You Just Never Know….

(Mansfield Encampment 2015, July 28th)

Even as “long time” (expert?) pilots in Mansfield area, today we got “schooled”.

Mia was up for some flying and I was more then happy to oblige by running the rig. To be honest the last few weeks around here have been far from classic conditions so it was nice to see a day where the soaring numbers looked promising enough that Mia wanted to check it out. We headed out to the tow site with Jeff K,  an old friend tagging along for support. Nice having just one glider for the rig so it was a “Busch Lite” day for the “tow-meister”. 

By 12:45, under mainly blues sky with the occasional Q popping here and there,  I was pouring gas over the cylinders of our Ford tow rigs gutless 302 and Mia was quickly up and out of the cradles. The start of the tow was soft with a slow climb. After the first mile things suddenly picked up and she was quickly up to 2000ft agl, pinning off in 500fpm up. Perfect release with a perfect chute opening, two minutes later all the line was back at the rig, outriggers stowed and we were on our way back to the set-up area. By the time we got back and our gear picked up, Mia indicated she was over 8000ft asl and was heading west.

Mia, not on any sort of a mission was going head….. well sort of…. over there …or here… maybe…. Eventually she did get lined up west with a 25km run West to Withrow. After seeing nothing but blue sky to the west (in the direction of Waterville) she decided to head back to the tow site.  From there a quick 8km jaunt up Leahy Cut-off…. and back to the tow site. Last, a quick 14km drive down to Saint Andrews road (6th and L-road) and again… back to the tow site. After nearly 4 hours she had managed the most complex 70km FAI triangle you could imagine and seemed satisfied to call it a day.

Mia also mentioned that she had been totally under dressed for the flight and was freezing cold with several gains taking her up over 10,000. (always a challenge to get the right layer of clothing when flying our desert conditions !).

Landing was interesting as it was pretty early to be setting down (before 5pm). During her setup I could only give general surface conditions (everything from north through south, 0 to 10mph)…. as we say, things had definitely gone “light and vacuum” when she turned to final.  It was pretty evident that things were still cooking as she got a big pop of lift at a 100ft that caused her to go long and land in the cut crop on the west side of the tow road. When she got the glider into ground effect it was suddenly a quartering tail but with a very good hard run she pulled off a great nose up landing….climbing out of her harness she admitted that she was “done”, the flight had been allot of work had she was glad to be down. (Mia’s Flight)

 

Now, this is about when we got some higher education about flying this area….. It had been light and variable for nearly an hour in the goal field. There was the occasional dust devil that wandered by but nothing of the intensity we were about to experience. At almost the worst time possible, (sail released and not ready to be folded on her VQ) we got hit by a medium size dust devil from an entirely new direction (east). Not a huge problem at the moment but things were rapidly going to get worse.

Within a minute the dust devil had passed and we had a moment where we figured everything was going to settle down and be good for the rest of the take-down.  Nope…. just as suddenly, only a minute or two later,  we got hit by what could only be described as a clear air gust front. Normally a gust front out here is marked with plainly visible dust as it approaches, this sprang up without any notice, as if the area had suddenly lifted off.  Without warning we now had 20mph south winds with our biggest problem being the glider was not oriented properly for the unexpected south wind. Getting caught like this (glider partially broken down) is a little like getting caught with your pants down…. sail released and everything exposed at the worse time.  Thankfully with two sets of hands to haul things in we managed to get the beast into the bag….. Yikes… never saw that coming!

The wind continued to blow 15 to 20mph while we loaded the glider and headed off to Park Lake for a swim.

The Moral of this story… never drop your guard when dealing with “mother nature”

Feed Me Seymore, (Bad lines and the Devil that didn’t bite….)

(Mansfield Encampment 2015, July 19th)

Thought I should post something about “the other side” of flying our little piece of heaven on earth…. once in while the devil goes for walk. Its not all peaches and cream over the wheat fields of Washington State. There are days when the air simply gets mean rough and rowdy, the kind of day where respect is high on the priority list. July 19th was just such a day.

