Its Over!!!

  What a week and what a great last day! This time everything seemed to work fine regards equipment and flying, Task was set for 70.4 Km and I flew 40Km of the task before landing at Escasle. I was first of the launch today at 11:07 and managed finally to beat by arch nemesis – the Penon! I left launch lower than any day, 2500m, as the inversion layer was pretty low but I managed to find some lift lines that took me to the Penon about half way down. This time I gave it a body swerve and continued to the foothills of the wall to get some lift off the spines.There wasn;t much lift and after benching up the spines for a bit I was forced to go back to the Penon and get some lift. I honestly thought I was going to be scuperred  again as I was really low but with al the practice of flying it a couple of days ago I managed to get up to about 2/3 the way and headed back to the wall foothills where I eventually got up onto the mesa. By this time there were quite a few other pilots in the air and the comp pilots had established themselves above the crazy thermal location. I got a screamer off the G-Spot, very sharp edges and rough that took me up to 3200m where I joined the main gaggle waiting for the start gate to open.  It was rough up there and having to just circle for over 25minutes seemed like an eternity. Eventually the clock ticked down and as the start opened I found myself facing exactly in the direction of the first waypoint.  I was off first!!!

I headed over the valley towards 3 kings and I wondered how long it would be until the comp wings caught up and it wasn’t long at all! Amazing to see them pass you. I was on 1/4 speedbar averaging 50Km/hr on the transition. These guys must have being in excess of 60Km/hr.

You sink quite a lot of the transition so I got to Maguey at ridge level and then just soared the ridge for a while until the gap at the 3 kings where I got a stonker of a thermal that I topped out with folks joining me like bees to a honey pot!. At this time I actually could see Randy and Gordon below me in the same thermal and for once I managed to stay on top of them. I got to Divisa high, tagged the waypoint and headed back to Maguey. I got quite a lot of sink flying back and ended up low at Maguey where I found Mer scratching below. It sure was rough in there and being in leeside of ridges at a low level is not recommended. Thoughts of Kostantine went through my head and I got out of there as soon as I could, Mer and I scratched for a while and I waited for a while until a thermal kicked off. Mer went fishing elsewhere but was unlucky to find lift and landed out.

My thermal was another screamer and I cored it well I thought but comp pilots joined me and I heard them screaming tighter tighter as I climbed higher. However, it was starting to get a little stressful and after I started hearing the beeping geting weaker I left and went on glide towards Cerra Gordon and Escale. getting towards Escale I was getting low so I turned towards Cerra Gordon to go find lift. By now the convergence line was setting up and Cummies  were beginning to form.

I glided right into the convergence quite low. Wow was that something. I circled once heard a whack saw my right wing disappear and the rest frontal. In a split second I had about 25% of my wing left and I was diving. Big weight shift left a little left brake right hand up..BANG..the wing exploded back to its proper flying form. Wow, That was something else. I decided not to reenter but go on glide to Escale. There I saw a nice ranch, 4 trucks 10 people and landed. Put on the charm and within 10 minutes got a ride right back to town. Awesome!

Went to headquarters handed in my gps and found out once again I had a mis start! :-( I jumped the start gate by 45secs. My digifly was telling me I was still to fly to the start cylinder and my Garmin was telling me to fly to the next waypoint. I couldn't see the proximity circle on my garmin and I didn't trust my Digifly due to all the issues I had the previous day. No matter, I had finished my first comp in Valle de Bravo safe and sound with tons of new experiences and learning's under my belt and the longest distances I had ever flown as well as meeting tons f new friends. Next year for sure! Butterfly sightseeing tomorrow!

Race Day Task 5 – Non starter

  What a frickin day today. Every day it seems something goes wrong. First there was the knot in the wing when I launched, then the mid air collision, then my sunglass lens falling out, then I lost my Ipod then my digifly vario starts acting up losing all waypoints when i was entering the task and today it finally gives up the ghost as I waited in line to launch. It lost all coords again. I replaced batteries rebooted and then it stuck beeping constantly  at me. I left the line and went to try and fix it. No way I could get it going again and my little sonic vario backup I had left in the hotel.! C’est la Vie. This just wasn’t going to be my comp. The first day was great but it hasn’t been good since.  I was so frustrated in disgust I packed up my wing and got a lift back to town and immediately sent an email to Digifly.

Now I have vented, it was another tough day today but a little better than yesterday. They delayed the start until 1:00 with launch window opening at 12:00pm. of course this was the strongest part of the day of the day and even the top comp pilots has some launch difficulties. In the air you could see penetration was a problem but watching from the launch they got good lift out towards Penon and beyond.

The task was 71Km and folks did make goal. However, A lot of folks got flushed coming back from the first waypoint at the Penon area or at launch including  John and Arun. I haven’t yet talked to anyone else to get an update.

However as I write this little blog I see the Tiger bridge is washed out again on both sides..What a start to the year! Please let it get better.

Race Day task 4…Not one reached goal!

