Task 5 and 6 PWC Chelan

So, I have been back in Vail now for a couple of weeks, trying to get back to working the tandems and lessons. I have great memories of the US Nats and the PWC in Chelan, and now I will try to update the last two tasks. On day 5 we had alot of wind, and the task was cancelled. It was a good thing because most of the pilots were quite tired from the long day before with some pilots in the air for over 6 hours. Even though you sit in your harness, there is still a lot of physical, and copius amounts of mental stimulus going on in a flight that long. Most of us either hung around the lake or by the hotel pool on the day off.

Day 6 dawned nice, and we all headed up to launch for task 5. The task was set as an out and return with a 50 km cylinder as the distance every pilot was to fly away from the start. This format allowed the pilots to go in any direction they wanted. The task was still over 100km. And why not, Chelan always sets itself up for long cross country flights. I launched at the end of the pack as usual and had no trouble climbing out, and had over 15 minutes to wait for the start. Winds again were forecasted to be lighter then they turned out to be. Once on course my track took and easterly direction away from the start as I thought that was the best direction to go on my outward leg. Crosswind the whole way. I kept getting pushed to the south as the winds again had a strong north component to it. Once I got clear of the out cylinder, a big northwest wind kept pushing me south and made it difficult to get back to the butte. There were several of us yoyoing again trying to make upwind headway. After numerous attempts to find a decent climb, I dirted after about 60 km. I was pushing more speed, but it just wasn't enough.

So, day 7 task 6. One more day of cross country flying. And, no, really, a short task under 100 km. The task committee called about a 77 km task out a return again. This time they took the north wind component into the task direction. We were to head north for 30 km, back to the butte, and land at the usual goal the soccer field. However, and ironically, the winds turned out to be strong south. Another great climb over the butte. Once on course I headed north on the east slope of the mountains with the whole group. Another couple of climbs and several of us crossed the Columbia river. We got drilled. Catching the rim several of grovelled 150 feet over dirt. 4 of us landed 2 climbed out, so I was in good company with lots of pilots around. My girlfriend retrieved us with my truck, and on the way back toward Chelan we ended picking up 13 pilots and gear on my truck as the organizers did not send out a van to the location close to the 1st turnpoint. So, we limped back towards Chelan and we finally got the organizers to send a van to meet my truck about 3/4 of the way back. Amazing!

The result party is tonight after the 6th task. Josh Cohn wins the event. Go USA! Nick Greece our USHPA magazine editor got 2nd. Our own Melanie Pfister got 2nd in the womens division. So cool.

A pretty impressive event. I figured that I was able to get over 600 miles of distance in the 13 days of the US Nats and the PWC. A record for me in such a short time. I had my longest duration flight of 6 hours and 5 minutes. The best thing about being at the comps is the camaraderie, the cross country flying, the retrieve and safety infrastruture, and personal bests that everyone gets. No need to be overly competitive at these events. You can always get want you want out of the comps, whether it's serious scores competing with the big pilots, or just achieve personal bests in the distance and duration of the tasks. Hope to see you all at the next event.

Cheers

Task 4 PWC Chelan, WA

So Task 4. We have an ambitious task committee as they have a called over a 150 km task today. The weather for today looked great, but winds were forecast to be around 12 mph from the northwest. This made the task mostly crosswind, but it turned out the winds had a more northerly component and getting to the first turnpoint became very difficult. Most of the pilots landed in the vicinity of the first turnpoint. Jack Brown was the only one in goal before the 8pm deadline. He flew the task in a little over 6 hours.
I launched at the end of the pack today, but it was no problem climbing out from launch as I topped out at 8,300 msl and still had 30 minutes until the start. Once on course we crossed the river and ended up about 1,000 feet agl above the flats and several of us worked together to climb out and get established on the flats. Ironically we were south of the course line at this point, and fighting the north to northwest wind component we kept south of the course line for a long ways. We had some nice cumulus in the flats, but some of the climbs were broken and small cores. Cloudbase was around 12,000 msl. The first turnpoint was Barker, and Leahy was the town just before. Pushing into the wind I made ok headway, but at Leahy I got stuck, found a couple of climbs, and frisbeed back away from turnpoint 1. While I was climbing out of Leahy, several pilots were to the east, and I noticed one pilot having some action. Was it to be? Yes, another reserve deployment, as I watched the pilot have about a three minute ride from about 4,000 feet agl. I was worried he was going to land in the lake to the east, but ended up on land and ok. I would push into the wind and end up low where I had started the last climb. Around Leahy there is a big gap, and you go into areas where there aren't many roads. Not being high as I approached the gap and fighting the wind, I chose to stay near a road. After about 45 minutes of pushing and sinking. I landed near a retrieve van.
I got 50 km, and another great flight, and still learning alot about the new glider U4 2010.
Overall the US pilots are still doing well and there are around 7 pilots in the top 15. The top 15 pilots will go to the superfinal in Turkey. Josh Cohn is in the lead. Results and info here at http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/ .
Today the 22nd of July was cancelled due to wind, but the next two days look fairly good. Stay close for more excitement from Chelan.

