Woodside April 14

32km FAI triangle

A rather iffy day with lots of OD predicted and possible storms later on.  We weren't sure if it would be flyable, and if so, for how long, so we were gonna take what we could get.  Up on launch it was OD'ing and snowing over on Sasquatch and also over Agassiz, but the skies were changing rapidly and pretty soon the Agassiz snowstorm cleared up.

Looking back at Hopyard and Cemetary on my way to Bridal.

I had no interest in heading west towards the OD that was hanging out on the Sasquatch side, and doing the Woodside-Bridal run via Bear was getting old, and there were lots of clouds in the valley, so I decided to try Woodside to Bridal via Harvest Market (normally not done due to airspace limitations or lack of clouds since it's a really long glide otherwise!).

A nice cu over Hopyard Hill and I was back at cloudbase (not high, mind you, only 1100m or so) and then after another tankup by the Agassiz/Rosedale bridge, arrived on the Bridal side to lots of shade.  There was a huge cu just west of Bridal proper, so I stayed well east and tanked up at Cheam while Alex and Dennis were coming from Ludwig.

As I said before, the skies would change rapidly, so by the time I tanked up and thought about heading west again, the big cu had moved off and it looked safer to be heading that way.  The Deimos crew were out on Bridal launch with a truck, so you can now drive straight to Bridal launch.

Nice skies in the middle of the valley!

Lots of shade west of Upper Bridal and no joy at Gloria, so I flew out to the lower bench where the sun was and beamed out again to cloudbase, which by now had risen to an almighty 1400m.  Since I had done the via-Harvest route coming here, I decided to try the more direct line back to Woodside via Rosedale, and there were clouds out that way to help me along.

But not enough clouds, or not enough lift on the sandbars, and I landed short on the south side of the river directly across from Riverside.  Fortunately Ihor had said earlier he'd come after me, so it wasn't long before he swung by to take me the long way back to Woodside.  Meanwhile Dennis had landed at the Bridal LZ, and Alex had taken the Harvest route back and gotten some lift on the sandbars (I think he stole my lift!) and back to Woodside.  Al had landed around the base of Hicks, while Fred was still in the air when we all headed home.  Last we heard Fred had landed on an unconnected sandbar and was trying to figure out a way to the mainland, and finally got himself across either by swimming or wading.  The sandbars are disappearing fast, and all the ones that were connected only 2 weeks ago are now either gone altogether, or now islands.  Pretty soon the Fraser Valley crossings will become that much harder!

Landed on the wrong side of the river, but Ihor was to the rescue!

It was a pretty sweet flight, considering how it could have OD'd all over and shut us down completely; it was nice to actually get some XC in and not feel trapped by big clouds.  Today there was enough blue skies around and light winds, that there was always an escape route possible from the OD and we didn't have to worry about getting trapped on the wrong side of a towering cu.

Pemberton March 30

50km Hurley-return flight.

Launch still has snow but drying out quickly.

After yesterday's flight at Woodside several of us decided to head to Pemberton to escape the stability in the FV.  The snow is melting rapidly, and you can drive to within a 25-minute easy hike of lower launch.  Launch itself still has snow but it's drying out quickly too.

It was remarkably stable-looking even to the north, crystal-blue skies, no cu's, and outflow glacial winds.  The Pemberton valley up near Hurley Pass still has snow in the fields; this is the earliest in the season I've been here flying.  Eventually around 2:30pm we figured we may as well fly, but weren't very optimistic about actually getting up and away (many comments along the lines of "maybe we can get 10km's so it'll count as an XC flight" etc).

Still snow in the valley!

It was certainly a struggle to get away from launch, and most pilots were stuck in the south bowl at 800-900m.  I was able to get to 1100m and occasionally to 1200m, but was unable to get above upper launch.  Finally as the afternoon slopes heated up I broke though to 1500m and was in the game, started heading to Owl peak with Alex and Peter behind me.

