XC season slides away….

(The Labour Day Long Weekend) We get accustom to how great the flats of central Washington can be, its sad when mother nature hangs up the “Closed for the Season” sign. I’m sure there will be plenty of days before the snow fly’s that will be wonderful for XC but loosing close to 4 minutes of daylight per day rapidly begins to suck the life out of the suns ability to produce the classic conditions that make this place perform.

Ok, The good… yesterday, got the lawns all trimmed up then off to a fantastic day at lake Chelan. Crystal blue water, perfect temperatures. The kind of stuff that regular “tourists” do.  The bad?… (the image above), The Jet stream is writhing around like a demented snake. Parked right overtop of us and dragging its winds into the lower atmosphere. Not so much that the wind is the issue, more the inability for the sun to heat the ground when it is being scrubbed by the cool breezes that are present when the Jet Stream comes to town. 

Looks like the trend will stay through the whole weekend. 

Randy and a crew of other Hang Glider pilots have headed up to Cache Creek / Savona and might fair better as they could get the chance to sit in the “eye” of the weather pattern. In Mansfield we will hope that the forecasts are wrong and the winds die down to let the sun do its job….. If not, It’s GREAT swimming weather!

Humming bird fuels up for the trip south?

Boycott Apple….(or just become an Apple robot?)

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!

“Iffy and Scratchy” (part 2)… Mikes video

“Iffy and Scratchy” (part 2)

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)

SeeYou Animation of the ATOS squadron over the Columbia Basin

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.

“Iffy and Scratchy” Mike’s Video from part 1…..

Mike sent me the video from August 11th and his first 200km FAI triangle.

“Iffy and Scratchy”… (part 1 )

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

My 200km 6 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….

Flying at last….

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. 

Randy's 86km trip down and part way back from Wilson Creek