WCPC - Days 5 and 6

Day 5 started with heavy rain; it seemed inevitable there would be no task and I had decided to get a hotel room for the last few nights. But the forecasts showed a possible improvement in the afternoon and at HQ the decision was to meet again at 1.00pm. The weather did improve, we went up the hill but it was still unsettled and we stayed chatting on the bus before braving the great outdoors.

A short 40+ km task was called and a few gliders launched as clouds swirled above our heads. The wind was strong, initially from the S and even comp wings were struggling to penetrate. Launch was closed, the task was cancelled and we waited a little longer and conditions slowly mellowed. Almost everyone flew down in the early evening, with a few gliders getting nice convergence in the valley above Longswords.

Day 6 looked a little better, and another shortish task was called due to concerns about the wind picking up and overdevelopment. Initial conditions looked good, but the wind was already getting stronger. I launched towards the end and struggled to get up to the gaggle. At the race start I needed to get higher and flew around for maybe 30 minutes trying to get high enough to make the initial crossing. Eventually I ran out of lift and joined a whole bunch of pilots in the LZ, landing in 20 mph winds. Everyone found the conditions difficult; there was a reserve deployment, some pilots got 'worked' and lots of people sunk out early on. It turned out that only one pilot - Hayden - reached goal at an average speed of 15 km/hr (about half normal speed). Because so many pilots sunk out so early the day was marked down a lot - Hayden only got 175 pts (instead of the 'ideal' 1000).

6 Days into the comp and we have only had 3 very short tasks where most of the field sunk out early. Only 8 flights in the whole comp have ended in goal. Tomorrow is the last day of the comp and everyone is hoping for better conditions - many pilots, myself included, are hoping to get at least one decent flight from the week.

WCPC Day 4

The day didn't start well. First, I wiped up the rain that leaked into my tent overnight. Then I braved the new showers at the campground; they are new, but suffer from a pretty basic design flaw. The drainage is all screwed up and the entire floor is under about half an inch of muddy water - you need to concentrate to keep your clothes clean. And then I discover that some joker had left a monster turd in the urinal for someone else to clean up.

It looked like we might sneak in a task in before it overdeveloped - there were no monster clouds early on. Launch was opened and pilots were in the air but big clouds and rain were approaching from the East. In the end, the task was cancelled before the race started. We flew down and landed in the LZ as quickly as possible, wanting to beat any gust fronts. Only a few drops of rain fell, things cleared up but the afternoon stayed unstable.

Hoping for better weather...

WCPC Days 2 & 3

I don't think I've ever seen rain at Woodrat, but this week has produced not just rain but thunder, lightning, fires, gust fronts and hail. Needless to say, this has influenced the flying. In general the mornings have been good, the afternoons have overdeveloped with rain in the evening or overnight.

Yesterday was day 2 and, while there were big clouds to the East, the day started pretty gently. Early flights showed there was lift - although no-one was getting high, it was boaty. At the start, a whole bunch flew across to Rabies and struggled; I was in decent lift right then and got as high as I could - only just over 5,000 ft - before following them. I followed a couple of gliders that were gliding well, they got in above ridge height and I just failed to do so. I looked for some lift but didn't get anything usable and joined a bunch of frustrated pilots in the LZ. Many of the pilots that got in over the ridge still sunk out or had to scratch for a long time before getting up. Sam and Brett were a bit smarter and stayed over launch until the lift improved and had nice flights, getting far along the course. Only one pilot reached goal - Matt Beechinor, the winner of day 1 - before the task was stopped due to overdevelopment.

As in day 1, nearly half the field failed to make minimum distance. When conditions are tough at Woodrat getting established above the first ridge can be the hardest part of the flight. It's frustrating when that happens (at least, if you are one of the pilots failing to make minimum distance).

Day 3 started looking better but very quickly the clouds to the East were going thermo-nuclear. An early task to the West was called, trying to beat the overdevelopment. I launched towards the end of the gaggle as the clouds were building; it seemed OK to fly for now, but it was unlikely to stay that way long enough to complete the task. As we got higher and the clouds built behind launch I found myself unwilling to follow the gaggle and stayed out front, in a bit of a blue hole. These conditions produce big lift and big sink, and if you're reluctant to fly near threatening clouds just staying up can be difficult. By the time the task was cancelled all the CPC pilots were safely on the ground.

We're all hoping for some improvement in the next few days, but the forecasts don't really show much change at all.

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....

WCPC

The West Coast Paragliding Championship is a bit of a mouthful, everyone calls it the WeeCeePeeCee. This is my first comp of the year. I still haven't made up my mind about comps, but try to treat them as organized flying vacations with retrieves. I try not to do anything I wouldn't do in a normal flight. This takes a certain amount of discipline - when you're flying with a gaggle and it heads low over a bunch of trees you have to decide if you'd do that on a normal flight. And, of course, you have to make these decisions pretty quickly.

Anyway, I like the WCPC because there are generally fewer pilots than at the Rat Race, with a higher overall standard. This makes everything (retrieves, meetings, launching, gaggles) less stressful. Tasks also tend to be longer and more challenging than at the RR.

I drove down early the day before the comp. Conditions were pretty exceptional with mushroom clouds going off at 11.00 in the morning. I got to launch and was more or less the last one of the hill and had a nice flight, but was flying by myself. I got over 8,000 ft - easily the highest I've been at Woodrat - but some of the pilots got to almost 10,000ft. Later in the day the clouds went nuclear and the thunder started rumbling. It looks as though this could be the weather pattern for the early part of the comp.

There are 5 CPC pilots at the comp - Brett, Sam, Dave, Oleg and myself. Here's hoping for good flying for everyone!

