And, Now… for Something Completely Stupid…

 

August 2nd…Bored pilot looking to find trouble.

August 2nd, the smoke was getting bad, so much so that even Mike seemed resigned that the day had very little to offer so we were up for something different to do. Jorge for this visit had brought is fishing/ski boat along, so with beverages, snacks, fishing rods and a wake board we were off to Banks Lake to go do what regular folks do.

Well… how shall I put this, the only experience I have with any sort of water sport (other then swimming) was water skiing (when I was 7 or 8 years old). All I can remember about the experience was there was an awful lot of water involved…. most of it trying to shove through any orifice that you could shove water through. With this history of (un)successful water sport experience … I found my self floating in Banks Lake, Jorge hammering his 90 hp up to speed netting pretty much the same success as my previous attempts, lots of water, all of it through me, with very little of it passing under me! Oh well, after getting my arms stretched and multiple attempts it was back in the boat for a beverage.

There was some discussion that perhaps speed was a problem for us newbies, Mia gave it a go (with Jorge providing a much softer start). After only a few attempts, she was up like a pro! (look at that style!)

Mike, competitive as always, got dragged a few more times then Mia, but he to, got up… and down… success non the less! So… that left stupid (me). Not satisfied with having failed at this little endeavour I just had to give it one more go.

First try, close…. but no cigar. I should have quit…. Nope, one more stab and…..hmmmm, the human body should not be making noises while attempting any sort of sport? On this second attempt, I swear I heard a loud “pop” in my left leg… followed immediately by sharp pain (also not a good thing while attempting any sort of athletic adventure). The short of the story, I pulled my hamstring, (and probably a few other neighbouring posterior muscles). Several days after the “incident” I was towelling off from a shower and noticed for the first time that the back of my injured leg had turned all black, blue, green and yellow.

Yikes… so after a consult with Dr. Internet the bruising is the result of blood from the torn or damaged tendon finding its way out of the muscle, pretty typical for a medium level of damage. It looks like all that can be done is something called “RICE” (Rest/Ice/Compression/Elevate). After a week of keeping things light, Sitting on a couple bags of Ice and gradually putting the leg back to work, things were improving. At the two week mark, I decided that PG flight off good old Woodside could not hurt…. or could it? First pull up pretty clearly proved there was more rehab still to go, still, I committed to another pull up and a tentative run and I made it into the air for some local airtime.

Looks like its going to be another week or two of this RICE thing. Toss in a bunch of free advice from the cheap seats suggested  suggesting the addition of some stretching? Ah, but stretching is an awful lot like Yoga… Real men don’t do yoga! I substitute stretching with Scotch and Ibuprofen (just kidding)

Oh well the last several weeks, my employer has been happy to have me back, the flying has sucked with Chelan and all of the Pacific NW is going up in flames, so its looking like my season has come to and end. Still hoping to get Mia a couple more OLC flights but in all likelihood is going to be up God’s of Fire.

As far as  any more water sports?… I’m going to drive the boat!

Late Updating the “Encampment”

(Mansfield Encampment 2015, Flights up to August 1st)

A late bit of catching up on some of our most recent flights.  When we started this year, we knew that it could be a very bad fire season. Washington State is in a “State of Emergency” for drought conditions.  Snow packs are unbelievably low. Forests are incredibly dry. It was not “if” there was to be a fire, more as to “when” and how many. I consider the fact  that by the beginning of August the whole place has not been turned to ashes as a bit of a miracle.

Unfortunately, it only takes a few fires to drastically effect the air quality of the basin to hamper flying. One such pesky fire has been a small fire in the Cascades called the Wolverine fire (Its gotten so big it has its own web site). Back in the beginning of July a lightning strike sparked up a small 350 acre fire in a difficult to access canyon up the NW end of Lake Chelan. It smoldered, for many weeks, and the inevitable happened, weather stirred the beast and it is now well beyond 34,000 acres and is having a drastic effect on conditions on the upper basin (and… if you have been following the news you will know that all hell has let loose in and around Lake Chelan).

So, back on August 3rd we put our camp on hold…. here are a few of our flights flown in the last week of our encampment.

July 30th….., Hot, blue, less smoke and 10-15 mph south winds. Soaring numbers looked ok with top of lift forecast to be around 9000ft asl but the south winds and poor soaring numbers down to the SE would keep me “on top” (the higher plateau that surrounds the Mansfield area).  On our own, Mia crewed and ran the rig. Just after 12:30, I took a nice 2000 ft tow south, pinning off in light lift. After a bit of bumbling around I was able to establish a nice climb over 9000ft asl, but that would not be the early trend. For the first hour I struggled attempting to head south into a 10mph headwind trying to reach the Dry Falls turn-point at the South end of Banks Lake. Pretty typical for these “on top” days, the closer I got to turn-point, the lower I was getting. Pretty soon it was a challenge just too stay up.

