Thursday, August 2, 2018

2018 Mansfield Encampment



In the past I would often try to put together daily reports on our flying in the Columbia Basin, honestly... I'm getting lazy...  Seems I would rather sit out on the lawn chairs with a beer watching amazing sunsets than hash out stories of the last bit of airtime. 


Truth is we fly allot less then in the past. I'm not getting any younger and this place is so industrial its hard (and sometimes not that much fun) to huck yourself at the sky on a daily basis. 

The expression, "Quality over Quantity" seems to have become the goal. We no longer have a big group of pilots, we seldom put more than two gliders into the air at once. Most days its only one glider. Of course this allows for some quality ground support and of course, Class A pampering on the "rig". 


 

This year's 2018 season had been pretty typical. In the early part of July, the PG pilots had a big contest at Chelan Butte. I'm always blown away with how well the Paraglider pilots do in the big air of the Basin.  Nicole McLearn has an excellent blog on much of the activities, well worth the read:


This years Paragliding Contest saw some interesting lines up the Methow Valley and a pretty cool run up to Orville at the Canadian border.  Once cancelled task saw a small group head off to the Idaho border (200+ kms from the Buttte)

Primarily, we are after the big triangles. The "Big One" is the 300+. Mike Bomstad has the official best from our crew, I've come close but not yet claimed the prize (298 and a 317 non-FAI flat triangle). Mia's goal remains the 200... Or just having fun! Regardless, we no longer bother flying if the wind or forecasts won't allow us to make it home.  Much of this years trip saw triangles confined to the area around Mansfield as forecasts and winds made anything big to the SE unlikely so we stuck close to home, or as we call it, "on top". 

There is one exception to the triangle attempts.. The run to Wilbur WA for a the Classic drive in experience at "Billy Burgers"! We make the goal, Wilbur airport, say hi to some friends at a crop duster facility and head into town for the Billy Burger combo.... of course, anybody sinking out in the area is always a good excuse to at the very least take on a shake for the rest of the retrieval. 

I will followup this post with a couple posts about some special flights from last week but will say that like in many of the past years, smoke has put a damper on this years encampment.  Not too many local fires (been a pretty good year considering how dry it is now), but fires up north in Canada have been drifting their smoke in the light NW winds.  The biggest issue with smoke is it causes the day to start later and end earlier then the soaring models predict.   To break the 300 out here you need a good 7-8 hour day.... especially when you fly as slow as I do!

Cheers

Martin