When is big… too big? When wiping sweat off your forehead constitutes a “swiping motion”… patents held by Apple.
Apple just recently won a Billion Dollar judgment against Samsung in a US court and it made me think about way back when Apple was trying to win your hearts and asked you to embrace the “under-dog” Mac, they ran this ad:
Below is my favourite “I Hate Mac” story:
Going flying this weekend…. cheers!
Sticking with the theme “More Blue”, August 12th held more mystery as to if we would continue to see blue but strong conditions.
After my 6 hour pig out the day before I decided to take over the “Tow-Meister” duties and try to help Mia, Randy and Mike get some “end of the Encampment” airtime. Randy was all enthusiastic about trying to do his first 100 “mile” triangle (161km). Well not totally trusting all of the various soaring forecasts it did look like a day to stay on the upper plateau, nearly all the numbers looked poor down toward yesterdays first turn-point Wilson Creek.
Today we started a little further north at L+13, giving us plenty of tow road to get pilots high to try and connect. Mike was first up and pretty much mirrored what I did the day before (except the early pin off). After some very impressive scratching (didn’t know a VR could bank that steep!) he was up and away. 25 minutes later, Mia was up and away and before 1pm climbed straight up over 10,000ft asl. Another 25 minutes later Randy was up on the rig for what was going to be the longest tow of the day. Starting at L+13 we towed all he way down to L+7….. a 6 mile tow! In fairness to Randy, I could tell the tow was in real sinking air. Right at the end of the tow he connected and also climbed to over 10,000ft asl… Three tows + Three away = a happy “Tow-Meister” !
The plan for the group was to turn at Dry Falls but the air (as usual) over Saint Andrews was slowing the children down. Pretty sure Mike was having trouble cuz he had nobody to hold his hand 
While I back tracked to Mansfield to drop off the tow rig and head out on ground support with the Suzuki for chase, I heard complaints of rough air, scratchy broke thermals. In the end, the only pilot to do Dry Falls was Randy. Mia and Mike, turned nearby and soon everybody was heading west in the order that they launched.
On the ground it was hot as hell but I faithfully monitored the progress. When it appeared everybody was going to make it west of Farmer, I moved onto the Waterville airport… that is, after a short trip into Waterville to get the one of the best Espresso Shakes on the planet Highway 2 Brew Espresso! A MUST stop for any ground crew.
Enjoying my “shake” out of the East end of the Waterville airport, my flight team all seemed a little concern about the time of day as they poked around their intended course so by now everybody had truncated their plans and was heading out with Mike having turned NW of Waterville, Mia over the east end of the airport and Randy just a few miles east of that. From there everybody was dashing north in a bit of a tail wind and I had trouble keeping up. Just like yesterday, the visablity was not that great, no clouds to chase and few if any devils on this northern leg. Still, everybody was staying up high and cool… I finally relented and started to run the air conditioner (97f on the ground).
Mike made his next turn, south of the Wells Dam fire line, Mia and Randy crossed paths near Mud Springs but everybody continued to stay high. From here, Mike and Randy closed their triangles near L+13, Mia drifted a little further north short of Pearl Hill, down to Leahy Cut off. From there, everybody was heading for Mansfield. With the LZ showing an ever so slight NE wind, Mike was first in with another perfect landing, Randy second with…. well a not so perfect landing (but no damage to anything but his pride… and got to taste a new flavour of regional dirt), and Mia…. always trying to be different, decided to land on the south side of the highway and dropped in for a nose up landing (not quite on her feet, the grass was taller then she expected).
Being the gentleman that I am… I carried Mia’s light weight VQ back to the house, while Randy and Mike carried their own. Back on the lawn, they set to work emptying the cooler of cold Becks and consumed some leftover pasta from the night before… and all with smiles on their faces. Nice to see. Shortly after, Randy and Mike packed up and headed for home. Mia and I where staying to end our trip on the 13th (no flying as it was forecast to be windy).
