Flying again in Parrsboro April 20-24

After a weekend with the parents it was back to Parrsboro to visit with the gang and get some more flying in.

We started off by detouring to High Head on Monday, on the way to Parrsboro, which is an inland thermic site just north of the Mount Wentworth ski hill. Launch is about 1000' and faces north, so you need a light north wind to make things work. When we got there it was too west on the ground (there is a windmill nearby) and we thought it would be too cross to launch safely, and it tends to get windy there. So onwards to Parrsboro where we met up with Trevor (pilot from Moncton) at Hidden Falls. It was NW there but we decided to go up anyways and take a look-see.

Hidden Falls is really SW so a NW wind is kinda over the back, and the wind ribbons we erected were certainly showing that. After a while of watching it looked like the cycles were switching around so Alex laid out and launched, and we watched him attempt a few turns before landing on the road below next to the blueberry fields. He reported it wasn't really that nice flying so Trevor and I went back down.

Well, onwards to the Golf course and it was crossing from the south as Alex got his glider out, so we tried a site east of there, where it was nil wind. OK, back to the golf course where it was now SW so we figured it was just turning around so we went to good old Fox River, which works well in a SW.

At Fox River it was really light, and Alex (whose glider was just piled in the back seat of the car by now, so of course he was launching first with his glider already ready to go!) and Trevor were only able to do one upwind pass before sinking out on the downwind pass, landing on the beach below. At this point it was getting late and not likely to pick up, so we finally packed up Alex's glider and headed back to the cabin.

The forecast for the next morning was for SE, so we were anxious to fly West Bay before it blew out as the storm moved in. Up the next morning and it was indeed easterly already, so we called Brian and Michael and arranged to meet at West Bay. At launch by 9am (which is a lawn!) and launching soon thereafter into nice smooth east winds.

Usually at West Bay it's SE, which means you can soar the big cliffs to the south in addition to Cape Sharp to the east. But today it was too east for that which meant flying Cape Sharp only, which is pretty spectacular in itself. It's a jutting cliff out into the Bay of Fundy, about 100m high, and has no LZ's except for the beach back at the West Bay beach. If you get blown over the back at the Cape it's not fun as there is nothing but cold Atlantic seawater for 20 km and you reach the other side of the Bay of Fundy. So you have to keep an eye on your ground speed and the changing wind and tide conditions!

We all had a fun time flying, top-landing, warming up (the neighbour that lives on the launch was home and made us tea), and relaunching. Michael, Brian, and Kevin all showed up so it was nice to fly with others. Eventually we noticed the air was changing, the sea was changing, and it looked like the blown-out conditions that had been forecasted were showing up. So we landed on the beach rather than top-land and chilled out on the beach, watching the front move in.

When we eventually climbed back up to the launch it was clearly blown out and the trees were waving around in a nice 50-60 kph wind. No more flying for today and we went back to the cabin for a late breakfast and storm watching. (The cabin is great for that, right on the beach with our own SE launch on the front lawn, and Partridge Island across the bay to funnel the winds in).

Spent the rest of that trip to Parrsboro storm-watching, hiking on the beaches, and exploring all the Capes in the area. There's lots to do when it's not flyable, especially if you are into geology or paleontology. Given the winds that usually manifest around the Parrsboro area, having a speed glider would definitely be an asset for around here!

We are now back in Halifax and fly back to Vancouver on Sunday. The temps have really gotten nice here but we are looking forward to some XC flying in the Fraser Valley. Big thanks to Brian for lending us his spare cabin while we were in Parrsboro!

Nova Scotia flying April 15-17

After spending a couple of days with the folks we decided it was time to pay Parrsboro a visit. Parrsboro is the main flying spot in Nova Scotia due to the Bay of Fundy, which has huge cliff faces for pretty much every wind direction. Most of the launches are thus coastal beach sites, ridge soaring only, and accessible by car or a 5 minute walk. South winds are best here, as that means there are endless possibilities for launches along the entire northern Fundy Shore, just pick a section of cliffs you are interested in flying, set up, and launch. No landowner issues. However the LZ is another story. Since the highest tides in the world occur here (54' is the record, 40-50' is more common) you can lose your beach LZ depending on the tide cycle. It's best to check the tides ahead of time.

