Day 2 of the the Steamboat Fly-in dawned a beautiful day. Many of the pilots were anticipating long flights with maybe a little cross country. However, when we got the winds forecast, it wasn't as promising as the day before. The weather gurus were forecasting stronger winds and from a more southerly direction then what is favorable for Mt Werner.
I arrived at launch at about 10:30 a.m. and some pilots were hooked in and ready to go. Chuck Leathers was first in line. There were some fairly strong cycles coming up launch and as forecasted it had a southerly component to it. It seemed it would be better to huck earlier rather then later, as the strength of the wind was forecasted to be increasing through the day. Chuck took off and flew to the gondola with not much lift. He found some small bubbles but nothing really to bite into, so ended up flying toward the LZ. Unfortunately, he was unable to find anything over the valley and landed.
The more advanced pilots decided to hold off from launching as the intermediate pilots were now encouraged to take off as the cycles were getting stronger with a more cross for the south. The crossing from the south did make launching a little more sporty. About 6 pilots took off close to each other including Sam Crater, who is one of the front range pilots who takes excellent pics. They began to climb out so I proceeded to finally lay out and get ready. A few pilots were still waiting and I finally took off at about 11:30 a.m. My launch was quite amusing as I had a nice strong cycle on the inflation, but as I ran down the shallow launch slope the cycle had abated and then turned 90 degree cross. I had to run at least 50 yards before I got airborn with my wing tips flapping as if to say fly-fly. The wind definitely had alot of south in it.
So, thinking I would get something to climb out and join the pilots above me, I was gifted(ha) with a nice sink cycle and proceed to descend with nary a hint of a decent thermal to turn in. I got hit with a couple of sucker pops, but as I turned my sink alarm sang out. So, I continued toward the valley, being even with the gondola terminal as I went by it, which is low. Thinking this was going to be a quick flight I headed to the last trigger point, which is a hill southeast of the landing zone. There ahead of me I saw Rick from Grand Jct. working some lift so I went over to his area. Yep, there maybe some lift after all. By this time I was probably 1500 feet over the LZ, and began to circle in broken lift at about 300 fpm. The valley seemed to be working and maybe we will be able to climb out. The thermal took us to about 9,500 msl, and seemed to end there. A valley inversion was still there so I searched up wind for something to break through. The air felt strange with a lot of holes and switchy, twisty, lift and sink. Subsequently, I flew around the valley for about an hour banging my glider against this ceiling. Many of the pilots including, Marko decided come out from Storm Peak and land, and they had to use half speed to get over the LZ, losing a lot of altitude. Ross went from 13,500 msl to 9,000 msl in about 3 miles getting to the valley. Winds were increasing.
I decided land, and was happy with the hour and twenty minute flight. Time for lunch. Over all not a bad morning and some interesting flying.
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