Flying Tuesday

[oj]

It's all good. Everyone had good flights and landed safely, so what's it matter if retrieve took longer than normal? I take full responsibility for any radio transmissions that may have thrown the day into a tailspin.

Nice flying Fez, first timer at Pine had the personal best of duration, max altitude, and distance.

Tom P., we owe you one, bigtime.

[faoro]

Those are very strange examples of flight discussion. Anybody care to describe who flew where in what conditions and made it how far?

[Randall]

Tuesday was a great day at Pine, one that actually lived up to all the promising Blipmap and assorted weather predictions. Light winds, altitudes of around 12 to 13k, a few cumi's scattered about to mark the areas of big lift (but nothing so big as to be daunting). Everyone got at least to Lake of the Woods.

Cycles at launch were light and smooth. It was noon when I punched off fourth (after Robb had already shot straight to cloudbase over the spine, and Chip and Fez soon followed). OJ graciously played launch mother and didn't get airborne until at least an hour after Robb. Robb had been patiently circling over launch at cloudbase for over an hour now waiting for the rest of us, and finally couldn't take the cold anymore and announced he was heading OTB. Shivering myself, I gratefully took that as my cue to follow. OJ was in the air by then, and the rest of the pilots were playing around in the small, rapidly forming cumi's that had set up in a convergence directly over launch. You couldn't have asked for a better scenario. It was bumpy at cloudbase, but most of the lift was smooth and wide. Very cold at base, which made me glad altitudes weren't higher.

I followed Robb to the Fifty-Fifty, getting a good glide for once (none of the nasty heavy sink you usually encounter over the Badlands), hitting occasional blips of lift and with about a 30 mph groundspeed. Robb had tagged another thermal just short of the 50-50 and left eastbound with 11k. I joined his thermal and worked it up to about 10 before proceeding directly east across the most direct route towards Lockwood Valley (which also happens to take you over some of the most Godforsaken looking terrain in the world, a sort of Devil's Punchbowl carved deep into the earth and which looks like certain doom to land in).

But I made it to Lockwood with plenty of altitude, relaxed a bit as I tanked up on some light lift, and then set my sights on the big cluster of clouds sitting enticingly over the middle of Lockwood Valley. The occasional airliner or small plane was buzzing by at around my altitude, so I made sure I kept my eyes peeled as I flew. When I finally reached the mass of clouds I started climbing slowly at first, then faster and smoother; looked down at my vario and saw I was going up at 1500 fpm and rapidly approaching the base. Not wanting to get sucked up into it I pointed my wing towards a narrow gap between the two main clouds and at around 13.3 altitude threaded my way through them. Headed now for Frazier, which I've never actually flown over, so that was my goal.

Robb was over Lake of the Woods now and reporting around 8k altitude and stronger north winds, so I decided to try the south route over Frazier. More clouds were positioned over that part of the mountain, but they were also shading big sections in. My altitude dropped from 10 to about 8 as I slowly made my way up the long, shallow, pine-infested slope, and I wasn't getting any lift from the clouds. I finally decided to turn back to Lake of the Woods while I still could, rather than being forced to try and land on the small road winding between the pines. But by then, Robb announced he had found good lift over the intersection and worked it all the way back up to 11k! He announced he was continuing east, which inspired me to give Frazier another shot.

The clouds that had been shading Frazier had drifted somewhat southwest by now, opening the slopes below me to the sun and its heating and I started getting some light but steady lift in the southwestern foothills of Frazier. Trying to be more patient than usual, I gradually worked that back up to 11k as I made my way over the antenna tower atop FRazier. Not having been over the mountain before, I had no idea what it looked like from above. It was interesting to note that the south side is bissected by a big canyon that drops steeply towards Hungry Valley to the southeast. I knew I didn't want to go down in that canyon, and I had some anxious moments as I pointed east towards the far rim of the mountain, hitting sink along the way and losing a lot of my altitude.

I hit the speedbar and cleared the mountain with at least 500 feet to spare, and then I knew it would be an easy glide to the truck stop. I'd made it over Frazier! Robb was setting up to land, after having struggled to get down from 10 grand (he took the northerly route around Frazier). There was some kind of convergence over Gorman that made it a bitch to get down. Even with full big ears I was going up steadily, no matter which area I flew over. I thought about tanking up and trying for the desert, but I was cold and ready to get down, and doubted I'd get very far in that direction in any case.

