Woodrat Flying

A couple days ago I made the drive from Vancouver to Ruch, Oregon for the WCPC. It took about 12 hours, but factoring in 45 minutes at the border and a stop at Starbucks, I’d say that wasn’t too bad.

Yesterday I headed up to Woodrat launch and flew in some somewhat choppy but stellar conditions; I got to 2800 metres and flew about 30k’s (?) or so in total, and landed at a vineyard and got free wine. It was a pretty damn good flight on a site that was brand new for me!



Today was the first day of the competition. There are just over 40 pilots registered for the meet, so it’s a nice smaller-sized group.

Today’s task was 42k’s – sort of a “Z” like-shaped task. I was still stoked from yesterday’s flight, and I felt good about today’s. After launching, I found climbs to be quite light, and everyone seemed to be struggling. The head gaggle, not particularly high, went on course as I was still grovelling around launch height, although thankfully not alone!

Man, it was hard work! I ridge soared the best I could, thermalled the hardest I could, but only managed to get a few hundred feet above launch after more than 45 minutes. When the lead gaggle had left earlier, they did not seem much higher, so off I went on course too. The first turnpoint was to the right of a ridge, where you can expect to find climbs behind the ridge. As I glided for the ridge, with a strong valley wind, I couldn’t make it: I was probably 150 feet below it when I arrived (I was pushing bar too, of course), and the front of the ridge doesn’t produce any lift...



So, off I turned round to the LZ! It made me feel alright that there were a lot of pilots there – pilots with comp wings too, so that provided me with a bit of solace. I would estimate that the number of people who bombed today was around 15+ which out of 40 is quite a few. The ones who did make it over that ridge however, probably made it all the way to goal.

I’m in good spirits – it’s only Day 1 out of a 7 day competition. I flew well yesterday and today I tried my damn hardest. If I had to do the flight over, I’m not sure how I would have flown differently...that lack of knowledge is probably what differentiates me from great comp pilots. But that is the challenge right there and every hour in the air teaches you something new.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the week!!!!!!!!

It's Comp Time!

Somewhat last minute, I decided to register for the West Coast Paragliding Championships in Ruch, Oregon.

I wanted to do one competition this year, and was disappointed to discover that the Canadian Nationals are being held in Quebec. Quebec is not an overly fantastic place to fly, and after airfare, accommodations, etc. it would be a pretty expensive trip. I hope next year the Nats are held in Golden - hell, that should be its' permanent spot! But I digress...

So, instead, the WCPC is my pick this year. I've never flown in the US, and I've heard good things about Woodrat as a site, so I'm stoked. I feel ready for a comp right now and I feel antsy anyway because I haven't left the country in a while, so it's a good time to do some proper flying.

Fingers crossed for good weather. Wish me luck!

Dirty Girl

Today I had an interesting flight at Bridal Falls. It was one of those days where you sit on launch and you're psyched and ready to go somewhere - venture into the beyond and see where you end up.

A few of us where gunning to do some xc flying and so we set a little task. It looked like there was a fair bit of wind while we looked up at the clouds from launch, but really, until you get into the air, sometimes it's not 100% certain.

The wind was quite strong but I managed to get a climb immediately after launching and slowly flew upwind towards our task direction.

Pilots in the Fraser Valley here like to fly something called a "Sammy". Basically you launch from Bridal Falls, and fly towards Elk Mountain (10 k's or so away), fly back towards Bridal, then tag Ludwig Mountain (10 or 15 k's from Bridal Falls), then back to Elk, etc. Nothing wrong with that, but it seems everyone's done it. Flying past Ludwig is tricky because towards Hope the valley narrows and therefore the venturi makes it windy and out of the question a lot of the time. Flying past Elk doesn't seem to be especially popular, as the mountains turn into a ridge and flying becomes more difficult.

I guess I like to do things a bit differently, so I followed the clouds and flew to Elk Mountain, and decided I was going to fly further and see what happened. So, off I went, upwind, hovering here and there as it was even windier in that direction, but maintaining and getting one decent climb off an antenna. Because of the strong wind, it seemed kind of pointless to turn in thermals that were .5 m/s when they'd push you so far downwind that when you were upwind again, you were at the same altitude. Regardless, it's something I should work on.

So, I mostly flew slow as I wasn't sinking much, and slowly made progress, until I realized that the end was nigh. I flew towards Highway Number 1, landed in a farmers field with 4 foot high grass, got very muddy because there was a ditch I had to cross, did a terrible pack job with my wing as it was windy and I didn't want to spend much time on the property, and then lost my hat in the ordeal. But it was SO worth it! I love flying someplace new and landing in weird and wonderful fields.

Nobody managed to fly our task, but it I think it's great when you can fly with a goal in mind. I will fly this low, but very long ridge (that gets bigger) again and some day follow it until I hit the US border! It is a ridge that has some pretty big gaps and gets low at times, but hey, that's the challenge.

And hey, if I can't make it and my gear gets wet in smelly mud again, it'll still be an awesome adventure, just as it was today.

Bad Girl

I have been a very bad girl lately - I've been flying plenty and haven't been updating my blog.

Today's flying has made me exhausted. 2 hours of driving to Woodside, flew for an hour to Harrison Hot Springs, landed on a beach and got lost in a residential area, found my way back to the main road, thankfully got a ride out to Bridal, immediately drove up Bridal launch, flew for an hour, drove a vehicle to Harrison to pick up a fellow pilot, then another 2 hours of driving back to Vancouver.

I'm not complaining or anything, but flying in the Fraser Valley, when you live in Vancouver, is a full day commitment. Eating properly and staying hydrated is proving to be a bit of a challenge but at least the flying has been good!

I've had all sorts of flying adventures in the last 3 weeks which I didn't write about, but I will write more about my flights, soon. I've clocked almost 15 hours this year, which all things considered, is not too shabby. My Addict was only a bitch once to me, giving me about a 40% collapse on speedbar (ok, so there was some rotor that day too), but other than that, she's been well behaved.

Too tired to write more now - I want my bed now, so will write more later. Stay tuned.