Sylmar east team consisting of:
Jay Devorak
Jeff Chipman
Ken Andrews
Don Banas
Gregg Kendall
Ken and Don arrived earlier Friday afternoon to get a tow out of an airport west of the hotel. Ken took a tow on his LS with a harness he hadn't previously towed with. Lot of first time events so he wanted to have some practice. Apparently he did OK and felt a lot more comfortable after getting the practice under his belt. Don either elected not to tow or he was running out of time and didn't want to be rushed (they arrived around 3:00 pm).
Jay and I arrived around 8:00 pm and checked in without issue. We pulled up as Jack Simmons and a couple of guys from Wallaby showed up so we had a bit of a impromptu party in the check in lobby. After getting checked in a moved to the bar (the typical meeting place here). There I saw Don and Ken. They filled me in on most of the happenings. The bar was pretty empty but the next day it wouldn't be that way.
Saturday Morning
I'm amped, I wanna fly. This is like being on top of the mountain all day. Already at your launch point and the LZ all at the same time. Jay and I "try" to get breakfast. We end up waiting 1.5 hours for our food. The staff isn't ready yet for the deluge of pilots they are about to get. We met a few new people and "enjoyed" our late breakfast.
I setup the glider on the grass in front of the pilot meeting area (an outdoor fireplace). I was joined by Davis Struab, and a few Norwegian pilots. Still I'm ready to go, I haven't towed in 2 years. I'm confident but want to get this first tow out of the way.
By around noon, pilots begin to move their gliders out to the tow field, I follow. 4 of the Sylmar East team are out there. Don is first to tow. I didn't see the tow but Don breaks a weak link and has less than a graceful landing. The wind conditions are very light and variable. It's switchy but not overly so. We are towing to the WNW and most of the tows are pretty smooth. No dust from the tugs thanks to all the hard work of the local HG club here in AZ. There are actual runways now that are pretty packed down with little pebbles. The rollout is pretty long, and we stay on the dolly longer than normal. But picking the cart up slightly has always worked for me and I plan on doing the same.
Don scores a bent downtube on his broken weaklink landing as well as a scuffed nose cone. Don has spares and goes about changing the VG side downtube (bummer).
Ken and I setup a small triangle (about 70k). After helping out the tow line for awhile, I suit up and get ready for my turn to be yanked into the sky. Tow was like I remember. Not very bumpy so I'm wondering how good it is. Others are having no issues finding thermals so I'm pretty confident on staying up. The tug pilot gives me a thumbs up as we go through lift. I decide to stay on (want my full tow). We turn around and go back through and I pin off about 2800' (about a 1500' tow).
Ken is up next and then Jay. I'm getting light but OK 200 up and soon climb through a few of the established pilots. Ken is climbing and seems established. I don't hear from Jay or Don. Finally I'm above 4000' and the lift id getting better now 350/min with spikes of 400/min. When I get to 6100' I decide to move on course 18km down range. I'm 7 minutes behind the 2nd and last start clock.
Ken is climbing and doing well at Casa Grande. Around 10k from the first TP, Ken is now on glide from 6300'. I spot a few birds marking what looks like a good thermal about 7.6k from the first TP and make it back to 6k, Ken is struggling and is getting low already in the shaded ground from the high cirrus clouds. By the time I get to the first TP Ken is indicating he's likely landing. On the way to the 2nd TP, Ken is reporting he's on the ground and I might want to reconsider the task since Don is on the ground with another broken downtube and possibly a sprained or broken arm. Jay is reported to have landed hard at the airfield and is hut also.
I tank up to 6800' and set off to home at about 60 mph and averaging well over 50 with some transitions above 65. Arriving over the airfield I can see the wind is very light and basically just choose your direction and stick with it. I choose to land going N. Landing was a bit of a runout but un-eventful. I immediately go to Don who is holding is arm in pain. I tell him I can go get Ken still on the ground waiting for retrieve. Don says he's OK, but clearly he's in pain, but still he goes out to retrieve his flying buddy.
