2nd for the day!
Today I flew a 65 mile triangle for 1077 points. That was enough to put me in a tie for second place for the day.
I was one of the first off the hill again after watching a few climb out. It was tough. I maintained at launch for a few minutes but soon found myself several hundred below. There is a ridge that blocks the path to the LZ, so I had to start heading that way to be sure I could clear it. I continued to sink out and was starting to get desperate. About 500’ over the LZ I found a really turbulent thermal. It didn’t climb much, but I wasn’t going down. Over the course of the next 30 minutes I gradually fought my way back up. Topped out at 7,500’ and headed across hoping to catch up with Ben and Bruce.
On the flats I found Ben and Bruce and Joe. We were all struggling to get high again. There was wind today and it made progress difficult. We zig zaged forward chasing the few dustdevils we could find.
To the southeast some high clouds were casting a large shadow and looked to be shutting down the thermals and blocking our path. Ben headed south hoping to skirt around the trailing edge of the shadow and Joe followed suit. Bruce and I decided to dart into the shadow and tag the Withrow waypoint. We hit the waypoint, but now were down around 4,000’ (1,000’ off the deck). I circled in zero sink, drifting away from my course. Eventually I climbed back up to 8k. The path to the SE to Farmers still looked dark. To the north I could see some active clouds and dust devils on the way to Mansfield. I radioed to the boys that I was going to head that way and try to make the small triangle.
Getting to Mansfield was fairly easy. Once there I climbed up to 8,000 and started to head back to Chelan. Bruce radioed ahead and said he had been sinking. I looked behind me and could see sunny fields and lift away towards Sims. I decided I would turn around and head that way. I figured I would not complete a triangle, but I could go for open distance.
Dusty on the way to sims
I hit a boomer back at Mansfield and climbed to cloudbase at 10,200’. I hit one more good climb on my way to Sims. Made the turnpoint low and looked at the 25 miles I had to cover to get back. I scratched for a while and eventually dove at a pair of dustdevils. Climbed up with 2 other pilots and pressed on. Progress was slow with the crosswinds. Crossing Mansfield I knew I needed one more climb to get half way back and earn the multiplier. I found the climb and it was enough to get me all the way back.
Arriving back at the gorge. Chelan lake at the top, launch is the mountain on the left
The last 10 miles of the flight I flew around the edge of a good sized building cloud. I flew full vg at 45mph at 8,200’ without losing anything. Crossed the gorge high, took some photos, and tagged the junkyard LZ. Then I flew back over the towers and landed on the grass in the soccer field lz.
Airport LZ
Chelan butte and Soccer Field LZ (small grass field on water front on the righthand side of the river)
I knew I had done a good task for the day. I was pleasantly surprised the next day to find out I had the second best flight for the day. Bruce took first for the day with 5 points more.
Airtime: 4:50
Score: 1077
Breaking down the glider in the Soccer Field LZ
No comments:
Post a Comment