Pre-Worlds 2010 Monte Cucco

Being here is a dream come true. A dream I never gave much credit until last year. Getting here was an ordeal I am slowly begining to comprehend. But is an experience of a lifetime, it really is amazing to fly with so many really talented pilots. 130 in total I think. There are many amazing sites from the air the Gubbio that we visited a couple of days before. Some terrestrial pictures to follow. We have had 2 good flying days so far. Very testing courses in my opinion but I am a relative newby here.
This is Costaccairo, a village still on my to-do list. Our campsite is quite close by.
The mountain to the right was the final turnpoint on yesterdays task. Quite deep in tiger country, and just over the back is a huge monastory. No pictures because I was in a 1200fpm ripper 200ft off the spine!
Task 1 was tricky for me as I was a bit rusty and messed up the start. I had to go back after 13km and start properly, there I met the Jeffs, Zippy and Alex, who pretty much left me behind immediately. I seemed to make some different decisions and catch them at the turnpoint only to get dropped off again. Again I found them at the next turnpoint, and so on. The run to the far waypoint was under some airspace which is difficult to navigate with everything else that is going on (the gaggle flying, the no-mans land crossings and waypoint navigation) With all this many got zeros for the day... Here was the task : Results are here : http://www.cucco2011.org/ You have to dig a little for the results in the tabs.

St Andre

A couple of days ago now my Dad took my up to the Hang gliding launch up above St Andre called Chalvet. It was a special day as I rarely get the opertunity to fly with my Dad. Conditions looked great, launch was easy. Lets go ! We were flying with a buddy of my Dads. Ron had launched earlier and was hanging around for us. The plan was to go north and return south to the Chammette. I followed Dad north, Ron was struggling a little, Dad and I found nothing but sink to the north. I went out into the valley and got hammered down to 4k, Dad worked the burbles up to near Ron, who was now skying out. I found a climb that took my nice and high and went "over the back" only I went over a different back than Dad and Ron. I headed for the Chamette, almost completely the wrong way. A bunch of other pilots were flying the Chamette also which I beleive to be Dad and Ron. Half way along the ridge and lower Ron said "Chamette - no thats the wrong way, we went north". Meantime Dad was landing and everyone around me was sinking out. I found a burble to work with some guy flying a laminar. We worked back up nice and high and I head back to Launch. I snuck around the side, and got to launch about 600ft below. Not bad at all. I worked my way back up, the day had turned on properly now and getting to 8000ft, I had where my Dad landed on glide (Thorame-Basse). I headed that way and got another climb back to 8000ft (no sense in passing that up) Dad suggested I explore Cheval Blanc a bit. A neat mountain, the ground around there is really ripped up. Cheval Blanc stands about 8000ft and I'd gotten to 9000ft Both Ron and Dad were now packed up, Dad suggested I head back to St. Andre, thats the way home and its a nice run. Why not? The day had mellowed out climbs were easier and softer but going just as high. Getting back to launch was easy. I was snapping away with the camera and taking in the scenery.
took another climb to the Chamette flew around a bit and decided it was time to land. The Aerogliss field has a reputation for switchy winds, but it was well behaved on this occasion. A flawless landing was narrowly avoided by me forgetting about the visor, which makes you think you are skimming the ground when in actuallity you are 6 feet up. I started to do my usual half assed flared and run out when I noticed my feet weren't on the ground. Whoops glad the litespeed lands so easily, I stalled and ran in a turn. Must remember that visor next time.

Castellane and Trigance

The local town here, Castellane, has lots of history and neat architecture. It sits on the Verdon river, which a number of rafting company use as a put in for the famous gorge run. It has a chaple up on top of the iconic rock. It is a typically medievel town with narrow streets, and lots of nooks and crannies. I will explore it more later. What a great town to call home. My parents also took me on a ride from the mouth of the Verdon gorge to Trigance.
Another medievil town in Haute Provence. The squares are exceedingly pleasant to hang out in.
And so folks do socialize outside in the evening, what great ambience. A little refreshment before the ride back. Mum surprized me by going for it down a pretty steep and lose ancient road.

Quick trip to St Andre and back.

My Dad had an excuse to for a quick ride upto St Andre : show me a few Landing options.

Off to Nice, France.

After the usual mayhem of trying to remember what to pack and what needs taking care of while I am away for 2 months, Tracey dropped me and my short packed Glider at SFO. I arrived at Nice via Frankfurt about the same time the next day (-4 hours local time). I was a little concerned about baggage transfer as there was not enough space to park the plane in Frankfurt, and having the glider as baggage is pretty nerve racking. In the end I got to Nice 4 hours early. No luggage though. Spent 3 hours trying to track it down. Waited for the next scheduled flight from Frankfurt... Nothing... Next flight was at Midnight. I was told that everything should show up then. My parents were waiting also and we went to the beach. The water was georgeous swimming temperature. We waited. My glider and clothes showed up 12:30am. Eventually got to the chalet 2:30am long day! s? Great to be here though.

