, NAM and RCU forecasts, I was not overly optimistic but thought it was worth a try.

I took the first tow north from our Mid point start on L-Road and released with a 1200 ft tow, right over L + 13 and slowly began scratching my way into the day (drifting with the north wind). Our "plan" was.... If we got high we would head to Wilson Creek. Nope....I was having trouble getting over 6500asl so that was not happening. Plan B.... drift with the north wind to the Beezly hills up over Ephrata and try and put some sort of triangle together. If it ended in failure we would be closer to our favourite swimming hole at Park Lake.

As I crossed the highway at the south end of L-Road, Mike was off tow and scratching hard. Mia spent about 5 gallons of gas racing the tow rig up and down every road that was under Mike trying to break a thermal off. Mike stuck to it, climbed out and was 30 minutes behind, also struggling to get high.

Both of us took our time and wandered down wind. Mike was only 20 minutes behind as I turned our unofficial south turnpoint near the edge of the Beezly hills (50km out). At this point we were starting to get past 7500asl (I managed to milk some thermals near the turnpoint to 8300asl). We ran into one lone Sailplane pilot doing what the local pilots call the "power line patrol " Bob Firth's Sailplane flight....

I lead the way north bumping my way across Jameson Coulee (at a very low 6500asl and not many places to land), worked my way north to Farmer (again, my shadow, "Mike" was tagging along the same route). In the meantime, Mia was keeping close below us in support, there if we needed in wind info for an out landing.

I had pretty much given up on anything major and was simply trying to limp back to the tow site. I was just short of Withrow, climbing past 8600 it was time to turn for "goal". Mike pretty much did the same but slight further north at the Withrow turnpoint.

Mike near Withrow, looking over to Chelan Butte:

The day was getting late and the air was supper soft, Still we pressed on. Just shy of the towsite, the decision was made to make Mansfield the goal and call it a day. I back tracked from near L-Road, Mike approached from the south side of town with both of us arriving at exactly the same height.

Mia advised us the LZ had little or no wind... or any wind that was there would come from every direction. I tried to spiral down ahead of Mike, only to blunder into lift and find myself at the same level again!... With Mia dutifully kicking dirt and holding a windsock the whole time I slipped back into another spiral and ended it with an dusty but OK landing, Mike pulled off a perfect landing (but a little short ;-) with a long walk... both in NO Wind. We both hiked the gliders back to the house, with Mia serving up a pair of nice cold Becks from the hanger fridge.

Officially, we acknowledged the fantastic work of our winch/crew with a dual "Thumbs Up":

My Flight and Mike Bomstad's Flight

Both of us, ended with over 4 hours of airtime and 100+km's FAI triangles.... real hard work.. rewarded with Cold beer, bare feet on fresh cut grass and a Barbecued chicken dinner made by the best Tow Master ever.. (man can I suck up....)

I was also happy to hear that Robin Sather (a PG pilot from the Fraser Valley) managed an nice flight (Robin's Flight) off the Butte, along with Andrew Berkley (Andrew's Flight). Good job for both of these PG flying "Butt Heads". :-)

We did not bother to fly on Tuesday, lots of wild looking air up high and not much going on low down. We pulled the "pin" and headed back to Abbotsford for work but will be back on Friday night to put in one more week of chasing dust devils around the flats of Washington State.... sorry for the late posting.

Editorial Retraction.....

 

Well.... I've been advised that an Editorial retraction is in order. Apparently, I was under the false assumption that in my previously posted photograph of Mia with "two thumbs up" was in recognition of the fine and very high quality tow services provided by the day's "Tow-Master" (me). 

Mia  has pointed out that the photo represents her response to the question "so how was your flight ?".....  for some reason she felt the tow service only deserved a single "thumbs up". After 30 plus years of marriage.... I know what's good for me.... I retract and now advise that the photo of "two thumbs up" reflects the pilots opinion about the flying and not the tow services..... I also told her to start her own blog. I slept on the chesterfield ;-)

Working Class... (July 30th)

Today was a day for the "working class".  My turn to run the rig, Mia and Mike were up on the flight line.  Forecast was not quite as good as yesterday but it was likely there would be a SW aloft to make things a challenge. (XC sky's, top of lift 7-8000asl... blue winds 8-12mph top of lift)

At 1pm, Mia took the first tow, 2000 ft, pinned off into good lift and was on here way. Mike was right behind (1700 ft tow) and had to back track a bit to connect but also was into lift and on his way. Plans where more or less to head to Waterville, then.... well what ever?

Soon, it was pretty obvious that XC Sky's was "off" with the wind and both of my intrepid pilots where complaining about 14mph winds at 7500 . Even on a rigid, enough to dampen your progress. Slow climbs and broken lift where also not helping the task.  Still progress to the west was being made and Mike had taken the lead as the two of them approached the West end of Hwy172.  With a little determination, both Mia and Mike consistently started to break through 8000asl (later getting as high as 9800asl... at that altitude winds were getting as high a 22mph! out of the WSW).

