Next to Chehalem, Kutch is the nearest site to Portland. Just like Chehalem, it can be fickle; my first few flights there were all pretty good, lately I've had somewhat extended sledders. Landing used to be a challenge, but some recent clear-cutting has made that much easier. Launching has always been difficult; a flat set-up area with a steep drop-off and lots of problematic, growing trees.
And then there are the Kutch 'doldrums'; an ideal to strong forecast can translate into dead calm, with weak, cross cycles making launching very challenging. All the good flying I've had at Kutch has been thermic; there has never been enough base wind to make ridge lift a factor.
Today, the forecast looked good, but a little too strong. Good lapse rate, sunny, top of climb around 3000ft, winds around 15kts from the right direction. I probably wouldn't have tried to fly anywhere else with this forecast, but I wanted to see whether it worked at Kutch.
Last night, Mark, Jay and John were interested too. This morning, people were less keen. John couldn't do it, Jay didn't think he could do it, I began to reflect on my afternoon meeting, the possibility of snow on the road and the logicistical problems of flying Kutch. But Mark was keen, Jim Donaldson might join us, so off we went with Cleo (my dog).
On the drive there, we could see a stiff NNE breeze. At launch, for the very first time, there was real, base wind; maybe 8 to 10 mph. Beautiful sunshine, but biting cold. Excluding Cleo, we were four, Mark, Jim, Jay and I. Mark got ready first, he launched and - despite all this wind - didn't go up. He headed west, maintaining at best. I got ready and just as I was about to launch, Mark appeared well above launch. Good!
Off I went, appreciating how the wind made launching so easy, nothing straight off launch but withing 30 seconds I had some lift, and within a couple of minutes I was above launch. From then on I could find thermals and get well over launch (1100ft at the highest) and life was good. On at least two occasions, I got back to launch height but worked up again relatively easily. Higher up, the wind was at least 15 mph out the north; lower down it was maybe 10mph but gave surprisingly little lift - if you weren't in a thermal, you were going down!
At one point, Mark (who had top-landed to change gloves) told me Cleo was following me and I needed to come back to launch. Down a few hundred feet below, Cleo was running along the road, following my wing! I went back to launch and Mark locked Cleo in the car.
Jim flew and wasn't quite as lucky with the thermals - he stayed up for maybe 20 minutes but never really got high. Jay flew and went out and landed - probably the best thing to do, as he was new to the site.
I flew out and landed at the Flying M, Mark re-launched, got high and joined me. We packed up, happy with our flying. Back on launch, Jay went for a second flight and went straight up! He was able to flyout and land at the Flying M and was pretty happy with his day, too. Me, I headed off to work, with a big smile on my face.
Maybe the secret of flying Kutch is to look for a good HG forecast!
Photos -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Kutch11March2009
Tracklog -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/167188
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