Sunday, May 18, 2008

The Spring that never was......

Odd season this year, or at least "strange" to say the least.

In the Fraser Valley there has been little in the way of dynamic spring soaring. We seem to struggle when it comes to establishing a typical spring season pattern. The jet stream has tended to park it's self to the south. Unseasonable cool weather, no real classic improving cycles (the ones that start with monster instability and gradually over a period of days "settle down" in to warm stable conditions).

The most recent in a continuance of bizarre weather was a very strong high pressure dumps its self into the lower mainland (May 16th) and the weather goes from cool and unsettled to completely stable.... in one day! So what's up with that? Global warming my ass....

We headed off to Mansfield in search of spring. Both Mia and I arrived on the evening of the 16th. There we found our old buddy Luc M. had moved in and was awaiting our arrival. Also out of the blue an Old time hang glider pilot (that now, sadly had turned to the way of the bag :-( ... ) Kevin Ferguson showed up (Lost on his trip across Canada?).

May 17th, Super hot, a few dusty's on the horrizon and we head off to L-Road to christen all of our new tow rig modifications. Luke and Mia were ready to tow and Kevin was tagging along for the show. Conditions at the tow site were blue and hot yet pretty dynamic looking and there were reservations from both pilots.

I should mention it was HOT. Given it was May 17th, hitting the lower 90's was a bit of a shock for everybody (lather up the sun screen children!)

IMG_1065

We spent far to much time thinking about the conditions at L-13th and soon spirits began to run low (it was gusty and it did have a "blown out" look).

Mia suggested moving north to the highway. Sure enough, the south winds of 10-15 mph seemed to mellow as the ran over the green crops (last year were fallow) and Luke soon announced his interest in flying. Mia soon agreed.

Luke ran into some technical issues (VG screwed up on his Talon), so it was Mia who was to Christen the "Stairway to Heaven" with the first tow of the season. (I think a combination of heat and glider issues helped Luc in his decision not to fly)

There was the usual screw-ups for first tow of the season, Mia takes the Stairway to Heaven, but forgets to attach her towing release onto her harness? Can't figure out how to adjust the squelch on her Icom V85, but after a few minutes we had it sorted (and a few customary abusive comments from me....)

With great surprise and with only a few adjustments the new outriggers worked perfectly. The ramp was easy enough and the final lift up into to the cradles was a piece o cake! (looks like this years towing mods are a success)

Clipped in an going to cruise, Mia release off of the truck into a nice smooth tow of 800 fpm. At roughly 2000ft agl she released and was scratching up in nice mellow blue sky air.

Mia scratched a very respectable 1.5 hours and landed out near Banks lake.

After dropping off the tow rig, I ran retrieve with the Tracker. Mia said thing got real flat near the Lake (later Q's did form back toward Mansfield). A quick trip down to Sun Lakes and a cool dip to recharge from the sun and it was back to Mansfield for Pizza dinner prepared by Luc.

Saturday the 18th was warm but blown out. The whole day in Mansfield was spent watching the Wennatchee wave set up near Waterville. Luc headed back to Canada, Kevin into Chelan, Mia and I spent the rest of the day on maintenance around the shack.

For entertainment I tried to kill myself with a chain saw buy falling off a ladder (who says hang gliding is dangerous?) A simple miscalculation and an branch I was cutting hung up just enough to kick back under my ladder and the next thing I knew I was on my way to the ground with a running chainsaw! I survived with a gash on the head, bruised elbow, scratches on my legs and Mia clucking something about "I can't leave you alone for ....."

Forecast calls for less winds and some instability for tomorrow so we continue to wait for Spring......