Waiting

Here is an update. No real update, excpet the weather has been basically snow, rain, and wind. It looks like we may get some nice weather, but there is some wind forecast for the weekend. I may be down in Boulder for the next few days. Will update as needed.

Flying over the Weekend

We finally got some weather to fly over the weekend. Just one day. On Saturday several of us went up Bellyache, and got a couple of flights in, including tandem. Had my first two tandems of the year, and it felt great to get some airtime. Weather was cloudy, but it was unstable enough to get some soaring in. On my second tandem I was happy to get about 500 feet over launch. That was a surprise as the cloudiness was keeping most of the ground in shadow.
In the afternoon we went up to Wolcott as it seemed it was going to be a great day overall wind and weather wise. The afternoon cleared off and it was just partly cloudy skies. Right over Wolcott some nice lenticular and wave clouds formed, and of course the higher winds aloft reached the ground and we were getting gusts to about 30 mph at times. This was not at all what the forecast said. We waited at launch until about 6:45 pm with no diminishing wind. So we bagged the evening. It was funny, because there were no wave clouds to the north or to the south of us.
The road up to the Wolcott luanch is dry and in great shape. So when the weather finally decides to straighten out we will be flying in the afternoons and evenings.
I will be out of town until the 17th of May. I will be blogging daily after that. Blues skies everyone.

Flying May 7th

We fly tomorrow, Friday May 7th. It finally looks like we will be getting a reprieve from the inclement weather we've been having. So, hopefully we will get some morning flying in with a chance of the afternoon working as well. Saturday looks like it may be descent at Wolcott. If we can't drive up to the upper launch, some of us may drive as far as we can and then hike. The other option is to launch off the small site Ravens Ridge and bench up to the upper ridge.
Let's hope we can get some air time.

Otto's Ridge

Well, not much new to say except we spent two days at Otto's ridge, and got skunked. The weather was good, but the wind was from the west. Otto's faces east. However, it was kiteable so got some great ground handling in. This was nice as I have only had one flight since November. Garret, who is a Vail local, was in the neighborhood and decided to head to Reeder Mesa. There ws no wind there.
Back in Vail now, and the ind is still blowing. It does look like we may have the wx settle down for Friday and Saturday. Hopefully we can get in the air. I will post daily or every other day with updates.
Cheers!

Snowing Again

It's Sunday afternoon and it's snowing again. So, tomorrow morning we are going to leave at 5:30 am for Otto's Ridge in Mack, hopefully for a little air time, and so warmer weather. We will be staying through Tuesday afternoon, when it looks like the wind and weather is going to take advantage of us again. I will take some pics and share them for those of you that have never been to Otto's.
Otto's is similar to POM southside. It faces east, and gets the drain from the mountains. The soaring window usually lasts until about noon. Conditions a typically smooth until about 10 am and then it can begin to get a little thermic. It is great option if you don't want to drive all the way to the POM.
After this next bout of weather it looks like the weather may stabilize for a little flying in the mountains. We'll keep you posted.

Been A Long Winter

Hi Everyone, Well it has been a long winter, and I am glad it's over. Unfortunately, winter has not left us, and we had a foot of snow dump within the last 3 days. I have been excited to get airborn, but right after skiing had ended I had to go to Maine and visit the family, and it snowed there. Can't get away from it.

So big plans for the summer, and I hope we can get the Vail ball rolling soon with at least some descent flying weather to scrape the rust off our flying skills. Bellyache, our morning site, was in good shape and dry before the snow came in. So with some warm weather it should only take a couple of days to be launchable. Wolcott on the other hand looked good, but with the new snow the mud on the road will probably hold us off for a couple of more weeks. Usually we can drive up to Wolcott by mid May.

Though I have slacked on writing this blog, I will be making every effort to updat at least 4 to 5 times a week. So please stay tuned for local updates of the flying here in the Vail area.

Unfortunately, there will be no paragliding at the Teva Mountain Games this year. However, I am planning to have a fun fly-in, Colorado league comp during the Games. It is the first weekend in June. I will keep everyone posted as soon as I have more details.

I will leave a picture that Dale Covington took thermaling in the leeside of a 7,000 foot south face during the Nationals in Utah. Talk to you on Monday.

