Something a Little Different

In life BH (before hanggliding) I used to freedive a lot. Hadn't done much recently, but a friend's 40th B-day provided an excuse for a reunion of good friends and a week of diving in Baja (Sea of Cortez side).
Seth Hopkins, Mario Korf and I flew down to stay with Chay Ochoa at his place near la Ventana, just south of LaPaz. Beautiful area, and Chay knows all the local spots. He was gracious enough to share a number of them with us.

We mostly dove from a panga at various places around Cerralvo Island. Dawn departure was the rule. First stop was to net some sardines for chum/bait. We all rolled over the edge into the wonderland. It was only 8' deep and not full of other-wordly colors like some of the coral reefs of the tropics, but teeming with life. A 20 lb roosterfish came up to greet me. With the low morning sun and sense of promise for the days ahead, we were almost giggling with pleasure.
Proceeded to dive a south-end reef called la Traversada, a mostly flat rocky expanse from 50-70 feet deep surrounded by sand. Viz was good enough to spot larger fish from the surface as they meandered in and out of their homes in the undercut ledges and cracks of the rock. I was a bit out of shape--hitting the bottom, but not getting a lot of time down there. Still, I tagged a decent pargo amarilla, as did Mario. Seth took the biggest pargo at 14 or 17 pounds. Also saw some cabrilla, but no monsters. Nice warm up diving.
Moved on to blue water, drifting over a pinnacle/reef call la Reynita several times. I saw lots of bait, and a wahoo made a brief appearance, just long enough for me to get a shot off, but didn't connect.
We had intended to dive maybe 3 or 4 days, breaking it up with a little kiteboarding at some point, but great weather/viz kept us returning for day after day, rising before dawn for coffee before the ride out, generally staying out 9 or 10 hours, most of that in the water, getting back around dusk. By the 4th day we were all pretty whipped: sunburnt, chafed, waterlogged, a little tired, peppered with little cuts and stings, but had started seeing more pelagics (tuna and wahoo), and in the end decided on one more day out. Good choice.
Day 5 turned out to be truly epic. Very light wind, almost glassy, 60-80' vis, and the fish were *in*. Most of us had never seen a wahoo in real life before this trip, and yet today we were getting schooled, often by groups of 5 or 10 at a time. Numerous times I saw a single or pair come by, and they were even bigger.
Day 4 had been frustrating for me, as I missed a good half-dozen shots. I was hunting with a Rob Allen 130 I'd used often before with good success, but I just couldn't seem to hit anything. I thought I was waiting until they were close enough in, but Seth saw one shot from above and gave me the clue: the super clear water and large fish had me pulling the trigger with the fish over 25 feet away (probably over 30' the first couple of times, and the gun's effective range is only 18 at most. I could hardly believe it, but the evidence was abundant.
Chay loaned me a gun for day 5,one of Chris' Sea Sniper masterpieces a big teak 4 band with enclosed track, ~30' range, dead-on accuracy. After several dives in which fish approached and I let them pass, I finally got the opportunity I was looking for. A pair were coming my way, with a third in the distance. I was ready--relaxed and well oxygenated. I slipped beneath the surface without spooking them, eased down to 25 feet and waited, keeping my eyes elsewhere as they slowly grew curious and drifted toward me. I was nearing the end of my breath but still held fire, determined not to repeat yesterday's mistakes. Finally two seemed within range, and were hesitating, not coming closer. I felt that moment before the penny dropped, lined up on the larger and fired. Fish and line instantly vanished in a vortex of bubbles, though I could still see the float another 30' below me. I swam after it on the surface and then began playing tug of war--it was a strong fish, might have some size. Got dunked a few more times bringing it within view again. Mario offered a second shot, but I thought mine was solid and declined. Finally swam down, got the fish in hand--it was a good one. Boated the fish, ate the heart, got a few pics. Good day. Good friends, what a life we have.