More pics from Task 3 PWC

We got to meet some great pilots from Germany, Jakob Hummel, and Gunter Klaus. Jakob took some pics from task three of the dark clouds and the rain. I will post them here!

Task 3 PWC Chelan, WA

Yes!!!! Another 100 km plus task. Another several hours in the air, and another great abdominal workout. Today dawned with some clouds overhead. The forecast for Chelan was supposed to be mostly sunny today, but it turned out to be over 50% cloud cover most of the day. On the NWS forecast discussion they did mention a chance of thunderstorms and showers over the eastern slope of the Cascades, and the central Columbia river valley. That just happens to be where we are. I was curious to see if it would overdevelop, because where I come from if it's like these conditions, usually is over by noon with big cumulus. There were cumulus around noon, but it did seem it might make for a great x/c day with some cloud flying.
So, they called the task and it was 129km triangle. We were to fly north to Brewster, then southeast to 'bump in the road". then southwest to Goran Peak, and then back to the Chelan LZ.
Since I was very low on the priority list, I decided not to suit up for a while, which was the right decision since it turned out to be another slow launch day. The line was getting shorter, and finally decided to get ready, and then everything shut down. No one launched for 45 minutes, since there was little wind, and what there was was coming from the northwest. Finally, there were cycles coming from the lake side launch, and a few of us went over there. I got laid out, tried to pull up once and had a ground tangle. Tried a second time, and not enough wind, then the third time got a decent cycle and got off. I surfed the front of the west launch, and then sunk, so I headed to a saddle to the south, and hook a great thermal of about 800 to 1000 fpm. I was pretty psyched since the task had already started and I was 15 minuted behind. As I was climbing out there was another pilot to the south climbing. At about 9,000 feet msl I am circling and he takes a full frontal, glider goes behind him and then surges asymmetrically and he gets a big cravatte. His glider immediately starts to spiral and he then goes through the maneuvers of stalling to get the cravatte out. After two tries with no results, he hucks and is under reserve for a long ride. He gets on the radio and says he is ok, and another pilot lands next to him. Whew!
So I eventually climb to 10,000 msl over the butte, and I am trying to decide which way to go. The flats or the mountains. To go north to Brewster you can go either way. So I stay over the hills as I go north and find a great climb with two other pilots near the Chelan airport. We climb to cloudbase at about 11,000 msl. The two pilots stay in the hills, I decided to cross the river onto the flats. There seems to be more cumulus developing there. Once over the flats I see other pilots and find a great climb to cloudbase and go on glide toward Brewster. About 9 km from Brewster a few us find this climb to this huge cloud and to stay out of it we have to take a detour toward the Columbia river. Once on the edge of the cloud we made good headway to tag the turnpoint and head back. There was a lot of blue near the turnpoint and there was some sink, but on the way to the second turnpoint there was some great climbs with a big darkening cloud overhead looming. Since cloudbase was about 11,500 msl I went on glide at 10,000 feet msl and was climbing about 400 fpm. At about 10,500 I pushed 3/4th speed, the fastest I had pushed so far, and maintained for quite a ways. About 8 km from the second turnpoint began to sink, and I was concerned because now almost the whole flats were in shade. Once at the turnpoint I headed to the rim and was getting low, below 5,000 feet msl. I saw a dust devil and decided I would go towards it. I found a weak climb that got me over 7,000 feet and then headed 0ver the river to the third turnpoint and then, with all the dark cumulus looming overhead, and fairly overdeveloped it began to rain. I got over the river, and began to climb out in thermal in the rain, and the organizers called the task for safety reasons. So I made over 70 km.
It was an interesting flight having to stay out of big clouds, and pushing more speed, with the added bonus of flying and landing in the rain. Andre Rainsford from South Africa won the day with Yasushi Kobiashi getting second and our own Josh Cohn getting third. Overal Josh is first with Nick Greece being in third for the US. Stay tuned for more excitement from Chelan.

2nd task Chelan PWC

Wow, another 100 km plus task. This one was a triangle with two turnpoints in the flats, landing back at the soccer field which is the butte LZ. Since I was low priority I had to launch later, but that meant I didn't have to circle in the air for an hour before the start. Conditions were light on launch and a little switchy, so it was taking pilots a long time to get off the hill. It took me three tries today, along with many other pilots. Today was awesome over the butte. The start was right over the butte, and the climbs were great with pilots getting to 10,000 msl. It was easy crossing over to the flats and get established.

