July 25

Task was an out and return at 100km. I had no plans to make goal so I launched first and planned to leave as soon as I got up. I scratched along the ridge and the bowl till I hooked into a great thermal near the top. It was smooth lift at 600fpm and gained strength with every turn. At 1200 fpm I was making huge turns and thinking “something’s wrong. This is never this easy.” Then it clued in I was in cloud suck. I was 500’ below the cloud and racing for the edge. I was at 11000 feet and headed for Paglearo. I found little sink and was in a great position. Just as I was happy with my situation I hit a hole in the air. I was slammed back into my harness and my heart raced. A few seconds later it happened again with more force. Now I was having second thoughts about continuing this flight. A few seconds after that I was swung into a wing over ninety degrees. Now I have had enough and headed back to land. I was the first to land. No one else felt the violent air that I dealt with.

July 26

Task was called off do to impending storms. I was all set up and flew down between them. The Willi also starts today so I got my flying and landing points.

nats

July 23

Day called off do to weather

July 24

Task: parsons and back, twice, 123 Km! I was in a good position to take the last start time of four o’clock. Wasn’t too high but this was racing. I flew the course to the first turn point very fast never topping ten thousand feet. I passed a few people along the way and was very impressed. After tagging my turn point(first time ever) I fought my way back upwind. It was a long time to get back. I stayed low but had to stop more often to find lift. After reaching the second turn point (Mt 7) I struggled to tag it as I was too low. My goal was to tag it and land as I was exhausted. But it never happened. I mad it to within 800 m but the cylinder was 400. I flew for 2.5 hours. The toplesses finished in 3.5 hours or so and the only kingpost to finish (Dave) took over 5 hours.

Nats

July 21

Windy in the Lz prompted us to delay pilot meetings a few times and then call one late up on the mountain. It was no better there and the day was called. A few diehards flew and I wanted to get Cal his first thermal flight. We waited till the wind died and soon he was in the air. I quickly got suited up and followed to try and guide him. To my surprise he was thermaling up the spine and higher than launch when I launched. I climbed up over the peak to see him, Tim, Leaf, and Rob all sharing the sky at the top of the mountain. Your first high flight is great but there’s nothing like your first thermaling flight. I flew for an hour and landed early to catch his landing on video. He flew for an hour and a half and was ecstatic when he arrived on the ground.

July 22

The day was forecasted to blow in ugly stuff from the north so we called a task to Invermere. While setting up we could see the dark clouds advancing and were all trying to get off fast but the pilots in the air were not finding any lift. I was all suited up and jockeying for position when I heard over the radio that the LZ was very windy and turbulent. The gust front had arrived and with no lift it was likely to land there. I bagged it and drove down. We got hit by thunder storms soon after.

Nationals start

July 19

Practice day

I broke a few personal bests on Saturday. I flew just about Edgwater, and 2.75 hrs in the air. It was a very rough day but as soon as you were above the peaks the thermals smoothed off and became coherent. I had no problems the entire way. Doug and John made it to Invermere and rob was a few Km farther than me.

July 19

Nats start

It was rough. Didn’t matter where you were in the sky. The task was to Brisco and back. Lots of people bombed out early. I struggled in a gaggle over launch, not getting very high, till I got tired and ventured to the spine. I was rewarded with a good climb and was soon over the mountain with enough height to cross the gap. I was fighting a head wind and knew I would not make the peak, luckily I found a good strong thermal half way through the gap and just when I thought it was good smooth lift I went negative by a foot and was slammed back down. I screamed like a school girl and then looked around to make sure no one heard me. I was alone. Made the next peak easy but nobody was following me. I wasn’t feeling too good from the night before and long flight, so I turned around and headed for the landing field. Flew for an hour and a half. Scott won the day with John just behind. Everyone landed at the LZ either making goal or bombing out.

weekend warrior

I've been getting out every weekend (except 2) since the miles in may. The weekend of the fifth I got Terry, a coworker to come out and tow Jason and I up. He learned quick but it was to no avail for me. I got four tows and could not make any stick. Last weekend was windy but I still managed a short flight to the other side of rattle snake lake. Slow drifting lift was the order of the day. I'm pleased with my flying and practice so far and now I'm getting excited to go to the Nationals next weekend. The Willi is the weekend following so it will be two full weeks of flying. I'll try to post here as much as possible.

Also stay tuned for my next project in the making.... I'm going to convert my truck to run on wood! I'll start on this when I get back hopefully.