Cuesta Ridge Today

Today I woke to a call from Patrick at 9:45am & he was surprised to find me still in bed - well, I was kinda surprised too. But I usually sleep a LOT when I get back from Sydney so I was on track. Anyway, Cuesta looked good to the guys & we were to meet at the bottom at 11:30. This was great - I'd get some flying & some exercise.

I was the designated driver to the top & was glad to have Dave, Jack, & Mike in my truck. Patrick & Eric were at the top. Patrick had been flying already & top-landed just as we arrived. Lift looked weak & a very narrow lift band. The wind at launch was 10-15mph. Jack was first off & then I set my wing out. It got a bit balled up in the wind & I had to sort the fiasco before I could launch. Dave was next up & had a minor issue with the wind, but got off the hill well. Then Mike had a good launch. My turn again & finally I got off cleanly.

The other guys hadn't had much luck getting up, so my expectations were low when I turned into a nice bit of lift right off of launch. I went to 2300' (300' over launch) The lift broke up & it looked like a very low top-of-lift but lift was abundant. I stayed close to launch for a while & more birds joined me so lift was fairly easy to find. I flew out front & found lift low & worked back to 2400'. I was the only guy flying by now & felt a bit guilty, but the day was starting to improve & I was having fun. The lift was fickle & even 'violent' at times. I'd roll into nice 400'fpm lift, only to feel like I just stepped off a curb & my wing would do the soft wing crinkle.. . Once, I rolled into a nice core with a lot of left brake, my new toggle mod (see photo) got hung up on the biner when I released the pressure on the brake. This resulted in a very nice spin entry ;-) Recovery was fine after 180 deg. & I was able to stay in the thermal. I'm putting my thumb on the end of the doweling now. . .

I started to do little triangles of the area - each time working up from 1700 to 1800' up to 2400' back at launch. I did 3 laps like this (a couple after Eric & Patrick left). My plan was to land about 600' below launch at the end of the flight. This would allow the guys to go directly home & give me some much needed exercise. I headed for my normal landing spot (when I went by launch the wind was whistling at 12-15 & lots of lift - top landing wasn't in the cards) I had fun climbing up from 1500' (about 180'agl) to 2000' & then decided it was time to see about landing in my LZ. It was quite lifty so I just hung out, flying back & forth until the cycle eased & I made a smooth landing. My phone rang & I gave Jack the all clear. After a 45 min. hike back to the truck, my day, was compleat.

Tollhouse BAPA Competition

Saturday
This weekend was the first weekend of the year to fly at Tollhouse. This site has been the site of my best flight in a BAPA comp & the site of some of my worst. . . This weekend was no different.

The weather looked good & the turnout was great. We had quite a few nationally ranked pilots & at least 10 DHV2/3 & comp wings. I was there with Patrick, Eric & Sharon, & Dave S. This was likely to be my last XC comp prior to the Rat Race and US Nationals in June, so I was hoping to do some good flying & practice team flying with Dave & Patrick.

Jug & Co. set a good task for Saturday - A 34 mile task starting with a triangle in the valley & then a run down Sandy Ridge (above the four lane of 168) then down to Humphrey Station & then to Kaktus... Dave did the best distance in our group & got to the turn-point at 4-lane-turn and then ended up at the High School. I got impatient after circling a long time over Tit, & decided to try a glide into an area with no other wings. I chock this up as a "bone-headed decision". I got shot down heading to the 4-L-T point. Just before my old climbing slab "Square Nails", I had to land in a small meadow above the Tollhouse market. I enforced a 1 mile walk back to the LZ as penance for my making only 7 miles or so. Tomorrow I will be patient.


Sunday
View my flight Here

I called FSS for weather early & the winds aloft forecast for the day was a bit grim. The winds at 3000' were forecast to be NW at 10 & the winds at 6000 & 9000' were going to be northerly at 6 -10. A shorter task was set with the normal triangle around the valley & then a run to Nichols Road & back.