Mike's 139 km 4.5 hour FAI triangle
Mia's 113km 4.5 hour FAI Triangle
Randy's 110km 4.5 hour FAI Triangle
(Check out the animation below showing the tracks and barograph traces for all the children. Best watched in HD, full screen from the YouTube page)
We may get a few more kicks and the cross country can this year but it looks like some big fires might shut us down.
Mike sent me the video from August 11th and his first 200km FAI triangle.
On Friday the 10th, Mike sends me an Email asking if it was worth driving over from Spokane to go flying. Pondering the blue hazy conditions that Randy flew in on the same day and the multiple forecasts that ranged from “Sucks” to “Epic” and the fact it was August, high pressure, no wind…. I replied back “my guess is its going to be “iffy and scratchy”…..
Saturday the 11th, the next message was 8am from Mike he was on the way (the boy is ga-ga to fly). Today Randy would serve his day at the wheel running the rig. Mia had her radio sorted (an unusual problem with her IC70, would receive for close proximity tests but could not pick up a transmission from more then a 100 yards away) so she was ready to fly. With our holidays nearly over, yours truly was also ready to get some airtime, even if it looked to be “Iffy and Scratchy”. Mike pulled in at 11am having already left his glider at L-Road midpoint (strong morning North eastern winds).
By the time we were set up, conditions had turned light enough (north winds subsided) and we were able to perform the preferable and longer south tow. It was to be a teaching moment for Randy, shortly into the roll I get the “Thumbs up” from the cab…. well below the airspeed indicators take off speed! Fortunately I was ready for what ever procedural anomalies a newbie tow operator could give me so I waited until I hit take off speed (an additional 10 mph) then released. While climbing I got on the radio and indicated that it would be a better idea to give the thumbs up when we actually achieved take-off speed 
(a lesson learned)
I pinned off low (not really sure what inspired me to do so) at around 1200ft AGL. I promptly had to set to work scratching to save the flight. Dumb luck allowed me to blunder into so good air and I was up and away. Mike followed shortly after and was 20 min behind (very good turn around time for Randy and his first day back on the rig in over a year). Mike took a much higher tow and set himself up to chase me for the rest of the day. Mia, being last and was 30 minutes behind Mike. Randy = 3 Tows = 3 Away… nice start to his towing duties…
I was more or less leading todays plans and I was leaning heavily toward staying “on-top” and not heading east. The lack of Q’s, the hot hazy looking day was just not that inspirational. Thing is, it did not take long to realize that “looks” was deceiving and climbs up over 9000ft asl seemed easy enough so after reaching Dry Falls to the SE and at the last minute, I radioed back to Mike and asked if he would mind giving Wilson Creek a try (45km’s SE from our start)…. he figured why not so I headed across the South end of Banks Lake to nail some terrific lift just south of Coulee City. The day was obviously way better then it looked!
Both Mike and I turned at the Wilson Creek Airport and headed for Wilbur Airport. There were a few slow spots and some epic nasty air on top but half way to Wilbur and we were establishing some wonderful climbs to 11,000ft asl. Meanwhile Mia had joined the leg to Wilson creek but being a little slower and not quite trusting the day turn early and started her leg up to Almira. As Mia reached Almira, Mike (still in hot pursuit…. and hanging close behind like a bad smell…) and I had pushed past Wilbur another 15km’s and turned west at Sherman (NE of Wilbur). It was around her Mike started gloating about cracking 12,000ft asl…. I pointed out the day was getting late and getting a little unpredictable and he best put the hammer down and start heading back for home on the high ground. I was pushing fast to the west (and getting low). Mike said he was a mile behind and suggested that I could turn back and climb in some good lift that he had found. I muttered under my breath…”I never turn back”… and pressed on very low to a dust devil save. At which point he passed me…. At 11,300ft asl I peered to the west and saw Mike working some weak looking dust devils near the east edge of banks lake, so again I pointed west cursing the fact I let the young punk get ahead of me.