Lots of tracks down to Tenquille Lake.

The lift just getting better and better, and by the time I got to Owl I was at 2100m, enough for an easy gap crossing and the snowfields on the other side.  The Copper side was just amazing... snow everywhere...perfect for close-by flying since all the trees and rocks that normally stick out were covered in meters of snow.  Watched several avalanches in action as the snow warmed the SW slopes and even startled an Easter bunny with my glider's shadow as he bounded away to the nearest shelter.  Oodles of snowmobile tracks, snowshoes, ski tracks around the Tenquille Lake and around the Copper Dome.

A fantastic flight with all the snow still in the mountains and the fact it took some work to even get high enough to try the flight...we're the first to the do the Pemberton "milkrun" in 2013.  If the nice weather continues, the road up will be clear of snow shortly and the hike will be even less!

Copper Dome with Goat in the far right corner.

It was so buoyant that I decided to do a more-or-less straight glide back to launch from Copper, just to see if I could do it, just in time to land as the shade started to cover the valley floor.  PS the trail horses in the Alternate LZ are totally unconcerned with PG's landing nearby...unless you actually land on one they will completely ignore you, just keep an eye out for manure piles!

Mt. Currie in the late afternoon sun.

Woodside March 29

1600m at the Butterfly heading for the Lakes and Cheam.

Some Q's but no OD and looked like a nice day to try the 80km triangle.  A rather sinky glide across to Sasquatch but getting up on the other side was OK and then it was west to Big Nick.  But the west wind was coming in and cloudbase was still on the low side, so I decided to turn around at Deroche and quit wasting time, and get going on the rest of the triangle :)  Fred continued west and I think went to Benedict in the end.

Back at Woodside and a new crew of pilots was just launching, while those who had turned back at Sasquatch were ahead of me at Bear/Ludwig/etc.  So it was time to boogy over and caught up to Peter at Bear, and found Alex at Elk later on with Alan.  Al had crossed into Laidlaw and was able to get high enough to cross to the Butterfly, bypassing Ludwig altogether.

The day was starting to shut down and we still had the epic Elk-Woodside glide (16km) with airspace to stay under and a river to cross at the end.  Alex found a big of lift on one of the redneck sandbars (they were crawling with RV's and quads on this long weekend) and got back up at Woodside, while I found zip and was forced to land in Riverside after a scratch-fest flying along the highway at the base of Woodside (many car-honks urging me along!).

Al and Peter landed on the sandbars connected to Riverside and walked the rest of the way, so nobody landed on the wrong side of the river and required retrieving, nice!  The 80km triangle is a tough nut to crack, due to all the big crossings involved, low-ish wind needed, and the fact the final crossing of the day is the largest one, with the Fraser River to cross and not land short!  It'll be done on a PG, but it will take a special day!

70km triangle.

spring flying at Woodside March 23-24

50km FAI triangle on Saturday.
70km OR on Sunday.

The XC hounds were out in full force this weekend and we had several plans in place depending on how the weather shaped up.  Saturday started off with low cloudbase, around 1200m, but a bunch of us headed west anyways.  A bit of OD over the Sasquatch range while Harrison knob was in the sun, so Fred, Al, and I surfed under the clouds over the Fraser River until Big Nick, where I turned back after experiencing some cloudsuck while they continued to Dewdney and Stave Lake.

View towards Hope.

Time to top-land at Woodside to recharge and get ready for flight #2, this time over the back for the 50km triangle.  Nobody else on the Bridal side except Alan, and the clouds were shelving from the south, shading out the mountain range so it was tough to find lift down low.  I finally tanked up at Gloria back up to 1770m and then it was time to glide home, making sure to avoid the sliver of restricted airspace just north of the highway.