A track from last spring: Ed Levin to Mission Peak and back

St John Fly-in

So after driving all to hell and gone this month going to the big comps (Chelan, the nats at King) only to find tough conditions and short flights, I had one of my most enjoyable flights this year at the Sonoma Wings Fly-in.
This is my third year going to the event. The road up to launch is longish, so I only go once a year for the meet. The Wings are a great crew and put on a really fun event, with a challenging, interesting site, a nice flat LZ/camping area (complete with irrigation ditch for that post-flight dip to rinse the dust and cool the soul), and Ernie and EC's incomparable BBQ. Its one of the most consistently enjoyable events I attend.
The task Saturday was an optional open distance/out and back, pilot's choice. Double points for the return leg made it look pretty attractive if the wind wasn't too bad.
I got up to 9300 or so over the peak in somewhat turbulent lift and headed north along the main ridge, a little bit out in front of it in respect of the long glide out. The lift over the spines was tricky-- some strong pockets that made you think you were getting somewhere, but I was consistently losing altitude crossing over the first 3 spines. Also the wind direction seemed to be shifting at different altitudes, so I was having a hard time get a fix on it. At one point I got lower(4K) than I liked deeper in the range than I liked, and found myself working hard in ratty lift just to stay up over the trees. My shoulder was starting to act up with all the manhandling the glider required, and then I could barely see through all the sweat and sunscreen running into my eyes, so I was pretty relieved to finally scratch up/out to a point where I clearly had a good LZ on glide.

I caught my breath and assessed my position, the terrain, the wind, and decided I had gotten as far north as I was going to, and if I was going to sink out, I would at least go for some of those double-point return miles on my final glide. There's a smaller N-S ridge in the middle of the valley which looked like the best potential trigger point, and getting over it would make the retrieve easier, so I headed that way. Then things started getting really nice. I found a fat, lazy thermal over the ridge. No rocketship, but so smooth, easy and consistent to circle in I didn't mind waiting a little while to get my altitude. Got up a little over 5k and kept cruising south, no serious sink and regularly spaced thermals took me back up whenever I got down near 3K. The wind had backed off or shifted, so I had no headwind, possibly a slight tailwind most of the time. Really relaxed flying, but low enough to have a nice view of the rural landscape. Still had to pay attention as the road meandered nearer and farther from the ridge, but after a while I got pretty comfortable with the idea I was going to make it back all the way to Stonyford, and just started enjoying the scenery. Couldn't pick out Mary's place in the valley (the LZ) right off, kept scanning around until I realized I was right over it! Still had lots of height, so I kept south toward the foothills near Gilmore Peak. Thought I could tag it and get back, but didn't want to spoil the day's relaxed ambiance, so I cruised back, did a few wangs on the way down and came in between dust-devils for an uneventful-if-slightly-clumsy landing in dead calm. 3:24 flight time, 16 miles out, 17 return, big grin.

Sunday was a race to goal, tag Gilmore and land at Mary's. Flying my first timed event was fun, definitely a different mindset than just going for miles, another layer of strategy. I spent a little time going for another 1000 feet over launch, but eventually got it, and went on a long smooth glide for the turnpoint. Tagged it, skipped a nice thermal over it, thinking I could just glide back, and immediately regretted the choice as I hit heavy sink. I got just about out of the foothills, but the glide to Mary's looked iffy, so I spent 8 minutes in weak broken lift there to gain 400 feet, which turned out to be just enough to get home. While I was scratching, Monty, my nearest competitor, who had launched just after me, passed me by 1000 feet higher, argh.
I raced to Mary's, getting there maybe 250 over, but now my low altitude was to my advantage as I swooped in to land just before Monty. Fun, though he still beat me by a couple of minutes on elapsed time.
The two days together were enough to get 3rd place overall and a nice new glider bag. I'll be back next year. ;-)

Sweet day in Monterey

So I'm going off topic here for a bit to revisit one of my (semi) past loves, freediving. Heard there were halibut in pretty close at Monterey, and just had to go look for'em. As it turned out, didn't see many, but still had a beautiful dive.
The sea was dead flat when Mario and I rolled up, sunny, with some patchy fog offshore and enough breeze to give a little ripple to the surface texture. We suited up and entered the water near Lover's Point. The shallows were quite clear, but once you went out a little way the top 10-15' took on a decidedly yellow-red tint (nacent algae bloom, I think) and the vis was only 5' or so. But on each dive, you would pierce that layer and suddenly it would open up to 30-40 and was just stunning. The top layer completely diffused the incoming sunlight so that everything was bathed in this perfectly even glow, and there was no surge at all, so it was crystal clear all the way to the bottom The overall effect was like sliding into a frozen crystal, everything still, everything perfect, and as I slowly came to rest near the bottom, I became part of that seascape. Felt like I could stay down forever.
Hadn't been diving much lately, so I was taking it pretty easy, but after a little while somehow that relaxed approach flowed into some really nice, long dives. The water was a relatively toasty 56, which also helped.
Anyway, after 3 magical hours we left, having spooked a couple of small flatties and played some with the harbor seals which were abundant that day. Reminded me of why I love diving.