Starthistle

The Starthistle fly-in takes place on the Memorial day weekend (towards the end of May) at Woodrat. Pilots come from all over the Western US, attracted by the site and the spring-time conditions.

Woodrat is in the south of Oregon and offers great XC flying with some unusual (for Oregon) challenges. It consists of small, tree-covered hills typically 2,000 ft higher than tight little valleys. This isn't big-air flying; you seldom get more than 5,000 ft above the valley floors.

Valley winds are an important part of flying Woodrat; obviously they can present landing 'challenges' but they can also produce convergence lines that provide bumpy lift. Conditions can change frequently, so you need to be pretty alert. Typically, if you can get and stay high things are straightforward. Conversely, sink below ridge height and suddenly everything becomes much less 'user-friendly'.

The attractions go well beyond the flying - great scenery, friendly locals, wineries, good weather and cute little towns. If the flying isn't great, you can take in a play at Ashland!

I headed down early on Saturday morning; the forecast wasn't great but it was in the ballpark. Saturday was too windy to go anywhere easily but conditions were better on the Sunday and Monday. Saturday night was a Spaghetti Dinner (organized by the CPC - my local club) and Sunday night was the fly-in BBQ, so there was no need to worry about where to eat.

I had a couple of nice flights but was a little disappointed in my flying. Afterwards I came to the conclusion I was flying too fast. All my XC flights this year have been alone (even if I took off with others) and generally launching late; there's no point hanging around in these circumstances. But at Starthistle I launched early and frequently flew past groups of other pilots. In these circumstances, it would have been smarter to wait for them and fly together. In a week's time, the competition season starts for me at Woodrat with the WCPC, so it's better to learn these lessons now rather than during the comp!

The flying for the weekend finished when Dan and I landed at the Longswords winery after running out of lift on the run along Rabies Ridge. It's unusual to land and be presented with a glass of wine by a beautiful woman - but I could get used to it!

A few more pics at -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Longswords25May2009#

Pine Weekend

Pine Mountain is in the high desert, east of Bend, and it offers the possibility of long flights - the current and several previous Oregon state records have been set from it. Strong (or outrageous) conditions are not just possible but likely - flying there at midday can be pretty intense. It's a long way to go for a Portland pilot and you never know what you will get when you arrive; a four hour drive could be followed by a six-minute sink out or a five hour flight.

Dan, Mary-Beth and I met Mike Steed and some local pilots early on Saturday. The forecast wasn't great but was in the ballpark - it looked better for Sunday than Saturday. We launched from Antelope (normally a SE launch, but it was SW when we got there) and seemed to be always flying into a headwind. The highest we got was around 8,500 ft (low for Pine), we didn't go very far but the three of us got away for a short XC. In the evening we flew glass-off with some local pilots. Glass-off at Pine is a complete contrast to midday flying - smooth, powerful lift and super relaxing flying. We retired to Mike's condo in Sunriver, where Paula cooked us a wonderful meal.

Sunday found Dan, Mary-Beth and me back at Pine; the forecasts seemed to show a late start would be best. The cycles were strong and very cross when we arrived; they seemed to calm down and straighten out after a while; then they picked up again. Timing your launch at Pine isn't easy; most of the launches have a sea of trees just behind them. You don't want to commit to a strong thermal right off launch and fall out of it over the trees (imagine the
embarrassment - landing in a tree in the middle of the desert!). Ideally you want to fly out a little bit, then get your strong thermal so you have some altitude before crossing the trees.

I took off and found nice lift straight away. I was able to work up in a thermal, push forward and find another thermal before letting myself drift back in lift. Dan didn't get off right behind me (two minutes into our flight and we are already on plan B!). He launched a few minutes later, but the lift seemed to have passed and after a few minutes looking around he headed out over the training hill, then a few minutes later he said he was going to land at the Y.

I climbed up to 8,500 ft and lost the thermal; I looked for it carefully, but that seemed like the top of lift for now. I headed E and a nice surprise - Dan had got back up from the Y. It looked like I could glide across the first power lines to him and we could fly together. I tried this but ran into mega-sink; on full bar my glide was 4:1. Dan was climbing and by the time I reached him he was at least 2,000 ft above me and I needed to find some lift quick!

There was some disorganized lift, I lost some more precious altitude before I got it sorted out and I very slowly climbed out as I crossed the second power lines. Dan was well on his way at this point; I could only catch occasional glimpses of his wing in the distance.

As I neared Brothers I decided to divert S to a promising looking cloud street. This turned out to be a big mistake; there was lift, but it was slow and disorganized. Worse, the glides weren't buoyant. I wanted a sip from my Camelbak but couldn't find it; I reached behind me and realized the back of my harness was open and presumably my water was gone. I really didn't want to land with no water and a 6 mile hike back to the highway, so I concentrated on making the best of the lift.

After some slow progress - max altitude was 10,700ft - I got back to the highway at the end of the cloud street just before the alfalfa fields near Hampton at 3,000ft AGL and felt pretty good. Pine is a big-air site, with big lift but big sink cycles, and the air around the alfalfa fields can be sinky so I wanted more altitude before pressing on. I found some super weak lift (less that 50ft / min) and went looking for something better. I looked everywhere but I didn't find anything; 12 minutes later I was on the ground after a 26 mile flight.

Mary-Beth arrived and as we set off after Dan we got a message he had landed. We found him 39 miles from launch, delighted with his flight! Very happy with our weekend (3 good flights each from 3 different launches, almost certainly the best 2 flights in Oregon that weekend), we stopped for ice-cream in Bend before heading home.

Tracklog of my Sunday flight -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/196616