Initially I thought I was going to have to go into Harvest Market or possibly one of the connected sandbars and walk the rest of the way, but was able to get some sandbar thermals at the end of the day, an extra 200m, which was enough to get me around the corner of Mt. Woodside and back to the car...the IP6 excels at those long end-of-the-day glides!  Meanwhile Alex had done Hope-and-return, the first PGer to ever accomplish this (so proud!), almost claiming Martin Henry's bottle of scotch (although the challenge had been to also top-land Woodside after returning from Hope to claim the full prize).

Fraser Valley crossing: final glide from Gloria back to Woodside.

Sunday started off pretty cloudy and shady, and many of us were wondering if the day was actually going to shape up to anything.  But we lobbed off anyways and after about 30 minutes of scratching several of us got high enough to flop over the back to Agassiz Mountain, just for something to do (we still didn't believe it was going to get that good).  A few pilots landed at Harrison beach or the base of Bear, but Fred, Andrew, and I were still in the game.  Andrew opted to cross to Bridal while Fred and I continued east since it looked sunnier that way.

It was actually NE winds up high which meant flying to Hope was actually upwind.  Slow climbs but we eventually got to Dog Mountain where we finally got to 1700m and were able to see into the Fraser Canyon and up the Coquihalla Hwy.  By now the shade had largely disappeared and the climbs were strengthening.  It was fully outflow winds in Hope with the airplanes taking off and landing to the east, so the return flight was actually mostly downwind!  My low save came at Hunter Creek, a notorious wind tunnel on "normal" days, but this day it was 0 wind and I climbed out above a small fire and then it was pretty much ridge running, downwind, all the way to Bridal.  Even coming around the corner at Ludwig, another wind-tunnel area, was easy.

The final shade of the day as a band of cirrus came through and it was late enough that we went on final glide from Bridal launch height towards Agassiz.  We actually could have made it across to the Agassiz side, but the fields next to the bridge were very wet-looking so we opted to land in Rosedale instead in light east winds.

Staying warm in early spring means bundling up!

The day was incredibly light wind-wise; I don't think I've ever seen it so light (or east) in Hope in the afternoons.  It was a real treat to do Hope-and-return after Alex did it the day before!  Early spring is the best time to try these flights, when the  Fraser River is low and lots of sandbar landing options, we have light winds, and we have higher cloudbases to work with.

Woodside March 9

My first XC of the season since getting back from Valle de Bravo almost 2 months ago!  Dressed for the weather and was toasty warm for the whole flight.  Oodles of pilots out so launched early (12:30) just to avoid any launch lineup hoopla.

Low cloudbase around 1200m over Woodside meant it was dicey to fly west, especially since the two times I tried it I kept getting 2.5m/s down, so I gave up on that idea and headed east instead.  Lots of air traffic at the powerline project at Agassiz Mountain: I passed over a heli just spinning up on his log platform heli-pad, and one of those huge tandem rotor helicopters passed by twice, plus several floatplanes heading up Harrison Lake.  Note to pilots: keep eyes and ears peeled when crossing from Agassiz to Bear this spring!

Cloudbase was marginally better at Bear (1400m) so crossed to Ludwig, arriving at 700m and a comfortable climbout on the windy corner.  But it was quite shady on the Bridal side, only Alan was flying that side, and the clouds were doing that coming-over-the-back-and-spreading-out thing, creating a shelf of cloud and shade that extended over the highway.

Still some deep patches of snow to get stuck in :)

My tentative plan was to get high enough to fly back to Agassiz, but the shade was getting worse and the lift nonexistent west of upper launch, so Alan and I landed at the Bridal LZ.  Meanwhile several pilots had landed on the sandbars at the base of Ludwig while others landed at Seabird Island.  Al flew west (!) trying to fly home but got stuck at Deroche and turned around.  Martin on his ATOS flew to Benedict and back.  One tree crash as a rusty pilot had a spin-stall-spin-surge-dive event just behind launch, going into the last row of trees in the cutblock to the SE.  No injuries and he had a tree rescue kit, but last I heard they were still working on getting the glider out of the extremely tall tree.