Mike made it within a few miles of Waterville, Mia decided to turn near her favourite Tohler Road TP with a low save over the Gravel yard west of Farmer.  Mike decided to try and fly East to get a FAI triangle (100+) Mia decided to head back to the tow site. Both found that the lift was getting weak and the day appeared to be coming to a close . Mia had a good landing back at the start point (84km flat triangle), Mike got desperately low (3500asl)  near Adams Butte 25 miles south but still managed to scratch his way north, with hard fought climbs to 5000asl ending with his first (good) out-landing 6 miles south of Mia (ended with a 102 km's worth of a FAI triangle). Both pilots were smiling with 4hours of airtime.  (Mia gives two "thumbs up" for today's tow services):

Links to today's flights: Mia and Mike.

After our trip down to Park Lake, we learned that nobody got away from Chelan Butte and hardly anybody got over 4500 asl. Odd... as the forecast showed that things should have been much better?.....

Today, July 31st, looked windy and we decided to pull the pin on the day (weather on the coast). There were good Q's and 15 -20 mph winds... so no opportunities to do any sort of out and returns. For a change we will head into Blue Lagoon (Chelan Falls) and go for Dinner at Cambell's in Chelan. Less wind in the forecast for tomorrow.

Now... That's better....(July, 29th)

So far this has been a season that has never really started. Here we are ending July and have had so few of those classic big day's on the Columbia Basin. Simply put, today was good.

Mia was "crewing" (I ran the rig on the last flight). We setup at mid-point L-Road and were on our own. Conditions were blue, not too optimistic for the XC Skies but I had the feeling things were better then forecast.  After a shallow low tow north, at only a 1000ft I had Mia pull the extra 1/2 mile north across the highway (kind of a Dukes of Hazard transition across the highway ;-). I pinned off in broke light air and started to scratch up. Eventually climbing through 6500asl I decided with the 10mph N-W wind and a few scattered Q's it was best to drive my first leg down to Wilson creek.  Shortly after leaving the tow site I managed to break through 8500asl and was on my way.

Today was work day for Boeing. We had "Blue Tail and Red Belly" were both in action (the New 747's ) Blue was circling the neighbourhood at altitudes between 4 and 10 thousand asl.  Blue Tail did a cruise up Banks Lake at less then 4000 (showing off the product I guess). Kind of nerve-racking  experience when later, when over Dry Falls when I was near cloud-base at 9500asl I watched Blue Tail pass over top of the Q that I was under (1/2 mile to the east of me)! At this point I tried to recall my "From the Ground Up" flight training manual and wake turbulence rules.... hmmmmm was that "wake vortices disperse within 1000 ft ?.... 2000ft?....." At least "it" was east of me and there was a dramatic increase in westerly winds aloft which should keep the "Heavy" turbs down wind of me for several minutes....

The rest of the flight was without much drama.  I got a little low around Wilson creek and had to do a little scratching to work my way up toward Wilbur.  Occasionally the air was a little frisky in the turbulence department. Plenty of blue air thermals with the occasional shallow Q. Several trips up over 10,000asl.  The final leg back was good, staying high most of the way. Arriving across Banks on the west side I crossed paths with 3 PG pilots on a out and NO return flight from the Butte. I was heading for the tow site but  Mia encouraged me to stretch out the triangle so I took a dash up to North of Mansfield then back to the tow site. Mia was waiting with the cold beer and a windsock. 

Well attempting to land, there was a real strong cycle of activity so I decided to climb out from 3200 asl up to 4000 and wait for things to settle down. Tuned out to be a good plan as I when I finally came into land I had a nice 10mph westerly.  As per tradition, quick trip to Park Lake for a swim, beverage and back to the shack... exhausted. No that's more like it!

Flight: 5.3 hours, 185km FAI triangle (The Flight)

Today... my turn to Crew!

Mother Nature Sets the Rules....

Saturday, Wind, Thunder and Lightning, wild sky, We took a trip down to Summer Falls, met up with an old Sailplane pilot friend of ours, Harry. He was taking his side kick Ema (golden retriever) for a swim at the lake. From there we headed to Ephrata (sailplane Mecca) just south of Soap Lake. (Ephrata, Seattle Glider Council Web cam) BBQ and beer then back to Mansfield.

Sunday, same freaky air and weather system (north winds on the ground, obvious south winds aloft). Mia decided to wash her VS, I did some maintenance on the tow rig. By 3pm we had given up on the day and headed to Park Lake for a swim.