Right about now, Mia announced that she was crossing Banks from 7900ft on the east side and heading to Mold over on the west side. As I arrived at the edge, I was down to 7300ft asl…. At first I thought Mike had already crossed? Nope… doofus was still poking around a mile behind me trying to get some height! I reminded him about his flight last year where he got stuck and ended up trapped., unable to cross Banks lake…he relented his search and at 7700ft asl started chasing me again. We all ended up low on the west side of the lake. I got the award for lowest save, 3800 ft (1300ft agl?), Mia started her save from 4900ft asl, Mike being a lazy sod, felt no reason work for his airtime worked his save from around 5600ft asl (with Randy in the chase vehicle directly below him trying to break off a thermal… must have slipped him an extra $20 for the tow?
After all our hard work, we were all rewarded to a “glass-off”. Mia got the altitude she needed to head back to the house in Mansfield. I lazily enjoyed a climb at Sims Corner that eventually peaked out at 12,500ft asl and did a brief trip to the edge of Dyer hill and back to town. Mike did much the same…. except having no respect for his elders…. pushed an extra two kilometers to beat my OLC points for the day. Randy guided us all in with a radio and windsock (light and vacuum, always a challenge). Mia and I both with mediocre landings, Mike showing off with a perfect landing (little snot).
A short taxi from our LZ to the house and it was cold beer for all:
Tracks from the day (click for larger image) :
Mia's 116 km 4.5 hour FAI triangle
Mike the "weasel" and his 202km 5.6 hour FAI triangle
Thanks to Randy for the fantastic “Tow-meister” services for the day….
August 10th, Randy and Mia head out to the tow site and its Hot and Blue!… well sort of…
A strategically narrow band of high cloud was going to put the curse on the day, parking a shadow over L-Road for the all important morning heating. We had very good soaring numbers for the day but the cloud shaded out a massive area around the tow road. Randy and Mia were setup ready to go but we had to wait for some sun.. it was almost 1:30 when Randy climbed aboard for the first tow. Typical north north winds (when we get an imbedded high pressure) meant he was going for north tow… always a low tow. At just over 1000agl he pinned off right at the highway and started scratching. I did a few runs up and down the road under him to try and break something off… eventually he started nice climb out to 8000ft asl and was on his way south to Saint Andrews.
Next up was Mia… or at least that was the plan. First up, Radio trouble. We thought we had earlier problem licked but we should have more thoroughly test her radio. Turns out the radio could receive if you using another radio sitting right beside her radio, move 50 feet away and she could not receive….fortunately we had the back-up radio in the truck, quick change and the first problem was solved. Next…….. up on the truck, down the road to stage, go through the pre-launch check and ooooops…. no airspeed probe in her Flytec 6030. If there is one thing you should never do flying a rigid wing in big thermal air is fly without airspeed information. We looked everywhere, tried to come with a alternative solution but in the end, Mia agreed that enough problems had cropped up that it would be bad Mojo to fly so she bagged if for the day.
Turned out Randy was struggling, he managed to get to Wilson Creek but was having to cut the flight short and try to come back. He got shot down for some dirt tasting just SE of Hartline.
August 9th, Good weather for a holiday but not for triangle attempts. We spent the morning trying to de-bug a turn in Randy’s VS. Later, it was off to Summer Falls for some swimming and a big mess of BBQ chicken and potato salad. The kind of stuff the normal “folk” do on their day off….. On the way home we checked out some of the local L-Road population:
With all the hot weather, Wheat harvest is almost over… which means plenty of new LZ’s!
August 7th, XC Skies (GFS, NAM, RAP), NOAA Soaring Forecast, Washington State DOT… heck even my best guess…. every forecast was wrong (or I guess you could say each forecast had just a tiny bit right?).
The big deal was the winds aloft. Everybody was calling for SE through SW….. nobody suggested what we got….NE. Especially NE up to 30km’s !