Unfortunately, despite having plenty of time for in-flight photos, my camera battery died due to the cold.  The only one I got while the battery was still warm was on launch of the obligatory stuck-in-the-snow truck ;)

Monarca Open final results

Monarca final results.

After 6 awesome tasks we finally found out who was the winner...Josh Cohn hung onto 1st place overall and Brett Hazlett got 2nd place!  Marko came in 3rd place overall.

I took women's 1st place and 23rd overall!  Before this comp I had mentioned, mostly in jest, that it would be nice to place in the top 20, but I wasn't very serious.  Had I not landed out today I probably would have retained top 20, but 23rd is pretty close and this is the best finish I've had in years outside of a Canadian comp.

The racing this week was fantastic and the task committee made some good challenging tasks that took us places we don't normally go on non-comp days.  It was really fun seeing how much I could keep up with the Big Boys and learning tonnes about following lifty lines and letting the glider do its job.  After 10 days of flying here, I managed over 36 hours airtime and ~450 km XC, which is pretty sweet when you consider it's January.  Valle is such a great place to fly and you're pretty much guaranteed oodles of airtime, at the perfect time of year when you're wanting to get away.

Back to Vancouver now and the cold...likely no flying for at least another month, and then it'll be coming up to XC season in the Fraser Valley!!!

Monarca Open Jan 12

Jan 12 tracklog.

The final day of this comp and the task committee decided to go bold and send us out to Aguila (the direct way!) which, if you sink out, you're in the deep canyons or on the wrong side of the peak and a long retrieve back to Valle.  And of course as we arrived at the TP, a bunch of cirrus showed up and it was time to switch to "survival mode" and wait it out.

Many gliders didn't make it and sunk out either at Aguila, or on the way back to Penon as the lift was in weird spots with lots of sink in between.  But once back on the Wall it was easy up to cloudbase and then riding the convergence over Sacamacate to the San Francisco TP out by Mesa-D.

I was at cloudbase, 3400m, when I went on glide to tag the TP and it was enormous sink all the way there and back.  I couldn't believe that much sink could exist and considered turning back to try to re-establish under the clouds and try again.  But the Enzo in front of me was continuing on and I was in race mode, so I stuck it out.  Bad mistake!  Coming back from the TP I couldn't find a way out of the sink and shade and ended up dirting in San Lucas, while the Enzo found a better line and got back up under the convergence and presumably goal :)

Of course about 10 minutes later the sun fully came back out and it was probably easy flying as dozens of gliders flew overhead as I was packing up.  But I wasn't too disappointed...it was a really cool flight especially the save over Aguila and a valuable learning experience.  Sometimes you need to turn the race mode off!

I think about 50 pilots made goal today and Brett H and Josh were neck and neck for the $300 US prize money for today's winner.   Awards ceremony is tonight and we'll find out who won overall.

Monarca Open Jan 11

Jan 11 tracklog.
Monarca results.

Another perfect Valle day with light winds, high base 3400m, and an epic convergence line on the other side of the Mesa.  Today's task was fairly short, ~70km, of back-n-forth across the Mesa and towards the Butterflies ridge.  The climbs were fast, and once under the convergence it was speedbar all the way to the ridge, a bit of climbing, and then speedbar back to the Mesa.

Two possible ways to tag the 3 Kings TP...either heading back to the Wall and tagging it from the SW, or stay on the St. Augustine/Escalaria side and tag it from the NE.  I chose the Wall side so I could approach 3 Kings from upwind, rather than the possible sink downwind of Maguey.  Beamed up to 3200m after tagging it and then I knew I had the ESS and goal on glide, so I barred it all the way over the lake, neck and neck with 2 other gliders and it was butter smooth!

60 pilots in by goal close, and I made it in 2:18 (the leaders were 1:51) which gave me 22nd place for the day and back to 16th overall.  Lots of action in the LZ as the packup kids were out in full force and the TV news crews were filming the action and interviewing pilots.