Joined Robb on the ground at about 4pm, soft landing. 3 hours flight time, max alt. about 13.3. OJ, Chip and Fez all landed at Lake of the Woods. Back to Nordhoff High at 10 pm. Home by 11:30.

[faoro]

"Struggled to get down," "convergence over Gorman" and "Even with full big ears I was going up steadily no matter where I flew." and no one tried for the Antelope Valley?!? Shame on you all! Why, I remember the time when men were men and...

[Randall]

I blame your last flight post (9/6/08)

[oj]

I think we inadvertenly picked good places to land. I imagine sitting out by Quail Lake for five hours in the dark wouldn't be that much fun. Hanging out at Lake of the Woods eating pizza, drinking our weight in beer, and watching Chip interact with the locals was too much fun.

[Robb]

There seemed to be a matter of great importance to Chip as Tom drove us home last night, but my instruments were packed up. Now that I've downloaded the barograph, let me just say: 13,701!

It's funny how altitude numbers play with my head; everyones felt like they were sinking out then saw the pilot below them and suddenly felt like a skygod. Yesterday, every time someone announced altitude and location I'd look at my instruments, like my altitude and location was somehow related. If they were lower than me all I remember is their location: "50-50", "lake of the woods", etc. If they were higher than me, I have no idea where they were, but I was at 8800 when Chip was at 12k, I was at 7400 when Randall was at 11k, and so on. So despite the 13,701 (repeat for Chip's sake) I felt low the whole way.

And despite the thousand eye-rolls when some old fart says "I remember the time...", there is comfort in having someone five miles down range calling out lift and wind directions. This was the first time I've led out at Pine, and I didn't even think about it until I was at the 50-50 w/o hitting a single bump and wondering if I'd just doomed myself to a long walk in Satans garden down below. Once through to Lockwood being first wasn't an issue as there were plenty of landing options, and a 10mph tail wind. But at the west end of Fraiser I was again wishing for someone to have reported the successful route. I had set up to land next to the forest service helicopter twice, and in the green grassy area across from the general store in LOW, and each time found something at the last moment that I could work. Having someone out in front tells me it can be done, and to focus on lift options, not landing options. But I still roll my eyes...

As for continuing east, beyone the highway was just soupy looking haze; almost like a brown marine layer over the desert. Not inviting at all. And around Lockwood airport I begain thinking one of those tube down the pant leg things would be really handy. As it turned out, if we had landed in the desert expecting retrieve we would have been pretty unhappy. At least at the truck stop we had cell service and after about two and a half hours found out we had been abandoned and had to make our own way home. In the desert hitchiking would have been easier, but I would have been worried about crossing paths with the driver and neither of us knowing where the other was, so I probably would have stayed put. Something we should re-think when going XC; maybe we make standard meet locations that we hitch to if we land out.

New altitude PB (Chip,that would be 13,701), and new duration PB, and the finger tips on my left hand are still tingling.

Robb

[Chip Bartley]

Well, well what a day. First, I must apologies for putting out the word as I was obviously a little too aggressive with the invites. It’s a good thing that most of the people that I invited didn't show. Anyhow all's well that ends well.

Rob M, OJ, Randall, Faiz (from Pasadena) and I met at Nordoff HS at 10:30 and headed to Fast Eddies to hook up with Emily, Andy and Yogi. Expectations were high as the day was looking good on paper and we were on the hunt for whispy’s and adventure. We got to the sand pile in two cars and transferred to Andy’s truck for the ride to launch. Cumi's were all over the back country and small clouds were developing over Pine launch. Faiz was given the site overview along the way and a story or two was told as the usual banter was enjoyedas always. Although, Faoro’s charm was certainly missed. At the sand pile the wind was almost dead calm and things were looking up. We arrived at launch to find light thermal cycles and it was on. Rob launched first and got lots of lift right off and worked his way to the spine. Faiz was next, then me followed by Randall and then OJ.

When I launched I headed to the spine and found a bit of lift at first and then fell off a bit until I worked up to about 8k where I found the core of a boomer that took me to 13,300k where I was actually above cloud base and enjoyed surfing through the whispies. The clouds were small enough and a bit broken up so you could work your way around the edges and it was a great time. Faiz and I flew together for a while waiting for OJ to work his way to us so we could head OTB as a group. Randall and Rob had left ahead of us and were making good head way to Lockwood. OJ was nice enough to launch last and make sure everyone got off but got the short end of the stick so had to work a little harder to get up. Once he was close I decided to head OTB and left with about 13k and Faiz was right behind me.

