The AHGA's XC Contest 2009

Second flight of the day launched 1244pm for another shot after seeing Carlos top land. Bigger lift and easily topped the towers, so went over the back.

More ratty air over the valley and strong surging lift. Took me to over 4k and considered heading Nth, but was taking a beating and short of time so opted for a quick retrieve.

Had to core the best sink to get out of the rough stuff. Actually thought I might come up short of the the track, but once over the dirt I started climbing. Took a l-o-n-g glide and braced to P-L-F before getting my feet down without incident. 35 min.

Looking for a little glass off after the sweet xc, so headed up to Sth mtn Sth launch.

Patience paid off, after watching soft winds over the back die and then a slow build up the face, I launched and was soon over the towers and headed W again. Lift continued across the saddle almost to the Nth launch. A few soft cycles were drifting up by the prevailing W made them ratty. I thought about pushing it for another run down the ridge but instead went into the valley where it was buoyant but gusty. I found enough lift to get another half hour airtime but not enough to clear the Nth range and so landed at the cart track.

XC from Nth launch of Sth mt to the Estrellas.
1116-1215

Max raise 1181ft/m
Sink 1083
Alt diff 997
Superelev 1755
Max alt 3888
Alt gain 5925

Dist: 8.95 Miles

Launch ; 33.328443 -112.087639
Lz ; 33.265156 -112.223024

Parked in the cart track around 930, seeing Satman’s truck behind the assembled race crews. He told me there had been some strong gusts, one had even plucked him while kiting. Hmmm, could be a bust. We waited, Andrew arrived and we decided the gusts to 10mph were worth the hike to see if it was launchable. Steve drove us to the saddle, we hiked and made launch around 1040. After waiting 20mins conditions seemed flyable, with only one gust to 14mph. Andrew hucked first, found some lift but also plenty of sink and found himself headed to the lz.

About 1115 I pulled out the SuperFly Gin Rebel, a 2 Chandler had arranged for me to demo to compare with the Supercalafragalistic Sigma7. A little kiting the day before had already instilled some cautious respect for this very responsive wing. I laid out and pulled up without real incident, although it does feel very light in the air and I had to run under it as the left tip began to dip. Once it the air it was quick to bite the lift and I rose over launch. Not planning to go xc, I did a few more passes looking for the best lift and heard from Steve that Zack was now heading to launch. Hoping to stay in the air long enough for some company I drifted with the lift W along the ridge. A couple of turns here and there, but basically following the rising air took me to 3888 (my max for the flight) by 1132… just 15 mins in.

By now I’m a ways down the range but over the middle of the Nth and Sth faces. The lift was ratty, probably broken up by terrain and the prevailing blowing Nth thermals into Sth. I punched the speed bar and figured, just go for it! I radioed the guys on the ground and got confirmation of a retrieve. Again, not really planning anything major, I just thought, “Why fight the wind to land near the car and waste xc points? Next stop the Casino I figure, but more good lift puts me back at 3500, so now I think let’s see if I can clear those power lines and land near 51st St. Beyond that looked like tiger-country until the Estrellas, but again some solid lift bumps me back to 3700 and so… well, why not? I know I’ve got glide to the foothills, but from there who knows. I noticed some dust devils down south and the lift was getting rowdy, strong but narrow. So now I’m at the Estrellas, below their peaks and I’m thinking, “What if there’s rotor coming over the top?” Not that there should have been, but I’m flying a new hotter wing and the “what if” was enough to keep me from scratching up the face. I found one more solid thermal out front but it wasn’t enough to clear. I edged closer than before, but hit major sink and by the time I turned tail, hit bar and tried to get back to the lift it was game over. Just over an hour in the air and 8.95 miles from launch.

Once on the ground I noticed a few missed calls from Andrew and Steve. Steve wasn’t flying and had a gps so kindly offered to take the lead on retrieve. It took a while as I wasn’t near any roads. I hiked for more than hour before Steve found me on a dusty track. He sure was a sight for sore legs and shoulders.

We made our way back to Sth via Subway. Everyone had gone and it showed E at the cart track, but we thought just maybe it would glass. Patience paid off, after watching soft winds over the back die and then a slow build up the face, I launched and was soon over the towers and headed W again. Lift continued across the saddle almost to the Nth launch. A few soft cycles were drifting up by the prevailing W made them ratty. I thought about pushing it for another run down the ridge but instead went into the valley where it was buoyant but gusty. I found enough lift to get another half hour airtime but not enough to clear the Nth range and so landed at the cart track.

I gained one really important insight to xc, which is that I don’t have to hit ceiling before heading out. The important thing today was finding more lift to stay in the game. It’s a subtle thing, but I think potentially decisive. Thanks again to Steve for helping make it a great day flying.

But so what: I'm posting it anyway. A slightly enhanced sledder that went beyond the normal LZ but landed well within glide isn't XC flying. It'll give me points though and I'll take 'em

A few of us hucked off. A couple of paraglider pilots were there and got flights as we were setting up HGs. Jorge landed just behind launch, which worked out good cuz he let me borrow his wife's vario (that used to be Kunio's). Had it in a pouch on the harness so as it turns out I couldn't hear nothing from it till I was back on the ground. Thanks Jorge! I gave it to Jerry to get back to you. From the HG side of town there was Allen, Jerry, Shiraz, John from down south, bad Randy, Mark, and ... uh ... ... crap I forg.. ah: Kris.

Long story short: had a fairly decent launch, learned a really fundamentally cool thing about how to get into this pod harness nicely after launch, got up a wee bit, still flying the glider way too fast, decided after one pass on the ridge that what I really needed was a nice landing, so I went out to land at the schoolyard. 1.2 miles, 10 minutes. This should not be allowed to get distance points but it will. A flaw in the code? yeah. My code? yeah. Am I gonna fix it before I post this? NO!

I need to secure the backstrap when I'm prone. Doing that this time, because it came undone before my hang check, kept the leg loops tight and the shoulder straps up off my shoulders as I was building the glider. Stepping into the boot was a total no-brainer.

Was it lifty? Oh my yes. I flew through something nice but was pretty much set on re-associating with the glider and free flight, and just flying. So I didn't really try to work anything. Just dug on the pretty girls working on their tans and waving at some kids who were waving up at me ... and landing in a field where a family was playing ball with their kid. Damn. Okay so move on. There's another field and a gentle south means the other field is better. Bleed off altitude above them so their ball isn't my worry, then cut over that little tree line, hit it left, and glide on in. Unfortunately the left turn wasn't as smooth as it should have been, and I still had a lot more energy than I should have. Rocked upright and let all that speed turn into altitude. Not much, but enough to make me think that baseball field backstop up ahead was going to be where I "land". I didn't: I only got to second base

First real actual flight in a year and a half, though Mark reminded me of an afternoon flight I had at Mingus. That had to be after the hernea surgery, but wow I can't place it in time.

It was a bit, well a lot "sporty" over the back of Sth on Saturday. Launching as a flock 1230-1pm we all found some lift and some found lots of sink. Again the focus was to get enough lift to go xc.

Those of us fortunate enough to stay up between cycles made plenty of altitude, but Graeme, Jorge, myself and Glenn all agreed that it was no fun being in the air on the Nth side.

All took repeated collapses and surges and had our reserve toss drills in mind as we navigated the incendiary lift and sink. I hit 1155 down at one point, the started climbing again and thought "no thank you."