The day was not a complete loss.... Mia and I are into the bird watching scene and all the nature spotting stuff. Our customary return to Mansfield includes some of the back roads (including the tow road) and there is plenty of wild life to see..... This trip included:

A painted turtle (that for some reason loves cross country treks from a local lake, down one of the dirt roads. He's missing half of one of his front feet... btw, this was our third siting of "stumpy" on this trip)

Further down the road we identified:

-Multiple Logger head Shrike, Great Horned Owl, Kestrels falcons, Red Tailed and Marsh Hawks, Horned Larks, Meadow Larks, Sage Thrashers... you get the picture, Its a birders paradise.

With the weather remaining unsettled and unpredictable I expect we will been heading back to work until we see a shift in the weather. Prime classic conditions for the Basin include a Thermal Low (very high pressure established over the entire area) and very hot weather. As I said in a previous post.... there is nothing you can do about the weather ;-)

Things, not as they appear....

One of those strange days yesterday. I crewed for Mia on what looked to be shaping up as an epic day. Blue skies in the morning, optimistic XC Skies forecast, manageable wind and best of all Q's popping in a wonderful pattern all over the plateau.... it appeared to be wonderful day in the works.

 

Unfortunately, things were not as they appear.

On my end of the rig,  I could tell there was something missing. Normally on an active day you will have plenty of speed adjustments to accommodate lift and sink. Instead..... it was a lonnnnng smooth tow.  Mia was well over 2000ft and trolling when the weaklink popped. Not a bump could be found and she was back on the ground. Second tow was much better and she pinned off at a 1000ft agl and this time managed a slow climb to 7500 asl. 

Mia worked west to Mansfield (shared the air with a pair of sailplanes from Ephrata)  but in the end,  after a least a dozen times of going weightless, the "Fun Meter" was running low, decided to run back to the tow site and land.  (Link to her flight)

With day ending early we had plenty of time to run to Park lake for a swim, beverages and bird watching.  Looks like the next two days are going to suck. So it will be some more hang waiting.  Thankfully we have plenty of summer and holidays left and we have the flexibility to move some dates. 

Flying Lessons....

Again, a day off with some "weather" determining if we fly or not.

Nick departed for wine tasting adventure through the Okanagan  and back to Whistler.  All our guests had left s0 Mia cleaned house (a Dutch compulsion I think...), I got sent out to do chores, cutting the lawn, washing our harnesses to get rid of the Mansfield Moon dust that can ruin a zipper in a day.

The day started off with some potential, but some minor showers came through followed by some clearing and some strong west wind. While Mia was off on a shopping I went out and did some testing of our towline recovery chute. 

When I got back to Mansfield I discovered that one of our nesting Barn Swallows had decided this was the day to leave the nest.  While I'm always harping about our local PG schools and the sad way they huck their students off the hill I have to admit nothing beats the ground school of our resident Swallows.

One day their anchored to the nest getting fed and no sign of training:

The next day....

Out on their own in the big bad world (with Mom and Pop running defence against anybody showing interest!).  Talk about taking a leap of faith. Can you imagine your first day of flying where class includes landing on a telephone line?  Followed by returning to your home base that is 6" square landing pad stuck up under the eves of an old house (oh and for reward... you get fed dead bugs?)

Makes some of our local paragliding instructors look damn near respectable ;-)

Today (Friday15th) might be a good day. I'm crewing for Mia and think she may get a chance for a nice flight... fingers crossed.

Some Airtime!....(July 13th)..

We awoke to blue skies over the Mansfield area and cumulous development surrounding the area. Looking off in the direction of the Chelan Butte, there was Q's that were based no higher then 4000asl.... and despite the strange looking conditions XC skies was advertising 8-9000 cloud base with light SW winds. As it turned out the cloud base was dead on. The winds on the other hand were a little stiffer then the 5-10 mph.

Nic Voss was our "Tow-Mister" for the day. Nic is an old time Hang Glider pilot (Nic, sorry about the "old" comment ;-)  that has retired from flying but has regularly joined us in Mansfield to lend his services as our winch operator and enjoy some holiday time with old friends (Sun and Scotch).  Today was his last day and with a turn for the better in the weather his services were very much appreciated.

The first Q's of the day gave away an obvious southwest wind and while a little on the low side things were looking good!

Nic towed me up first to test the waters and after a strong tow to 2000agl I pinned off into 500 up and was on my way west to Waterville.  Unfortunately, Nic who had previously praised the performance of our tow line recovery chute.... suffered a bad chute and was forced to go for a walk...  When a chute fails, you have a choice, try to drag it in (usually the death of the chute) or walk out to the towline end and remove the chute and go back to the rig and rewind till you can remount the chute ( not a pleasant task out in wild sage) . I was thankful Nic decided to walk but it did delay Mia's start which was about an hour and a half behind me. Oh well, the perils of towing.

In the air, my tip to Waterville was slow (measuring between 12 and 18 mph sw winds). Solid climbs and good cloud streets made the task doable.  As I turned at Waterville, Mia was up and away and slowly working her way toward Withrow.

