Monday, June 1, 2009

WCPC Day 1

Lightning started a fire on Woodrat yesterday evening, leaving the valley full of smoke. I could see some flames on the North side of the peak driving back to the campground and Oleg's attempt to camp at mid-launch was defeated by a whole bunch of fire trucks. Fortunately, everything was extinguished in the morning, so we headed up to launch, with a thin layer of high cloud around Woodrat and some monster clouds over to the East.


A short task was called - some flying around launch, a run West towards Grants Pass before a short leg to a winery. Wind techs launched and most were flushed pretty quickly. I got off fairly early and just staying up was hard work, never mind getting high. The whole gaggle was struggling. When the task started, I was below launch and had to get back to launch just to get into the start cylinder. I just managed this, then the next goal was to cross to Rabies.

I got high enough to contemplate the transition with Sam and two other pilots. One pilot set off at around 5,000ft - low for the transition, but we were already part of the way across - so I followed him. We made decent progress and Sam decided to join us. Sam and I flew side by side, it looked as though we would arrive 500 ft above the ridge, we could see Brett there - things were looking good.

But then we were just nailed by sink on the last 200 meters or so. On full bar I had a glide of 1:1 and altitude disappears pretty quickly when that happens. Instead of looking down at the ridge, we were suddenly looking up at it. Sam and I turned round and landed with a whole bunch of other pilots in the LZ.

Brett (second in the serial wings) and Dave made decent progress along the course, Oleg joined us in the LZ - only 6 pilots made goal. Amazing how much harder flying was today than yesterday.

This evening we had rumblings of thunder and a pretty sensational hail storm at the Hailey's. The forecast looks similar for tomorrow, let's hope for better flying....

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