Blown-out day during Miles in May May 21

Looking a bit on the blowy side ;)

After yesterday's epic flights, long retrieve, and little sleep, we were back up and out at the tow road just after 10am.  The forecast was showing more north wind and possibly blown out but we decided to try anyways, because if you don't at least go out, you don't get to fly!

Andrew volunteers to test out the winds aloft.

Out at the tow road it was blowing pretty much straight north and with a fair bit of grunt...20+kph on the ground.  The Q's hadn't started popping yet but Andrew and Peter went for a couple of test tows to see how thermic it was, and the tows were pretty rough with lots of turbulence.

Steven getting ready as the Q's start to pop on the horizon.

Finally around 11am the Q's started popping overhead (right on schedule!) and the cloud shadows were whizzing by on the ground at 40+ kph.  As well the ground wind had picked up and was gusting to 30 kph with dust devils popping off around us.  Frankly it wasn't looking that great for safe and enjoyable flying, although I'm sure if you could get off the ground and stay in the air for the next 8 hours you'd be OK as the wind would have died off by dusk.

Peter thinking should he go or not?

In the end we decided to cancel the day and save our energy for tomorrow when the winds looks much lighter.  Despite not getting to fly yesterday and wanting to get a new personal best, I'd rather not get scared or maimed trying to do it on a marginal day ;)

In the end we decided to pack it up as the wind-driven Q's pop overhead

Epicness during Miles in May Camrose May 20

What a forecast!

A spectacular-looking day in Camrose and it was my turn to operate the winch and drive retrieve (we set the schedule a couple weeks ahead of time, before knowing the short-term forecast, to make things impartial).  Moderate NW winds which is the ideal direction for going long while avoiding the various airspaces and international borders!

The boys getting ready on a record-setting day!

We have to be careful not to get the towline caught up in the local farmer's equipment...

We set up at the Rosalind tow road under blue skies, knowing from previous experience that it will transition from totally blue to Q's popping everywhere within ~30 minutes, usually between 11am and 12noon.  But Andrew wanted to do a test tow so of course after his tow he found an early thermal at 10:50am and was off!  After that it was a made rush to get off the ground and Alex followed soon after, followed by Peter and Steven.

Andrew getting ready for his "test tow"

I was just packing up the winch when I got the first text message from Andrew, saying he had landed due to not getting high and sinking out before it really turned on.  So I guess it's time to start driving!

Epic-looking skies from the tow road.

Picked up Andrew and Steven shortly after, and then we started making our way SE under very yummy-looking skies; there was a line of development in the distance but the radar showed it moving SE as well and keeping away from the pilots' tracks.  The winds aloft were more like NNW instead of NW, so the upcoming Suffield military airspace was becoming an issue.  Fortunately both Alex and Peter realized this and altered their courses enough to fly west of the restricted airspace.

Driving south chasing the boys.

I had estimated that they would land around 7:30pm and I think I was pretty close, as Peter landed just short of 300km and Alex landed at 334km around the same time.   Finally after 15+ years of trying, somebody beat the Canadian PG open distance record!  Also it was a personal best for both Peter and Alex, who previously had PB's in the mid-200 km's.

A happy Alex after landing 334km from the tow road.

The drive back was very long (the total retrieve took 12 hours and we arrived back in Camrose at 1:30am) but it was well worth it; everyone's phone was going off with congratulatory text messages for a lot of the drive.  The Aurora Borealis also put on a nice lightshow during our drive north, which was a nice way to keep us awake!  Tomorrow is looking very similar although windier so who knows, the record could be broken again tomorrow ;)

Aurora Watch predicted a spike in Northern Lights after midnight and they were right!

Miles in May Camrose May 19

Our tow group is in Camrose for our annual Miles in May, where we try to fly far and work on bettering the Canadian PG Open Distance record.  This year our tow team is myself, Alex, Peter Spear, Andrew Berkley, and Steven Semisch.  Many thanks to Brett Yeates, who despite being unable to join us this year, graciously lent us his winch and told us to fly far and bring it back with a bunch of new records on it.

Peter coming in after a test tow on Steven's winch

Yesterday was blown out and thunderstormy so we bailed on the day, but the HGs managed to get a short window in between the wind dying and the storms arriving.  I think Ross did something like 60 km yesterday.