Cheers

US Nationals 2nd round

So, I am sorry it has taken me so long to keep my blog updated. Being on the road, and just always trying to catch up with personal details back home, it seems the time just passes me by.

I thought I start with the US Nationals week long competition in the Provo, Utah area. The site we flew for the whole week is called Inspiration Point. It sits about one quarter the way up Cascade Peak, with a west facing launch. What makes this area so appealing is a north to south mountain range with 11,000 foot, plus peaks. Winds are generally westerly, so it makes for great flying since the front side on the mountains face directly into the prevailing wind. From the valley floor to the top is approximately 7,000 vertical feet.

Arriving a day early to get a training flight in, we were greeted with the weather wet, stormy and wild. Not a good start to a week long competition. Unfortunately, I had flown this site only once about 12 years ago, so a training flight was not in the cards due to the weather. I always like to familiarize myself to a new site just to get the feel for how it works. Fortunately the weather looked like it was going to be great, at leasrt for 5 days or so during the comp. Seldom do we get several flying days during a comp when in the mountains due to the ever changing weather. Maybe this one would be different, and it was. We had 7 total flying days. The comp lasts seven days.

So the first day, I was focused on getting familiar with the site, and was hoping for easy conditions to fly. I also had only about 7 flights on my comp wing, which is enough to get a feel for the glider, but not enough to really dial it in. After launching I was surprised that the climb outs weren't easy. I turned left right off launch, as a few pilots were actually climbing out, but later I found out the house thermal was to the right of launch. I sunk out to this hill that has a gazebo on it, which really isn't far from the bombout. I trusted that the gezebo was going to work for me, and it did, but it left me really far behind from the gaggle and start. Again, I was taking this flight as a training flight. Finally climbing out to about 2,000 feet over launch, I began the task. It was about a 70 km task to the south. I was thinking that the front faces of these big mountains as rocky as the were, would really work for lift, but I was unpleasantly disappointed. I worked and worked, scatched and scatched, much more closely rock faces then I like on a comp wing. I groveled to the first turn point, and tweaked my way to the second turn point, and sunk out. Disappointed, but it was a training flight, and I was happy with my comp wing, conditions were weak climbs with turbulent conditions, and the glider handled beautifully. Crisp, responsive handling, and probably the most soild comp glider I have flown to date.

The second day turned out to be another nice day. Still under the high pressure influence, I was looking a little more forward to the task, as I had a little familiarity on the site. About a 68 km task to the south was called to a little airstrip called Nephi. I had a rough start again with a botched launch. Conditions were light, and I tried to run hard on the uneven launch terrain, but tripped. I had to untangle my glider etc. Finally when I got everything sorted out, I was one of the last pilots on launch. I had an easy takeoff the second time, and climbed out alone in 500 fpm lift. Being so far behind, I reall didn't wory about catching up, but I surprising ly had good luck, and got to 11,500 feet msl, and went on course. Even though the task was a straight line, the mountain range made a 45 degree curve. You had two options, one to follow the mountains and the dogleg, or go across the flats. Terrain seemed like the obvious choice, and consequently all the pilots took that option. I was happy with my progress, as I was catching up to a few pilots as I was going. I was also noticing several pilots landing out, and so I was thinking I was making some headway. Goal was supposed to close around 7:30 pm so I was making progress and observing that I would make goal at around 7:15 pm. before the dogleg we had some flats to go over, and may pilots were getting low. I came over this spine with about 250 feet agl. I worked down the spine and found a weak climb at about 200 fpm. Working it I began to climb out, and finaly another pilot comes and joins me and it's none other the John Van Duzer who always flies serial class, but makes goal much of the time. as we worked together, we ended up climbing and helping each other, topping out on this climb a 4,000 feet agl, we went on glide, Trey, joined us as well, so the three of us could work together nicely, and got the climb of the day to 13,000 feet msl, which was about 8,000 feet agl. From the top of this climb we had the coolest final glide I had ever had in the evening light. My GPS was saying I was going to make goal before 7 pm which was good, but had plenty of time to spare. The glide turned out to be about 15 km, and I still had 3,000 feet of altitude when I got to goal. an awesome flight, one of the best of the year, and happy to be in goal.

Stay tuned for the next few days of the comp.