Two Spectacular Days in July,

 

(The 2015 Mansfield Encampment), part 2 July 9th, 2015

Today I run the “rig”, so I will write this from the perspective of a bitter pilot stuck on the ground. Of course, somebody has to run the winch and truthfully there is a certain amount of satisfaction of getting my pilots safely up and away on a first tow, but, jeapers… this was going to be an amazing day! My pilots for the day, Mike Bomstad from Spokane (foaming at the mouth having watched me fly my big triangle yesterday via My Spot) and Mia, as usual quiet and reserved.

The soaring forecast from the July 8^th was great but today the climbs and top of lift all went up… what little wind there was on the 8^th was even less on the 9^th.

A bit of a comment regarding forecasting in the basin. We rely heavily on XC Skies (and its GFS, NAM and RAP formulas). We also like to look at the NOAA Soaring forecast. Sometimes we even use the WDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation) to try and create a simple overview of what’s up. Today, all the forecasts called for hot, no wind and King Kong lift… the second rare day in a row.

By my standards we had a bit of a late start, we did not get out to the tow site until just after 11:30. The light and variable surface conditions did not help matters as it took a bit of time to decide the right setup spot to insure we had options for towing direction if we saw a surface wind change. We decided on a bit of low odd spot on the tow road, but had the option for a 3.5 mile north tow or a 5.5 mile south tow. Either way, it insures a good high tow and high probability of “connecting” on the first tow.

By the time we got everything sorted Mike took the first tow just after 12:40. We towed south…. And Mike used every inch of the 5.5 mile south tow. One section of the tow saw a brief patch of 400+ fpm sink … that is to say going down under tow!.... No doubt about it, the air was active. I finally got Mike off the line after a 2600ft tow… after a clean rewind I was heading back for Mia.

Within 30 minutes Mike was climbing through 12,000 and heading out on a SE track.

A very quick turnaround and Mia was starting her tow 1:15. Again, south tow but things had really started to turn on. Mia only needed 2.5 miles to pin off at 4400 (a 2200ft tow) and immediately climbed out to over 10,000 and started to chase Mike SE. Mia was hoping to bag her first 200km FAI triangle, Mike… I truly think had no idea what was in store for him and was just “going” to do something big?

I quickly got things packed up at the tow site then back to Mansfield to drop off the tow rig and transfer over to the Jetta, load the road cooler and hit the road for my day as cheer leader and support crew. Within the hour I was southbound from Sims corner checking in with my pilots. Mia was an hour into her flight, SE across the south end of Banks Lake 30+km out and passing through 12,000ft, Mike a little over an 1.5 hours into his flight 60kms out (south of Wilson Creek) and nicely established over 12,000ft asl.

Mike was into the Moody area tough spot and doing well, heading for Lind. Mia 35 minutes behind and starting to get a hint that the area ahead was changing. Within 40 minutes found herself below 6500 and struggling with broken lift and wind has she tried to get to her Microwave turnpoint south of Wilson Creek. Meanwhile Mike had lucked out and was past the tough spot but oddly also started to run into some challenging air, seeing 7000 ft just south of Hwy 90 west of Ritzville. At almost identical times, both Mia and Mike ended their SE headings…. Mia slowly worked her way out of a hole and turned NE, Mike pushed just a little more ESE and turned near the Franz+21 turnpoint 5 miles north of Lind.

For Mia, the visibility was becoming a problem. It was new territory for her (having never done much flying in this area) and having the smoke block off her familiar landmarks she had the tricky Irby plateau crossing to do and without clear skies to see her way through it was a bit of a leap of faith trusting my directions. She got a nice climb over 11,000 to strike out into the “muck” and after rough sinky crossing tagged into a good across the gap climb back up over 12,000 and more or less back on course (roughly ;-) heading North up Hwy21.

Meanwhile , a further to the east, Mike past the halfway mark of his next leg (of what I expected to be a 300km triangle attempt) approaching Harrington on course for Davenport to the NE and was comfortably over 13,000 ft.

Out on Mia’s course line, she had a new infamous challenge we like call the “Sinking Fast Ranch” (yes that’s it’s real name….). The “Ranch” is another one of those odd spots that can be heaven or hell. Today Mia found herself groveling again at 6000 and hunting. Usually the trick is just grind out what you can find and be patient. Eventually It paid off, on the north end of the ranch valley (located south of Wilbur) she was able to work her way back up out of trouble with a nice climb to over 12,000. Trouble now was the fact that two bad spots had cost her over an hour of airtime and she now needed to consider her trip home (now pushing 5:30) Mike without the much in the way of low challenges had already turned north of Davenport, and nearly crossed the Lava Flow east of Creston and nicely established over 10,000. (Today like the day before, I figured 8pm would be the end of the day, Mia was 60km’s out, Mike was around 80km’s out both with 2.5 hours of soaring left in the day).

Mia suffered bad “lines” all day and was getting a little gun shy, so she cautiously picked her way along. Mike had not been stung and ran a supper good Northern line that kept things rolling. At 6:30, Mike (now ahead of Mia) just finished a climb to 13,000 and was starting his Banks Lake crossing, Mia on a more southerly line was behind but climbing slowly to 12,000ft +.

The unedited photo below gives you a pretty good idea just how much the smoke cut down the visibility (Mike crossing Banks Lake at the end of the day):

By 7:00, Mike had comfortably crossed Banks Lake, hardly any sink the whole way and NE of the tow site trying to stretch his distance to make up for the early turn north of Lind. Mia had a brutal long crossing, well back from the edge of Banks and had finally completed the crossing and was on the west side, pulling off another low save for the day (4000ft asl, 1700ft agl)… she wasn’t talking to me anymore cuz I called her “poky” on the east side of the lake…. I think she got the low save from the steam coming out of her ears?)

As I climbed up the Hwy northbound from Dry falls it was great to hear that everybody was up and within reach of goal. With windsock at the ready, cold Becks in the cooler Mia beat Mike back to goal, landing at 7:54. Mike finally decided to join us, landing 7:59…. Just before 8:00 (my predicted end of the day).

For one day I held the longest OLC triangle distance record in North America…. One stinking day (And no….I’m not bitter….. well not enough to smother somebody in his sleep ;-)… Mike with his stretch at the end of the flight was now the new king:

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=646196

311.1 Km OLC FAI triangle at just over 7:15 airtime.

Mia, despite all the low challenges snagged her personal best:

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=646192

176.8 km’s OLC FAI triangle and 6:41 airtime.

Photographs taken by Mike During his flight can be found here.

Two tows, two away(no relaunches) for a combined XC of nearly 500km’s of XC and 15 hours airtime…. I think I did a pretty good job. Oh…. And congrats to both Mike and Mia for a job well done and new personal bests for both.

The end of truly “Two Spectacular Days in July” !