Today was looking much lighter winds but still a chance of thunderstorms, and there was a lot of overcast and shade so it was not going to be super-early, although there were Q's forming to the west and north where the skies were bluer.  After doing some experimental tows on Steven's winch we changed venues and went to Rosalind to join the puffy Q's which were starting to form in our vicinity.

It was not going to be a fast or easy day as there were storms brewing to the west and north, and with the SE winds it was blowing us directly into the maw of the shade.  After getting a low save after my tow (97m AGL!), I was able to get established and start heading NW with Peter a few km's ahead of me.

Alex and Steven also got away although they had bad sinky lines and ended up landing quite early.  Alex had a bit of a circuitous walkout as as he landed in a dry spot but surrounded on most sides by water, and had to find a dry route to the road and a waiting Andrew.

A line of storms to the north, and it's getting hard to skirt around them.

The climbs were pretty slow considering the way the sky looked, and the going was slow enough that I had to decide on each climb whether it was worth it to climb all the way to cloud base and allow myself to drift closer to the storms, or leave the climbs partway up and try to fly east to skirt the edges of the storms.  There was an obvious blue hole to the NE which Peter and I were attempting to skirt, and the geographic distance between the blue hole and the storms was getting smaller and smaller, so Peter and I opted to land before things got too hairy.

I decided to land before the storms got too close.

We discovered something when landing on the prairies in mid-spring: you can either land in a plowed or stubble field and deal with the accompanying turbulence, or you can land in a nice mellow green field and get devoured by mosquitos (presumably they are living in the grass).  We both opted for the latter and gave a generous blood donation to the local wildlife ;)

Not much distance made today since we both had to do a bunch of zigzagging to jump between clouds and make our way crosswind as the wind direction switched during the flight, but it was nice to get back in the prairie air and see the enormous countryside which is central Alberta.

Follow us on live tracking at XC Find Canada.

52 km not-so-straight-flight.

The boys out at the local driving range to work off some extra energy.

Woodside May 2

Alex was off trying his new Gin Explorer at Little Nic, while I was trying out the BGD Cure at Woodside.  I had actually already had a flight on it down in Colombia, but it's now my main glider for the next season or so.

The Cure launches much nicer than the Artik, mostly due to the lightness of the glider and the lack of mass.  Thermalling is quite easy and intuitive and I had no problems segueing from the Artik to the Cure within a few minutes.

It was pretty lame conditions at Woodside but I was able to eventually get high enough at the towers to go over the back to Agassiz Mountain.  Lame there as well, with the occasional boomer up to cloud base, but reports were of roughness at Bear Mountain so I decided to turn back.  Getting back took a few climbs and some patience, but I was able to get back easily via the northern route and an easy top-landing to enjoy the sun on the black carpet and drive a truck back down.

Mark Tulloch getting some airtime as the skies cloud over.

Blanchard April 30

A nice spring day at Blanchard with lots of PG pilots from Bellingham and Seattle in addition to the Canadian contingent.  Some moderate west wind aloft and quite overdeveloped a few kms inland so not really XC conditions, but it was nice to fly over the water and out to the oyster island.  Al managed to top land at the parking lot (!) to avoid the retrieve, thanks Al!

Savona Easter Meet April 14-15

With the weather in the Fraser Valley looking very mediocre, Andrew and I decided to get away for a few days and join the Easter Meet in Savona with the hang glider pilots.

Watching the virgo come down across Deadmans valley.

Still some snow in the meadow behind launch and very strong-looking skies so we didn't fly for very long each day, landing early and watching it blow out on the ground during the mid-afternoon.  With east wind in the forecast for the 3rd day we opted to return to Vancouver and left the hang gliders to fly at the Pimple in Kamloops.

More virga behind launch and over Kamloops.

Woodside April 9

I had missed the good XC day last week but I wasn't about to miss another one so soon!

SE wind up high which is an unusual direction for the Fraser Valley, and it made the crossing over to Sasquatch a bit easier than usual.  In fact, after the climb out over Sasquatch, it was quite easy getting to Dewdney, and I was having to pull out of climbs around 1700m just to give myself a buffer with the overlying airspace.

