Chased out of the sky.

It looked like and awsome day.

We arrived at the tow field about 11:00am. With a perfect looking sky and hotter than yesturday I started to set up right away. By 12:30 I was ready to go. It seemed a little early but the only other thing we needed to see was a glider climbing. With a short road I ended up with a low tow at 1000'. I pinned off in a broken climb but, managed to work my way up to 8000'. I headed down wind to our declaired goal of Many barry at 213km. The clouds looked great, I had a strong tail wind straight down my course line but, I was finding it hard to get a good climb. Their was lost of strong lift but nothing you could get a full 360 in. With the low cloud base I spent my whole flight looking for lift. I had a couple of birds check me out. I went to join one in my best thermal of the day but he made me very nervous. He passed within 10' right below me and came around and stuck right on my butt. I lost my climb and thought it would be a good idea to just bug out. It turned out to be my last thermal. I thought I was going to pull off a low save at 600' but it wasn't meant to be. John was able to get away as well but shared my struggles and landed a short distance from the tow road. Moore was the hero of the day. Flying a sport 2 he was able to show the topless gliders how it's done. He got away on his second tow at about 2:00. He headed straight south following the high way. He made it just short of Lethbridge. His total distance was about 60km. Kal did an awsome job of towing us up and then picking us up. He pick me up waiting by the road and then we were off to pick up John. We help him finish packing up his glider and we were off chasing Moore. We were able to catch up to him and arrived just after he landed. We helped him tear down his glider and headed home. Moore does so much to help the rest of us with out asking for any thing in return. He has picked me up on some of my best flights including my longest ever. I was very happy to be there to help him after a long flight. Few people deserve to have a great flight than Moore. Thanks to Kal and John for there help and congratulations to Moore on a great flight on what I found to be a tough day.

High hopes

Today as we headed out of Calgary we high overcast milky looking cloud. The forecast was good so we headed out to the tow road. By the time we got there things were looking much better. By the time we got set up it looked awesome. With a 30km/h west wind I was hoping for some good lift and a long flight. I was ready first and took the first tow. I towed into a themal climbing at 1800ft/min while still on tow. I was trying to figure out how high I was and if I should pin off. I always prefer to pin off in some thing than trying to go back and find it once I release. I towed to the end of the road before I pinned off I didn’t find anything until I got back to our set up area. I found some broken lift with some bullets that I couldn’t get around in. With the strong wind I soon drifted away and landed shortly after. John and Moore took a few tows each and never got above tow height. I wish I would have pinned off earlier in that strong lift. The forecast gets better every day for the next week so hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Fly as far as you can....meet.