The winds for Wednesday were northerly which meant flying at Joggins, which is about a 50 minute drive from Parrsboro (which is itself about 2 hours from my parent's house...usually when I go to Parrboro I stay for at least 2 days). Joggins is famous for it's fossil cliffs which anybody can visit and find fossils in (and also coal just laying around to be picked up from the rock faces when they erode), and is also very paraglider-friendly. Cliff faces from WNW-NNW and a combination of low and high cliffs depending on how strong the wind is.

Wednesday the wind was pretty due north so we headed to a spot where you can lay out next to the highway, launch, and bench up to the higher fossil cliffs downwind. The winds on launch were rather light which meant you had to launch and head downwind right away, low, to the high cliffs and get up before sinking out. Once on the high stuff though you were golden. Alex launched first and sped away downwind to the high cliffs and got up no problem, and Brian and I lay out next (there was still snow and ice on the ground in spots so I wanted to lay out in a relatively dry spot).

It did the same as Alex and was able to get up on the high cliffs no problem and then it was nice flying along the high fossil cliffs. It wasn't totally smooth though, as it was crossing a bit and cycles would come through which would cause my groundspeed to lower to the mid-single digits. Still OK but worth keeping an eye on.

After a while I noticed it getting lighter so I opted to top-land next to the car and talk to Brian, which hadn't launched due to him not being sure about being able to get to the high stuff before sinking out. Alex had already top-landed and relaunched and was flying around when Brian and I noticed the wind ribbon going limp for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden switching to an offshore flow. Alex of course was sinking out as the lift shut off, and fortunately the new wind direction was light enough that it wasn't too rotory for him. But he didn't make it back to launch, beach-landed, and had to hike back. Flying over for the day.

Brian had very generously loaned us his "spare" cabin on the beach at Partridge Island for the duration, complete with our own flying site with a launch right on the front lawn (for south winds), and a view of Partridge Island and Cape Blomidon in the distance.

The next day was NW so Alex and I returned to Joggins but it was too strong for flying, so after digging for fossils for a bit and collecting some coal for the fireplace that evening, we headed to Advocate just to see was going on. This flying site is situated at Cape Chignecto and takes a S-SW wind so we weren't expecting to fly, but when we arrived we were astonished to find it was actually SW and fairly strong. The local residents confirmed that it had been SW all day so we headed up to the launch, which is about a 5 minute walk inside the Provincial Park boundary (and the Park folks are very enthusiastic about us flying there, you just have to sign in). But up on launch it was not strong enough due to the winds actually being WSW we figured, and not coming ashore on that stretch of cliffs and only on the more exposed sections.

So we headed back to Parrsboro and stopped at the primary flying site, Fox River, on the way. We had outdriven the SW winds at Advocate and they hadn't yet arrived at Fox River, but we could see it coming. Since Fox River is a SW site we decided to stay, especially since we ran into Randy (another local pilot) who was there limbing some trees behind launch.

It was quite amazing to watch the wind switch from light N to strong SW in about 15 minutes, so we waited a bit to make sure it wasn't going to blow out or do anything weird. Randy assured us it was going to stay SW until dusk, about 1 hour away, so we both set up and launched in perfect 25 kph winds.

Fox River is a straight ridge, not that long, and only about 30' high. Perfect for students and mellow flying, with lots of blow-back room into blueberry fields if the winds got too strong. We flew for about 1 hour until dusk, just as Randy said, and then top-landed as the winds got too light to stay up in. A perfect end to a day where we thought we were going to be shut down for flying, and it was so weird to know it was strong N at one flying site and strong SW not too far away.

Today dawned with strong west winds and lots of lenticular clouds, not nice for flying, although we visited a few west sites that we could have flown had the winds been 10-15 kph less. One site is right on the Parrsboro golf course (you can launch from the green, although Brian usually launches just off the golf course out of courtesy). Another site is right next to town and is only about 15' high but perfectly flyable in west winds, although not as strong as they were today.

The forecast was calling for possible rain tonight and NW winds again for the weekend so we have returned to Halifax for a bit. It'll probably be flyable at Joggins all weekend but we're going to do some non-PG things for a couple days before returning to Parrsboro.

For pics go here. I'll be updating them as we have more adventures!

Woodside April 9

It was quite overcast but with some sunny skies around. The reports around 11:30am were of people getting above launch and staying up for up to an hour, but by the time we arrived at 1pm it had overdeveloped again and was sled rides only.