Santa Cruz Flats Race
Moderator: Comp Committee
Thanks for the detailed and engaging report Chip. Hey Don, I'm sorry about your arm. You're a real trooper for retrieving Ken with an injured arm. Please take care of it. You're not alone either. Yesterday, we had a pilot crash pretty hard off the LZ at Crestline and break his arm: http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/forum/20100912/3633
SCF day 1
More on Jay first:
Jay's landing was "maybe" downwind with about 5 mph "possibly". This was from the pilot that assisted Jay after his pounding in. Charles Allen from NY landed right before Jay and ran out his landing with about 5 - 8 running steps he said. After that he saw Jay coming in and from his account Jay looked slightly downwind and didn't run out his landing and whacked in pretty hard. Charlie went to help him and ended up assisting with the glider breakdown. He told me that Jay had his two bottom teeth pushed out forward and was seemingly more concerned with retrieval duties than his own well being.
Charlie convinced him to seek medical attention in town, which Jay did. Last night Jay called Ken and told him that his teeth were bent forward but didn't hurt too much, but the doctors wanted to keep him and decided to send him to Phoenix for better head trauma care. Seems Jay has a slight concussion and a bit of brain "bruising". Ken and I went to the local hospital but missed Jay by about 15 minutes as he was transferred to a Phoenix area hospital.
Jay called this morning and sounded pretty much OK, but he was being kept in the ICU and they were not going to make any decisions about his release from ICU for 24 hours, although Jay was hopeful that it wouldn't take that long. He said they wake him up every hour and ask him questions. Hard to get any meaningful sleep I'm sure.
SCF Day 1
In a nut shell, tough day. Predictions way overcalled. High monsoonal moisture clouds would periodically shut down the lift. Timing was everything. Gregg and Ken launched early. Ken was struggling but never re-lit. At one point it looked like Gregg might be on the ground soon but he found a scrap of something and was soon joined by about 10 of his new closest "friends". After struggling low for a while Ken came back to the airfield and did a relight. His tow looked ok. I finally got in line when I saw the last of the priority stagers suit up. My tow was very good behind Russel Brown and he took me right into a good forming thermal that would soon become the lead gaggle.
I was on top of the gaggle with the likes of Kraig Coomber, Carl Walbank, Jonny and his pop, and a whole host of who's who, in the hang gliding world. I would end up leading out with the lead gaggle after topping out in the one death gaggle that had just about everyone that was really trying to keep up. With Kraig to my left and Jonny slightly above to the left, Gol-durn Bill pushing to the WNW to better looking dry fields on the right. From my perspective that was looking pretty grim from the beginning. I was flying a bit conservative seeing how the high for the day so far had only been 4300' or so (far from the 7k spoke about at the weather briefing). Had a nice glide into the 1st TP and grabbed a climb slightly to the N. This is where I should have adjusted. My thermal was doing OK, but the one just to the S of the TP was going much better. This would end up costing me plenty.
I thermaled up with the likes of Larry Bunner, Jeff Shapirio, Davis Struab, and many others. Most of the lead gaggle was now well over me and looking to push east towards the 2nd TP as the ground was being shaded in our area. While thermalling here I saw Bill Solderquist land at the 1st TP. Many others where coming in low and looked like they were going to have a tough time. I left around 3700 to the next gaggle ahead about 2 miles. I could tell this was going to be a slow schlog to the ENE. But I went that way determined to stay with the 2nd gaggle. From here it was a slow decent crosswind and I made a few more thermals but usually coming in just a bit too low to make them work all that well. I saw Zac Majors come in under me and land that nice new see-through T2C. And then Charles Allen a few more fields up ahead. I thought I might be joining him and likely could have seeing how I ended up only about 3k beyond his landing.
Like I said tough low day with shade that made all the difference. Jonny made it in with a few others. Larry Bunner landed about 1k short. Will post a link when it is available.
The good:
Stayed up with some of the good pilots for ahile
Near the top most of the day
The Bad:
Making my own decisions about who's thermal was better
Not going to the best looking climbs right away
Result:
Not to sure right now, about 15k from the 1st TP
Slow start to a LOOONG week.