Mia's Lifts Off....

Meanwhile I pushed around the remainder of 128km FAI triangle. 

Flying west of Dry Falls:

The day had a real edge to it with strong lift and bouncy spring-like air, It was cool... in fact cold!.. very strange for July 13th.

The late start for Mia made here decided to cut short her drive to the west and  eventually both Mia and I landed back at L-Road with  pretty strong winds (gusting 10 to 18 mph) and lots of activity.

Fortunately, Nic was right on que, and was there to assist breakdown (I get nervous handling the VR in strong winds... a helping hand is always welcome)

We ended the day with one last trip to Park Lake (for Nic's vacation) refreshments and a swim. Then back to Mansfield where Nic capped the evening off with a fantastic chicken dinner followed with our traditional  Scotch.... wow... life is good. 

Mia's Flight and My flight

Tomorrow is not looking good with another wave of "over the Cascades" weather. Still, its looking like there is still some potential over the next week.... fingers crossed.

Road Trip....

We blew off our efforts yesterday. Forecast included thunderstorms, when Q's started forming the tops had imbedded cap clouds and wave was evident. Did not look good till Thursday so Mike headed back to work, and we continued to be patient (waiting for prime soaring conditions).

So what to do when bored? Road trip of course! Project: explore Palouse Falls. Our curiosity with this little wonder was spurred on by a Banff Film Festival and a short film involving Tyler Bradt a Kayaker that shot these fall in Washington state (The Video ). Reported to be the biggest Kayak drop (180ft?) We had no idea this little water fall was in our back yard so off we went to explore.

It was a 600km Round trip from Mansfield but worth every km. Can't imagine what inspired Bradt to run this falls.....

 

The upper rapids:

Traveling misfits:

Great road trip, the Columbia Basin is truly a marvel. Weather may improve....Promising Wed?....

Martin

2011 Mansfield Summer Encampment (July 11th)

There's noth'n you can do about the weather!

The nice thing about the weather in central Washington is, even when its bad... its better then the coast. Now, this is not to say the weather has been bad, we just have not managed the epic conditions that make this place rock. Lots of high cloud, lots of quirky conditions. The eastern areas across Banks Lake have been pulling very poor forecasts, hence very little inspiration to head east and open up our triangle attempts.

I've managed some triangles, 180, 150, 100, all with challenging circumstances (and I got caught out down south toward the Beezly hills). Mia had a nice little 50 and has been caught for some out-landings. Mike, a new VR pilots has been teaching all about how to fly my VR, guess I'm going to need to buy a sailplane to keep out in front of him.

Randy also enjoyed a few local flights and finally (on his last day with us) plunged east across Banks Lake on a murky high overcast day, only to have his zipper blow out, forcing him down near Hartline (Randy's Bank Lake Crossing. )

If your interested in any of the places we are flying, you can check out our live Spot Tracks:

Mia and Martin

We also post our flights up on the OLC's:

Mia's OLC and Martin's OLC

(You will probably note several trips down to Park Lake!)

Today looks a bit iffy but I think we will try and put 3 rigid's up to see if we and do some triangle work in the Mansfield area. The next few day have some Thunderstorm activity and south winds so it looks like we will be working on our swimming strokes.... oh well, better then working!) We have another 10 days to go....

Martin

Life and Death

Not trying to be dramatic or sensational, just the truth. I recently participated in paragliding advanced manoeuvres clinic and found myself getting, well... as the expression goes.... "over my head". I posted a incident report on the West Coast Soaring Club web site that pretty much describes the event. The nut shell version is, well flying my Ozone Delta (my first season on this wing) I had a stall manoeuvre go bad... very bad. Immediately on entry I entered multiple riser twists and things rapidly went for shit. You can watch the Video and judge for your self.

Under no circumstances am I going to say the event has not shaken my confidence nor will I say that I coolly fought my way out of the predicament. I was a passenger simply trying to survive. I will say fear was not a factor, more the fact that I was shocked that things could go so badly so quickly.

You could say that allot went very wrong but I would like to think that just enough went right to have a positive outcome. Over water, half a chute (better then none?) half a glider (even though it was tied to one ankle ;-).

Life and Death? Yes.... but I was not going to give up. I'm bravely look forward to next years SIV... this time with two chutes?

I will also say, stalling a paraglider is quite possibly the most dangerous manoeuvre a new paraglider pilot can perform. It is chaotic, it is unpredictable. Do your research on the net you will find plenty of examples of stalls gone bad. One thing is for sure, not a manoeuvre to be taken without respect.

BTW, 2 hours after my "event" I was nervously "back in the saddle" on Mia's Gin XS Sprint, performing another 5 stalls... some not so pretty but all were successful.

Fly safe.