While Alex and Rob worked on the hiking trail up, the rest of us waited at Eagle Ranch to see if it would a)get sunny, or b)get windy. Around 4pm we started to get spit on with rain in the LZ but decided to head up anyways as we were already out and may as well.

The road up was clear of snow due to the very warm temps we'd had over the past few days so we were able to get right into launch. Nice cycles but not quite ridge soarable, and there was so much moisture in the air we couldn't see Sumas or anything much past Chilliwack. It spat on us a bit but not too bad, and after watching Tom on a tandem launch and disappear around the corner to Harvest West Robin launched.

He stayed up around launch height which gave us the impetus to also launch while the flying was good. Pretty soon Robin, Alex, Alex W., and myself were playing around the south knob in the light thermic lift. Not quite as light conditions as GV Brazil, but pretty close!

Cloudbase lowered and we found ourselves at cloudbase at a mighty 730 m! It wasn't that sucky though so it was nice and easy to fly in and out for a while until the lift died in that spot and we were back to launch height over the cutblocks and the south knob.

Kent, Miguel, et al had showed up just as I launched and were starting to get ready, and there was a sunny spot headed towards us. But we were sinking out in the meantime and it was a bit of a push to get out to the peninsula, as the pilots who had flown out that way earlier had experienced a fairly significant SSW headwind.

Robin and I took the SSW line over the new subdivision while Alex took the middle route over the swamp. Our line was a bit better, getting us to Eagle Ranch at a much higher altitude than Alex, which was nice as it was definitely windy closer to the water and starting to get bumpy down low. Total airtime was about 40 minutes.

It was a nice treat to get such a nice little flight. When we were driving out we were very excited, then showed up and were somewhat disappointed at the conditions, went up to launch expecting a sledride, and were rewarded with a nice thermic flight. So even though it didn't turn out as nice as we initially thought, it was still nice to get out and play around. Our last flight in the Fraser Valley for a while as we are now off to Nova Scotia for 2 weeks. Hopefully upon our return the Bridal road will be cleared up a bit more and it'll be warmer too!

Woodside Valley Crossing March 29

I had high hopes for today as the forecast was looking good. Got to Woodside early, 11am, only to find out that Derek and Martina were up on launch with it blowing down and not able to launch. Oh well no rush then so we didn't get up to launch until 1pm or so.

A large cloud had parked itself over launch, keeping it in the shade and down cycles so it was difficult to get off launch. My original plan had been for an OR to Mt. St. Benedict and back, but to the west over Sasquatch it was OD'ing and snowing continuously, so it wasn't the best option to fly into. My backup plan was to head over the back and cross to Bridal, and possibly try the crossing back if daylight and conditions allowed.

Launched and beamed up to cloudbase which was around 1800m or so, and was thinking of heading over the back when the cloud started to get really sucky and dark. So I had to detour all around it to the north etc to stay out of it, and had to wait for it to dissipate and the next cloud to form for me to head over the back, another 30 minutes or so waiting around in the freezing cold. Fortunately I had hand warmers on the go so I was toasty warm all over (thank you pod harness!).

The next cloud over launch cycled and I decided it was time to go. Left at about 1900m and arrived at Agassiz Mountain where I had to wait for a cycle to come through for the crossing to Bear. At this point about 4-5 gliders were chasing after me and Robin was able to get up to me, while Greg, Rob. S, Nicolai, and Stein weren't.

Crossed over to Bear with Robin and got the nicest climb of the day over the peak, smooth lift to 2050m and then I decided it was time to hang a right to Ludwig. The crossing was the nicest one I've done in a while despite getting snowed on and it accumulating in my lap...I arrived at Ludwig at 1300m or so and was able to climb back to 1600m by the time I reached the Butterfly.

There was tonnes of snow in the trees and lots of snow slide runouts on the steep sections. I've never been at the Butterfly this early in the season and it was very beautiful. I took my camera out to take pictures but it was so cold the batteries had frozen up and died, so I wasn't able to get the awesome pics of frozen waterfalls and meters of snow all over the place.

