Fun times at Dunlap!

[Ben H]

So I tried to reel in some takers for the Nor. Cal. league Meet at Dunlap this last weekend. After watching the forecast all week, I finally hooked some big fish Friday morning: Bo, Dean, Andy Palmer and I all believed it was going to be promising, so we decided to check out the site for the first time. It was an easy 4.5 hr drive to the LZ with a meet time at 0930 Sat. morning and about 40 other pilots showed up for some action. Saturday's task was ONLY 99k and Jack Brown, Dean and Josh Cohn made a decent effort. However nobody made goal but had the race started a bit earlier they might have had a better chance! I had a fun flight getting to know the site and tagged a few points before getting flushed by the valley winds. Afterwards everyone meet up at the Bear Mountain pizza and beer spot. That night most pilots chose to stay at the Sequoia Highlands camp which is adjacent to launch and provides private cabins for rent, a bunkhouse for 10 bucks a night per person or you could pitch a tent. There is also a fun recreation room with pool tables, ping pong and a fireplace with couches to kick back on and talk about the great day of flying. The next morning the camp host makes an all you can eat breakfast ready when you wake up. IT WAS MMM GOOD! Sunday’s task was about 62k with a little fishbowl then an out and back to the main LZ. Again Dean and Josh went at it and I think they would have had a better chance again had it started earlier as well. Andy flew his Peak XP very nicely and and I did my best to keep up. Bo was skying out both days with a thermal clinic student of his and taking beautiful pictures of everyone. I had a 3hr flight and made most of the turn points except for the longer out and return legs. Nobody made goal either day but lots of pilots had exceptional flights. The weather was pretty high pressure with lift taking us up to anywhere from 6000-7700 ft. Valley floor is about 1,500 ft. The valley winds in the middle of the day made the up wind tasks challenging.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend. Jug puts on a well respected meet and it is growing every year. I highly recommend you check it out especially since Dunlap is so close. You don’t need to wait until Rat Race to get your feet wet in the comps. These are low stress, high fun events with some of the best XC pilots around. It is also a perfect place for new P2s to get in some early morning and afternoon thermalling flights similar to Valle or Woodrat. The next one at Dunlap is June 21-22nd. Bo, Dean or Andy should have some cool photos for you to enjoy (my camera sucks), but see it for yourself. Don’t miss out next time!

Ben

[andy]

Nice write up Ben. I totally agree it was fun at Dunlap! The lodging is great the launch is great for beginners in the morn and evening with good lz's. Easy drive up to launch, and very beautiful country. It is located in the foothills below Kings Canyon and Sequoia Natl parks.

The comp was fun and challenging. It was blue sky flying, but there was lots of lift. On the first day my 1 sec was 1300 fpm and 10 sec was 1100 fpm, the second day was 1 sec 1000 fpm, and 10 sec 800 fpm. The upslope flow and weak inversion made for some interesting chunks of air that kept us pretty attentive. Jug, Josh and Eric Reed did an awesome job setting tasks, but I agree we could have started an hour earlier than the 12:45 starts, It seemed to be soarable about 10:30-11:00 both days. It was a lot of fun flying with all the Nor-Cal folks and even better having a few SB flyers in the gaggle.

Happy to read there was good flying In SB as well.

I'll post some of my pics on acroandy page a bit later.

Lets get a group together for Dunlap.

Andy

[Southside]

Thought we had a chance to join you guys on a flight from Crestline on Sunday. The forecast seemed to be calling for 8-9k tops everywhere in So Cal from the LA Basin to the Central Valley. We called Bakersfield and beyond goal, but unfortunately we weren't able to get off Marshall until just before 3 because of a persistent N wind. However, 3 of us did manage to go OTB to the NW, with Bruce Barmakian taking the day on his Atos landing at the poppy reserve for a 72 miler. RebarDan also on an Atos made it to the 64 mile mark.

Me? Without contact because of radio problems, and thinking that I had run into the seabreeze near Pear Blossom (I hadn't; just some localized west wind I guess) I turned around thinking that I'd try an out and return. As you can see on my tracklog I didn't get far. Took a low leaner off the deck that actually had strong drift from the NE. But I didn't like where it was drifting me to so I bailed out of it and landed. Full write up here: http://socalxc.blogspot.com/

John