After three days at Flynns, which is in the valley and suseptible to valley wind, the decision was to go to Gunters today. It was the right decision. Winds were strong on top of the Whites. There is a remote weather observation station on top of White Mountain, and winds were blowing from 15 mph with gusts to around 23 mph until about 10 am. Gunters sits about 8,280 feet msl. This gives the pilots alot more room to find lift. The valley is about 4,000 feet below that.
Checking the weather there were as many different forecasts as I have fingers on both hands. Light and variable winds, strong gusty winds, favorable winds for cross country, which was it going to be?
The drive up to launch went uneventful, and all the pilots made it to launch easily. But the next issue was to get all the pilots off launch. You can only lay out two gliders at the main launch, and there are other small areas that you can lay out only one glider, but at least we could spread out to get the pilots off.
There was some cumulus developing over the Sierras, and over the Whites, and there seemed to be more moisture in the air then yesterday when some showers developed. The heights of the cumulus seemed even higher, but the cloud street forming up range looked enticing. The valley was staying clear, so it looked like we might actually get a task off.
The task commitee called about 103 km task into Nevada, a small town called Mina, with one turnpoint in the valley. The clouds actually settled down the conditions enough to easily get all the pilots off, and there was no rush as no one was climbing out. Thermals were taking pilots to about 2,000 feet over launch, but no higher. The clouds seemed to holding the lift at bay. So many of the pilots were gaggling about 500 to 1,500 feet over launch waiting for a better climb and for the start to happen. Finally the start time came, and I was about 500 feet over launch, but still in the start cylinder. This was an exit cylinder, so if you left the start cylinder before start time you would get penalized.
We did have a major event at launch today. One of the more experienced comp pilots did not clip in his leg loops and belly strap, and fell out of his harness from about 10 to 15 feet. He ended up spraining or breaking his ankle which was a small price to pay for his mistake. What was interesting was his glider flew for about 3 to 5 minutes on its own with just the harness attached. I will submit a picture above to show how well these gliders will fly even without a pilot. ;-). It is a maroon glider.
I was nearly one of the last pilots off launch, as I helped get the pilots off launch. I wasn't in any rush as none of the pilots were getting high anyway. Once off I climbed to about 2,000 over launch, but after that, I boated around launch waiting for a better climb sinking to about 500 over launch, once the start opened. About 6 minutes after the start I found a climb to finally get me out of there, and thermaled to about 11,000 feet msl. I started to work my way up the range and low and behold found a climb to 13,000 feet msl and I was on my way.
Pilots were really working together today at the start as getting up was not a given. A few pilots sunk out before the start, so patience was key. Jan Voegli, one of my mentors, had a hard time and sunk out making minimum distance.
So now on course, heading to the first turn point, I found some decent climbs that were taking us to cloud base, and even had to fly away from the clouds to not fly into them. Cloud base was at about 15,500 feet, I would leave the lift at about 14,500, and still flew around some of the clouds to avoid dealing the the white room. What was bothering me was not the clouds, but the vertical height of some of the clouds. They weren't that flat so you never knew if they would suck you in. In hindsight it all turned out ok.
So making it to the first turn point was fairly easy, which was in the valley, and then back to the hills to continue on course. The winds were southwest so I was working the ridges that faced that direction and finding reasonable lift. As I got closer to the end of the range the lift got more turbulent, and I actually left one broken thermal that was just too turbulent to find a core or a climb. I just had a few asymetrics today with no major recovery issues. However, as I mentioned above about the turbulence at the end of the ridge, we had a reserve deployment on the Northwest side of Boundary Peak, the pilot landed ok, but had an epic hike down a canyon with cliffs, and streams. I think since the winds were from a southerly direction, we were encountering rotor issues near Boundary Peak. Sometimes after a reserve ride, the adventure can start after you land.
Several pilots including myself decided once at the end of the range, to flyout to the valley and work the middle of the valley. What turned out to be awesome as every pilot that was there worked together to the head of the valley where Montgomery pass was, and eventually we climbed out and flew over the pass. Back on course, after the pass there was still 40 km to go to goal. Weak climbs, but there was lift. I did get high over the pass, about 14,000 feet msl, and went on glide. I was able to pass many pilots because of my height and really gain some distance, but you can't take that for granted. I found another awesome climb, and had the benefit of several pilots coming to join me, and climbed out to 13,000 + feet msl. Other pilots climbed higher, but because of the ugly cloud above, I went on glide. What was interesting at this point was it seemed very dark ahead on course, so pilots mentioned they got rained on or snowed on at this point. I felt a sprinkle, but no problems, I could have climbed higher.
At this point there were more clouds, lots of shade, and very weak lift. I sunk to about 9,000 feet msl, and started searching. I kept looking at my vario and checking my glide to goal. 11 to 1, 10 to 1, what would I need to make it. I would get to 9 to 1 glide goal, and with a high performace glider I thought I would get close. I also thought the air would be fairly bouyant due to the cloud cover. But, I was wrong. There was more sink then I anticipated, and I kept struggling toward goal. More weak lift, I finally climbed out to a height with 8 to 1 glide to goal. I went for it. 30 to 1 glide, and then 4 to 1 glide, I was going to make goal, no I was not going to. There was lift, but there was more sink, so my net glide landed me about a kilometer short. Pine, Andy from Golden, CO, dirted close to the same spot.
1 Km short of goal, but a 65, 102 km mile flight, an amazing experience, and a beautiful flight. Flying the topography, flew the clouds, and a long retrieve.
Kevin, the meet director, had to go get the pilot that threw his reserve, so four us were stuck at goal waiting for a retrieve. So, what do pilots do while waiting. You buy Coors Beer, at the small store in Mina, NV, and party.
When Kevin arrived, he had several other pilots, so 9 pilots crammed ourselved into his truck, and we headed back to Bishop. An hour and a half retrieve. We almost ran out of gas, but once in the Owens Valley we found gas in Benton, and were able to tank up enough to make it to Bishop. Got back to town about 9 pm. What a day.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventure. Cheers.
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