With Mia running the rig, Randy and I where to test the air. On the ground we knew something was up, there where dust devils and hawks soaring so Randy and I set up a plan to do a triangle up on top (the area around Mansfield). Randy cut his way in front of me and was first into the air. Short north tows are always a challenge but after a bit of scratch and a save back at setup he was up and away (drifting with strong NE wind). I followed shortly after and found the air to be rough and broken. The lift was here, there and everywhere but always broken. You would start to settle into a climb just to have it quit.
Randy was struggling today (and apparently expanding his vocabulary?). We met up down near Saint Andrews where he thrashing around the sky trying to climb. I was having a little less trouble but probably more a mater of luck then skill, I soon topped out just over 9000ft asl at Saint Andrews. Randy pushed a little further east as I pushed down to Dry Falls (Overlooking “Park Lake”).
Plenty of high cloud kept interfering with the normal daytime heating so it was a bit of a challenge to break through 6000ft asl. Plenty of times I found great big dust devils that produced nothing of any significance. It seemed you had to work and re-work an area and wait for it to punch you up to the next level. After a couple of hours Randy said he had enough of the ratty air and was going to head back to Mansfield (he promptly found an easy climb up over 8000 but was resigned to heading back). With the 15-20km NE veering more to the East over Hwy2 I kept clawing and kicking the ratty climbs and started to establish a more consistent altitude over 8000ft asl so I continued West to Waterville. On the West side of Jameson Coulee, the peak altitudes started to creep over 9000ft asl and by the time I arrived south of Waterville over Badger Mtn, I had climbed over 10,000. Despite the good heights, it remained a very odd day with plenty of high cloud blocking out the sun and strong E NE winds (now getting over 30kmph above 10,000ft asl).
With Randy landing back in Mansfield I pushed North to Dyer hill. At the top of McNeil Canyon I was getting a bit desperate as I was down below 6000ft and not liking the prospect. A lone tractor gave some inspiration to go with my perspiration (getting warm at the lower altitudes), the save took me up over my high point of the day (11,800ft asl). From here it was short side trip to Dyer hill (here is a picture of the Dyer hill area that was burnt and the new Antoine fire to the west):
Next, followed by a couple low nasty saves north of Mansfield (real hang on keel bangers) I was onto L- Road to close a 151km FAI triangle. Landing was in a fresh cut wheat field with ground crew, wind sock and cold drinks waiting. Not sure why, but I’m guessing the nasty air had me pumped up and I had kind of heat induced snit while breaking down…. as usual my crew ignored me… laughed at me…. hard to find good crew. Off to Park lake for a wonderful cool off dip (for the dip-sh##) and cruise back, arriving back up on top to another classic Mansfield Nuclear Sunset:
Randys Saint Andrews, Return flight , My 151km FAI triangle.
August 8th, Strong west winds so we bagged the day. Little projects here and there with gear and later a trip to Chelan to go swimming at Blue Lagoon then up to Brewster to visit a great little Mexican restaurant that we like to visit… another hard day (not looking forward to heading back to work next week!).
I have been in search of the best option for wheels on my A.I.R. Carbon base-tube. Wheels are insurance for those days when things don’t go according to plan.. all alone on an XC flight, thermal at the wrong time and suddenly you find yourself paying for some expensive carbon parts (or worse). With that said, I still don’t fly with wheels. I have yet to find anything that looks right on the sculptured A.I.R. base-tube. Sure you can get wheels… that look like they belong on a Farm tractor! Big rubber tires that may be great for landing but not so great in the drag department.
Below is a set of wheel we got (Via, A.I.R.) for Mia’s VS:
Not a bad shape, aerodynamically clean. Very stable on the CB (stays put), can be completely removed to allow the CB to be stored in the D-Cell. Down side?… heavy and sadly jam up, stop turning with any sign of dust (the fine dust of the Columbia basin stops them dead). Better then nothing but….