I had an exciting launch into a thermal but climb out was fine & I had a good start. The winds were NW @ 7-9 mph at 5300' top-of-climb and there was some good sink between thermals. I picked my way to Squaws Tit & then to the LZ - back to launch & the a return to Tit. Again I got stuck at Tit for 15 minutes & then Jeff W. came along & we worked some lift together until it was time to head to Black Mtn. & over to Nichols. Along the way I found some lift & felt like things were working out well. Wings in the lead gaggle were not that far ahead & not doing that well.

When Jeff & I got to Black, we were joined by Jug & the three of us worked some lift on the Southern ridge on Black. Jeff decided to head out & Jug & I stayed to eek out the last 500' from a 300'/min. thermal. When we headed over the ridge to Nichols, Jeff looked like a goner, low over dry fields with evenly space trees. His landing looked like it would be a Jedi flight through the trees. As jug & I flew SW there were nice areas of reduced sink & lift that ran parallel to the wind-lines. Unfortunately this only lasted a couple miles.

By this time we were above Jeff, who had hooked a solid climb & was approaching our altitude. The 3 of us team flew 4 more miles until Jeff & I were coring a thermal & Jug went in search of better. He looked like he had gone on a death glide, so I continued working every bit of lift I could find. At this point Josh C. came by & extracted 500' from a thermal I was working & he & I rolled out to glide to the TP together. Josh's Targa 3 sure is a nice wing - he just 'flew away' from me as we glided to Nichols.

Jeff got to Nichols & flew 1 mile back - Jug landed 1/4mile from the TP - I landed 150 yards from Jug.

Dave had a bad day. His Competino had a malfunction & threw his game off. Too bad because Dave & I were close for a while today.

I feel much better about the way I flew today - my pacing is getting better & I flew well with the boys. In all, 14 tough miles.

Wood Rat area & waypoints

I have put together a map of the Woodrat Flying area with waypoints plotted. To see the name of the WP just place the curser on it. The map is located HERE

And HERE is a similar map with the Lakeview waypoints depicted.

April 21, 2007 Dunlap, CA

This weekend was the rescheduled weekend for the rain-out last weekend. It looked like it would be a one-day affair since a front is approaching rapidly. The pre-frontal conditions should produce some good conditions though.

I got in from Beijing at 6pm yesterday & didn't sleep much, but I hauled my sorry butt out of bed at 5am for the 3 hour drive to Dunlap. There were 15-20 pilots at launch with 10 or so competing. The task was ambitious considering that the sky was 90% covered & cloudbase was only 6000' or less. A quick southerly run to Sontag Pk. then West to Hill 49917 then SW to Bald Mtn. The long leg (16 miles) to Cutler (in the flats) then back to Squaw Valley (goal). A total of 46 miles.

Conditions at launch were weak but sufficient to get to cloud base & then start the task at noon. I wasn't far behind the leaders & I was amazed at how well the Aspen2 was able to cover the miles. Jug & I flew together for 6 miles pimping each other to make it to Bald Mtn. It was here that I made a critical error & headed towards an area that Tom & others had been thermalling about 10 minutes earlier. The shade had moved & shut down the area. When I realized the lift wasn't there, I was already too low to return to the slope at Bald that was still in sun. This was the beginning of the end for me. Jug saw my error & was able to head back in time to work the lift & make the transition to the Cutler way point. . .

I learned a few lessons this flight. The first - that this wing can let me explore areas that were inaccessible on my old wing. I like that I can use 1/2 bar & not degrade the glide drastically.
I also really had it driven home (now that I'm not "tail-end-charlie" all the time) that this 'race' is one of strategy that requires cooperation with my fellow pilots & even use of my fellow pilots to indicate lift & sink. Today, hanging back a bit would have saved me. Jug did what I should have done. Next task I'll channel my competitive urges into strategic decisions, rather than just dashing into the next leg.

A good day with around 12 miles covered. . .

Flying at Laguna Lake

I spent the day in San Luis Obispo, getting "suspicious" things zapped by a MD., lopping off many of my hairs at Supercuts, eating at my favorite Mediteranean deli - Jaffa, & doing the weekly shopping for the Coffee house. After doing a tour of the big city, at about 2pm, I decided to hike out to the hill, if only to get a sweat going. I pulled the wing out of the truck & started hiking out wondering if it was a good idea, since I hadn't flown out there in a year & nobody else was there. I was worried about my well-documented lack of groundhandling skills & unsheathed upper cascades etc. . .but the wind looked perfect.