With Mia running the rig again, Mike and I started the day with clear skies, good visibility, very little smoke and a pretty good soaring forecast (that had a minor  7-10 mph south wind).  We started our flights at what was normally the traditional north setup area for a south tow. This year the spot had crops planted on both sides of the road we had not been able to use it up until just a few days prior (crops now cut it was ok to tow and safe for a aborted launch if we needed to pin off). 

Looking at the day suggested nothing major was in the works, pretty much “blue” over the tow site, some development to the west and a few Q’s starting to form over on the east side of Banks Lake. General plan for the day, try to strike out to the SE again but I suspected we were going to struggle heading that way but it was worth the try.

At 11:50 Mia gave me a nice 2000 ft tow, I pinned off straight into a nice smooth 300-400fpm up to 7000ft asl, good enough for me to start pressing south (my Flytec 6030 indicated 6-8 mph SE winds aloft). As I slowly picked south, Mia was “Speedy Gonzales” and within 20 min was back loading Mike.

This turned out to be our first bit of drama of the day. Mike was up on the rig getting ready to tow when a dust devil appeared in the cut wheat about 100 yards in front and to the west of the truck (moving parallel to the road…. toward the staging area). Mike captured the event on his GoPro ….

The risk of being seriously beat up by a dust devil on the truck is real. We do what we can to mitigate the risk but the odds are, sooner or later, your going to get hit.  We try to tow early, we try to setup in area that dust devils are not as common. Todays setup area tends to group the devil action over an old homestead nearby. For what ever reason, todays devil was like the plant from the movie “Little shop of horrors” and had “Feed me Seymore”  on its agenda and was looking for lean cut of “Mike” and a side order of “ATOS VR”

Fortunate for Mike it was not a direct hit! Passed very close to the right. Mike said he was afraid his right wing was going to snap off! Thankfully, Mia stayed cool (grabbed the rear wires and prevented the wing from being rocked back or snapping the nose line) and Mike got all of his weight into the glider, wrapped the cradle emergency straps around the base-tube. The outriggers on the tow rig stopped any fore/aft movement, stopped the rolling action of one wing being picked up and all was well… we would call this a near miss… except… the setup tarps took a direct hit! Soon, the tarps where being sucked up and heading XC north (small 2’ x 6’ vinyl layout sheets) …. Mia later, after Mike’s tow she managed to track them down nearly a mile away…. of course Mike’s tarp had to fly just a little further then mine.

So, while this drama was going on I soon found things where not going to be easy heading south east. In fact, while I was not real low I was starting to get the feeling that I better find something or the day was over. After a series of dashes NE to some big looking dust devils (and having very little success) I finally made a low save from 4200ft asl (meanwhile Mike was comfortably approaching 9000ft asl back near the start).

For me, connecting with this nasty bit of lift was a rough rodeo ride, still… going up was better then going down! After going for the big drift, I had climbed back up over 9000ft asl and was NE of Sims but happy just to be staying up.  

This would be the theme for most of the day, I would pull the crap lines and Mike (boy blunder… ooops, I mean Boy Wonder) would have divine intervention guide him along good lines for most of the day…. like when the dust devil steered around him on the truck?

We pretty much tossed out the idea of heading SE (I had drifted 15 km north before topping out at 9600 NE of Sims Corner and decided to head across Banks Lake  over Steamboat Rock State Park. Again, a rough nasty climb out of the Park to help get me over to East side.  By this point in time clouds had formed, seemingly based up around 12,000ft asl but I was finding it a real pain to figure out how to get there. The north leg was working but was by no means the glassy late day climbs I had a few days back. Near JW Butte I banged my heels off the keel… shortly after another weightless event! To quote a very good friend of ours (Luc) the “Fun meter is starting to run low”.

65kms from our Start, Mike who had taken a more southerly route was high over the Martin Canyon Turn point and I arrived way underneath him was flying  like a complete idiot seemingly incapable of finding anything solid… ouch.. I should not have said that!… I banged into a violent climb of 12-1400fpm… it was death grip and hang on time … back up to 11,500ft asl.  On a day like this you do start to ask yourself, do I seriously want to be here?…. of course you also have to ask yourself… do I really want to land in this?