Jay's landing was "maybe" downwind with about 5 mph "possibly". This was from the pilot that assisted Jay after his pounding in. Charles Allen from NY landed right before Jay and ran out his landing with about 5 - 8 running steps he said. After that he saw Jay coming in and from his account Jay looked slightly downwind and didn't run out his landing and whacked in pretty hard. Charlie went to help him and ended up assisting with the glider breakdown. He told me that Jay had his two bottom teeth pushed out forward and was seemingly more concerned with retrieval duties than his own well being.
Charlie convinced him to seek medical attention in town, which Jay did. Last night Jay called Ken and told him that his teeth were bent forward but didn't hurt too much, but the doctors wanted to keep him and decided to send him to Phoenix for better head trauma care. Seems Jay has a slight concussion and a bit of brain "bruising". Ken and I went to the local hospital but missed Jay by about 15 minutes as he was transferred to a Phoenix area hospital.
Jay called this morning and sounded pretty much OK, but he was being kept in the ICU and they were not going to make any decisions about his release from ICU for 24 hours, although Jay was hopeful that it wouldn't take that long. He said they wake him up every hour and ask him questions. Hard to get any meaningful sleep I'm sure.
SCF Day 1
In a nut shell, tough day. Predictions way overcalled. High monsoonal moisture clouds would periodically shut down the lift. Timing was everything. Gregg and Ken launched early. Ken was struggling but never re-lit. At one point it looked like Gregg might be on the ground soon but he found a scrap of something and was soon joined by about 10 of his new closest "friends". After struggling low for a while Ken came back to the airfield and did a relight. His tow looked ok. I finally got in line when I saw the last of the priority stagers suit up. My tow was very good behind Russel Brown and he took me right into a good forming thermal that would soon become the lead gaggle.
I was on top of the gaggle with the likes of Kraig Coomber, Carl Walbank, Jonny and his pop, and a whole host of who's who, in the hang gliding world. I would end up leading out with the lead gaggle after topping out in the one death gaggle that had just about everyone that was really trying to keep up. With Kraig to my left and Jonny slightly above to the left, Gol-durn Bill pushing to the WNW to better looking dry fields on the right. From my perspective that was looking pretty grim from the beginning. I was flying a bit conservative seeing how the high for the day so far had only been 4300' or so (far from the 7k spoke about at the weather briefing). Had a nice glide into the 1st TP and grabbed a climb slightly to the N. This is where I should have adjusted. My thermal was doing OK, but the one just to the S of the TP was going much better. This would end up costing me plenty.
I thermaled up with the likes of Larry Bunner, Jeff Shapirio, Davis Struab, and many others. Most of the lead gaggle was now well over me and looking to push east towards the 2nd TP as the ground was being shaded in our area. While thermalling here I saw Bill Solderquist land at the 1st TP. Many others where coming in low and looked like they were going to have a tough time. I left around 3700 to the next gaggle ahead about 2 miles. I could tell this was going to be a slow schlog to the ENE. But I went that way determined to stay with the 2nd gaggle. From here it was a slow decent crosswind and I made a few more thermals but usually coming in just a bit too low to make them work all that well. I saw Zac Majors come in under me and land that nice new see-through T2C. And then Charles Allen a few more fields up ahead. I thought I might be joining him and likely could have seeing how I ended up only about 3k beyond his landing.
Like I said tough low day with shade that made all the difference. Jonny made it in with a few others. Larry Bunner landed about 1k short. Will post a link when it is available.
The good:
Stayed up with some of the good pilots for ahile
Near the top most of the day
The Bad:
Making my own decisions about who's thermal was better
Not going to the best looking climbs right away
Result:
Not to sure right now, about 15k from the 1st TP
Slow start to a LOOONG week.
SCF Day 2
SCF Day 2
Weather is supposed to be better today, and it does feel much more hotter than yesterday as we are setting up the gliders in the shade next to the hotel. That's one of the really nice things here. For a little bit you feel like a real celebrity in the world of hang gliding having "cool" digs like this. Anyway at the pilots meeting they (Davis) are calling for climbs from 800' - 900' per minute and altitudes above 7k. Task seems doable for a day like that. 116k triangle mostly to the east and southeast then back to the hotel. No high cloudiness like the day before. Three start times 1300, 1320, 1340.