I laid out at the bottom of the hill & made a "If you don't hear from me in an hour, I'm laying on the ground by Laguna Lake" call. The wing came up & (amazingly) never touched the ground again until I landed an hour later. The walk-up was calm & easy & when I turned & flew, it was right into a nice little thermal with a friendly red-tailed hawk. The lift was smooth in most places with nice bumps of thermic air moving up the slope. It was easy to work the full length of the ridge & get high. The wind gradually shifted until it was parallel with the wires & gradually died down just about the time that I was thinking of landing anyway.

A nice, compleate day ;-)

Dunlap in March

Dave S. (at right)& I (below) headed up to Dunlap to fly on Friday the 9th. We had plans to meet up with flying friends from Springville, Sacramento, and the SFO Bay Area, on Saturday.

As I drove across the San Juaquin Valley, the sky was downright depressing - High Cirrus covered 90% of the sky & the air just "felt" stagnant & inverted. From the bottom, we could see that the launch was shrouded in a thin cloud layer.

We met at the school in Dunlap at 1:30pm & didn't think we'd be flying, but covered our bases & left one vehicle at the school. We grabbed some bad food at the mini-market & drove the 35 minute drive to launch. The road was clear of snow & in very good shape. When we got to the top the WX looked encouraging. We launched & flew in a rather narrow lift band of -200/+500 above launch for the better part of 90 minutes. I kept running into the Dunlap "HOODLEMS" - a group of 7 vultures that tour "their" valley together. They cover quite a bit of territory & are great lift signs. The boaty conditions allowed a bit of a valley tour & confirmed that the weather would be good flying Sat. if the high stuff cleared out.

We had a (relatively) good meal at memories in Dunlap & called it a day at the cabins.

Upcoming Competition Schedule

This Spring & Summer has a lot of upcoming flying dates. Each month I'll try to fly the BAPA weekend comps and then, in June, are the Rat Race & the US Nationals.

April 14th & 15th & June 9th & 10th. we'll be headed to Dunlap, CA. May is TBD. June 15th-30th I'll be in Oregon to fly the Rat Race in Ruch, OR. & The U.S. Nationals in Lakeview, OR.

Timo

Flying my Aspen 2

© Will Espada
Today I flew with David S. Jack G. & Tom W. at Cuesta. I was flying my new Aspen 2. I'm trying to get some time on it prior to the coming season of XC & competitions. I've registered to fly in the Rat Race & U.S. Nats.

Conditions were very calm at launch, with an occasional gust from the East, just to bring out the cynic in each of us. Cloud cover was at three levels & still allowed a lot of sun to warm the hill. I decided, after getting an hour of rays, to suit up & fly.

I set up & stood there for 10 min. . .then a puff. I pulled up & turned, but the wing was not pressurized & there was insufficient breeze to get the wing pulling without a serious commitment - This was exactly the circumstance last year when I blew my launch at Valle de Bravo & walked away with 5 broken ribs. I did what any red-blooded thrill-sporter would have - I chickened out & stopped - let the wing come down on me in the restricted launch chute. . .

Dave decided it was his turn & while I sorted my gear, he took off & was working weak lift in front of the ridge when I pulled up & launched. We played tag in weak conditions trying to find that bubble that would allow us to break free of the ridge. Jack launched after 15 minutes and shortly after, Tom made it off.

We worked up & down the ridge getting 100-200' over but not able to get up so, after 20 minutes or so, I headed out front (Jack & Tom were having a little luck out there, but were lower) to see if I could snag a little thermal. Just as Jack & Tom were heading for the LZ, I found an area of lift that must have been a weak convergence. It was quite smooth with 50-100'/min. lift. It was great practice for me to work this weak lift. I was able to climb from 1600' to 1850' but ran out of luck and lift & was on the ground 15 min. later. Dave (who had driven to the top) had top-landed in good form to retrieve his car. Too bad - he would have enjoyed toying with the lift in the valley. He would have shown me how to stay in it for a while longer.

Thanks to Will Espada for the use of his photo above.
T.O.