XC Course Weekend

I think most PG pilots out in Golden had Mt. Seven as a good friend this weekend. The weather was great, the scenery as always was beautiful and the flying, amazing.

Friday evening those of us in the course gathered together and Will figured that a better use of time would be to go flying rather than start with lectures, as the conditions seemed decent. Everybody launched, and I think for the most part, we all had an extended sled run. I was actually pleased with this as I could test out my new wing longer in the air, and had plenty of height over the LZ to make some turns, try small wingovers, etc. No problems with my new glider!

The next morning we had a lecture and then went up to launch. Everyone launched and most pilots thermalled up to upper launch and got some pretty decent flying in. Most pilots, not including myself. I tried looking for lift the same places everyone else had gone but I couldn’t find anything decent. I made some turns, but I kept falling out of whatever lift was there, and then eventually had to head towards the landing zone. I landed pretty pissed off – no smiles from me!

I don’t like sharing negativity with others, so I didn’t say much, and spent the afternoon trying to figure out what I could have done differently. I couldn’t really come up with the answer. I was told later that I launched in a sink cycle, and it was just the bad luck of the draw. I had a hard time believing it then, and I still do now. I think a better pilot would have stayed up.

On the drive up to launch in the evening, I knew I would make this flight count. I think Will could see I wasn’t very happy with my previous flight’s performance, so he helped me out on radio for the first bit to get me high. It was kind of funny in the air having somebody yell “TUUUUURRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!” to you, do it and then be like “YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!” I like it when people are pumped about something – it’s completely contagious.

Will left me to do my own thing and after flying with some other gliders for a bit, I got to upper launch and starting doing some thermalling up there. I think I started to really get the hang of turning in thermals, and ended up being in the air for almost 2.5 hours! I got a few hundred feet over upper launch, but could feel the wind pick up higher, so I didn’t push it too much. I could have easily landed somewhere further downwind, but thinking about the inconvenience of doing a retrieve and standing in the middle of a field getting eaten alive by bugs didn’t really appeal to me, so instead I flew straight out to the main LZ and did some bigger wingovers this time (not too big – I’m pacing myself with this new wing) with a good 3000 ft of height, and then landed. It was really nice to land and have everyone congratulate me – the first to launch and the last to land – that’s the way I like it!

The next morning things were looking very unstable as some thunderstorms were forecast for the afternoon and the cloud formations showed a good possibility of things quickly overdeveloping. We went up to launch in the early afternoon, and after most of the group launched, I got ready. It was race day for Psychosis (the “World’s Most Demented Downhill Mountain Bike Race” - http://www.psychosis.ca/) with Red Bull being the major sponsor and launch being the biker’s start point. A helicopter around launch kept on interrupting when we could all take off which was a bit annoying. Kind of funny when you think about it – when’s the last time your launch window was interrupted due to a helicopter buzzing launch a stone’s throw away?

Finally it left, and I waited until I felt a thermal was in front of launch. Ha ha, I may have got my timing a bit too good on this one. I launched, and felt like I got rocketed to the moon – totally unexpected. My vario let out a continual series of high beeps, which didn’t seem to cease, even though I was flying in a straight line. I did a couple turns in this crazy thermal, but it soon started to scare me. After only a couple minutes of launching I was already level with the summit of Mt. Seven, and I started getting tossed around. Seeing my lines go slack at one point was kind of freaky, but I knew what to do, controlled the following surge, and easily got out a tiny cravat that followed. I got my adrenaline rush out of this, so I flew away from the mountain, and headed for the LZ.

The type of flying I’ve done over the last while has been pretty uneventful in terms of getting deflations, cravats, uncontrolled spirals, etc. so I discovered what my limit was this weekend. Maybe I should have stayed in that thermal, but I say if you’re shitting yourself in the air and it’s no longer fun, why stay up? I think second time around, I’d probably stay in this kind of air longer, but later hearing other pilots mention that the air really was pretty ratty just gave me confirmation that my decision to land was right.

All in all, a fantastic weekend. The course was excellent – I learned so much. If I left this course knowing 10% more than what I did going in, it was totally worth it. I know I walked away having gained a lot more than that.