Friday fun lunch 3/10/18

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Friday fun lunch 3/10/18

Postby gracecab » Fri Mar 10, 2017 6:14 pm

Had a fun 45 min extended sledder, making lemonade out of a very light lift day.
Launched EJ about 11:00 ish...

Felt like I needed the practice in light thermals and had some good results for my skill level and here is what I believed helped.

-focused on 'being ready' to turn, rather than 'waiting to see what will happen'. Included with this is practicing not to turn unless I've been going up for a couple seconds at least. It helped to spare every inch of altitude, by not 'over reacting' to every little pop up... and to think about if the thermal is going to give me a positive or negative net result. I believe this was key in milking this flight today... and there were plenty of small bubbles to ignore, or rather to help mark what was happening in the air.

- was intentional. yeah, I know the word is overused right now, but its worthy. I was exercising my mind. Engaged. Whatever you want to call it. Maybe last times fail stirred me to be more aggressive, this wasn't a physical aggression, it was a mental one.

-tighter turns. Especially below the roundhouse ridge. There was very light wind from the SW, wafting up in strong lift up the RH spine... Neal was already there just booking around... so I let him mark that for me, and joined him. Fortunately, I was able to get a handful of bubbles coming through, where I was able to slow down in them and let go of one hand more to start the turn, and then just keep cranking the turn. I don't think I would be as 'slow' in more windy or turbulent conditions, but today it felt safe to pirouette a bit more...

- stayed over spine at Tit, and stayed close to RR wall initially, and stayed in the hole at RH spine, rode the ridge to parma park in a super buoyant glide out... well, actually moved away from the RR wall because of a little traffic and I was not in the zone yet enough to want to stay too tight... but that was a conscious choice too. I have been having trouble making up my mind, and hence losing the high ground, and the 'right ground' for staying aloft. Today I was not doubleminded. I only went where I felt was the best odds, at least with what I knew about the conditions, and didn't 'test' the waters somewhere else...losing ground in the process.

-watched other markers: couple vultures, and pilots. Seeing Neal playing around (he makes it look so easy). I have also started to note when little specs of things fly by my face. Definitely worth keeping an eye out on the surrounding, and feeling heat move by.

- started using Altimeter more. I know, duh. But, it takes time to look down, remember the number, and then compare how much you are gaining. I'm not a numbers guy, as you can tell from my logs... but knowing at least minimally in the 10s, 50's, 100s of feet if I'm going up or down, seems to be prudent... I need to improve in that. I'm just a visual guy, but I believe it's hurting my improvement for longer XC type flights too...speed to fly, etc... when to leave thermals...

Anyways, fun warm flight. Felt good, and I was actually surprised that it ended up being 45 minutes... I consider that longer because I did all those things above that I just wrote about.
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Chris Ballmer aka gracecab
Ventura, CA
UP Kantega XC2 / Gin Verso
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Comments

Postby sd » Sat Mar 11, 2017 4:03 pm

Chris, thanks for cleaning up your track log before posting. Makes it a lot easier to evaluate without the clutter. Your fishing troll over the RnR spine looks good, and I like your effort to hang on over the Tit (nice looking circles). It is helpful to have some idea where the top of the lift might be, which can vary. From what I read, Friday was somewhat marginal with pilots stuck low once down low? After you gained 300 feet on the Round House Spine it looks like you had enough altitude to reach ENE for the main hill? but you opted to stay put a little out front on a pulsing spot? Thanks for sharing.
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