Fall Flying at Bingen

Saturday was pretty dismal but on Sunday a variety of contradictory forecasts encouraged me to head through to the Gorge. The clocks went back during the night and winter is definitely approaching. I feel a little bit like a bear eating as much as it can before hibernation - one more decent flight before the winter! There were around 12 pilots on the West launch, including Jim B. and Mark who I hadn't seen since the early summer. Conditions were very light but the weather and views were fantastic.

There didn't seem much point waiting; it didn't look as though conditions would improve quickly. The first few pilots to launch didn't find much lift so I wasn't surprised when I launched towards the middle of the group and struggled. There was some lift, just not quite enough to stay up. I scratched a little as pilots headed to the LZ; towards the end Mark and I were left by ourselves trying to resist gravity. I caught a little thermal, but it only delayed the inevitable. Fun but a little frustrating!

There was a lot of debate in the LZ. The wind seemed to be switching from the W to the E; should we head to Cliffside? The information we had was sketchy, I was reluctant to commit to an hour's drive when Bingen was working reasonably well. This view prevailed, so we went back up the hill.

Bingen has a S launch and a W launch, but it is in the gorge and that funnels any wind either W or E. In reality the S launch can only be used in very light winds. The S launch seemed fine, but I wanted to check the W launch first; after checking it with four others we came back to the S launch. By this time, others had launched and were low, in scratching mode.

I launched and found a nice thermal that got me 600 ft over launch, with wonderful views of Adams to the N. The wind at altitude was clearly from the East. I flew over launch a couple of times before heading East. I hoped to get a good thermal away from the hill and get high enough to have a mini-XC to the W, but no such luck. I ended up scratching and eventually landing in the LZ.

Everyone was pretty happy with their day; when the weather is nice, even a sled ride at Bingen is good! I headed home early, with the roof down in my car, pretending it was the summer.

Pics->http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Bingen01Nov#
Tracklogs -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/284836, http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/284835