Usually the best plan is to pick an different line and usually that’s the trick. Pushing SE toward Wilbur, things did improve. With Mike leading the way toward Wilson Creek, it was still “chunky” air, diminishing Q’s but there was much less turbulence then the north line, (Our flights, Mike in Red and I’m in Blue) For a brief time I started to catch up with Mike.

Since today theme for me was “Bad Lines”, After I had joined up with Mike, I tried to push south to the Wilson Creek turnpoint, Mike made the wise choice to turn for home. My little push set me up for a low snivelling grind back up to Hartline, where on at least two occasions Mia who was traveling north with me in the Jetta saved the day by spotting me at least two tiny dust devils that kept me up (now high overcast in the area was shutting things down). Finally just north west of Hartline, the God’s felt pity and gave me a save from 3900 back up 10,300ft asl for an easy glide across Banks Lake and back to goal.

Mikes 6 hour flight managed a 182km FAI OLC triangle with 200km flown to achieve the effort. My drunken 7 hour meanderings, even with the push to Wilson Creek yielded a 176 FAI OLC triangle with 212km’s flown… Mike slimed me with a little push NW to take the day… its a wonder he can sleep at night?

Again, nice to have Mia at goal with a windsock and some cold Beck’s beer (hmmmm starting to think Becks should be sponsoring us? ).

After such hard fought for flight it was nice to enjoy a few cool beverages and another spectacular sunset, Cheers from Mansfield:

Two Spectacular Days in July,

 

(The 2015 Mansfield Encampment), part 2 July 9th, 2015

Today I run the “rig”, so I will write this from the perspective of a bitter pilot stuck on the ground. Of course, somebody has to run the winch and truthfully there is a certain amount of satisfaction of getting my pilots safely up and away on a first tow, but, jeapers… this was going to be an amazing day! My pilots for the day, Mike Bomstad from Spokane (foaming at the mouth having watched me fly my big triangle yesterday via My Spot) and Mia, as usual quiet and reserved.

The soaring forecast from the July 8^th was great but today the climbs and top of lift all went up… what little wind there was on the 8^th was even less on the 9^th.

A bit of a comment regarding forecasting in the basin. We rely heavily on XC Skies (and its GFS, NAM and RAP formulas). We also like to look at the NOAA Soaring forecast. Sometimes we even use the WDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation) to try and create a simple overview of what’s up. Today, all the forecasts called for hot, no wind and King Kong lift… the second rare day in a row.

By my standards we had a bit of a late start, we did not get out to the tow site until just after 11:30. The light and variable surface conditions did not help matters as it took a bit of time to decide the right setup spot to insure we had options for towing direction if we saw a surface wind change. We decided on a bit of low odd spot on the tow road, but had the option for a 3.5 mile north tow or a 5.5 mile south tow. Either way, it insures a good high tow and high probability of “connecting” on the first tow.

By the time we got everything sorted Mike took the first tow just after 12:40. We towed south…. And Mike used every inch of the 5.5 mile south tow. One section of the tow saw a brief patch of 400+ fpm sink … that is to say going down under tow!.... No doubt about it, the air was active. I finally got Mike off the line after a 2600ft tow… after a clean rewind I was heading back for Mia.

Within 30 minutes Mike was climbing through 12,000 and heading out on a SE track.

A very quick turnaround and Mia was starting her tow 1:15. Again, south tow but things had really started to turn on. Mia only needed 2.5 miles to pin off at 4400 (a 2200ft tow) and immediately climbed out to over 10,000 and started to chase Mike SE. Mia was hoping to bag her first 200km FAI triangle, Mike… I truly think had no idea what was in store for him and was just “going” to do something big?

I quickly got things packed up at the tow site then back to Mansfield to drop off the tow rig and transfer over to the Jetta, load the road cooler and hit the road for my day as cheer leader and support crew. Within the hour I was southbound from Sims corner checking in with my pilots. Mia was an hour into her flight, SE across the south end of Banks Lake 30+km out and passing through 12,000ft, Mike a little over an 1.5 hours into his flight 60kms out (south of Wilson Creek) and nicely established over 12,000ft asl.