Ken and I setup our gliders in the shaded area next to the hotel tower under a tree. Gregg setup Jay's glider to have it inspected by Kraig Coomber just to be sure it's ok after the whacking he gave it. Kraig said it all looks good and then Gregg and I put it away and into the shade instead of leaving it on top of the car all day. After that it's the long schlog to the airfield. The trick is getting yourself a dolly and then "wheeling" you glider all the way there (about a little over a quarter mile). I got lucky as I was carrying my glider, Derick Turner brought me a cart to wheel the glider the rest of the way.
On the airfield it was all business today. No lollygagging. Ken and Gregg were suited up early and yanked into the air right after the start window opened. I went about 30 minutes later. All of the tows I saw today were smooth and the tug pilots did a great job getting everyone into the air pretty efficiently. Another good tow for me, think I have the hang of it, and off into a scrap of a thermal and only needed to adjust back towards the hotel a little bit to get it. I was with Kraig Coomber and Glen Volk right away. We climbed through 4k and then pressed a bit crosswind to the NE. There we climbed through 5k and Glen and Kraig left. I stayed with Greg Dinnaur until we got to about 5600 and then left for the main gaggle to our NE. There where two main gaggles and you could see the group staging for the second start. I was still climbing 2k from the start cylinder (an entry start today), so it looked like the last start would be my taking, and the taking for much of the field. I was pretty sure we were going to catch the pilots that took the 2nd start.
So far the day either had not turned on or the day was overcalled. By now you would have thought the conditions would have ripened. But so far 4500 - 5500 seemed to be the order of the day. Approaching the 3rd start time I go through 6300' and think I'll be in great position for the 3rd start time, but I had to back track out of the start cylinder and restart so I lost some good altitude. The first glide was not all that great but I was driving upwind of course line to get a better run to the TP (wind was from the NW at about 5mph). Down to about 3k I mix it up with a glider marking the thermal really well and we get back to over 5k and change. Linda Salamone and Mark Frutiger join in and soon we're all together at the top. Mark and Linda took a line more to the 1st TP, and I beat crosswind a bit seeing their glide not doing all so well. I continued to validate my choice by looking at the gaggle they were now forming and it was deteriorating quickly. I was now catching the stragglers from the 2nd start.
After gliding about 5 miles, I was down to about 3k and stumbled into a light thermal. About 150'/min up and drifting into the TP. After losing the thermal at 3500' I pressed back into the wind thinking the dust from the tractor might show something better, but all I did was lose 500' in trying that. It was only 6k to the TP so with 3k (about 1650 agl) I press on to the TP. Just short of the TP at 2800' I blunder into another light thermal. It's less than 100'/min but I need this. Off to my right (south of me) I see Jack Simmons scratching in something about the same. I move upwind of him and get the better part of it and wave him over. He and a bird join me and we take that one to 5k. I have to back track to get the TP and with 4700' I move on.
The rest of the flight I will struggle to get back to 5k. At this point I see plenty of gliders on the ground or about to land. We are over some dry areas surrounded by wet areas. I adjusted over some gliders circling low but climbing slowly. After not finding anything I kept pressing on. Down to 3100' and 24k from the second turnpoint I find a light 150' up over Mark Frutiger and take that to over 4k and something. At this point I'm no longer really paying attention to anyone but myself. I've been making my of my own decisions and they have been paying off for the most part. I decide to press on to two round circle patterns that are dry and pretty close to the mountains. I'm thinking I'll be able to bench my way up into them and easily make it into the 3rd TP. The glide is good but as I get to the area I was expecting to find something, it produces nothing. I'm now contemplating gliding into the foothills. I have the glide but the retrieval options look dismal and the landing options iffy. I elect to stay over the brown circles to see if anything cooks off. In the meantime I'm losing my mojo and start looking at the ground. The shade of the last trees for miles looks inviting and I give into convenience and put down 17k from the 3rd TP.
While getting here I saw several good pilots already down (Shapiro, Volk, Martin). I know I've done pretty well. Making it to the mountains would have put me back into the game. But I am not going to risk my life any further than I am to do it.