Next set we had a look at where the “Radsystem” for the ATOS (Radsystem Link)
Nice and light, very clean profile, acceptable size. Unfortunately, same old problems with dust (even worse) plus I don’t believe they are good for the base-tube. They need to be mounted inboard of the carbon stock skid points and it leaves a pretty long lever that is likely to damage the base-tube on a hard landing (that and the fact the contact width of the hub is very narrow, not much area to distribute the load). Oh, and one other nagging issue. The hubs should be left on (because the little tiny screws that hold them in place are most likely to strip or lost. With the hubs left in place you can’t stow your base tube in the D-Cell….. translate : your going to end up with your glider at the flying site and your base tube someplace else? (or at least I would 
)
So, our most recent look at wheels.. the Whoosh! Wheels by Raven Sports
Below is a photo of the Whoosh! wheels mounted next to a set of Radsystem wheels:
The Whoosh Wheels are heavier then the Radsytem but they are stronger and more durable. They also have the ability to easily remove the hub (which btw, is much wider then the Radsystem hub and requires no tools). So far, they appear to have enough clearance to deal with dust but we have yet to establish if we can expect them to survive. The hubs have both a weak and strong points. They are wide and mount outside the stock skid points, leaving only a short lever and IMO better support for the base-tube. The weakness is they do not securely fasten to the base-tube. To keep them in place you are supplied some bicycle “inner tube” …. not a solid solution. Using some heavy duty shrink wrap over top of some 205 leach line (and some industrial double back tape under both the shrink wrap and leach line) I was able to make something a little cleaner (and so far, more secure):
Still, I find the hub to be the weak link on the Whoosh! Wheels (ATOS version). The special angle machined into each hub makes it necessary keep them where they belong, and they do have a pretty loose fit to the base-tube profile so that looks to be a difficult task. I think, in the end they need some sort of clamp or hardware to gip the hub to the base-tube in a more positive way (might make this one of my winter projects). For now, Whoosh! Wheels appear to be an ok option even with the issues that I have noted (Mia says she is going to continue to fly with them on her VQ)
BTW, I did leave out one of the other options. “Skids”. These are beautiful works of carbon “art” but for mishaps on rough real world conditions I’m doubtful. They come in two versions, with and without rollers (kind of caterpillar track, that I’m sure would die a rapid death in our desert dust) . (you can find the roller style skids listed at the bottom of the A.I.R. parts page)
(Update 13/08/2012). Thought I would add a few more comments about the Whoosh! Wheels.
After a few days of our Mansfield dirt, they simply stopped turning (to be honest, this is probably the harshest environment I could ask any product to perform). I’m a little disappointed as they did look as if they had enough clearance to maintain some moment but the “hinged hub” seems to bind or open with the friction of the dust. I think another issue is the hub can not maintain a good alignment (toe in or out), the twisting of the alignment causes the inner hub to open, acting as a brake.
One other observation, the version of wheels we are testing have the holes in them (to reduce weight). Rolling through our mood dust the holes pick up the dirt and sand and dump it onto the edges of the hub, effectively loading the bearing with dirt. If your going to try these wheels in a sandy or dusty environment, order the “solid” wheels (and yes they will weigh more). Last, the pin/dowels used to assemble the wheel half’s are pretty close tolerances making the process of pulling them apart a little challenging.. .I assume they will loosen up with use.
So for now, I do not recommend the Whoosh! Wheels if your going to be operating in harsh dirt/dusty conditions. Looks like skids will be the better choice…. or the farm tractor tires
Have I given up on the Whoosh! Wheels? Nope…. later this fall I might experiment with some form of hub latch to prevent spreading of the inner hub and maintain alignment. If I can’t get satisfactory roll I will continue my quest for a “better wheel”.
(August 5th) In harsh environments its funny how things work…. or not.
Today was going to very hot (over a 100F) and of course “Blue”. The north winds had laid down, the fire on Dyer hill was out or at least in mop up. In addition, winds where shifting from the south so any smoke from the Dyer hill fire would stay north. Randy had joined us and it was Mia’s turn to fly so I agreed to tow.