Mike was into the Moody area tough spot and doing well, heading for Lind. Mia 35 minutes behind and starting to get a hint that the area ahead was changing. Within 40 minutes found herself below 6500 and struggling with broken lift and wind has she tried to get to her Microwave turnpoint south of Wilson Creek. Meanwhile Mike had lucked out and was past the tough spot but oddly also started to run into some challenging air, seeing 7000 ft just south of Hwy 90 west of Ritzville. At almost identical times, both Mia and Mike ended their SE headings…. Mia slowly worked her way out of a hole and turned NE, Mike pushed just a little more ESE and turned near the Franz+21 turnpoint 5 miles north of Lind.

For Mia, the visibility was becoming a problem. It was new territory for her (having never done much flying in this area) and having the smoke block off her familiar landmarks she had the tricky Irby plateau crossing to do and without clear skies to see her way through it was a bit of a leap of faith trusting my directions. She got a nice climb over 11,000 to strike out into the “muck” and after rough sinky crossing tagged into a good across the gap climb back up over 12,000 and more or less back on course (roughly ;-) heading North up Hwy21.

Meanwhile , a further to the east, Mike past the halfway mark of his next leg (of what I expected to be a 300km triangle attempt) approaching Harrington on course for Davenport to the NE and was comfortably over 13,000 ft.

Out on Mia’s course line, she had a new infamous challenge we like call the “Sinking Fast Ranch” (yes that’s it’s real name….). The “Ranch” is another one of those odd spots that can be heaven or hell. Today Mia found herself groveling again at 6000 and hunting. Usually the trick is just grind out what you can find and be patient. Eventually It paid off, on the north end of the ranch valley (located south of Wilbur) she was able to work her way back up out of trouble with a nice climb to over 12,000. Trouble now was the fact that two bad spots had cost her over an hour of airtime and she now needed to consider her trip home (now pushing 5:30) Mike without the much in the way of low challenges had already turned north of Davenport, and nearly crossed the Lava Flow east of Creston and nicely established over 10,000. (Today like the day before, I figured 8pm would be the end of the day, Mia was 60km’s out, Mike was around 80km’s out both with 2.5 hours of soaring left in the day).

Mia suffered bad “lines” all day and was getting a little gun shy, so she cautiously picked her way along. Mike had not been stung and ran a supper good Northern line that kept things rolling. At 6:30, Mike (now ahead of Mia) just finished a climb to 13,000 and was starting his Banks Lake crossing, Mia on a more southerly line was behind but climbing slowly to 12,000ft +.

The unedited photo below gives you a pretty good idea just how much the smoke cut down the visibility (Mike crossing Banks Lake at the end of the day):

By 7:00, Mike had comfortably crossed Banks Lake, hardly any sink the whole way and NE of the tow site trying to stretch his distance to make up for the early turn north of Lind. Mia had a brutal long crossing, well back from the edge of Banks and had finally completed the crossing and was on the west side, pulling off another low save for the day (4000ft asl, 1700ft agl)… she wasn’t talking to me anymore cuz I called her “poky” on the east side of the lake…. I think she got the low save from the steam coming out of her ears?)

As I climbed up the Hwy northbound from Dry falls it was great to hear that everybody was up and within reach of goal. With windsock at the ready, cold Becks in the cooler Mia beat Mike back to goal, landing at 7:54. Mike finally decided to join us, landing 7:59…. Just before 8:00 (my predicted end of the day).

For one day I held the longest OLC triangle distance record in North America…. One stinking day (And no….I’m not bitter….. well not enough to smother somebody in his sleep ;-)… Mike with his stretch at the end of the flight was now the new king:

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=646196

311.1 Km OLC FAI triangle at just over 7:15 airtime.

Mia, despite all the low challenges snagged her personal best:

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=646192

176.8 km’s OLC FAI triangle and 6:41 airtime.

Photographs taken by Mike During his flight can be found here.

Two tows, two away(no relaunches) for a combined XC of nearly 500km’s of XC and 15 hours airtime…. I think I did a pretty good job. Oh…. And congrats to both Mike and Mia for a job well done and new personal bests for both.

The end of truly “Two Spectacular Days in July” !

