Dunlap BAPA comp March 2010

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FRIDAY
I usually listen to talking books while driving down the road. Friday I was headed to Dunlap for the first XC weekend of the 2010 season when my Dean Koonts novel had just come to a rather creepy termination.  I fired up the Sirius receiver & tuned in some Classic Rock. Soon Bob Segar was singing a medley from a live performance in 1972. I have to admit, that guy had some serious talent.  Something about the tune really haunted me & I found myself humming the tune all weekend long.

So anyway, I arrived in the Dunlap valley at 2pm and was hoping for a ride to launch for a quick flight before making camp.  I headed for Dan's to see if I could swing a ride up the hill.  I talked briefly with Greg, found that I was the only pilot going up, and soon was riding with a gal named Day to launch.  When I got to launch I ran into Tim & Scott.  I gave them a bit of local beta and set up to fly.
The lift was a bit 'edgy' but went to cloudbase at 6000'.  I boated around on the Boom 5, enjoying the opportunity to fly high enough to experiment.  This was also my first flight of any duration on the new harness (a WV X-Rated 5) so I was able to make some adjustments and figure out how to make this harness a part of my "XC System."

Tim & Scott soon launched and we all ended up at Dan's and, later, shared some beers and burgers at a local Dunlap dive.  Thanks for the beer guys!

SATURDAY
Saturday I woke, after a great night's sleep in my pop-up, and headed down to the valley floor to meet the crew.  There were quite a few pilots from all over - Reno, SoCal, Sac, SF, Santa Cruz, Tahoe, etc. We had at least 25 - a great turnout!  I had 4 mentees in attendance; Dudi, Stephan, Brad, and Aaron.  We all headed up the hill knowing that the day looked a bit weak and inverted.  We did quite a bit of site intro for the new pilots and worked with our mentees a bit.  I figured we would need to do most of our work after the task was called.  We built a rather short (34km) task, that had more than one crux. as it crossed the valley four times.  Given the low climbs of 4500-5000', there were many opportunities to dirt early in the task.

I launched early & had a decent start.  The gaggle wasn't very high so the first beat up to 49917 was sketchy and many of us were low on the face of the mountain, ridge soaring around the corner to try to tag the cylinder.  I was 50 meters too low to tag the turnpoint on my first pass, so I went back for another figure'8' in a bubble and tagged it next pass.  It was low and desperate most of the way down to last chance.  Fortunately I had caught a few of the lead gaggle and we worked together to find a bubble and climb enough to tag Last Chance & get back to the main ridge.  Those that stayed on LC to work the weak lift soon worked their way down to a landing at Dan's. . .


I got myself stuck at the ridge for a bit and worked slowly (cautiously) along the ridge, lower than I like.  My goal was to get to the house thermals in front of launch.  I don't like flying low like this with my limited experience on the Boom 5, but it was this kind of day -


I caught a nice 4-500'/min. thermal in front of launch and soon rejoined my high aspect ratio buds.  We all headed across to Granny's Knob together and found a sweet thermal that gave us (almost) enough altitude to get across to the main ridge again.  Josh and I headed out together and I aimed for a rock face that I hoped would provide some heat.  Josh got there with about 400' more than I and had an easier go of it, but I was able to get up, in time.  My thermalling still isn't as accurate or comfortable as it was on the Avax XC2 - maybe due to the much heavier brake pressure, maybe due to lack of familiarity.  At this point Josh took off and hit 49917, DNLCH and went on glide for goal.  I hit 49917 & DNLCH  but couldn't get high enough to head out on final glide, so I headed back up to 49917 for some additional altitude.  This cost quite a bit of time, but by now I realized that the task was over for all but Josh & me.  Unfortunately I couldn't get high enough to get a 'glide-to-goal' of less than 14:1.  I searched in vain & watched as the CirroStratus slowly shut the day off.  Finally I decided to head for RNGSTN with the intention of scoring a bit of lift at the knob between Turkey and the ranger station.  The prevailing wind would provide drift towards goal as I surfed the cow farts, so there was some hope. . .


I hit the RNGSTN turnpoint with exactly 1000 meters of altitude (about 400meters AGL) and a glide req'd to goal of 20:1.  No bumps were felt all the way to the ground.  I landed in the Turkey farm relics, a little over a mile from goal..


Josh made goal and Susan did a great job, making it to the ranger station.  It was definitely a day that required an awareness of pacing to match the conditions.

I think many of the new pilots were a little frustrated with the day.  The task made them attempt crossings they wouldn't have if they were free-flying.  This is one of the primary differences between flying the path of least resistance and flying a prescribed task.  Much of the initial (steep) learning curve is spent learning this pacing aspect of flying a task, and planning tactics to get around the course.  Watching more adept pilots is very helpful in both of these skills. 