At 1pm, Mia was first up taking a very soft tow (hardly any lift) finally pinning off well south of the gravel quarry. Lift was broken and she had to work for it. It was soon pretty obvious she had a problem, she stopped receiving (or at least hearing anything). She did a few blind transmission but she soon figured out something was wrong. The “funny” part, we did several radio tests and everything seemed perfect on the ground. Of course Mia has a talent with electronics… they seem to simply die in her hands… now it would be up to her ground electrical support team to solve the “problem” (….. that would be me).
Despite the radio “glitch” Mia decided to stick to the planned flight down to Dry Falls (same route that Randy was going to take) . After Randy got into the air a tow that was the complete opposite of Mia’s, with strong lift and a high tow position (and with working radio), we were able to “get a visual” on Mia frequently enough to keep track. Besides, Mia was also flying with her Spot GPS tracker so she was not going to go missing (as long as she did not put one of her electrical curses on it?). When I back tracked into Mansfield with the tow rig and picked up the air conditioned Suzuki I did a quick check of the Spot web page and yes, the Spot was tracking, putting Mia in Saint Andrews and heading south. Well doing the vehicle exchange, we did get a blind transmission from Mia indicating she was in Saint Andrews at 6000ft asl and climbing.
As I left Mansfield to head out on chase, I looked out to the West and sure enough we had another fire starting. At first it looked like a relight of the Dyer Hill fire but turns out it was north of Chelan Airport (and it looked pretty big!)
(Antoine 2 Fire, probably weeks worth of poking and prodding for the local fire fighting industry)
Caught up with Randy in Saint Andrews. He was heading south whining about the slow climbs and not getting high…. oh boo-hoo… life is hard.
It took a while but eventually I spotted both Mia and Randy in the air over Highway 2…. looked like Mia was turning around and heading for home. Randy was sticking with the plan and continued to the West to Farmer (so I followed Randy knowing Mia had enough altitude to get at least close to home). Randy made Farmer but landed short of Mansfield on the return leg. Mia made it back to the tow site then back to the house in Mansfield. After picking up Randy we arrived back in Mansfield to help Mia breakdown on the front lawn, then it was off to Park lake to cool everybody off. Hard scratchy day but both pilots where happy. (oh, and Mia’s Radio?… working perfectly when tested on the ground… minor fray in the headset wire so I guess I should replace it)
Mia's 3.4hr 71km OR and Randy's 3.1 hour 67km "almost" OR
(August 6th) A no fly day, thick cloud from the fire was hanging around to the west and some sort of upper disturbance threatening minor thunderstorms so its off to Summer Falls for some R+R. Was reading Nicole's Blog about the PG nats in Pemberton, Day 1: 4 pilots crashed in trees and 3 parachute deployments…. yikes, wonder how the PR department can spin that bit of news?
Various commitments has pushed us to break from flying over the next few days. On July the 31st, Mia could have flown but she had to be back for 3 days of work so Tuesday was a nice trip down to Park lake for some snorkelling and back to Mansfield where Mia headed back home.
August 1st, I had planned a trip up to Osoyoos to visit my brother from Rock Creek and deliver a solar panel hot water heater. At the end of the day I headed on back to Mansfield (with the mandatory “duty free” Scotch). Approaching the turnoff to Bridgeport I spotted a fire on the West side of Dyer hill (see previous post for Video showing Dyer Hill) above Brewster. By evening the fire had roared to 8000 acres and had crested the ridge on the plateau :
As the sun went down, this photo was taken from over 25km’s away. Still with a strong NW wind…. I went to sleep in Mansfield with a mental plan as to how I would evacuate, fortunately by morning they had held the line and we had no worries.
August, 2nd and 3rd. Further time off to address some work and side commitments…. the 2nd looked epic (through the smoke of the Dyer Hill fire).
I finally got around to getting some photo’s up on my Picasa site, two albums from this year, Some Photo's of the local Mansfield wildlife (lots of birds) and Mansfield flying and local photos…..
Looks like we will back in the air on Sunday…..