Weather is supposed to be better today, and it does feel much more hotter than yesterday as we are setting up the gliders in the shade next to the hotel. That's one of the really nice things here. For a little bit you feel like a real celebrity in the world of hang gliding having "cool" digs like this. Anyway at the pilots meeting they (Davis) are calling for climbs from 800' - 900' per minute and altitudes above 7k. Task seems doable for a day like that. 116k triangle mostly to the east and southeast then back to the hotel. No high cloudiness like the day before. Three start times 1300, 1320, 1340.
Ken and I setup our gliders in the shaded area next to the hotel tower under a tree. Gregg setup Jay's glider to have it inspected by Kraig Coomber just to be sure it's ok after the whacking he gave it. Kraig said it all looks good and then Gregg and I put it away and into the shade instead of leaving it on top of the car all day. After that it's the long schlog to the airfield. The trick is getting yourself a dolly and then "wheeling" you glider all the way there (about a little over a quarter mile). I got lucky as I was carrying my glider, Derick Turner brought me a cart to wheel the glider the rest of the way.
On the airfield it was all business today. No lollygagging. Ken and Gregg were suited up early and yanked into the air right after the start window opened. I went about 30 minutes later. All of the tows I saw today were smooth and the tug pilots did a great job getting everyone into the air pretty efficiently. Another good tow for me, think I have the hang of it, and off into a scrap of a thermal and only needed to adjust back towards the hotel a little bit to get it. I was with Kraig Coomber and Glen Volk right away. We climbed through 4k and then pressed a bit crosswind to the NE. There we climbed through 5k and Glen and Kraig left. I stayed with Greg Dinnaur until we got to about 5600 and then left for the main gaggle to our NE. There where two main gaggles and you could see the group staging for the second start. I was still climbing 2k from the start cylinder (an entry start today), so it looked like the last start would be my taking, and the taking for much of the field. I was pretty sure we were going to catch the pilots that took the 2nd start.
So far the day either had not turned on or the day was overcalled. By now you would have thought the conditions would have ripened. But so far 4500 - 5500 seemed to be the order of the day. Approaching the 3rd start time I go through 6300' and think I'll be in great position for the 3rd start time, but I had to back track out of the start cylinder and restart so I lost some good altitude. The first glide was not all that great but I was driving upwind of course line to get a better run to the TP (wind was from the NW at about 5mph). Down to about 3k I mix it up with a glider marking the thermal really well and we get back to over 5k and change. Linda Salamone and Mark Frutiger join in and soon we're all together at the top. Mark and Linda took a line more to the 1st TP, and I beat crosswind a bit seeing their glide not doing all so well. I continued to validate my choice by looking at the gaggle they were now forming and it was deteriorating quickly. I was now catching the stragglers from the 2nd start.
After gliding about 5 miles, I was down to about 3k and stumbled into a light thermal. About 150'/min up and drifting into the TP. After losing the thermal at 3500' I pressed back into the wind thinking the dust from the tractor might show something better, but all I did was lose 500' in trying that. It was only 6k to the TP so with 3k (about 1650 agl) I press on to the TP. Just short of the TP at 2800' I blunder into another light thermal. It's less than 100'/min but I need this. Off to my right (south of me) I see Jack Simmons scratching in something about the same. I move upwind of him and get the better part of it and wave him over. He and a bird join me and we take that one to 5k. I have to back track to get the TP and with 4700' I move on.
The rest of the flight I will struggle to get back to 5k. At this point I see plenty of gliders on the ground or about to land. We are over some dry areas surrounded by wet areas. I adjusted over some gliders circling low but climbing slowly. After not finding anything I kept pressing on. Down to 3100' and 24k from the second turnpoint I find a light 150' up over Mark Frutiger and take that to over 4k and something. At this point I'm no longer really paying attention to anyone but myself. I've been making my of my own decisions and they have been paying off for the most part. I decide to press on to two round circle patterns that are dry and pretty close to the mountains. I'm thinking I'll be able to bench my way up into them and easily make it into the 3rd TP. The glide is good but as I get to the area I was expecting to find something, it produces nothing. I'm now contemplating gliding into the foothills. I have the glide but the retrieval options look dismal and the landing options iffy. I elect to stay over the brown circles to see if anything cooks off. In the meantime I'm losing my mojo and start looking at the ground. The shade of the last trees for miles looks inviting and I give into convenience and put down 17k from the 3rd TP.