Tracey has a new bike

On the way back from Reno, the plan was to ride the famous Tahoe flume trail (one of my favourites). However with the altitude and our schedule, we decided to do it at a time we could enjoy it more.
We settled for a ride around Spooner Lake (or 4).
Its a short but pretty ride, and only recently opened for bike riding on a trial basis.
It winds its way around the lake through Aspen trees, and Pondarosa pines.
A couple of weeks ago, Tracey showed me a ride around the local "Water Dog Lake" Park I was impressed by the trails, most park trails are beneign and graded so that park vehicles can use them. Not this one...
Interesting how wild it was too, right in the middle of the densist population I've ridden in. After a couple of hours of exillirating trails and lots of uphill, Tracey took a dive. Having breezed through a number of technical and difficult decents, she came off in a calm section of trail next to a deep concrete culvert. Taking the bike with her, she landed up-side-down on her shoulder. Ouch. I checked her over for a minute or so, and banned her from riding her bike more. We walked out of the park. I got the car and we went and got xrays. Partially torn ligament in the shoulder... Damn - that's going to take some time to heal.

Nevada Wings - Fly In

The Washoe Valley has had a long history of regional level competition. It is great to see a revival after a 10 year hiatus. Bruce a long time flying buddy of mine moved up to Reno a couple of years ago and is now the local club president. This event is one of many recent improvements in the area.Bruce did an excellent job of organising the event. Not even flying himself, making sure everything went smoothly. Big E & Paul helped at Launch. I was very grateful of the help, getting over the higher guard rail is a pain, not only is there potential for scoring your flying wires but it leaves the pilot quite exposed to dust devils and other turbulence.
Steve nailed the weather forecast, with accurate top of lift and thermal strength. Bruce set an interesting and challenging set of co-ordinates to collect in pilots choice order.
As you can see I missed 3 turnpoints, good enough to tie the max collected. The overall winner of this Accredited Competition Event (ACE) was David Gray a H3 on his Falcon. He and his Father Wayne flew amazingly well, working together as a team to tag a number of waypoints, then crossing the valley and spot landing at Duck LZ. Very impressive.
Above is Mt Rose. I had several attempts at getting the waypoint. First I left Slide a bit low, thinking I would climb toward it in the East wind, it turned out the wind switched to NW 18km/h at 11k. Hmmm back to Slide try again, this time I got over 12k at Slide and tried t glide to it. Hmmm -800fpm, turned around again. Last attempt I climbed to 12k and followed the ridge around the west of Mt Rose, nice glide this is working... Until 1/2 mile from the peak I started hitting what felt like rotor or mixing air sinking at 1000fpm I tried to keep the glider pointed at the Waypoint and fall passed it. As I got closer to the waypoint (in altitude as well as horizontally) I wasn't comfortable with my turbulent flailing trajectory, I veered away thinking "if i didn't get it, there's no way I'm trying again!"
Eric F was having a much better time to the south. So after climbing back to 12k, I headed that way with a beautiful view of Lake Tahoe to my west. Nearing the southerly waypoints, the anticipated climbs had not materialized, I didn't have the altitude to get back to the valley from the turnpoint. I turned back to the lower range to try and catch a climb from there. That did not work either and I almost ended up landing in the end of the valley. A weak climb got me high enough to dolphin fly to the duck LZ. I was setting up to land when a ripper came through. It was torn up but a powerful 1000fpm. It reformed a little upwind this time a solid 1100fpm with peaks of 1700fpm. I was soon back at 12k and completely parked in the 30mph headwind. No sink though. You can see evidence of the convergence on the lake, where the NW wind meets the NE. Slowly I drove forward and tagged McClellan peak, still at 12k it was time to land. typical !!! spend all day struggling to stay up, now I can't get down. I drove into wind all the way across the lake not losing much at all, trying to avoid lift. Washoe has been developed ripidly in the last 10 years. There is the Reno airport straight ahead. Eyes pealed for traffic. It was turbulent below 8k. Fortunately it calmed down 300' over the ground, landing was easy.Here are Bruce and Big E. He has the attributes of a very very handy launch assist :)
Congratulations to Bruce on such a sucessful meet, and Thank You to all the helpers, I look forward to next years event!

You can see more pictures here :

The flight home

I went through Denver on the way home, the flight across the central divide is pretty. It started with some nice looking cloud streets.
Unfortunately I had packed my GPS in my luggage, so I was lost for a good part of the flight. But I think I recognized Breckenridge ski area.
Then the north end of Owens valley.
Mono Lake.
Half Dome in Yosemite.
Lake McClure.
New Jerusalem.
Mission peak.
I flew 6 sites in one day! A big thanks to Sharon for the early morning drop off at San Antonio airport.

Single Surface Awards

It is Nation Hang Gliding and Paragliding Day today (May 29), and we flew with high expectations. The day turned out to be very challenging, I sank out on my first attempt and went to get a re-light. Davis has the day well described on the Oz Report. Joe and I spent for ever over the same field trying to get up. It was in fact the field Davis had landed in. The thermals were broken, slow and drifting down wind at almost the glide back into wind. Determination won out and eventually we cruised back to the airport (turnpoint 3) and didn't hit a bump all the way to the ground.Joe landed 50 feet passed me and won the day.
Then we headed back to the Awards ceremony back in Luling. Joel Froelich did a great job at the meet. Lots of happy pilots.
Davis won the meet flying consistently through the meet, me in 2nd and Joe in third. Thats a 1, 2, 3 for Northwing. We were happy for this result but it was no "give me". Chris Zimmerman and Ken Robinson both put up a valiant fight.
I really should emphasize the above and beyond effort Joel has put into making the meet fun welcoming and convenient for the pilots. He really has spoiled us. I for one am looking forward to next year.