Now usually when we're at the Butterfly at 1600m, it's not an issue of whether you can make it back to Bridal or not. It's so lifty that you can just boat along. Not this time. All of us were super-high at the Butterfly and still we plummeted to Earth in continuous sink once we left, despite the nice cu's all along the ridge. Amazingly, we all landed out at various places at the base of Cheam and nobody made it to the Bridal LZ, much less Elk and high enough to cross back to Woodside.

On the other hand, Jim on a tandem, got to 1700m over Riverside and headed to the Bridal LZ direct (not bothering with the loop the rest of us were doing), and made it! Greg broke from the rest of us at Bear and continued east to Hope, landing at the airport. And Kevin launched from Bridal and was able to glide to Harvest Market. Everyone else at Bridal sunk out about the same time we were coming over from Woodside so at least it wasn't just us!

Thanks for Martin N. for coming to pick me up and saving me a hitch-hike back to Woodside. Colleen came over too to pick up Jim et al, and there was a vehicle swap going on between Kevin and Rob. S. since they had both crossed the valley and landed on the opposite side from their respective vehicles.

All in all it was a great day, except for the mass-flushing at that one point. It was super north wind and the trees on the Bridal side were fully loaded with snow down to 400m, so I don't think there was much thermic action going on the mountain. It may have been better to fly west from Ludwig over the highway and get a better glide to the Bridal LZ. Total distance was about 30 km and 2 hours flight time. Tracklog is here.

Woodside March 22

It was a lot stronger today compared to yesterday. Forecast was for ridge soarable winds and unstable so decided to head out earlier rather than later as I figured Woodside might blow out. Got to the bottom of the road up to launch at 1pm and started hiking since everyone was already up on launch; Martin H. was already soaring out front on his PG.

I got a ride right away with Shane in his car, so I knew we weren't going to make it all the way :) But we were able to get to the snowline, after passing Stefan who was also hiking, at which point we parked the car and started hiking ourselves.

Got 100 m up the road or so and then a truck came by and offered me a ride. Stefan was already in back so I joined him. However because the truck had stopped in the snow, it wasn't able to get going again so we had to back down to a section where the dirt was showing through the ruts. At this point Alex W. in his truck and another 2 trucks behind him joined us and all 4 vehicles started headed up again.

Of course once on the snow and up the road a bit we came across a truck that was coming down, and with the snow 2' deep in spots, there was no place to pass. Our truck tried to get off the road to let him pass but got stuck, and was blocking the road for the truck trying to get down, and also the 3 trucks behind us trying to get up. With people standing around and trying to figure out what to do, and getting ropes etc out to tow stuff out of the way, Stefan and I decided to make our escape and started hiking yet again.

We reached launch finally around 2pm and it was nice cycles, 15 km/h or so and Jon Orders on his new HG and Martin N. both above launch. Jim was about to launch a tandem so I got ready ASAP.

Stefan was set up ahead of me but wasn't quite ready, so I jumped in front with his blessing. Launched and went straight up into obviously ridge soaring conditions with lots of thermals mixed in. It was quite strong but smooth; definitely spring-like and not like yesterday.

My radio battery died so I wasn't able to talk to anybody about the in-flight conditions, but I noticed nobody launching after me. Apparently about 5 minutes after I launched it went from a nice 15 km/h to something like 35-40 kph. Up in the air it was still fine, a bit on the strong side wind-wise, but totally doable provided you could actually launch into it.

I flew around for a bit and played with the clouds out front; they were forming out over the river and then growing once over the mountain. I got to 1550 m and still nice and smooth, but I noticed the pilots lower down were landing looking parked, and cats-paws forming right next to Riverside. And I noticed my forward speed was slightly decreasing to high single digits, and the clouds were starting to get big all around, especially over at Bridal and Vedder with towering cu's. And as I was starting to get cold I opted to land. Riverside didn't look very inviting with Martin N. hoovering down into it with the cats-paws right offshore, and anywhere on the peninsula didn't look very nice either (I found out later on that it was quite entertaining to watch the landings at Eagle Ranch). So I turned tail for Harvest Market.

Downwind was 65 kph and I figured this was going to be an interesting landing. When I got near to Harvest I turned back into the wind and discovered it was still high single digits even though I was lower, and with the occasional gust I was actually going backwards for brief moments. Not very comforting when the Harvest field has a row of powerlines at the downwind end, and despite staying upwind of the field I was running out of usable field quite quickly. It looked like if I stayed in the same situation I might encounter the powerlines before I encountered the ground, or encounter the ground but then get dragged into the powerlines (both not good!), so I made the decision to turn downwind again at about 300' to cross the highway to the next field downwind of Harvest, and land there instead.

