Another fast day.

Scott wins again!

Day six Nat’s. The forecast today was for moderate winds out of the south high cloud base and strong lift. We don’t want to make pilots go north and have to fight a head wind into goal. We also don’t want to make every one fight a head wind all the way to Invermere. I wanted a longer task to Brisco and back but am vetoed as others don’t want to fly that far. We decide on a task to Spillimacheen out to the cliffs by the canon west of Nickleson and back to Muller Flight Park. We open launch at 2:30 with three start times, 3:30, 3:45, and 4:00. No one rush’s to launch when it opens but do steadily trickle off. No one is having any trouble staying up and pilots continue to trickle off and climb up over Mt 7. I get stuck on the ramp for a long time as pilots launch off the south shale. By the time I finally get in the air the first start has come and gone. I’m now in a bit of panic to get in position for the last start. I climb up easily and get over Mt 7 a few minutes after the second start. I decide to wait for the last start to be in good position for the start time. I work a slow climb to kill time in hopes of being at cloud base when the 4:00 start hits. This strategy works well as I only need to chill out at cloud base for five minutes before my start time. I’m at 3800m, 2km from the edge of the start when I get the happy noise and head on course. I hit some lift at Kapristo and make one turn and press on as I’m not happy with it. I have a 15km glide before I finally get a good climb at 800’/min. I climb up to 3200m before it starts to slow and I press on. I continue flying hard only stopping for really strong lift. I pass pilots all the way to the first turn point and catch most of the faster pilots at the first turn point. I get high with Doug Keller just before the turn point. We tag the turn point head back to the back range and get high again. When we top out my 5030 reads I only need 70m to make goal from 45km out. I press hard going back with a light tail wind. Knowing I don’t need much more height to get back I only slow down in most lift and we only make a few turns on the way back. I only want one strong climb to make sure I get in as I don’t know how high I need to be to tag the turn point. We stop 20km out but the lift isn’t strong. I press on to Kapristo thinking I will find something there. I climb as I fly towards the cliff’s lifting me over the peaks but nothing I want to stop and turn in. I look at the turn point thinking I can make it but just can’t risk pushing to hard. Once I fly out into the valley I will be committed and have no chance of finding any lift. I fly all the way back to Mt7 and find a boomer and climb over Mt 7. I know this is way more height than I need but I’ve already wasted time getting this insurance height I might as well turn as long as the lift is really strong. I hit the turn point high and turn to goal and bury the bar. I finish the 106km task in 2 hr 11min. I will finish four minutes behind Scott winning the day in 2hr 7min. I’m very happy with how I flew today making good decisions and flying fast. I could have been very close to Scott’s time if I would have just glided into goal but I’m happy with my choice as it would have been a big risk. I’m surprised at the points I lose by taking the last start time.

The race is on!

Day five nat’s. The forecast was for light west winds, strong lift and a high cloud base. I’m a little sceptical with all the rain we’ve had and don’t believe the lift is going to be that great. We decide on a double out and return to Parson. This will help to keep pilots bunched up so you see lot’s of gliders on course. The total distance is 126km. We push the start times back to 3:30 to let the day develop and make sure it’s soarable before making pilots launch. I’m thinking it will get better later so I launch later and plan on taking the last start gate. After I take off I have no trouble getting up over launch and head to Mt 7 to get in position for the first start. I mess around a little too much and as the last start ticks by I’m just starting to climb in a strong thermal. I stick with it as I’m climbing fast and take the last start a little late. We run into plenty of lift on course but not all of it is worth turning in. I stop to turn when my vario pegs off the scale but on the back side is sink. I waste time all day stopping for this fools lift never learning my lesson. In the end I make goal but very slow. Launch is the goal cylinder and I come into goal 400’ below the turn point. First time I’ve ever finished below goal height. After tagging goal I head around to the towers and get back up again. I fly around with Scott doing a tandem and the paraglider tandems for 40 min after I finished the task. By the time I land my flight is almost five hours. Need to pick up the pace tomorrow if I hope to gain any ground.

Rained out.

Nat's day four called due to rain.

Racing the weather

Timmy packing up after pulling off a challanging landing.

Day 3 Nats. The forecast for today was for rain in Golden in the after noon. The weather was looking better south so the call was to Invermere. We tried to time the task so that is was soarable but before the clouds moved in. Half the field launched before it got shady but no one really got up. As the front moved in the winds picked up in the LZ. Every one got drilled coming into land and a few down tubes paid the price.

Blown out

Shaunia and I getting ready for our morning flight.

