Mara fly in.

leif and I hit the road on Friday planning to fly in Golden in the afternoon before pressing onto Mara to fly Saturday. It looked really bad in Golden so we didn't even slow down. Just kept pressing onto Mara. The sky looked great when we got to Mara and we thought we had missed a really good day there. As it turned out we didn't miss much. The wind wasn't really cooperating that day.

Some one tell me what these two are thinking?

I can't figure it out.

Saturday I didn't get out of bed in time for the first trip up but some paragliders went up and did some tandems and sledders. We went back up in the afternoon and things were looking good. Nice looking sky and the winds appeared to be light. The wind was cross a lot but some really nice cycles would blow in regularly. A few of the paragliders got off and were up but not really high. I was getting ready to take off in a nice cycle when I saw Tonya dropping like a stone from a 1000' over and ended up landing. This didn't inspire me so I waited for the next one. Once the wind started blowing in nicely again I figured I should get off the hill. I flew threw what seemed like pretty good lift right in front of launch but just wasn't on top of it. A little further out I found enough to get me above launch. The lift was disorganized and hard to follow. Good climbs just suddenly stopping or moving. The wind was stiff out of the south and it was a struggle to make progress. I didn't think anyone else would bother trying to fight into the head wind so instead of waiting for friends to join me I headed out on my own. As the day wore on the lift got a little better and I was getting a little higher. As many who have flown here will tell you the Enderby cliffs look like a great place to find lift but never seem to work. You need to try and get high here as you have to jump a bit of a gap in the range. Knowing all this and fighting into a head wind I tried to get as high as I could before crossing the gap just behind the Enerby cliffs. When I felt I couldn't get any higher I press on. I found a bit of lift and a lot of birds on the other side but just didn't have the Patience I needed to get up again. I pressed on and soon landed before getting to Armstrong. It was a fun flight and I was happy to get some air time.

Our new paragliding friend Amine from Vancouver.

Tonya stylin in her new shades.

Sunday the paragliders went up early again and drove down as the wind was cross all morning. Not being inspired we headed home early. It was great meeting some new friends and hanging out with other friends we don't get to see often enough. Looking forward to some better flying days ahead.

Canadian Nats.

Not much to report from me on the nats. Due to some poor weather and poor flying on my part I never got on course.

The highest scoring day the forecast winds were light out of the west. This means the wind comes over the back and you need to get off launch when you can. The first few pilots took off when the wind would cycle up. It's a fine line between launching too early and sinking out and waiting too long and not getting off. I watch the first few go and was dressed and ready to go myself. Just standing beside my glider checking on the progress of those in the air. Several pilots were standing in line so I had six in front of me. When the wind started to blow in Dave Scott was at the front of the line and took to the air. I turned around put on my harness and helmet. When I turned my glider around the whole field had launched. I walked to the edge of the hill as the wind started to die down. Then it blew down and the last six of us were stuck on launch.

Turns out the first turn point we had was 20km back into tiger country and no one was willing to fly back there. A few pilots thought the day should be scrapped which would have been great for me but in the end it was scored and was the highest scoring day of the meet.

The only other day with any sort of points was the last day. I was one of the first few off and didn't hook into the thermal right in front of launch. This mistake put me on the ground and was the end of the comp for me.

Ross did a great job on the last day and is this years national champion. Congratulations to Ross and Milko who won the king posted class.

Randy did a great job promoting the event and had some great prizes. Ross got a new North wing freedom 170 single surface glider for winning.

Hopefully we'll be onto better weather and flying for the rest of the summer.

Lumby Air Races

Sorry for not keeping up to date. I'll try to keep on top of the rest of the events for this summer. The spring has had plenty of rain but the good days have been very good.

The Lumby air races started off sitting on launch all day with out getting in a task.

Day two was much better. Good lift forecast, light winds and a 10,000' cloud base later in the after noon. Winds were light and we had strong lift but it was disorganized and you had to search for it every few hundred feet.

I start off typical for me at coopers, I never got over launch and headed down the ridge low. 400' below launch I finally found broken lift and started working my way up. Once I got to the top of the lift at 5000' several pilots raced towards me and we headed off on the task. Three small laps around Lumby followed by three bigger laps for a total task of 98km. I started out following Jeff Shapiro but soon let him go. He was pushing hard and I just wasn't up to the challenge. I lead Ross Hunter, John Orders, and John Mclintock around for a couple laps before I really lost my drive and just started flying with them. John Orders pushed out in front of us as we started the big lap and John Mclintock took a left as he still had a small lap to do. Jeff had lapped us once by this point. Ross and I caught up to John at the satellite turn point much higher than he was. Ross and I managed to get to 6000' before heading off to camels hump. John never found the lift we did and headed out lower. This turned out to be his death and he landed before getting to the turn point. Ross and I got over the turn point at Camels and worked with a couple paragliders to get back up to 6000' before heading back to launch. We topped up in the reliable lift over saddle that had been there all day. I should have notice not many pilots were in the air and several were just heading in to land. We rounded the turn point over launch and the ridge that had been working all day was now shutting down. This was the end of my flight as I gave up and went out to land. Ross worked a little harder and made it a few more km than I did. John Mclintock managed to get around after us and was the only one to make goal. Jeff Shapiro push too hard and ended up landing just a bit short of goal but was way ahead of every one.

Turned out to be a challanging fun day. With the low top of lift it was good for the crowd at lumby days as you could see lots of pilots all day racing around town. Many people in town were commenting about it. The town is very supportive of the event and is very welcoming. I love coming here when the weather works for us.

Today was blown out. A few flew and said it was unpleasant. Looking forward to some good flying and weather ahead of us.