Majestic King Mt Soaring - Days 1 & 3 Videos

[NMERider]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SsgrILjbu-k

This is the extended and narrated version of the video I shot during my first flight ever at King Mountain on July 19, 2010. Several locals were asking me if I knew Robert 'Hammer' Millington, who blew through a week or two earlier. My stock reply was, "You mean the SB pilot who always hands me my ass when we fly together?" I launched second while my 'Epic Spuds' team mate Mike was landing in the upper LZ. Mike quickly broke down then re-launched for a good flight score later in the day.

I launched from the steel NW facing ramp. Later, I was told there were only 3 flights from this "cheese grater of death" as I fondly refer to it. This video touches briefly upon most of the phases of the flight from launch through landing. At the end I add a 3D animation of my flight tracks using Naviter SeeYou software, captured w/ Fraps.

There will be 2 more installments from launch through landing of Days 3 and 4. Day 2 was my bomb-out day and I failed to activate the shutter button and did not record the exciting landing on a dirt and gravel road. I may edit a short, narrated video of Day 2 in order to explain my decision error that cost me the flight along with being stranded for 5 hours in BFE.

On Day 5 my camera mount snapped in half about one minute into the flight from the Coyote launch. I had to stash the GoPro HD camera into my side pocket before I even had a chance to shut it off, so the video I did record was corrupted and unrecoverable. Too bad because I soared over some spectacular terrain including nearly getting tumbled in front of Big Southern Butte and then climbing out like a rocket on its lee side while 3 hawks attacked me. I also soared over the lava fields which would have been nice to capture as well. And then there was that landing in switchy and gusty winds......

I was so tired by Day 6 that I was glad I had no way to use my camera other than to lash it to my keel. No thanks, I said. I don't even want to think about it. Good thing, as my flight was an exhausting 6 hours, 6 minutes. Did I mention the really exciting landing down the middle of a 2' wide tire track in sage covered field just behind soon-to-be winner Dave Gibson's T2C? In fact, 3rd place finisher, Mike Daily had landed across the street earlier and 2nd place finisher, Kurt Bainum landed next to us about 10 minutes after I set down. All we needed was Scott Huber to join us. But his absence and unknown status kept Gibson on edge.

Our team, The Epic Spuds tooks first in team, while I took 5th in open and was a mere 2/10ths of 1% beind 3rd. I plan to return next year and hope the weather will be half as good as this year's epic soaring anomoly.

http://www.flykingmountain.com/contestr ... esults2010

Some stills too: http://imageevent.com/aero92/king2010

Cheers, Jonathan

[JimmyZ]

Great videos Jonathan.
Would love to fly up there sometime. It looks amazing! Thanks for sharing....

[NMERider]

Great videos Jonathan.
Would love to fly up there sometime. It looks amazing! Thanks for sharing....

Here's Day 3 to whet your appetite a little more: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZSdRVHEvjGY

Day 3's flight was not only along fabled, scenic Route 1 but was often above 16,000' while looking down at 12,000' peaks and 10,000' frozen lakes. All of which you will see on this video along with a very close encounter w/ Ken Muscio at 15K near the 43-mile mark. The flight was a mere 3-1/2 hours in length and 55 miles long. Joe Evens in his Freedom 170 is right behind me on the ramp and shortly thereafter we climb out together to 12K. The next time I spot Joe is around the 53-mile mark where he has landed and I'm starting my final glide.

Kurt Bainum launched about 3 hours after me and won the day with 66 miles + bonus LZ points: http://sonomawingsbb.yuku.com/topic/3288

The day started out completely overcast and even looked like it might rain. John Kangus' forecast called for the weather to blow North and open the skies. My teammates who drove to upper launch w/ me announced they were leaving their gliders there over night and we going to fly the motor glider rather than waste the day. Sure enough, it began to clear and the walls of virga in the distance were evaporating at a respectable height.

The same pilot who I'd first met after he landed 1/2-mile from me on Tuesday on my 12-mile bomb-out day was chomping at the bit to get airborne. The winds on the upper launch were gusty and switchy. He started his run with his wings slightly banked away from the valley and took only 3 short steps before lifting off. Luckily, he was unscathed as his glider ground-looped back into the ramp below me as I made my way over to the right-hand ramp. You may note in the opening of the video just how hard I dig into my run and pull in once airborne.

My two teammates did launch not too long after me and both had good flights. One of them, LJ spotted 5 elk running at 10,000' and called it on radio about an hour into his flight. The remarkable thing about my own flight was the lighting and the scenery. Lots of distant virga and an abundance of sun rays bursting through cloud decks. Kurt also caught similar scenes on his video as well. There was nothing that technical about my flight not already mentioned here other than perhaps having done 48,000' of climbing during the flight. As a result, I decided to put more work into the soundtrack selections and edit timing than into a voice-over track and animated 3D tracklog on this iteration.

Enjoy! Jonathan

[LuckyLuckett]

Nice work on narrating and editing, you just got me PUMPED on shooting video again. Sweet!!!

[NMERider]

Nice work on narrating and editing, you just got me PUMPED on shooting video again. Sweet!!!

Thanks! There's a lot of interest in both live and voice-over narrated videos. I've still got 20+ hours of good video I need to edit and possibly narrate from the past 18 months including some nice Santa Barbara and Ojai footage. Flying comes first, however.