Saturday day a group of us headed out to Standard to try and put on some miles. My instructor, John Jensen has taken off the next week to try and get in some air time. The last couple day’s have sucked. Thursday it snowed so we let things’ dry up Friday. Saturday was calling for strong SW winds. Standard was the call as the winds were forecast to be a little lighter than Vulcan. Driving out the wind was strong already and we had some high cirrus cloud. We headed out early to get as much out of the day as possible. With the high cloud I wasn’t expecting much out of the day. We dragged Graham up a couple times as he was looking for some practice. He hasn’t started themaling yet. John had started to set up but the wind was straight across the road. I was already set up so Micheal towed me up and flew to the east end of the tow road so we could tow straight into the strong west wind. I got a very high tow but we still had milky overcast cloud over us still. I didn’t find much for lift and landed and waited for conditions to improve. Martin, another student, was also out and we towed him up next. The high cloud was pushing east and we had some blue sky over us with a few nice looking CU’s. Micheal said his girlfriend Sandra would tow me up if I wanted to go. It looked like a small window so I took him up on his offer. I suited up and loaded onto the truck. Sandra towed me up over 2000’ and I released into a nice thermal. I gained another 1000’ before I lost the lift and ran down wind to get under the CU’s that were heading east, fast! When I caught up to the clouds I found some good lift under them. I climbed up to 9000’ and looked around on where I was going to go. I headed east towards some nice looking clouds. My next climb I got over 10’000’ and started to lose sight of the ground. I pulled in to get away from the cloud. There was high overcast cloud ahead so I was pushing cross wind to the north jumping cloud streets to let the overcast area push ahead of me to the east. The lift was easy to find and I never got lower than 6000’. I avoided getting over 9000’ as some of the clouds looked big and black. I could see a lot of rain cells all over. I didn’t try to climb to fast as I wanted to let the front push east a head of me. I kept pushing north and then headed east when I had nice clouds in front of me. I climbed under a dark looking cloud to 9000’ and headed on glide. I continued east. As I went on glide I kept climbing and pulled on more and more speed to try and maintain a zero sink rate. When I had the bar stuffed and was still climbing I was very glad I had given myself 1000’ clearance from the clouds. Once I got away from the cloud suck I tried to pick a line to maintain zero sink. I had a 20km glide between two walls of rain showers under over cast cloud. I was running for some sun I could see off in the distance. I arrived 1500’ off the ground and search the area for some lift. There were some bits of lift around but I was reluctant to try and work anything as it was just barren grass land east of me with no roads in site. I didn’t find any good cores and didn’t want to drift off in broken lift. The wind was very strong and my glides were averaging 100km/h ground speed. I set up my landing in the last farm before the tiger country and got kicked around coming in. I stayed on the base tube right to the ground. Just as I was finishing packing up the land owners came over and spent the next 3hrs visiting with me while I waited for my ride. They informed me I was 30km SE of Hanna. I was surprised to find out I had made it that far. When I called John he told me no one else was able to get away. Moore hit the road to come and get me. He picked me up last year too when I landed 5miles south of Hanna after I flew there from Vulcan last spring. Thanks to Micheal for the tows and Moore for picking me up, again.

Flights 2 Air time 2:30 distance 215km.

Spring is here.

The flying season has finally begun at home. We’ve had some crappy weather here so far this spring. Lucky some of us were able to head south and get a head start on the flying. Moore, Doug k, Doug D, Paul, Fiona, Ross, Bruce and myself headed out to Vulcan to get in some flying. Bruce was loading up and getting ready to go when the rest of us arrived and started to set up. Ross towed him up and he was able to get away at 1:00. I was the next ready and Doug K towed me up. I got a low tow and was struggling to stay up. After a short flight I landed and Ross towed me up again as no one was quite ready to yet. I was able to hook into some thing and climbed slowly up to 9000’. I headed off to the east in a strong wind. I found the cores to be elusive and snaky. As I got such a late start I decided to work on my thermaling and get as high as I could. I managed to get to 10’000’ a few times. Thanks to Dougie for lending me some gloves as I had forgotten mine at home. I got high at McGregor lake and headed off to Bow City. I had thoughts of Landing at Bow City but, I thought if I’m going to try and make a big flight this year I need to work on getting as far as possible at the end of the day. I pressed on practicing working weak end of the day thermals. I didn’t really get much further but, its always good to get as much practice as possible. I picked out a farm I thought I could reach. I made it with about 300’ over the house. As I passed over the house I saw about 20 people on the back deck. Looks like a party!! Good choice. I set up my landing in the field next to the house and stuck my landing. A small crowd was already heading my way. As I started peeling off the layers of clothes the questions start. How are you going to take off again? Where did you come from? Did you run out of wind? One of the great things about flying at home is you very often get a warm friendly reception from the farmers. Part of the adventure of flying cross country is randomly meeting new people. It happened to be a birthday party and I felt bad about stealing the spot light from the birthday boy. I was invited in for dinner, drinks and many more questions about hang gliding. I love the enthusiasm and often wonder why every one isn’t as excited about the sport as I am. After a couple hours my ride showed up and I had more than enough to drink. We stayed so Dougie could have a drink and a few more stories with my new friends. Thanks to Ross and Doug for the tows and Dougie for picking me up.