That field was powerline-free so I had no worries about using up the whole field to back myself into, and landed uneventfully in a rather muddy field. It was really gusty so I opted to land by hauling on my D's rather than use my brakes to flare, and killed the glider as soon as I landed and quickly unhooked from it (lesson learned from last time!). It was too windy to pack up, gusting to 40 kph on the ground, so I just stuffed the glider into the bag and hiked out to Harvest, where Martin N. picked me up.

Windy all over the peninsula and it stayed windy all the way back to Vancouver. Dark clouds east of Agassiz so it was probably raining in Hope and a good call for people to not stick around and try to fly later on, as it looked like the day was getting bigger rather than smaller as time went on. I probably should have left to land 10-15 minutes sooner than I did, and would have saved myself the stress of landing in strong gusty winds. Had my radio battery not died, I would have found out about conditions on the ground sooner as people were trying to let me know and not getting a response from me. Always make sure your battery is recharged!

Woodside March 21

The forecast was calling for some high clouds but the lapse rate looked good despite that, so went out to Woodside. Arrived to find Martin and Mia kiting in Bill Best's field in the north wind, but less wind closer to the mountain and a group of people had just arrived on launch and tossed off a student. The student sled-rided down so we figured it wasn't quite on and not a big rush.

Veronica and I waited at the bottom of the road up for a ride, while Alex started hiking up the direct way through the trees. We saw the occasional pilot headed out to Eagle Ranch or Riverside; some were getting above launch but it was still pretty light.

Eventually we got a ride up with Jim Reich and were able to get all the way to launch, after putting chains up just past lower launch, and almost going off the road next to the last parking lot before the spur road (if you look at the tracks in the snow you'll see how close we came to going over the edge...we jumped out at that point!).

Up on launch it was quite light, blowing all over the place lightly but not consistently. There were dark clouds coming from the Mount Baker direction so we were trying to get off before that came in and shut things down. Annette launched and was shortly above launch, which gave us the impetus to get our stuff ready sooner rather than later.

When I launched the dark clouds were almost at the sun and I wasn't too optimistic. Since I had parked the car at the Koffee Kettle, I had already decided to land in Riverside so there was no rush to head out as soon as I launched, so when I launched I headed south rather than north or out.

I saw a bunch of eagles playing to the SE of the south knob, around the corner to Harvest Market so I headed out that way. Lots of sink on the way and I was at some points too low to make Riverside, but there were lots of sandbars available so I was prepared to land on one of those if necessary. I reached the eagles and was rewarded with some nice 0.1's, which seemed like a good idea to stay in since everyone else was sinking out.

At this point the dark clouds dissipated into nice puffy cu's and it got sunny all of a sudden. The lift I was in got stronger (0.6!!) and I was now high enough to make Riverside. Veronica and Ralph joined me for a bit and then we all headed back to the cutblocks, where I was able to hang out and bop around between 400-500 m for the next hour.

Eventually a bunch of more people arrived on launch and lobbed off and appeared to be above launch. It looked easier to stay up if you could stay at launch height, but once below a certain altitude it was much harder to get back up. I was able to claw my way back up to 600 m at one point and thought I would be able to join the pilots above me, but it was not to be. The dark clouds finally materialized and started to shut things down, and people started sinking out.

Finally bit the bullet and landed in Riverside after 1h 13min airtime. I think my strongest lift was 1.1 m/s and much of the time was spent in 0.4-0.6. It was definitely rewarding to hang in there for so long and work on my patience and light lift skills (which I haven't had a chance to practice in a while).

After I landed another group of people went up and it was sled-rides only, so those two pulses of soaring in the afternoon were it for the day. All in all a rather satisfying day for me personally, although some people may have felt the day was a bit unspectacular.

Back at good ol' Woody

So after 2 weeks decompressing in Vancouver, it's time to get the obligatory February Woodside hike-n-fly in. The forecast was calling for increasing clouds as the day went on so I wasn't very hopeful of actually thermalling (even though people have been doing so the past few days at Woodside), but was rather looking forward to socializing with people I haven't seen since before Christmas.

