Chelan October 22-23

With the rainy Vancouver forecast for Saturday and the Halloween fly-in happening in Chelan, it was time for a road trip!

Alex between the rocks as clouds form in the lee

On the butte it was initially blown out...about 30kph from Green Monster and the clouds were forming in the lee of the Butte.  Catspaws and windlines all over the lake too.  But after a couple of hours the winds totally died and we started thinking about flying.

Far from being blown-out, it was not quite ridge soarable on Green Monster but lightly soarable if you caught a thermal right off launch, otherwise it was sled ride to the LZ.  On my second flight the winds did pick up,  in a weird way in that it wasn't windy on launch, but once in the air it was windy.  So it was ridge soarable by the end of the day but not classic conditions.

In the end I got 2 flights on Saturday while others went for 4-5 flights.  The party that night was quieter than usual with only about 30-40 people attending, which meant that there was actually room for dancing in the airport lounge!

Liberty Bell in WA pass, highway 20

Traditionally, the Sunday is not as good flying compared to the Saturday during the fly-in weekend (not sure why, but that's been the trend over the years I've attended), and this year was no different.  High cirrus and XC skies was saying it was gonna stick around all day and keep thing shut down, so we headed back to Vancouver to get back at a decent hour.  A beautiful day for driving highway 20!

Woodside September 19

My first flight back in the Fraser Valley after getting back from Spain.  It's definitely fall; the thermic window is much smaller than last time I flew here a couple of months ago!  Cloudbase was quite low all day, but 1050m was enough (barely) to cross west to Sasquatch, arriving at just over 300m before finding lift.

The west wind was just kicking in at Sasquatch and cloudbase was still low on that side, but Alex and I were able to head to Deroche.  (Miguel and Rob also went across but ended up landing next to Harrison Bay.)  The spines were producing quite a bit of turbulence, and the spine between Deroche and Big Nick is especially un-nice in west winds (when you're low).

I opted to turn around at this spine after getting my highest of the day (1300m) and watching a bunch of high cloud move in, while Alex kept going and got around the other side of Big Nick before turning around.  The high cloud shut things down and it was a bit touch-and-go as to whether I'd make it back, but I found a thermal back at Sasquatch which gave me the extra oomph I needed to make it back to Eagle Ranch (it gave me 200m, and I arrived back over the LZ with 200m to spare!).  In the end I got just over 28km in XC, while Alex did 40km.

Alan over at Bridal reported 1300m and there were also people flying Elk earlier in the day.  Nice clouds all over and the wind never got up too much (except around the corner at Big Nick).  Lots of people were out today to enjoy the possibly last really good day of reliable thermals and XC potential, although I'm sure there will be additional thermic days between now and the November rains.

Ager Women's Open, September 3

Skies were too stormy and very strong east winds so we canned the day.

So in the end we had 4 valid tasks out of 6, and by Chris' reckoning, we flew a combined total of around 3000km this week.  Many goal virgins, personal bests, and those who it was their first comp, so many happy faces at the prize giving and party this evening.

Overall, 1st was Yayoi on her Ozone M4, Laurie on her Sky EOS, and myself on my Gradient Avax XC3.  I also came 2nd in serial class behind Yayoi.  Garnered some swag including a free parahawking tandem next time I'm in Nepal ;) (fortunately it doesn't expire!).

All the results and photos can be found (eventually) at the Women's Open website.

Well tomorrow a group of us are off to Barcelona for 4 days, and then I'm off to Halifax for some family visiting.  After all the flying and competing I've done over the past 2 weeks I'm a bit flown out, so am quite happy to put the glider away for a bit!

Ager Women's Open, September 2

Wx wasn't looking good (t-storms predicted later as the cold front moves through) so the day was eventually cancelled after mammata spotted and increasing winds on launch.  Most pilots went on the famous gorge hike while I laid by the poolside since I did it last week.

Tomorrow is the last day and then a group of us are heading to Barcelona for some sightseeing!

Ager Women's Open, Task 4, September 1

The skies started off similar to yesterday but with no potential for rain, so we set another task that kept us around the Ager area and not over the back.  SE winds in front of the ridge meant getting to the start took a while for the slower gliders but there was plenty of lift as the cu's started popping despite the overcast about 15 minutes before the start.

I had an excellent start and was actually ahead of Laurie and everyone else until on the way back from the first TP when her superior machine passed mine.  At that point it was basically a race between the 5 or 6 of us behind her and we raced around the course, landing in goal in 1:24 or 1:25.

We had about 11 pilots in goal today and the skies stayed friendly all day.  Swimming afterwards at the Camping pool and a BBQ tonight!

Belly dancing!

We tried belly dancing tonight :)  All the kitchen and bar staff joined us too!  Oddly, Chris was still trying to work despite the wriggling going on around him....

Belly dancing is hard work!

Ager Women's Open, Task 3, August 31

Cloudy skies on launch with more cloudy skies to the south, so we made a short (50 km) task that would keep everyone on the ridge or in front of it (no going over the back, as it seemed dubious that there would be much lift away from the cliffs).

We originally had a race start but after watching the wind technicians bob around with some sinking out and others not getting very high, we changed things to an elapsed time task so that pilots could choose when to do the task according to when they thought it would be the best conditions.

I had accidentally left my Flymaster on all night after downloading, draining the battery to 0%.  Of course this meant it was dead on launch so I had to fly with my backup Garmin 76S.  Which is fine except for its lack of a vario function, which meant I had to fly the task using the Garmin's altitude readout to determine if I was climbing (or sinking) and by how much (and my backup Sonic died too so I had no audible beeping to help me along).  (I am now recharging the Flymaster so it'll be good for tomorrow!)

Time to stop the task?