Chelan XC Classic--Day 1/2

So the first day was tough going, only a few people (of ~40) made more than a nominal distance, Bruce and Steve among them. Yesterday was called on high winds and possible T-storms, today looks pretty windy but more promising than yesterday, time to go up the mountain and set up.
Someone in the soccer field LZ picked up my landing, which usually means a whack, but not this time ;-)

More Local Fun

After bailing on a series of successively less grandiose (uncharted Nevada XC adventure, no, how about Wolf/Sweetwater for a couple of days, no, maybe an overnighter to McLure....)plans for the weekend, I ended up at Ed Levin Saturday. The blips were actually pretty lousy( no lapse rate), but the wind was expected to be moderately strong from SW. Karl, Doug H., Alan and myself drove up, launched pretty early (11:30?), ended up having a blast. Flew for just a bit over an hour, but had several low-ish saves, one from ~400 agl and back up to 3K. Conditions were just about perfect for my skill level, clearly soarable, but challenging enough to make it feel like an accomplishment. And the drivetime/ fly time ratio was right. Couldn't ask for more.

Swoopin in at McClure

This was from a while back but I just came across it. Not exactly textbook, but it worked out.

Local Glory Days

A stalled low-pressure system provided several days of good-to-great soaring conditions. Flew a couple of hours from Levin Friday, including a golden eagle, and 3 hrs from Mission the next day. Flew down to Levin LZ that day and almost sank out, but managed to get back up, toplanded several times at Mission. John Taylor was out for his 2nd? flight at Mission, Ryan flew his new Litespeed for the first time, it was just a gorgeous day and everyone had a blast.

Owens Valley-- Mem Day '09

Wings of Rogallo had a strong (dominant!) presence at Walt's this weekend. Several first-timers put in impressive performances, showing good skills and judgement regarding conditions, which tended toward early overdevelopment and occaisionally "interesting" flying. Congrats to Ryan, Dirk and Mike, and everyone, really. Good flying.

Scott and I were returning for our second trip here, and both stretched our distances over last year. Scott's fiance Rhonda drove for us as well as keeping us in launch sandwiches and good humor. The Sierras were their usual gorgeous selves, festooned this weekend with a variety of clouds.


5/22/09. Walt’s to Big Ears. 52.6 mi. Launched at noon. Got to 13,500 pretty quick, headed north. Clouds developing over Sierra almost from start. Decent lift punctuated by heavy sink—1500 plus down. Really pulled in a lot, used VG, flew fast(for me) from ridge to ridge. Encountered some snow flurries. I was flirting with the edges to get lift and moving toward the valley when viz got sketchy. Basically a lot of fun. Just past Onion Valley (at 13 k) hit some 0g, then heavy twangs. Thought I was past it, then hit sudden massive sink. Vario pegged at 2000 down, then the bottom dropped out (very light in the harness). I could hardly believe it. Down to 7000’ in no time. Scary, as it was taking me straight down into a heavily bouldered area, didn’t seem to be anything I could do. My topless rocket was getting .5 to 1 glide. Unzipped ~300 agl, when I hit a bump. It felt solid, I turned, re-gained a couple K. I was shaken, didn’t trust anything, kept on into valley to make sure I had an lz on glide. Bubbles. Followed 395 for several miles, drifting N and E. Crossed fish pond, Mazurka road. OD over Whites had me skirting clouds ~ 8-9k (me, not them). Finally the clouds from Sierras and Whites started to converge, I bailed to Big Ears. Had to dive pretty hard to get down. Good landing in 15-20 S. Rhonda and Scott picked me up. Interesting day, and a bit further than I’d gone before.

5/23/09
Weather looked similar to yesterday, but developing even earlier. Launched ~10:15. Decent flying, nice views. I was wary approaching Onion Valley. Since I only had 12 K, I gave it a wide berth to the valley side. Weather looked likely to shut down the day before too long, so I opted for an easy landing near Aberdeen for maybe 35 miles. Ryan landed nearby--great first flight in the Owens.
Ryan brings it in near Aberdeen.