Two Spectacular Days in July

(The 2015 Mansfield Encampment), part 1 July 8th, 2015

For the past 18+ years I have based my summer vacation of flying out Mansfield Washington (for many years, nick named the “Mansfield Encampment”). Flatland flying in what is commonly known as Washington State’s “Columbia basin” can be some of the finest cross country flying to be had anywhere in the world. Every year, while my primary goal is to fly safely and enjoy the spectacular air of this area, my secondary goal has always been to try and best my previous years personal best On Line Contest scores.

I don’t want to say that 200 FAI OLC triangles are easy, but a typical summer in this area usually yields multiple 200+km triangles and to date my personal best had been a 250km FAI OLC triangle. Of course there are those that would say I cheat… I fly a rigid wing (ATOS VR) but I figure it’s fare… I’m old… senile, I just need a little extra “something” to compensate for my lack of skill? (For those who don’t know the area I have a video that pretty much sums up why we come here…click on the “Go to Cruise” video link on the blogs sidebar…)

At this time, I should point out that these are not proper FAI pre-declared distance flights, for those who participate in Online Contests, you will know the OLC program generates what are in essence “free distance” scores that are based on the FAI rules of an FAI triangle. There is no need to declare a task and no need to “close” your track…. It’s just plain old open distance flying where you get to fly as far as you can yet create something close to an FAI triangle in shape and let the program score the flight (and FAI triangles are scored substantially higher then normal open distance because of the increased difficulty associated with flying an FAI triangle course). Flying a pre-declared task and “closing it” is by far the more difficult thing to do but this is just for fun and personal challenge. As the expression goes (when it comes to official FAI records…) “I’ve been there and done that”.

Up until July 8^th it had been a pretty typical season in Mansfield. I had lucked out with 2x 200+km triangles 1 x 180 and a couple good tries that had me landing out in the effort. July 8^th turned out to be one of those very special days that came entirely without expectations.

As per usual, Forest fire smoke was filling the “Basin”… all too common. What was unusual this year was the source of the smoke. Typically the east slopes of the Cascades and or the Colville plateau are the commonly the source of human or lightning caused fires. This year, it was smoke being dragged down into Washington by some massive fires in the Pacific Coast Region of British Columbia. Well smoke can be a problem (cutting off the power of the sun) I also tend to find smoke can smooth out what can be pretty industrial conditions that we get around here… and July 8^th 2015 was forecast to have (based on XC Skies)… “Industrial Conditions”. Light northerly winds and very strong lift ranging 10-12,000 ft asl…. Perfect for a big triangle attempt.

Mia (my partner and flying companion) standing in as the winch operator, and promising looking skies hiding behind light smoke filled skies, just before noon, I towed north up our favourite tow road, releasing from a 2500agl tow into a nice 2-300 up. The days flying had begun.

After release I topping out at 7800 asl (5600ft agl) and I set out on a SE heading away from the tow site. Even with the smoke cutting down the visibility it was obvious it was a good day. By the time I was 15km out I had managed a couple nice climbs through 10,000ft…this was a very good start.

At 1:35 into the flight I was 60km out and managed my first climb to 13,000 asl. I had reached what was typically a major barrier on my chosen route. Typical conditions in this area would see the lift dying off and blueing out along this course line. Today would prove to be an exception! While originally intending to turn at or near my “Moody” Turnpoint, the clouds continued to look great to the SE, so I pressed on to a new turnpoint, Lind Washington (making the first leg 110+km’s…). Following a nice cloud street with a slightly more southerly heading I found myself struggling a bit SW of Lind, but after a bit of blundering around managed to get back into the game with a climb back over 13,000 asl and struck out NE toward Davenport from a new virtual turnpoint that saw the first leg being 110 kms but and the new second leg being a potential 95-105 kms (dependent on where I dared to turn).

The next leg had one moment of “questioning the faith”… I managed to skilfully avoid lift long enough to find myself grovelling at the 4.5 hour mark of the flight and had to go back to work. Eventually after a bit of a struggle I found my way back up to 13,000. (nice to know Mia had caught up to me was only a few miles away running support in the air-conditioned VW Jetta giving me a pep talk to not give up!).