So I had to fly the task the old fashioned way, by feel, which meant I had to be slower since with the very light lift it was hard to tell if I was actually climbing or not.  Slowly I made my way around the course and the skies were starting to change.  There was embedded towering cu's starting to form in the overcast and virga was starting to appear all around us.  Hmmm, time to land?  With pilots reporting rain at the penultimate turnpoint Nicky made the decision to stop the task.

Of course this now meant it was very difficult to get down as we all spiralled into the Camping Ager LZ.  The task ended up being cancelled due to the rules regarding elapsed time tasks and what criteria must be met in order for such a task to remain valid after stoppage.

So in the end things remain as they did after task 2, and we will fly again tomorrow.

Tonight is a belly-dancing class :)  More to report afterwards!

Ager Women's Open Task 2, August 30

Similar weather to yesterday so we decided to stretch our wings and fly to the goal lake, after zigzaging back and forth in front of the ridge, over the back to the Castle, Isona, then finally to the lake, for about 66 km.

After the start we had to tag the train station turnpoint and then return to the far west of the ridge.  There was a nice cloudstreet running the length of the valley so I tried to position myself under it after tagging the train station, but I was too far north of the lift and ended up hitting horrible sink.  Had to turn to the ridge and fight my way back up to ridgetop height after a very low save (100m AGL), after which point I learned my lesson and stuck to the ridge for the remainder of the westward trip :)

After tagging the western TP it was time for another ridge run and then over the back to the Castle.  It took a while to get up at the Castle and some pilots who had taken a different line got ahead of me while I struggled to regain cloudbase.  Finally though I was back in the game and then it was technical part to Isona.  When designing the task we figured this would be the crux of the task: flatland flying with possibly less clouds than yesterday, and this is exactly what happened.  There was a giant blue hole over Isona which meant you had to either take the southern or northern route to the turnpoint if you wanted to remain under clouds.

The southern route is more direct and is in the lee of some small hills which are good thermal producers, so I headed over there.  Yep, in the lee of the hills it was indeed working, although I had to keep saying to myself, "patience", as the lift was all disorganized and I had to circle around in 0's until it coalesced into a nice climb straight to cloudbase.

Goal at the lake.

At this point I possibly had goal on glide even with the necessary Isona detour, so went for Isona and found lift the entire way there.  Back to the high ground it was a short climb to get over the last mountain which is in the way of a straight glide to goal (you have to either go over it or around it).

I ended up in goal 5th for the day, and in total there were 6 pilots in goal.  Two of the Japanese pilots were tied for time into goal so it'll come down to speed and leading points to determine first and second for the day :)

Today's task was more technical then yesterday's but we designed it to make the first section fairly easy, and then progressively more difficult near the end, so we'd get a good spread of pilots along the courseline.  And the pilots that didn't make goal still got to see the lake since the retrieve drivers brought them so we could all go swimming.

I made a big mistake today...after tagging the train station I should have either returned straight to the ridge, or taken a more southerly line under the cloudstreet.  In the end I took the worst possible line in the sink between the two lift lines and it almost cost me the task.  Fortunately low saves are common here so I was able to get myself out of the mess I put myself into and continue flying :)  I also hit a couple of slow spots on the courseline: the Castle and the flats on the way to Isona, which cost me maybe 20-30 minutes in total.  I was flying by myself so had no help finding lift (other than birds etc) so I came into goal behind those who were flying in groups of 2 or 3.

After 2 tasks I'm in 2nd overall, but have to make up over 200 points in order to catch 1st place overall.  I just have to continue making goal and be consistent in my flying and maybe I can do it :)

Full results can be found here.

Ager Women's Open, August 29

Today's task was made short so we'd have lots of pilots in goal.

For the first task of the Women's Open we decided (I'm on the task committee) to make an easy-to-accomplish task that would allow the newer comp pilots the chance to fly the ridge without having to jump any intimidating gorges, fly the flats a bit, and finally jump over the back for the goal field in Vilamitjana.  About 40km once you take away the TP cylinders.

Today we were flying without the live trackers we had last week (even though we were originally supposed to have them this week too), since the organization for the FAI Pre-Europeans commandeered them for their comp instead, so unfortunately you can't watch us all live (I'm flying with my SPOT live-tracking though).

For most of the course I was in second place behind Laurie on her 2-liner but after the Ager Camping turnpoint I returned to the ridge a bit low and had to thermal up before continuing, which cost me some time and allowed several pilots to get ahead of me.  Over the back was easy since it was basically a giant glide to goal with a short safety detour at the Castle (to prevent pilots from flying to goal via the gorge lake).  I think I was maybe 4th or 5th
(?) into goal.
We'll see what the leading points do to the scores.

In the end there were about 13 pilots in goal (out of 32), many of whom it was their first time in goal, so there were lots of happy smiles today at the pool party!

Results (when they are published) will be found here.

Today was quite a fun day...I knew we were undercalling the task (it was an 80-100 km day) but it seemed more important to make the task easy for most of the pilots so as to have a very successful first day. Now that we've shown the pilots some of the main terrain features we hope to set some larger and more technical tasks.

Relax day August 28

With the World Cup over I decided to relax and take the day off, spending most of it by the pool.  But this evening after registration for the Women's Open there was a shuttle going up.  Since I've never flown here in the evening I decided to go up.

Very light lift meant the perfect time to skim the cliffs and take photos, and do a toplanding just to try it out.  As the sun set the glassoff set up, with the entire valley lifting off in gentle 0.5-1m/s.  As car lights starting to go on I had to do hard spirals etc to get down; a few pilots got caught out and ended up landing in pretty much pitch blackness in random fields (since the Camping LZ is rather small and has too many obstacles to land in when you can't see where you're going!).