I decided to turn short of Dry Falls and head west toward Waterville, clinging to what ever lift I could find there were a few tense moments below 5000ft asl (well 3000 ft agl sounds like plenty of height…500 ft sink can put you on the ground in 6 minutes!). Finally with Mia sitting at a good emergency LZ a short distance away, the God’s decided that I had been tortured enough, relenting with a nice back up to 9500ft asl… and I was able to jump Jameson Coulee. The air was Jekyll and Hyde, with lots of hang on rough stuff. At Douglas, just short of the Waterville airport I was having my ass kicked and I figured it was time to start heading north east for home.

There is something nice about looking for lift while flying downwind…  way less stress! Changes your attitude, the free kilometers just roll on by. No wonder Paraglider pilots spend most of their time drifting down wind! With the winds shifting to SW, the air was smoothing out and I soon found myself bumping over the 10,000 ft asl mark.  I ended the flight with a small detour up to Peril Hill north of the tow site and at 10,500 glided back to the tow site (arriving stupid high and lift everywhere). Good landing in a nice SE breeze, followed by a late sunset trip Park Lake for swim. Even a mediocre day on the flats can be a joy! (5:48 hours, 141km FAI )

July 31st….. Blue, smoke, SW light winds and very light soaring numbers. Mia’s turn to fly what would turn out to be very scratchy conditions. Nice long south tow but Mia had to demonstrate a few very low saves to prove how good her VQ is… A couple 1200 ft agl saves that eventually got her up over 7000ft asl.  The flight was allot of work, but some real patient efforts (with some real long drifting session) she was rewarded with several climbs up to 11,000 ft asl…..just not that much incentive to go anywhere.

Its a little hard to explain Mia’s task or plan… but just like Mia’s previous flight there was almost a creative artiste flair to her Spot track log.  Nicole McLearn sent me a Spot track image of todays flight laid on top of her previous flight… if I drink (which I do) and close one eye?… I see a dog howling at the full moon (very creative)

For some excitement, on her way back to the towsite, Mia spotted a fire caused by some harvest machinery 15 miles to the south (near Jameson Coulee). A big black plume of smoke made me detour into the Mansfield grocery store and call in the fire (they reported that Coulee City fire response was already dispatched… with things so hot and dry they jump on everything real quick). From Mia’s vantage point she got to watch another piece of farm equipment rush over from a nearby field and begin tilling the ground over to prevent the spread of the fire… eventually corralling the flame onto another fallow (dirt) field. By then Coulee city fire was on scene and the fire was being extinguished.

With the excitement over, Mia arrived back at the towsite for a good landing, quick breakdown and another sunset swim at Park Lake.  (Mia’s Flight)

August 1st….. Jorge Cano and Mike showed up from Spokane. Today we had thick smoke from the Chelan Wolverine fire and I was sceptical it would be any good…..still the boys wanted to give it a go… so out to the tow site.

Even with the smoke and bad visibility the ground at the towsite was active, dust devils would come and go with no real drift or direction defined for towing, so we decided to tow from the less then desirable center tow area. As it turned out, for Mike on his ATOS, we towed south, he connected and was up. When I arrived back to tow Jorge on his Moyes LS we towed North, and after a bit of a struggle he was up and away. It did not take long for both pilots to report abysmal visibility and a pretty stiff breeze from the south. Jorge was not enjoying the air and 20+km to the south reached Hwy 2, had enough and decided it was time to land (perfect stand up landing beside the cooler of beer and my waiting windsock).

Mike, ever the competitive “pit bull” was grinding around in the smoke and at L-Road and the Hwy 2, despite the smoke took a climb up over 11,000ft asl. From there very little detail could be seen on the ground so navigating by the directions from his GPS he was pointed west across Jameson Coulee and heading west to Waterville. By this time there was a shift in the days wind and visibility dramatically improved, trouble was, after his last big climb at Farmer, the wind that had cleared the air was now scrubbing off the lift and that was to be his last big climb for the day. By the time he arrived NE of Waterville, it was time to see if he could drift, claw, scratch his way back to the tow site.  It was close but he ran out lift SW of town landing in a cut crop and a 15 mph NW wind. (of course next to my waiting wind sock and beer cooler…. more quality tow services by Towforce !) (Mikes Flight, sorry no upload from Jorge….)