Day two Nat’s. I got up early to do a tandem flight before the afternoon task. The wind was strong out of the south. I arrived over the LZ with 700', enough to do one circuit before landing. The forecast is for strong winds today so we push the pilot meeting back to 2:30. The wind is still strong so we push it back to 4:30. I need every day to have any chance to get close and I’m anxious to get up the hill. By 4:00 the winds die off and we head up. The wind is still very strong on launch at times and we wait some more. I set up right away as the wind is with in my tolerance level. By 5:30 the wind isn’t calm enough to get every on off safely in time to have a fair task so the day is called. I launch a little after six and climb out in strong lift. I climb up to 11’000’ and head south. I decide to Parson and back which is the task we were thinking about. The wind is 30km out of the west at the top of the lift but I have no trouble heading down range. By seven things don’t seem quite as strong and the flying is more pleasant. I hit Parson and start to head back. The wind is all over the place depending on the altitude. I had some tail wind going out and some coming back.

When I got back to Mt 7 I spotted Calum Neff over the peak. I had just helped him with his first high flights last weekend. I was very excited to see him and raced over to fly with him on his first thermaling flight. I got to fly with him for an hour chasing around the mountain. I find the first thermaling flight to be more special than the first high flight. Just something about getting above where you’ve taken off from that is so thrilling. It also feels more like you have arrived as a pilot after working so hard to get to that point. We landed after 9:00pm in no wind. The landings were all great and we were grinning ear to ear. I had a three hour flight with a short cross country and got to share a momentous flight with a new pilot. I’m also not sure I have ever landed that late. Calling the day will put another nail in my coffin but it would have been a very stressful day for most of the field trying to call a task. The most important thing is for every one to have fun and making people fly today wouldn’t have been fun.

Canadian Nats Day one

Looking sw from launch over the LZ

Day one nat’s. I arrived today at noon just as every one was loading up. With the winds out of the south west we picked a task to Spillimcheen and back. Some thing low stress and not too hard to try and start on a good note and have lots of happy pilots. I launched a few back and picked a great cycle. I got over launch right away and start to climb strong. Several pilots bailed off right after me and start climbing up over launch with me. The lift started to break up at 7500’. I headed off to find better lift in front of Mt7. I flew over Fiona turning over the spine and not even a peep out of my vario. I saw Scott very low in front of the cliff’s looking like he would be heading out to land soon. I was very surprised that I wasn’t hitting any lift I looked back and John and Fiona were climbing up the spine. I headed back to get under them but again found nothing. Now I was struggling low with Stewart, Christine and Scott. We struggled well below the cliffs for awhile and finally headed out to land. Christine and Stewart were right behind me and Scott headed south of the punch bowl hoping for one last chance. He found some thing at the south end and climbed up over Seven after struggling for an hour below launch.

Scott would catch the entire field after starting 15 min after the last start time to win the day. John Orders was not far behind followed by Ross. Doug and Fiona came in a short while after with in seconds of each other. This was Fiona’s first time making goal; she continues to fly very well. Half the field made goal the other half bombed out. No one landed out. Scott scored 980 points.

The forecast is for rain mid week, so it looks like we will lose at least one day. I’m very frustrated, by making a couple wrong decisions and a little bad luck I will be out of contention after the first day. The punishment is extreme.

Back in the mountians.

We stopped in Golden on the way home to try and squeeze in a flight. The weather wasn't looking very good when we rolled into town, kind of over cast. A few blue spots promted us to head up the hill. It was looking better when we got to the top so we set up right away and got ready to launch. Leif went first and struggled to stay up. He made a valiant effort to get up before heading out to the landing field. I launched next and searched a bit before getting a good climb. It was a strong fast climb up to 10'000' before I pulled out to avoid the dark black cloud above me. I declared a 25km triangle before I launched as I didn't want to land down the valley and make for a long retrieve. I moved my turn points this year and headed off to my new start point. It was a little ways out in the valley but I'm happy with the location of my first two turn points. I wasted some time looking for lift after I got my start but soon got back into a strong climb. Again I pulled out well below cloud base to avoid serious cloud suck. As I headed back to my turn point behind Mt seven I got drilled all the way there. As I dropped lower and lower behind Mt seven I started to panic and ran around to get back out front 600m before I got to my turn point. In retro spec I should have took a better look at the clouds and gotten higher and picked a better line back to my turn point. Also I didn't need to pull out so soon. I don't have to make it back to Nickleson. There are other places you could land although going down behind Mt seven is not an option. I think I blew a great record setting day. I will post the flight when I have a moment.

Blown Out

Too windy to fly let's play mini golf. How long is that hole Paul?

The winner of the day lining up his shot.

Awsome golf and he can juggle.

A double scope is a little too much. Eat fast before it melts.

Day five and six turned out to be quite windy. Day five was called off due to wind, day six some people flew but no one did very well. We had a great time here this week. Chelan is a great place to hang out even if you don't get to fly. The local's are very friendly and the local pilots are very helpful and give good advice. If you come here I would recomend talking to the local pilots and take there advice. Chelan has some special challanges, don't learn things the hard way, listen to the people that know the area. In the end we had some great flying and a great time here. Can't wait to come back next year.

