Chelan 2009 - Day 6

Classic Chelan,

Another great day. The day started off with a bit of frustration as an extra 60 seconds of fiddling with my radio cost me 8 places in line to launch. Alex and Chris were off first and climbed out fast. Conditions on launch then shut down with no breeze and no one launching. Dust devils were coming through the setup line and I was eager to get off the ground. After about 30 minutes, a large group of pilots picked up and moved over the the lakeside launch. As soon as they got out of line, conditions at between the rocks improved just enough to get a few of us off (or maybe we were just more comfortable with no wind launched). Lake Chelan from 10.5k

Once in the air I climbed slowly to 6,000', and then rocketed up to 10,500' and cloudbase before crossing. I got another climb to 10k over the power lines and set off towards Withrow. From Withrow I decided I would head south to Farmers. The line there looked tough. No dust devils, and all the clouds were dissipating. I took a slow climb to 11k at Withrow before heading on. My line was horrible and I got drilled with 600-800 fpm down the whole way there. I arrived lowish at about 5k. I saw a forming cloud and diverted West towards it. I circled in turbulant zero sink for a few minutes until the thermal came together and got me back up.

It was well below freezing at 11,200' as I headed North towards Mansfield. I acutally found myself shivering and had to keep wiggling my fingers to keep them warm. I had a nice cloud street most of the way to Mansfield and had fun flying high and fast with a few other gliders. I had to work some light lift at Mansfield, close in with a large gaggle of paragliders. We were all flying well together and the speed differential didn't cause any problems.

I thought about extending my triangle by going to Sims, but I really didn't want to land out on the last day. So I worked back to the butte, coming across the gorge high at 10k. I tagged the junkyard LZ and took a tour of the town and lake before landing at the Soccerfield LZ.
Crossing the gorge on my way back. Chelan Butte and Soccerfield LZ (green field by river)

The town of Chelan. We camped in the small dirt strip by the dam, behind the baseball fields

Everyone in our group (except for 1...) made it back to the soccerfield today and it was fun watching all the pilots coming in. There was a north wind in the lz wich made for a few interesting landings from the pilots who didn't check the direction before setting up there approach.

I've been trying to take more pictures and videos while in the air. Here is a short clip taken while returning to the LZ after my 50 mile triangle.


Flight time: 3:45
Flight Distance: 52 mile triangle

Saturday Joe Jackson and I did a cannonball run back to the bay area, traversing the 950 miles in about 16 hours. After a week of flying, while unloading Joe's stuff from the truck I misjudged a step and twisted my ankle. Hang gliding is so dangerous...