Arrived at Eagle Ranch to the usual full parking lot of pilot cars, and a few pilots hanging out, while another load was just arriving on launch. The road up is in pretty good shape until the 3.5 km mark, at which point it goes from bone dry to 1' deep snow instantly. The tracks in the snow tell how far each vehicle has made it before sliding out or getting stuck. Each time you can get a little bit further. This was actually the worst section...if you could get past this 100 m section you are pretty much guaranteed that you will at least make the spur road.

I was fortunate to get a ride up to the 3.5 km mark in Al's Hammermobile, since he's the one who has been punching the furthest up through the snow each time. So we burn up to the 3.5 km mark at breakneck speed, and then Al speeds up even more to get a good run at the snow; the pilots who had driven up earlier are on this section, see (hear) us coming, and leap out of the way (as much as you can leap when you are carrying 40 lbs in 1' of snow). Of course Jim had parked his van in the middle of the road in the snow so we wouldn't be able to get past him! That doesn't stop Al; we get out to watch the show and he rams his truck up through the snow to the van and then tries to drive past it, through the untrodden deep snow on the ditch side. Of course this doesn't work.

At this point we decided to start hiking up ourselves and left Al to his own devices. So we're walking peacefully along, when all of a sudden we hear this roar and see the Beast coming straight at us, full speed ahead and engine howling, and Al passes us with this maniacal grin on his face. I guess he found a way past Jim's van after all (turns out he backed Jim's van down the hill to give him space to attempt the snowy section, and eventually punched his way through).

Passed Al's truck on the top of the final hill into launch (about 25 minute hike), with steam still coming off the undercarriage from all the snow that had vaporized. And no sign of Al, he had launched ASAP and was already in the air on the way down for his sledride.

It was clouding over just like forecast, and it didn't look like it was going to get any better, but not appreciably worse, for a couple hours at least. So I wasn't in any hurry. After 2 weeks of having to launch early, I was keen to just hang out on launch, enjoy the view, socialize, and launch whenever I felt like it!

The black carpet is still up there and doing wonders. It is snow-free and dry, so while the surrounding area is either snowy or muddy, you can lay out your glider on this stuff with no wetness issues. Cecilia was out as well, with the hang glider that she had hidden in the woods from yesterday after hiking it up and discovering it not to be launchable for her.

The big sandbar in the middle of the river, the one that the rednecks are always playing on in the summer, is currently a gravel mine. There was a constant stream of dumptrucks driving out to a predetermined spot to pick up their load and drive it off the sandbar. It actually looked like a racetrack since there were so many vehicles driving a set route and they were all kicking up the dust as they sped back and forth (good wind indicator!), so we initially thought it was some kind of rally, until we looked closer and saw the excavators. I like the rally-car idea more :)

Sat on launch for about 2 hours and enjoyed the sensation of not hurrying. It was so peaceful compared to the recent hoopla of El Penon. But finally it started to blow down so I figured it was actually time to do something other than stand around.

Got off launch in a forward (something I haven't been able to do for 10 months since my shoulder injury last year; yay I can forward again!) and it was a smooth ride to Eagle Ranch. As soon as I launched it was sooo different though. With the balaclava, mitts, snowboots, and insulated clothes, I felt fully muffled and could hardly move. And it felt like I was launching in molasses with the dense sea-level air, not the high-altitude air of Valle. Quite a difference from Mexico! I remember feeling this way every year about this time though...I'll get used to the Michelin-Man feeling soon and will welcome the warmth that comes from it when I start staying up and not just sled riding for 10 minutes. Flying in the Spring is way colder than flying in the dead of Winter! Time to start breaking out the chemical hand warmers.

Post-comp thoughts and thanks

Well the World Championships are over after 10 valid tasks, and I'm actually glad to have a break from competition paragliding for a bit. The past 2 weeks have been the hardest flying I've had to do in a long time, with lots of stress, long days, and the need to keep it going day after day. I've been to 2 WC's in the past...Manilla 2007 was actually pretty easy (stress-wise) since we had so many rain days and thus time off, and Brazil 2005 I was always landing fairly early on in the task so my days were short.

Last night we had the closing ceremony and awards. You can find all the official results elsewhere so I won't repeat them here, but here are the Canadian results:

Keith 45th
Jim 78th
Nicole 128th
Brett 129th

Canada was 24th out of 44 nations.