Flights 2 Air time 3:10 Distance 100km

The end of a great week.

The winners, Andre, Jonny and Phillipo

Happy in the desert.

It’s always a strange feeling after a comp is over. Saying good bye to good friends that you only get to see a few times a year. We don’t leave until Monday as the flight was much cheaper. It’s nice to be able to relax before you leave, but it’s also tough being the last ones to go. We had a great wind up party and relived some of the flights over the past week. Andre Wolf from Brazil won with Jonny Durand Jr came in second.

I’ve had a great start to the season and look forward to some great flying over the season to come.

Goaaaal!!!

Our awsome retrieve team. They did a great job of finding every one.

The line up on the final day.

Our meet director doing some cart repairs.

They finally call a task short enough for me to make it in. The preference is to call a closed task on the final day to have every one back early enough to do the scoring and have the wind up party. Conditions are not conducive for a closed task so they call a relatively short task with a quartering tail wind. I take an early tow and conditions are very weak. I’m at the bottom of a death gaggle trying hard to stay off the ground. As I search for better lift I just get lower and lower. Instead of working to get up I decide to land and take another tow. Scott is struggling with me and makes the same choice.

This time I get towed to some decent lift. I climb with several other pilots and get into a good position for the second start. The day has turned on and we head off on course. I was one of the higher pilots when we went on glide and I get a great line. I lose very little height on my first glide and I able to see what every one else is doing. I find a slow climb north of the course line and keep my eye on what every one else is doing. When I see a group find the best lift I join them and arrive near the top of the stack. When the lift stops we head out again. I am leading out and not on the top of the pile any more. We go on a very long glide towards a couple pilots very low. Just before we get to them we hit some lift. The pilot to my right banks up left which I don’t think he should be doing as the pilots in front of us are turning right. As we are not really in the same thermal I turn left with him. As the rest of the gaggle joins us it turns into a real mess. We don’t have one good core and people are turning in both directions. I’m trying to stay off the ground and not hit any one.

I finally get up and press on with Linda, Sonny and a few others. I’m still not very confident about the day and fly very slow. I waste a lot of time trying to suck every foot out of every thermal. It’s one thing to be cautious but we were just wasting time. I start to shade further to the south as there are mountains south of the course line. Sonny is south of me so to keep spread out I don’t get as close to them as I wanted. I lost sight of Sonny but spotted some one climbing over the mountains so I made a right hand turn and head south. I can’t spot the pilot I saw climbing but hit a good climb once I get over the range. As I’m climbing fast I watch as my numbers go positive. I’m not sure if the altitude is set properly. I need to start checking this when I program in my route. I’m 25km from goal and have goal by a couple hundred meters. As the thermal starts to slow I head for home. I have a feeling I’m going to get a good glide in but my numbers are up and down. I can see the airport which is goal and it looks like I’m going to make it. It’s hard to be confident on a 25km final glide thou. I see Linda and another T2 climbing 15km from goal. I stop 500’ over there head’s and take some extra altitude. It’s not a great climb but I stick with it until I have 300m over goal (1000’). I leave every one behind and head on final. I do end up getting a good glide and arrive with 300m to spare. Their was a big crowd on the ground at goal. I was surprised that we used this airport as goal. It was huge and busy. We were given very specific directions on where to fly when we arrived at goal. It was very cool to fly into such a big airport. I set up a good approach into a strong wind. As I transitioned to my down tubes when I got into ground effect I let my nose out and popped up 20’ and stalled. I pounded in hard. I didn’t hurt myself or break anything thankfully. About half dozen pilots came into goal behind me.

I was happy to make goal and was happy with my over all flying. I recognized areas I could have improved on to make it in faster. I think I could have skipped my last climb and still made it into goal. I had wasted so much time earlier that I didn’t think it was worth pushing hard to end up low 1 or 2 km out struggling to get in. I’m very happy with my comp here and I hope I can build on what I learned this week.