Crossing back to Woodside in rare SE conditions.

A group had decided to continue up to Benedict but I was thinking the return might be a bit challenging with the SE wind, and the clouds were getting a bit spread out in the area and giving large areas of shade.  Arriving back at Woodside it was definitely more lee side than when I left, and I ended up climbing out over Riverside and the Fraser River.

Dressing warm for cold April flying!

I thought about landing but decided to do a lap to Agassiz Mountain and back; Peter and Vlad continued to Bear where it wasn't that great so I was happy to turn around at Agassiz and head back to Riverside.

The sandbars are exposed this time of year which is nice if you have to land out.

By the end of the day it was definitely over-the-back conditions and pilots were getting super-high as is typical in outflow conditions.  65 km out-and-return which is not too shabby for my first FV XC this year!

Woodside March 25

The forecast was showing it was going to be windy, but we were hoping it would be a bit less and nicely flyable.

Nope, the forecast was pretty spot-on, and it *was* windy.  A bit on the strong side for me, so I waited it out for several hours while some other pilots braved the cycles.  After a while I noticed the cycles were a bit less, but going more and more cross from the north, so I decided to launch while it was still good, and enjoyed an hour of windy ridge soaring.

Woodside February 22

After the hot weather in Colombia it was a shock to fly in snow!  No XC yet, it's still a bit early for that kind of flying, but nice to surf the clouds and see some friends I haven't seen for a few months!

Trip to Colombia Winter 2017!

For the past few months Alex and I have been planning a return trip to Colombia.  We've both been there before, and I've been wanting a nice vacation for a while!

Our hammock abode in Minca.

Misty mornings on Agua Panella.

Instead of just doing "Rolda", we decided to mix it up a bit and toss in some coastal exploration as well as some smaller mountain towns.  On the Caribbean coast we visited many towns, including the very nice town of Minca, up in the mountains above Santa Marta, and Cartagena, tourist-central.  It was super-muggy and we very much appreciated any air conditioning we could find as well as the ocean swims.  The highlight of this portion of the trip for me was the snorkelling we did in the Rosario Islands...not as spectacular as Tobago, but nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the cities and into the bathtub-warm waters!

Ronda was a bit wet this year!...

From the coast it was inland to Roldanillo where the weather wasn't playing ball...it was much wetter than usual, although still plenty flyable every day, so long as you were willing to wait out the rain and/or land when you saw rain coming.  Fortunately the Cauca Valley is wide and open enough that you can see storms coming from a long ways away, and in any case there were minimal gust fronts if they happened at all (especially compared to Golden!).  Lots of flying up and down the west mountain ranges, not so much on the east side since there were airspace issues to contend with.

...But still plenty flyable!

Fortunately you could see the rain from a long ways away!

After the first Rolda comp we relocated to Piedechinche (nearer to Cali) to sample the afternoon side of the valley, and were treated to a rare (?) ride up to 3600m on a blue and stable day.  I suspect this site shades-out quite a bit as it's a big mountain behind launch, and any clouds which form are going to spooge out into the valley in any east wind.  And that's what happened on other days; even though it's an "afternoon site", you can definitely fly it in the mornings, and in fact, it's probably best to fly it earlier rather than later if you want to go XC.

Getting high at Piedechinche!...

...And flying fire thermals!

Travelled north to find some less-busy flying spots, and opted for Apia and Jerico, both small mountain towns with epic roads up steep winding roads glued to the mountainsides!  Both Apia and Jerico were a welcome change from the heat and business of Roldanillo...we were pretty much the only gringos in town each time, and the launches were much less busy, although the tour groups were everywhere (probably doing the same thing as us, finding sites less busy than Rolda).

The Canadian crew in Roldanillo.  Photo courtesy of Kevin Ault.

Jerico and the new launch, opening next year.

If I was doing the trip again and wanted to focus on flying in Colombia, I would probably start with the non-Roldanillo flying sites, and do Rolda at the end.  There are so many sites in Colombia!  Pretty much any mountain in the coffee zone is a candidate...there are paved roads and busses to many of the towns, and plenty of cleared land, that you can fly from almost anywhere!

Back in the land of snow and ice!