While getting here I saw several good pilots already down (Shapiro, Volk, Martin). I know I've done pretty well. Making it to the mountains would have put me back into the game. But I am not going to risk my life any further than I am to do it.
SCF Day 3
SCF Day 3
If you asked me the real hero of the day would be Greg Kendall, more on that in a minute. It sure seems hot enough here but the conventional wisdom is believing the layers are just too heated up and eroding the lapse rate. Matter of fact even at the pilots meeting Davis neglected to mention anything about rate of climb or altitude. Very strange for a weather briefing. Just no confidence in the predictions or models that seem to say that we'll get to around 10k, but no one believes it.
At the pilots meeting we all elect to push the start times back to 1320 instead of 1300. In the end even that will prove not all that important. Launch window opens at noon still a full hour and 20 minutes before the start. So as I said it's hot here, with no shade in the airfield, Jonny Durand calls on the RedBull sponsors and gets a whole host of RedBull drinks as well as the tent brought out. The tent is a bigger hit than the drinks are. Initially the RedBull sponsors forget to bring the big tent pole for the middle of the tent (an integral part of the system), so they trek all the way back to Tuscon to get it.
Good thing the shade was there because today there would be a long wait while the day turned on. Greg decides it's better to be in the air than on the ground and is the first to launch. Most comp pilots will tell you this is where you want to be. In the air first and get an idea of how the day is working. Greg takes a full tow and from there begins the slow decent downward. A couple of other pilots joining Greg, (Dustin Martin, Mark Bolt, Derrick Turner). Slowly they all descend and land, all except Greg. In the RedBull test all the pilots watch intently waiting and wishing Greg higher. But there are only pulses of lift that seem to get Greg to about 3500 or so then just peter out.
About 1300, pilots begin to launch since it's looking a little better. Much to my surprise Greg finally throws in the towel and chooses to relight to get higher, great effort Greg. The line is much longer now and I'm all the way in the back. Ken suits up about 15 minutes before me and is in line not to far back. The priority starters can slide into the front of the line when they are ready to go, which makes the line longer than you think it is. So I'm way in the back by now and one of the last to launch. But when I see Joe Bostik right in front of me, I suddenly begin to feel like I'm not all that stupid. So far the gaggle is starting to climb out about at the edge of the start cylinder. We have a 5k exit start around the airfield turnpoint.
Finally on a cart, I get Chris Zimmerman's personal cart. The launch helpers ask if I'm ok with that and I am. As Joe and I approach the head of the line I see he's concerned with the type of tug he's going to get. He has Belinda (Davis Straub's wife), watching and telling Joe what kind of tug is coming. I figure he didn't want the trike. Sure enough what happens, the trike comes in and he gets out of line. Jamie asks him if he's sure he wants out since he goes back to the back of the line. Still he gets out. Not too big of a penalty since the line is no longer all that big. So I get the trike. Although I'm not all that enthused about it, I take it and know I'll be on tow longer than normal. My take off goes well picking Chris's cart off the ground a bit higher than I would normally, but I wasn't some higher airspeed when I come off. After take off the tow goes really well. While on tow I see Linda Salamone on the dragonfly and she is climbing way faster, I'm jealous. The tugs are towing us to the climbing gaggle or whats left of it. I said to Ken while on the ground that I was likely to take my tow altitude and go straight downwind to the first climbing gaggle.
This worked really well and I hook up after crossing the start cylinder on the way. It's 14:14 almost 15 minutes past the last start time. The climb is week at first but I eventually top out at 5k and decide to press on towards the closest mountains and where I have seen others climbing well. It's only a short 5k glide before I get another climb. It takes me a little while to center into it but I eventually grab a climb as Linda comes in under me with a few others. We climb out to 6900' and press on. Clearly the day is turning on so the strategy of waiting seems to have worked in my favor although I'm down 14 minutes. The next thermal is 10k away. When I get there I join Derrick and Edwin (from Puerto Rico). We gain about 1000' and leave at 5500' towards the TP some 20k away.
