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"?)
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