Tomorrow is the final day and hopefully I can keep it together one last time!  So far the racing has been really fun, especially since I can now keep up with more pilots and exploit the local terrain more fully, pushing into wind and staying in the convergence are now so much easier!

Monarca Open Jan 10

Jan 10 tracklog.
Monarca Open results.

Felt a bit high-pressury today, with much less clouds and rougher climbs.  In fact the whole waiting for the start, and until the convergence, was rough and ratty compared to yesterday.

Given the bluer skies and higher base (3600m) the task committee sent us to the Monarca ridge and then behind Torre launch to the Elefante TP, before returning us to the backside of the Mesa and finally the lake, for about 80km.

It was only once we arrived at St. Augustine that I was finally able to connect with the clouds and get high enough to stop worrying about landing out :)  Because the Monarca TP was arranged as a line, we could tag it anywhere along the ridge, so I opted to head there via Mesa-D, with a bunch of other gliders tagging along behind me.  The lead gaggle had chosen the more direct line to the Saucos end of the ridge, but it seemed much bluer going that way which is why I chose the slightly-longer, but (looked) more centered under the convergence, route.

I've never really liked the Elefante TP...I've always found it windy, rough, not much for cloud action, and generally not that nice a place to hang out.  Today was no exception and it was slow going in there to stay high in the wind and not land out, while trying to tag the TP way out in the valley.  Many pilots landed out in the Saucos area as the wind was too much for them, but about 4 of us managed to get out of there and back towards Jovans.

Unfortunately we weren't able to reach the convergence and it was a windy ride to the ground around the Jovan area.  I pointed my glider at the last TP and turned around 3 km short so I could make a safe landing at the airport where I could see Brett Z and James Bradley packing up.  The small airplane waiting at the end of the runway was nice enough to wait for me to land before beginning his takeoff.

We had at least 3 reserve deployments today...one was just behind launch a few minutes after I took off.  The second was just short of the Elefante TP.  And the third was in the 3 Kings area, where a helicopter was dispatched to expedite the removal of the pilot+glider from the trees.  All pilots were OK.  Brett Yeates managed to put his glider down in a tiny LZ after a long sinky glide over a sea of trees and a long walk out to Serro Gordo.

In the end only 8 pilots made goal so me landing at the airport actually gave me a pretty good score...I managed to hold onto 13 place for the day.  Pretty happy with today's result!

Monarca Open Jan 9

Jan 9 tracklog.
Mexico photos.
Monarca results.

Another perfect sunny day with delicious cu's popping all over the place!  Short-ish task today to ensure lots in goal, this time 57km over to La Pila, Aguila, and then the lake.

Lots of cloud surfing was had by all just before the start, and fast racing to La Pila and Aguila where the clouds were showing the way.  I had my fastest, smoothest climb of the day just south of Diente, where a nice 5+m/s took me up to cloudbase and then it was basically speedbar all the way past Espina and Maguey where a few more turns just to ensure goal, and then reaching the ESS in 1:56.

We did have at least 1 reserve deployment (and possibly 2)...the known one was tossed really high over La Pila and he apparently rode it down into a canyon where he was eventually found.  I also saw a pilot, low, on the Avandaro side of the lake in some rotor, and later on didn't see him...he reported settling into the trees as he couldn't make the glide to a beach just upwind of him.  I did see 2 reserves being examined in the goal field and one was pretty trashed!

We had a pretty full compliment of Canucks in goal...Brett H, Brett Y, Will, and myself.  And it was Will's first time in goal!

The task committee could have certainly called a longer task today, but given the paucity of pilots in goal the past 2 days, I can totally understand them wanting to have lots of pilots in goal.  In the end I saw maybe 50-60 pilots in goal, with several more either landing short, or landing in goal after it closed at 4:30pm.  Had it been a free flying day, it would have been an easy flight to Toluca!