Day four.

Ice cream after flying, it's a tradition

Heather and Christine, hot hot pilots.

Temperature cools slightly. With the heat backing off I’ve been able to sleep better and don’t get worn out so bad on launch. With Paul pushing to make it to a pilots meeting we get to launch earlier and Fiona and Doug win a prize in the daily draw. You have to be on launch to claim your prize. Yesterday they called Fiona, Paul and Christine. One of the California guys yelled stop pulling Canadians their not here. Fiona and I picked a 130km triangle to the SE. If I’m going to gain any ground I need to start scoring some big flights. I got ready right away and slotted into line at 1:30. I got off the hill before 2:00 and got over launch right away. I stayed up in some rough lee side lift while I watched several gliders struggle low in front of launch. After about ten minutes it finally turned on and we were able to get high and cross over to the flats. A paraglider helped me get high on the rim on the other side and I was off. Again I was going slow working lift that was dying out and milking every thermal for all it’s worth. Fiona heard you need to be high before you cross the canyon. I found some lift in a field just before I got to the canyon and got as high as possible. As I headed across the canyon I spotted a jet flying fast below me about 1000’ off the deck. He flashed a light at me letting me know he saw me too. I love watching planes fly by, as long as there not too close. When I got the other side I spotted another glider low climbing up on the cliffs. It looked like Fiona so I stayed above her to wait for her to catch up. Once the glider got to my height I headed out but they didn’t follow. Turned out it wasn’t Fiona. I decided I needed to speed up and tried to push hard to make some time. I skipped the next tow climbs which didn’t seem very strong before I noticed the ground was looking shaded by the high cirrus cloud moving over me. Damn, bad time to be pushing hard. Now low I was trying to hang on to what ever I could find. The drift was huge and pushing me away from my turn point. I soon landed. Turned out the day shut down early and their wasn’t very many good flights any way. I should have done better if I would have been more observant but it was a good learning experience. The flying here is awesome.

Long retrieve

Doug and I with some new friend's Cindy, Allan and Co.

I hope that cat doesn't know how to use that gun.

Still hot. I picked a 130km triangle to the east. The forecast was for thunder storms late in the afternoon. I launched late because I’ve been a little nervous about launching here and don’t want to be in the way. By the time I got across the gap you could see rain to the north. I was flying slow and over development was filling in all around me. I fought up wind to get my sim’s turn point in hopes things might clear and I could get back. I knew this was wishful thinking and should have just headed straight east as you don’t need to tag the turn points if you aren’t doing some sort of closed course. I knew there would me no going back with a storm building behind me. I headed straight east after sims and crossed the lake. I got some lift on the cliff’s over looking the lake but decieded with a south wind it might not be the best place to be. If I were to tumble and have to throw my parachute I would be blown out into the middle of the lake. Not that I was really worried about tumbling but I just didn’t feel the risk was worth it. I headed towards the nearest farm and landed.

I was soon greeted by a friendly face on a quad to see how I was. I introduced my self to Cindy and Allan and then Cindy was off to grab me a glass of ice water. After I was packed up they brought me into there home and made some dinner for me. It was nice to have something to eat, I was starving after a long flight and had nothing with me. They were super friendly and made me feel at home for my four hour wait for retrieve. Doug went out to get Fiona but she got picked up. He then went and got Christine. Next was Paul but he got picked up by a friend of Martin Henry so they headed off to get me. Not knowing the area they headed down the highway next to the lake and got with in 6km of me but a the bottom of the huge cliff I was soaring. They had to drive all the way to the end of the lake to get back up on top. Cell coverage was spotty at best which made the whole thing a lot harder. Allan took me in his ’68 station wagon to meet them part way. It’s a little harder to find coming from the north. We finally got back to the farm. Christine and Paul then got to meet Cindy, Allan and all the pet’s. Two dogs, four cats (one pregnant) two duck, three geese, and two horses. They were such kind people and as I’ve mentioned in the past part of the reason I love to fly cross country.

Day Two.

setting up on launch

Tom Peirce's daughter and driver extrodinare, Katie.

Damn hot!! (39c) I’ve been unable to sleep in this heat. I’ve gotten about four hours of sleep a night for the last few days. With the lack of sleep and extreme heat I haven’t felt up to par. I forgot my vario in the truck and by the time I got back up to launch a huge cloud was covering the whole valley. I was thinking it take at least an hour to clear or worse yet blow up. I decided to tear down and after I had all my baton’s pulled the sky cleared. Oh well It just wasn’t meant to be for me today. Fiona and Paul did a 60km triangle and Christine flew out to Mansfield and back. Paul forgot to turn on his track log. Tough lesson many pilots have had to learn. Leif is still working on his glider. I missed a great day and lost a lot of ground.