Again Derrick finds the climb and his wing is way banked up. You can tell this is a god one and Derrick gets a lot of friends pretty fast. We'll take this one from 4500' to 7k in 8 minutes. 14k from the TP, I begin the glide with one of the Jeff Johnson's (there's two here and they are both from AZ). The glide is going ok but 3k from the TP I see others climbing and go under them to find very light lift but it's keeping me up. I'm down to 3900' after gliding 13k, the thermal is less than 100'/min but I just saw pilots climb out from here and I down shift into climbing as high as this one will take me. The lift eventually takes me to just under 6k and I go back for the 1st TP since we're drifting past it. Nice thing was I climbed 500' on the way to the TP and tag it and hear the music of the vario saying I got it. Next!
40k to goal. I head for the black foothills banking on the fact that they should work with no issues. Looking to my left I can see Joe Bostik and he and I have very similar glides. He's a bit faster but sinking a bit more too. We switch places now him on the right and I take a line more down the courseline. Joe begins pulling on more speed as we are deep into unlandable territory. At this point I'm sure of two things. One, we'll hit something on the way. Two, I have an airport on glide so the unlandable territory is really not in play. Sure enough I hit a light and windy thermal after gliding 7k. Down to 4600' I climb to 5400' before the thermal begins to really be hard to track, so I push towards the sailplane airport in the distance on the courseline to goal. Short of the airport I hit a boomer going up 600'/min taking me from 3800' to 6700'. I'm thinking from this altitude I can make it in. The guessometer is saying I don't have it but the glide required looks good so I set out for the 20k glide to goal.
On the way there I'm getting really good numbers but the guessometer is still not confidence inspiring. I'm getting a very buoyant glide and by pass some lift just slowing down in it to gain a bit. Sometimes I'm getting 40:1 but mostly seeing anywhere from 11:1 to 17:1. 5k out I'm wondering if I made a mistake. It could really be heartbreaking if I come up short. About 3k out I now know I have it and announce over the radio I'm in goal. I have about 300' over goal make a turn and land to a no stepper in front of about 13 other pilots. Not first in but I'm there.
Results Here
If you asked me the real hero of the day would be Greg Kendall, more on that in a minute. It sure seems hot enough here but the conventional wisdom is believing the layers are just too heated up and eroding the lapse rate. Matter of fact even at the pilots meeting Davis neglected to mention anything about rate of climb or altitude. Very strange for a weather briefing. Just no confidence in the predictions or models that seem to say that we'll get to around 10k, but no one believes it.
At the pilots meeting we all elect to push the start times back to 1320 instead of 1300. In the end even that will prove not all that important. Launch window opens at noon still a full hour and 20 minutes before the start. So as I said it's hot here, with no shade in the airfield, Jonny Durand calls on the RedBull sponsors and gets a whole host of RedBull drinks as well as the tent brought out. The tent is a bigger hit than the drinks are. Initially the RedBull sponsors forget to bring the big tent pole for the middle of the tent (an integral part of the system), so they trek all the way back to Tuscon to get it.
Good thing the shade was there because today there would be a long wait while the day turned on. Greg decides it's better to be in the air than on the ground and is the first to launch. Most comp pilots will tell you this is where you want to be. In the air first and get an idea of how the day is working. Greg takes a full tow and from there begins the slow decent downward. A couple of other pilots joining Greg, (Dustin Martin, Mark Bolt, Derrick Turner). Slowly they all descend and land, all except Greg. In the RedBull test all the pilots watch intently waiting and wishing Greg higher. But there are only pulses of lift that seem to get Greg to about 3500 or so then just peter out.
About 1300, pilots begin to launch since it's looking a little better. Much to my surprise Greg finally throws in the towel and chooses to relight to get higher, great effort Greg. The line is much longer now and I'm all the way in the back. Ken suits up about 15 minutes before me and is in line not to far back. The priority starters can slide into the front of the line when they are ready to go, which makes the line longer than you think it is. So I'm way in the back by now and one of the last to launch. But when I see Joe Bostik right in front of me, I suddenly begin to feel like I'm not all that stupid. So far the gaggle is starting to climb out about at the edge of the start cylinder. We have a 5k exit start around the airfield turnpoint.