Keith was the most consistent, making goal almost every day on his new Boom6. Jim also flew amazingly, considering this was his first World Championship. He's been in Valle since December so he's got this place figured out now. It was Brett's 1st WC too, and he was flying a comp glider for the first time. Plus he was the Team Leader, which meant he had to get up earlier than the rest of us to attend the meetings, so he's probably the most tired.

Me personally, I did average compared to my previous WC's. I did better than Brazil 2005, but not as well as Manilla 2007. This place is a different animal...it's strong flying conditions already, and when you mix in the elements of a major competition, hot gliders, aggressive pilots, and fatigue, I decided I just didn't want to push as hard as I otherwise could have, so I'm happy.

I want to thank all the Team members for flying so awesomely throughout these past 2 weeks, and Brett in particular for taking on the TL role. And all those who are reading this and sending comments etc, thanks also for your support. The folks in Valle also did a fantastic job...they've been running the Monarca for years now so have all the logistics taken care of, and it really showed for this competition.

Last task and a surprise ending

The last day of the competition and it was pretty eventful.

Weather was rather high pressury, not ideal for nice flying, and the task committee set us a “short” 87 km or so task: launch and then start at Diente (at the end of Espina), then over the Mesa to Elefante, Monarcas, back to Serro Gordo, tag Le Pena in Valle, and then goal around Torre.

I was feeling better so launched first again, last time I need to fly for 1.5 hours before the race even starts! The air was very punchy and turbulent, and Crazy was not fun, so I opted to stay at the Wall to get high and then cross Crazy as high and fast as possible to avoid that area, and hang out at Espina.

There were no clouds over the start so pilots were milling around around 4 km from the start, at the end of Espina. We weren’t able to get much than 3100m, which is considerably lower than previous days. As the start approached a group headed out to the 2 km point in order to be there first, but it looked like no lift out there and they slowly sunk down, at which point about ½ of them came back to top-up while the rest hung out in 0’s.

Tagged the start and then saw a pilot coming down under reserve right at the entry point. I didn’t see why he chucked but it was an orange and black Niviuk, so I initially thought it was Jim Orava. But nope it was somebody else, and he landed safely in a field in between Diente and Espina, right next to the road and an easy retrieval.

Back on the Wall it was chaos as pilots were trying to top-up for the jump to San Augustine, and there was a mid-air. A pilot wrapped his glider around the legs of another pilot, but they were both able to separate, and the lower glider started to spin his way down through the gaggle with the glider almost torn in 2. I watched him spin his way down for probably 1000’, until he finally tossed his reserve and landed in the trees on the Mesa behind Penon. I reported this to the organization but by the time I flew over to give co-ordinates, another glider was circling and doing so already, so I continued on to San Augustine.

Not much lift at SA, and a couple of gliders and myself drifted our way towards Saucos. I flew over the ridge between Jovan’s and the Quintanilla LZ since this place has produced pretty reliably in the past, and I was not disappointed. Climbed out of there and making my way towards Elefante when I hit extreme sink, and pilots were falling out of the sky all around me.

Maybe 10 of us hung in there at the foot of the larger hills, trying to thermal out of there and to the larger hills. It was quite rough and windy from the Lake, and little bubbles would come through that you’d be tempted to turn in, but you’d be too close to the trees for a full turn and have to S-turn instead. I was unable to stay with anything solid, and ended up getting too low, so landed in a nice field with some Quonset huts. Tracklog is here.

As I was packing up I watched many other pilots dirting all around me, but was unaware that anything unusual was going on until the rescue helicopter flew overhead and landed about 2 fields over. It was a Japanese pilot who had a massive collapse on his final approach, and wasn’t able to fix it before impacting the ground, in a small patch of grass, surrounded by barb-wire fences, houses, and powerlines. Indeterminate back injuries and a broken arm and he was being loaded into the helicopter as I got there.

There were still pilots in the air in the general vicinity, and as the helicopter was going to be flying in the same area as soon as he took off, the call came over the radio that the task was stopped, and for all pilots to land ASAP. A second helicopter was also dispatched around this time for another pilot who had crashed someplace on the Mesa, so with the 2 helicopters in the area it was even more urgent for pilots to get out of the sky and give the helicopters space.