This is the critical point to any long distance flight where you need to decide how far you can go and still make it “home”. Climbing out of the last hole had set me back. At 4.5 hours and 160 kms into a potential 300km task. my best expectations for the day was 8 hours of airtime. I decided I could not afford the time to turn near any of my Davenport Turnpoints…. Time for a change of plans.

Well the “Basin” offers gobs of places to land, there are some pretty “iffy” sections that can prove not that friendly to a delicate rigid wing. Turning near Davenport requires a 20km westerly crossing of something affectionately known as “The Lava Flow”….. no, not burning molten lava but the cooled down rough terrain left by a volcanic event from many years back in time. There are a few places to set down a rigid but definitely something to keep in mind.

I decided to turn for home just north of the Rocklyn Silos (Hwy 2, 6km’s west of Davenport, completing a 95km second leg). After a few tense minutes grinding around at 7000ft trying to connect to some beautiful clouds I found a reliable but slow climb up to 12,000ft and west bound across the infamous “lava flow”.  5:20 into the flight and my best guess 2:40 minutes of flight time left to cover what was 95kms, in air that was definitely showing signs of losing its energy.

Milking the leg home is a test of what to, and what not to turn in. Taking some faith that dust devils ahead would mark strong lift and to not get fooled by clouds that may or may not pay off, meanwhile time starts to run out. My first gamble was a save across the lava flow North of Wilbur over the good old reliable Wilbur Cemetery 7000 back up to near 11,000ft, not as high as my earlier gains but I needed to push on. Next a similar save was SE of JW Butte (a Microwave facility north of Almira and back on the very reliable Northern route home). 6.5 hours in the air, 45 km to my goal (L+13). Clouds where disappearing, the smoke was getting thicker, the climbs much slower….Dust devils where gone…time to keep the “faith”...

Boating along the last leg I tripped over my last climb over 10,000, no cloud and no devils to mark it.

Now came my last big logistical barrier, “Banks Lake”. From 10,000, with little or no headwind, it was an 18 km glide to cross Banks Lake and onto my next reasonable landing patch on the leg home. The air was really going calm, so the gap was not a real stretch but I did not have the “numbers” needed to make it the final distance home. I was going to need something more to make it home. Thing is, a Banks Lake crossing can be a real “unknown”. Crossings can range from heaving sink to lift… no telling what was in store.

I committed to the crossing and advised Mia (who was still encouraging me to push on) that I would be crossing and that she should do the long run down to Coulee City and back up to goal.

It was a merciful crossing, no lift and sink that ranged between 200 to 400 fpm down. I arrived over safe landing options 7 hours into the flight 15km to goal at 5600ft (3400 agl). The glide numbers said I had goal but the no lift/mild sink crossing left me paranoid…. I needed to scratch out just a bit more height. The other problem, the sinking angle of the sun and the smoke was definitely bringing the day to a close. After a brutally desperate 20 minutes, I had managed to cling to a miserable little bug fart for the very last lift of the day to 6400asl (4200 agl and still 15km to go)…. Final glide.

As I crossed west bound from Sims over Hwy 172 (4800ft asl, 2600ft agl, 10 km to go…..200 down….) Mia announced she had joined me west bound (I saw her in our Red Jetta passing me below) and would be able to reach goal ahead of me for a wind/landing report. I had the numbers to easily make goal but the sink remained the question.

Finally, with the help of a little low level tail wind I reached Goal ! ….. I arrived 3100asl, 900 feet above L Road. I would have liked to stretch my triangle but there was no way as the day was DONE. Smoke had completely shut things down. 7hours and 55 minutes of flight time completing a 295.9 km OLC FAI triangle… my new personal best, and a unofficial Class 05 HG North American OLC triangle record. I ended the flight with a less then pretty “light and vacuum” safe landing in 8 inches of L-road moon dust… you fly here… you learn to love the dirt!

(Link to the flight)

Mia, my ace support crew chief welcomed me back home with cold Becks beer. Mia your the best!

So much for day 1 of two spectacular days in July!

Tomorrow, my turn to run the tow rig…… more to follow ;-)