5/24/09
Got another early start. I was finding even better climbs than the past couple of days, frequently reaching cloudbase at 14.5k or so. No tailwind today, maybe even slight headwind, so progress north seemed slow. Saw Bruce and later Ben as they passed me. Passed high over Whitney Portal and Onion Valley, enjoying spectacular views. Still was wary of the area but nothing of note. Pissed on it just for good measure and moved on.
Friendly cu’s along the way, but I started noticing a huge tongue of dense, very high, cloud reaching into my path from the west. Didn’t know what to make of it. Not cu, and not cirrus, clearly being pushed by strong wind aloft. Possibly lenticular? Didn’t look quite right for that either, more like some errant tendril of the jet stream coming down to visit.* Eventually I headed east somewhere past Big Pine (My GPS kept shutting off, I think the cold was getting to my batteries, so I’m not sure exactly where I left the Sierras.)
Made the crossing with no issues, but that tongue kept reaching farther east, I wanted to get clear of it but wasn’t moving fast enough. Hit Black’s (a first for me) around 8K with Brian F overtaking me. Quickly climbed to 14.5 under a growing cu. Brian didn’t like the weather and went out to land. I raced north a bit further, but found alternating heavy lift and sink, and the Devil Tongue kept licking at my heels.
The hundred miler was beckoning, but with no GPS, faint familiarity with the landmarks further north, and vaguely threatening weather which I didn’t understand, I moved away from the peaks and closer to the foothills, still headed north. The weather uprange looked strong but fine, but I just wasn’t feeling comfortable with the situation where I was, so I left the hills after Flynn’s and landed along 6 between Flynn’s and Chalfant for 66 miles. My LZ was clear enough to pull off the no winder OK, but it was a hellish breakdown spot—half and half talcum powder and nasty stickers, and very hot.
Rhonda had trouble getting to Scott for his pickup, so I had a couple of hours to watch the clouds. The elevator over Black turned into an impressive cu-nim, exploding high and wide into a classic anvil. The tongue continued to spread east and grow, but became less and less defined. The shade brought some relief from the heat. Mayflies suddenly appeared out of nowhere, followed by a busy squadron of dragonflies gobbling them up. Passers-by offered welcomed water and beer. Cu’s and virga developed north and south. My ride eventually appeared, and we quested north to find Rick Dumlao, who did 80+ but landed without radio or cellphone coverage, but fortunately near the highway. Just another day in the Owens.

I was a little grumpy about cutting off the flight, but it was still a best for me. Met up with Bruce and Sarah, Wayne, Eric, Matt, and their drivers Nile and Suzanna for pizza and a thorough debrief on the day. Bruce, Ben and Steve all went better than 100 miles, though Bruce had to sacrifice a control bar($ouch$) and a modicum of flesh. Eric and Wayne also had good flights. Matt got stuck in the launch queue and didn’t get off before it started raining. (argggh).

*Bruce was able to enlighten me regarding the Evil Tongue—there had been T-storms over the West side of the Sierras, and what we saw was the dissipating remnants of those cu-nims being carried over the mountains by high westerlies. Ya learn something new every time.

Mount St. Helena Fly-in

The Sonoma boys hosted yet another successful fly-in over the weekend. Ryan G and I drove up to meet 20 other pilots and fly the the wine country, had a great time. First time there for both of us. Scenery was beautiful and green, lift abundant, beer cold.
Launch is 4k, was able to get 5800 a couple of times. You could pretty much fly as long as you wanted, but it was really choppy. Also, right around the mountain it seemed quite sinky, so everyone congregated over the peak and it got pretty busy sometimes. Fewer people, but not as organized as say, Chelan launch with 40 wings ;-)
I think I was probably over-correcting the glider a bit (hadn't been flying the litespeed much lately) but was kinda beat up after 1:30 and headed beerward.
View from over the peak, pretty sure that's Bob Stanley in lower left corner. Whether he's coring something tight or going over the falls I couldn't say. Either was pretty possible.

Oddly, once I left the peak at ~5400, I pulled rope, got past the sink zone, and found myself in completely smooooth air w zero sink--cruised at 35 mph for 5 minutes w no loss, then s-l-o-w-l-y settled down after that. The last 15 minutes of the flight were really nice, just glassy. Cruised around the valley a bit, then went in to land. Nice to fly the litespeed again, its just a nice-flying wing.
Found the right field and landed close enough to the target for a T-shirt. Some competitors took a unique lawn-dart approach to hitting the spot. If they'd told me those still counted, I'm sure I would have done better.
The BBQ was superlative, nice camping under a full moon. Great hanging out with the ever-colorful SW crew.
There were some other happenings on Sunday, so only 4 of stuck around to fly. Conditions were similar. I flew for a (short) while with what we later identified as a pair of golden eagles. Which is to say I saw them near me start to circle, turned into it with them, and watched them promptly disappear overhead. Damn locals.

Wind had picked up to 10-20 in the LZ. OK as such, but it was coming directly over a big row of trees on the long side of the field. The grass/weeds in the field were tall enough to illustrate nicely what big tree rotor looks like on the ground. I tried to land downwind of a small gap in the trees, but if there was a clean channel, it eluded me, so I got to try out the lawn dart method. Nothing broke, but I still don't see why its so popular.

Anyway, fun weekend. Thanks Sonoma Wings!

Finally!

