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
No comments:
Post a Comment