Once over I set myself up with several pilots. Of course I am one of the slow guys, as I enjoy just the sheer excitement of going x/c. I wasn't pushing much speed. The first turnpoint was Farmer again. It was a little easier to get there as we got climbs to 10,000 msl on the way. Once there we headed north to Leahy, which is about 40 km from Farmer. I ran into a little trouble on the way there, and got low. Finally getting a climb we passed the town of Mansfield which is halfway between Farmer and Leahy. From 11,000 feet msl, I headed to Leahy only to get drilled close to the turnpoint. It took me close to 45 minutes to climbout finally getting the turnpoint, and go toward goal. Lot's of late pilots like myself were looking for climbs to get out of there and make it over the rim to goal. By this time it was 5:45 pm and the thermals were beginning to get light, but also much smoother. I got a climb to about 7,500 feet msl ,and saw a group going up toward goal, so I headed toward the pilots, and we climbed up to about 10,400, and thought we were going to get close to get passed the rim and make goal. But, of course there was a lot of sink still and could not find another climb to get back up. A few pilots I was flying with made it passed where I landed by working the light lift, but being this late it was going to be hard to make goal. While packing up I saw two pilots, really high, and thought they were going to make it, but they dirted just before the rim. I made a little over 89 km. Not good for score, but a fun x/c.

The US pilots are doing awesome with Josh Cohn winning the day Dean Stratton getting third.

So the top four pilots overall are all US pilots after two tasks. Let's hope we can show the world we have amazing flying, and great pilots here in the states.

The weather looks great for the next 4 days of the comp. Stay tuned for more blogging.

1st task PWC Chelan,WA

And so it was, my first PWC task. The task was over 90 km with launch at the butte, start was just over the rim with Farmers being the first turn point, then to Coulee city, and goal being at Almira. I had been this way before and made goal, so I was hoping for a repeat. Crazy as it was, I got off launch safely, and there was great excitement, as we did not have to stand in line for 30 to 40 minutes. Since there is no priorityon the first day, there was a great free-for-all. While in the gaggle, with over an hour to start and a weak climb to get above the butte, pilots were at times flying pretty close. Next to me one pilot touched his harness pod to the trailing edge of another glider. It was ok overall, but I always tried to position myself in the thermal or the gaggle so I would have an out if I needed it.
Once above the butte, several of us left to get to the flats. It wasn't the best height to make the crossing, and arrived on the flats fairly low. There was still plenty of time for the start, but weak climbs and struggling I was worried. I saw a couple of pilots dirt just over the rim. The start had an entry cylinder and we could get some height above the flats before going for the first turn point. Just before the start I found myself inside the start cylinder and had to fly out of it, and back into the cylinder to get my start. I lost a little time, but not much. As the day was setting up, I was experiencing difficulty, either it was me or the thermals I was finding, because I wasn't getting as high as would have liked. It was a little turbulent, but I saw some pilots quite high, and somehow I was flying with a group that was stuggling. The thermals were broken, climbing at times at 800 fpm then sinking in 200 fpm down. So it was up and down. It was hard to make a symmetric circle to get a decent climb.
So, made the first turn point at Farmers, and found a climb right around the turnpoint with a few other pilots. Getting to about 8,300 msl glides were filled with a lot of sink. It was difficult to go on long transitions with so much sink. Just before a big crossing over a large canyon, a few of us got a climb to 10,000 msl. On glide I lost 6,000 feet in about 6 minutes. Low and in wind, short of the second turnpoint, I was getting drilled. Now what was difficult was to try to stay on course and find a climb without drifting with the wind too much. I was finding weak climbs and trying to drift a little and then fly upwind, find another climb and step up. Eventually I got back up to 6,000 feet msl. But I was off course line that I did not want to cross Banks lake without a little more height. I ended up landing about 10 km from the second turnpoint.
Well, made a little more then 59 km. Unfortunately, another reserve deployment. Pilot seems ok, but has a few broken ribs. Still Chelan is showing it's true colors and game on flying. No complacency here. Tomorrow looks a little better with a good lapse rate and less wind. Stay tuned.

Practice day PWC

Today was the official practice day for the Paragliding World Cup, and we couldn't ask for better conditions. The official task was to fly to Mansfield and back to the Chelan LZ, and it was 55 km. Cloudbase was at 11,000 msl, and very light wind from the west. What was the biggest treat was to fly at my own pace, thermal with few pilots, which made it easy to core any thermal you found. It took a mere 15 minutes to climb to 7,500 over the butte to easily hit the flats. Once established there we were just hoping thermal to thermal to Mansfield. Climbing to 11,000 msl it was fun to fly into little cloud wisps, as there was just enough moisture to form small clouds at base.

The flight took about 2 hours 30 minutes. Thermal climbs were about 1,200 feet per minute. I wish every day was like this, but then again, variety is good too.

Tomorrow is the 1st comp day. Looks like it may be a little windy.

We had our offical meeting tonight with live classical music. Wish you were all here.