We headed out toward the 50/50 and started off with some good buoyant air that was short lived. The sink was huge and our momentum seemed to end for a while but we got to the 50/50 where we luckily found the mother load and tanked up in a strong thermal that got us back to 11,500 and things seemed good. As we worked our way toward Lockwood the landing options diminished and we very quickly became committed to our glide. I started to notice that Faiz was getting really low and was about 1,000 ft below me. I was looking at my glide and the fact that the lift had seemed to have disappeared I started to get a bit concerned. I was feeling like Lockwood was out of range if we didn’t get any lift and I was trying to imagine how Faiz was feeling as it looked like he was ridge soaring the saw Tooth Mountains below. I kept thinking of Faoro saying you just have to trust it, it always works. No sooner than that I hooked in to a big boomer and was at 11,500ft like it was nothing. I circled back to check on Faiz and tried to clear the frog in my throat as I tried to give him some positive inspiration on the radio so he knew he wasn’t alone and that it would all work out. He finally hooked the same thermal I was in and climbed out of the depths of hell. He later said he wasn’t worried as he saw OJ behind him and lower. We all acknowledged later that evening that we were all pretty well puckered as we searched for a way out to the valley. Once we headed out over the valley we heard Rob and Randall wrestling with Frazier and headed out. I was letting my glider go where it wanted and it started to head to the south side of the valley and then about half way to Frazier started heading to the North. There was a huge cloud that moved over the West side of the mountain and shaded in the entire approach and part of the valley. Unfortunately this was the beginning of the end for the three of us. Rob and Randall had squeaked through right before the shading and unfortunately Faiz, OJ and I seemed to be destine for meadows on the North side of Frazier at LOW. I tried to hang on to the high ground but had to head out as the wind was making it hard to penetrate and I didn’t want to get pinned. Faiz was right behind me and OJ came in a bit higher and ended up about a half mile up the road. We packed up and decided to hitch a ride to the Deli / store in LOW. That’s when the real fun started as we waited for our ride that arrived around 9pm. Thanks Pipkin. This gave us plenty of time to enjoy some spirits and lots of laughing to the point of today feeling like I did a bunch of sit ups. The three of us sat and had a great time meeting every local that entered the store. One guy actually bought us a six pack of St. Pauli Girl as he felt bad for us. We must have looked al little worked. Got back to the High School at 10:00 and home at 11. Really great time and flight log as follows.

Time – 2 hours 45 minutes
Max Altitude – 13,329
Max Up – 1614
Max Down - 1468

CHIP

Rob,

My PB altitude is 15,450k and I also calibrated my vario altitude on launch yesterday.

[Chip Bartley]

by the way I got some really cool video that I will do my best to post after I edit it down. may take a little time but will be worth it.

[NMERider]

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[oj]

I would, but a tracklog that shows a line deep in the badlands below 8k isn't something you would want to emulate.

[Faiz]

Wow, when you boys post flight descriptions, you really go all out. Very helpful for me, as I just did the flight but only really understood it after reading the posts above. Let me add that while I was literally following Chip and being attended to and followed by OJ that I felt the love of the whole crew the whole time. You guys are the best. I got saved from what would have been a day-ending error by the guys on the ground, as I drifted too far west of the bonsai tree and as they reeled me back in to start me off right. Then Fast Eddie talked me back into the gaggle when I went off thinking I was following Robb, but really was heading into no-man's land. Then, when over the Badlands and thinking I better just turn back and take my chances at the 50/50, I had OJ and Chip whispering sweet lies in my ear about how it was all good. Those lies got me to Lockwood and to Lake of the Woods, which made for one huge XC day for me with three PBs: highest (13,007 feet), longest (I think) XC (2 hours, 13 minutes) and farthest (30 km). Can't wait to return now that I know that the big mound with the tower on top is Frazier Peak.

Faiz

PS--Robb, thanks for the warm gloves and sorry about your cold hands. Next time don't fly so high.

[Robb]

Above the devils bowl looking toward Lockwood and Fraiser:


About 11k over LOW heading for the truckstop. The valley in the distance didn't look too inviting!


The viewer on the forum chops the right side of the images; if you want to see the whole picture look here:
http://www.pbase.com/randr_resort/image/102961382

[NMERider]

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[Robb]

Great images! I always looked at this stuff at work, no point wasting my own time at home - and my box at home chokes on GE so I havn't seen these. Guess I better go back to work...

Check out that second image of the lift over pine: 9k to 11k in two minutes, and it was the most gentle lift of the day.