Finally on a cart, I get Chris Zimmerman's personal cart. The launch helpers ask if I'm ok with that and I am. As Joe and I approach the head of the line I see he's concerned with the type of tug he's going to get. He has Belinda (Davis Straub's wife), watching and telling Joe what kind of tug is coming. I figure he didn't want the trike. Sure enough what happens, the trike comes in and he gets out of line. Jamie asks him if he's sure he wants out since he goes back to the back of the line. Still he gets out. Not too big of a penalty since the line is no longer all that big. So I get the trike. Although I'm not all that enthused about it, I take it and know I'll be on tow longer than normal. My take off goes well picking Chris's cart off the ground a bit higher than I would normally, but I wasn't some higher airspeed when I come off. After take off the tow goes really well. While on tow I see Linda Salamone on the dragonfly and she is climbing way faster, I'm jealous. The tugs are towing us to the climbing gaggle or whats left of it. I said to Ken while on the ground that I was likely to take my tow altitude and go straight downwind to the first climbing gaggle.
This worked really well and I hook up after crossing the start cylinder on the way. It's 14:14 almost 15 minutes past the last start time. The climb is week at first but I eventually top out at 5k and decide to press on towards the closest mountains and where I have seen others climbing well. It's only a short 5k glide before I get another climb. It takes me a little while to center into it but I eventually grab a climb as Linda comes in under me with a few others. We climb out to 6900' and press on. Clearly the day is turning on so the strategy of waiting seems to have worked in my favor although I'm down 14 minutes. The next thermal is 10k away. When I get there I join Derrick and Edwin (from Puerto Rico). We gain about 1000' and leave at 5500' towards the TP some 20k away.
Again Derrick finds the climb and his wing is way banked up. You can tell this is a god one and Derrick gets a lot of friends pretty fast. We'll take this one from 4500' to 7k in 8 minutes. 14k from the TP, I begin the glide with one of the Jeff Johnson's (there's two here and they are both from AZ). The glide is going ok but 3k from the TP I see others climbing and go under them to find very light lift but it's keeping me up. I'm down to 3900' after gliding 13k, the thermal is less than 100'/min but I just saw pilots climb out from here and I down shift into climbing as high as this one will take me. The lift eventually takes me to just under 6k and I go back for the 1st TP since we're drifting past it. Nice thing was I climbed 500' on the way to the TP and tag it and hear the music of the vario saying I got it. Next!
40k to goal. I head for the black foothills banking on the fact that they should work with no issues. Looking to my left I can see Joe Bostik and he and I have very similar glides. He's a bit faster but sinking a bit more too. We switch places now him on the right and I take a line more down the courseline. Joe begins pulling on more speed as we are deep into unlandable territory. At this point I'm sure of two things. One, we'll hit something on the way. Two, I have an airport on glide so the unlandable territory is really not in play. Sure enough I hit a light and windy thermal after gliding 7k. Down to 4600' I climb to 5400' before the thermal begins to really be hard to track, so I push towards the sailplane airport in the distance on the courseline to goal. Short of the airport I hit a boomer going up 600'/min taking me from 3800' to 6700'. I'm thinking from this altitude I can make it in. The guessometer is saying I don't have it but the glide required looks good so I set out for the 20k glide to goal.
On the way there I'm getting really good numbers but the guessometer is still not confidence inspiring. I'm getting a very buoyant glide and by pass some lift just slowing down in it to gain a bit. Sometimes I'm getting 40:1 but mostly seeing anywhere from 11:1 to 17:1. 5k out I'm wondering if I made a mistake. It could really be heartbreaking if I come up short. About 3k out I now know I have it and announce over the radio I'm in goal. I have about 300' over goal make a turn and land to a no stepper in front of about 13 other pilots. Not first in but I'm there.
Results Here
keep up the good work
BREAKING NEWS - Day 5
Ken made GOAL !
The last leg of the task was ~25 miles into a 10+mph wind !
The last leg of the task was ~25 miles into a 10+mph wind !