At this point Jim Orava was on final, landing as per instructions, when he had a massive donut and decided to toss at 600’. The field he was about to land in already had pilots in it, so many witnesses as he came down among them “Hey guys I’m coming down to join you”, and barely missed landing on a giant cactus. Jim, glider, and reserve all OK. He had loaned his larger reserve to Joanna a couple of days before, was flying with his backup teeny hiking reserve, and came down rather fast with the extra weight of a comp glider and harness!

Back in town we heard that the task had actually been cancelled, so no need to upload GPS’s. Nobody was anywhere near goal when the call came out so there wasn’t the added complication of pilots in goal as the task stop came along, so a cancellation was still legal.

The air was a bit more turbulent than previous days, but not massively, so I think it was combination of tricky flying conditions, fatigue, and the fact this was the last day of the competition that resulted in so many accidents and incident: 3 reserve tosses, 1 mid-air, and 2 heli-evacuations. For many pilots this was the “make or break” day, so I think there was a bit more aggression than usual in the gaggles. Me, I’m glad I managed to stay safe during the competition, and feel a certain sense of relief that tomorrow I don’t have to be told to “launch now”, “fly over there”, “land here”, etc. The field I landed in was nice moss, so I was able to pack up the glider nicely for the airplane ride on Sunday, and I don’t plan on taking it out again between now and then!

Penultimate day

I wasn’t feeling well today so had a short day.

We were assigned a 117 km task, taking us south over the flats in front of launch, back to 3 Kings, then over the Mesa to Saucos, back over the Mesa and back over the flats to La Pila, and finally goal up on the Monarca ridge. There was some discussion about whether there would be enough time to complete such a task (the longest one yet), but as tomorrow is the last day and thus a shorter task, today was the last day for going big.

The skies were much bluer than yesterday, not much development at all. It had been very windy last night, so I figure that was something moving through and we are now in a new weather pattern.

I wasn’t feeling all that hot on launch, and as soon as I launched it didn’t feel right. The air was the usual squirrely in front of launch and I found it hard to concentrate on getting high. Bumbled my way over to Penon and to the Wall, where it was ripping up the face and zoomed up to 3600m and cloudbase. But it still felt weird and I wasn’t liking the way the air was feeling, although I don’t think it was any rougher than previous days.

I was quite glad for the start since I was hoping the weirdness I was feeling was just the local rough flying conditions around Crazy and the Wall, but the glide to the 1^st TP wasn’t smooth either. And many people got low just before the TP, and we all had to stop and top-up on the way, and the gaggles weren’t that organized with discrete climbs. People were milling around all over the place. I still wasn’t feeling that great and was finding it hard to concentrate, so after tagging the 1^st TP I opted to land right away. Very-short-and-sweet tracklog is here. Landed in Teneria and felt immediately better; all I wanted to do was lie in the hot sun and laze asleep. But of course the locals popped out of the woodwork and I was soon surrounded so no rest for me, and they followed me all the way to the Church meeting spot where retrieve was waiting.

Getting back to Valle was long as we stopped at the turnoff for the Piano LZ, to meet up with the other retrieve vehicle which was busy picking up pilots who had dirted on the way back to the Wall. Jim was in this group as he said he had “raced himself into the ground”.

Back to Valle and the usual convergence clouds weren’t there, and it was very blue, and strong headwinds from the north for anybody trying to make it over the Monarca ridge and into goal. We saw a group of perhaps 30 pilots slowly making their way, and many more who were very low on San Augustine etc who were doing the death glide, hoping to find something to get them there. In the end I think there were about 40-50 pilots in goal, with many more scattered all along the courseline, and lots of long retrieves. It looked like it turned into a very difficult day, not as easy as originally thought, with the lack of convergence clouds to get people back and forth from the Mesa. Brett had a pretty good flight, tagging La Pila and landing on the way back over the Mesa.

I was quite happy to be on the ground even though it was a short flight and I flew for less than 2 hours; I think the pace and long days is finally taking its toll. There are now pilots who are choosing not to fly just because they are so tired or feel it’s not worth the possible carnage (we had a pilot fly into trees again today, due to extreme sink on the backside of launch, and yesterday Joanna tossed her reserve coming down behind launch). I’m glad tomorrow is the last day, and a probable shorter task, since the organization will want everyone back early for scoring and prize-giving.