SUNDAY
Because the first task was found by most to be a tough one, and because Sunday's forecast was very similar, we decided a "Do-Over" task would be valuable.  The same task was called with a bigger radius at RNGSTN.  In reality, the day turned out to be very weak, and we weren't getting the climbs we got the day before.  I tried a hail-mary from Granny's Knob back to the main ridge and found only teaser-lift.  I dragged much of the lead gaggle with me & we all ended our day at the St. Nicolas Ranch LZ.


Results are HERE, and my flights are HERE.


I feel the weekend was a great shake-out for all the guys with new equipment & wings, and a great intro to the comp format for the new guys and gals.  Next time it will be less intimidating and they will have a feel for the pacing of the day and the flight.

As I drove home, and recapped the weekend, filled with people, laughs, flying and fun - I realized that I was still humming that Pete Segar tune - It was the Travelin' Man/Beautiful Loser medly . . .
I feel the traces they've left on my soul 
Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul- 


Tim

A couple more photos from Dunlap

Thanks to Alex for sending me these two images of our flight last weekend together. Sorry I wasn't able to reciprocate Alex.

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WCPC Day 7 - Task 7

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Today was the 4th scored task. We have flown every day, but 3 tasks were canceled for weather. The weather today looked as good as any of the days this week, so it was "Game-On" and the boys were ready to do some hard charging.

The task was two triangles - The first, from Woodrat Pk to Rabies Pk to Burnt then back to Woodrat Pk. From there we flew to Rabies then to Cemetery to Donato. I got suited up and got in line. From then on, for the next 40 minutes, it was a fiasco. The winds were very light and I blew my first launch because I just couldn't drive hard enough with my broken ankle. I set-up for try #2 and this time the wing got swirled by a gust and landed on top of me. I pulled out of the queue and sorted my gear. I took my time because I didn't want to compound the error. I was the last pilot off the hill - 13 minutes before the start time. I found a nice core, right off of launch, and soon was in a nice spot for the start. As I pushed my speed-bar to get into position for the start, the right brummel-hook (quick reslease for the speed system) let loos and the speed line was buried in the bottom of my harness. This meant I would have to fly the course handicapped, without my speed bar.

From then on things HAD to get better, and they did. I took my time and found the good climbs when I needed them and flew good lines - using the convergence to my advantage as we flew the early laps. Eventually I found myself on top of Burnt Ridge, on the way to Cemetery, and Nicole and I were not finding the screamer that we wanted. We were high enough to get over the back, but not high enough to get to the cemetery waypoint without a climb. The clouds looked good and we went for it. It seemed like the thing to do - but it didn't work out. We both landed about a mile from Cemetery. There were at least a dozen in goal today. I placed 20th for the day.

Eric Reed won the day with all the usual suspects in goal. I got picked up by the van on its way to the goal to pick up the guys in goal. . .I call it the VAN-RIDE-OF-SHAME - You are in this van filled with happy guys who made goal, and you didn't. But I did lurk and learn ;-) Watch your backs boys - I'm learning.

It's been a fun competition and Mike and Gail did another great job of making the comp fun and exciting.

Open Cumulative Scores
1 Mattew Beechinor 2399
2 Josh Cohn 2284
3 Matt Dadam 2227
4 Eric Reed 2180
5 Nate Scales 2148
6 Hayden Glatte III 2067
7 Paul Murdoch 1899
8 Andy Macrae 1709
9 Peter Warren 1643
10 Brad Gunnuscio 1457
11 Brett Hardin 1365
12 Michal Hammel 1357
13 Cliff Curry 1299
14 Tim O'Neill 1293
15 Nicholas Greece 1245

Serial Class Cumulative Scores
1 Peter Warren 1643
2 Brett Hardin 1365
3 Tim O'Neill 1293
4 David Wheeler 1216
5 Tom Moock 1203
6 Melanie Pfister 1157
7 Sam Mulder 1058
8 Nicole Mclearn 1056
9 Steve Young 1016
10 Meredyth Malocsay 878

Women's Class Cumulative Scores
1 Melanie Pfister 772
2 Nicole Mclearn 677
3 Meredyth Malocsay 584
4 Veronica Dubak 401

Results are here.

Tim

New Feature

I'm heading to Denver today for a 3-day session of simulator flying, lovingly referred to as "You Bet Your Job" by those of us that fly for a living. . . When I get back, if the UPS tracking system is to be believed, my Avax XC2 will be waiting for me.

You may have noticed (or not) a cool new feed I've placed on my blog. It's a nice daily feed of paragliding photos that are of good quality. Rod Bailey, a British pilot who (apparently) had some time on his hands & a dream, has put together a system that will allow those of us who like to look at purdy pictures of PG (like me) and allow charitable folks who take purdy pictures to upload them to the server that automatically resizes & serves them out. A good idea that only needs the grist of good photos to survive. Check out pPIC and upload your quality photos.

I hope to fly the Avax XC2 over the weekend & will report on it when I get something to report.

Tim