4-26-09
Red letter day. After yet another cycle(or 3) of accumulated/obliterated pairs of H4 spots, I finally hit 3 in a row and get the rating. Good timing, as the joys of knitting and putt-putt golf were beginning to exert their powerful allure.
Thanks to all who observed, drove, coached, and refrained from laughing their asses off (at least in my presence) during all the fun.


4-28-09
Ok, ok it was all worth it. Flew Mission Peak for the first time, with Karl, Carm, Roy, and Doug Hahn—easy ride to cloudbase, flew nearly 2 hrs, top landed a couple of times—hey this local mountain soaring stuff is easy! Somebody should tell the guys…. Just remember to duck when the big planes come by.

Catching Up, Ditch Suck, etc.

So, finally found that pesky camera cable. Sandia Peak launch pics didn't do it justice, let's move on to the LZ.
Not sure why, but enough of my 'local' sites seem to have small ditches or creekbeds or some such in/near the LZ that we recognize a phenomenon called ditch suck-- way more pilots seem to land (or better, whack) into these features than the relatively small area justifies. The main Sandia LZ is a long skinny field oriented to the prevailing wind. I say long, but the downwind half is pretty rough- cactus, rocks, etc--not really a good place to put down, but good to set up your approach--no powerlines. The second half is pretty clean. But crossing it, right in the middle....the mother of all ditches. This sucker is a concrete lined culvert 15 or 20 feet wide and 8' deep-- the mind boggles at the possibilities. The photo was taken standing in the bottom, you can see the sock in the distance. If you suffer object fixation, do not land here!

Also drove out to La Bajada, a ridge-soaring mesa 45 minutes north of Albuquerque. Rugged, volcanic, long ridge- reminded me a bit of Hat Creek. Good-looking spot, though the edge was very sharp and rotor-y-- could feel it even 300 or 400 meters downwind. Of course that was with 40 mph steady and higher gusts. I exercised my razor sharp judgement and elected not to set up.

La Bajada from below.


The view from launch.

After getting blown out in New Mexico, I headed up to Denver to visit my sister to get snowed in.









Of course, it could have been worse.


After a few days I braved more blizzardy conditions across Wyoming to Salt Lake to see Heather and Adrian. (Heavy winds and falling/blowing snow made an already lunar landscape seriously surreal.) It cleared getting into the flats. They've got a great place 3 minutes from Point of the Mountain launch. Lots of pilots congregate in the neighborhood, even on a wintery weekend it was a lot of fun... summer sounds like flying/party central. Imagine Funston with a golf-green launch/top land area, pilots living walking distance all round, and consistent warm weather. The hardcores fly all day and then bbq while the working types fly/land/provide entertainment in the evening.

Last stop was Reno for a couple of days, visited with Bruce and Sarah—their new kitchen is starting to take shape. Flew Duck. After watching an H2 on his first high-altitude flight just about sky out flying a straight line, we watched the cycles promptly weaken then die. Scratched hard to get a slightly extended sledder; of course Bruce extended his just long enough to make me land first—damn locals. Shouldn’t whine though, it provided the sum total of my flying time for a 3k (driving) miles trip. Still, got to see lots of family and friends, generally had a good time, so I’ll stop my (non)whining.

Sandia

I was headed to Albuquerque for a few days and decided to strap on the glider and make it a road trip. First stop was Sandia Peak. Its been blown out the days I had available to fly so I haven't actually flown it, but the set up is worth describing.
Its a high (10,300) launch just outside of town-- the LZ is in town. The peak launch is H4 only, but there is also a Sandia Crest launch for the little people(yes still including myself), actually a bit higher.
The peak is not exactly your typical hg launch. There is a tram that goes to the top (and a restaurant, giftshop,etc), and they are happy to strap your wing onto the top of the gondola. The normal ticket is $15 bucks and I was expecting you'd pay extra for the wing but actually they just charge half price since its a one-way ticket. How cool is that?
The setup area is rocky (worn smooth though) and level and immediately adjacent to the launch. The launch is a steep, narrow, but smooth "impoved dirt" ramp (actually looks like fine gravel but I don't think it could stick to that slope by itself), that falls away nearly vertical at the end. It reminds me of Walt's but steeper if that's possible. Nice ridge to either side, spines on either side but quite some distance out. I also checked out the LZ, more on that later.
Right now I'm in Santa Fe, with tentative plans to fly La Bajada, a nearby mesa (southwest of town) that takes NW wind (what we have) well for ridge lift and often good thermal potential. Weatherman sez wind will back off tomorrow but its still howling at 7 PM so we'll see. The country around here is spectacular and I'm really hoping to see it from the air. Soon.
Looking through my bag it appears I packed the wrong camera cable so I can't upload pics, which kind of sucks but there you go.