What a day it turned out to be. I was so rested and eager to fly well today to make up for the poor last couple of days. Got to launch pretty earlier around 9:15 and laid out wing , bundled up and went to relax. When they called the task it was a whooper, 82.5Km! Given the high pressure the previous day they must be expecting some nice weather today I thought.  Yeah baby!. A left turn day to boot..my preference! Lets get going. Powered up my gear and another gremlin strikes. All my waypoints from the Digifly had evaporated! There was only 20 minutes before the launch opened and then only 15minutes before the comp ranking launch order came into effect. What to do , what to do. I really only use the garmin gps for loggin my tracks not actually navigating. So I entered all  the waypoint coords of the task by hand. Sweet I thought. That wasn’t long. However, when I came to enter the route, the waypoints weren’t there. Crap! I deleted all the waypoints and entered them again. By this time the novice window had closed and i now had to wait for about 100 pilots to take off before I got to launch. Bummer. I was more worried that the thermals were going to get too strong to even launch but those thoughts were far from actuality. When my turn came there was no wind on launch at all!. Very Light. I watched a number of experienced pilots bring their wings up, overfly them and then they barreled down the hill.  It took 2 attempts before I could get off. By this time the gaggle had spread out but they were all very low. Looks like I hadn’t missed much. I climbed to about 9000 squeaking every bit of lift I could and headed to the Penon ( the rock  in the background pic above). There I spent the next 1hr 15 minutes trying to climb  out. I flew 15Km back and forth in front of that frickin rock today. John Mann and I looked as if we were trapped but somehow John managed to get a squeak more lift than me after I had turned and when I came back there was nada. there has to be a good way to soar this thing. Sure didn't work for me today. I was very conscious of flying to close to the rock cos if I took a collapse that turned me into the rock I would be toast. Thanks to all that Whidbey flying I was fine. However my race day was done again along with many others who landed out here. Those that did get up and go over the back didn't get as far as they wanted. Of course the comp pilots did well but it was a hard task. John Mann did really well getting further than Arun, Mer, Chris today! Nice job John!

On the up side I had a great trip back on the bus met a whole new bunch of folks and ht the tequila later in the afternoon to celebrate our sink out!\

Tomorrow is always another day!

Race Day – Task 3

Late afternoon flight

Another high pressure blue sky day. Not a great deal to write about today. My head still spinning with the news that Constantine got rescued but  has back injury needing surgery which will happen tomorrow. My thoughts were with him today as I flew about. That plus Mer’s wing was torn in too many places to fly again. All the Seattle pilots were feeling a tad down today.

I promised myself today that I would tank up at launch before heading for the Penon. I launched early, 1:15 before the start as per the previous days and got up to around 9800. I headed towards the Penon and just like yesterday had some big sink. I briefly tried to look for some lift before heading back to the launch area. I came in at about 1500 ft below launch and had to scratch again. However, I was lucky to find some lift and managed to get back up to over 9800 again.

The wind was pretty strong I felt and the thermals were punchy when they kicked in. Quite disturbing to see gliders right in front of you taking big frontals. The Ra has been holding up very well in this big air and it for sure gives me a big confidence factor. Peak lift rate I got today was 5.7m/s (1110) ft/min). On quite a few occasions I had to almost full extend the brakes to stop the wing from overflying, What is good though now is that I am starting to fly on auto pilot. My hands and body just react automatically to what is happening with the wing.

I managed to start today officially which was good but I felt really tired. The lack of a full nights sleep since I came here has been taking its toll on me. On the way to the 2nd waypoint I was not getting high enough over the crazy thermal area. Every time I topped out and went to transition I encountered big sink. As it happens John had the exact same issue.

At this point I was tired, my arms were sore and my mind just wasn’t on the task. I decided to throw in the towel for the day and head back to the LZ. John had the same issue at the plateau and also wnet to the valley to land. Mer landed out at the 2nd waypoint but Arun and Gordon did well again as of course did Stefan and frank who both made goal.

Tomorrow is another day so my goal is for 2 waypoints at least tomorrow! :-)

Race Day – Task 2..Tree Sticker day

So after yesterdays good flight I was really looking forward to today’s task. The weather started out the same in the morning as the day before with cloud base forecasted for  around 10000 max. – Not that high for this area.  However launch conditions were much stronger today and the wind was strong too. Task was set at 67Km with start at Maguey some 8.7km away from start.

We had another one of those confusing start cylinders as yesterday so I made sure that I set it up correctly this time! On launch this time there were more people wanting to get going early. The thermals were coming up the launch in quite frequent interval but a little squirly. This time I saw John launch at the other end so I knew it was going to be fine this time.

I set up and brought the wing up a couple of times before launching. Yip it sure was strong. Up the 3rd time and I was off!. I got rocketed off the launch area and was up about 250ft before I could get into my harness. Got in then started turning…in less than 2 minutes I was at 9000ft. Wow. What a ride. Sweet. By this time folks had already started heading for the Penon and beyond with some folks low but others making it pretty easy. I was still in lift but decided to head for the Penon and go on from there. Just before the Penon, major sink. Yikes! 1:1 glide ratio and only 10mph. I got to the Penon about 1/2 of the way from the top and started looking for lift with a bunch of others. Nada! Oh come on for crikey sake I kept thinking to myself as I saw the others who had tanked up behind me fly over the Penon or soar past it around the side to get to the Wall. I scratched for ages but it was not to be. I dirted out with a few other pilots who made the same mistake.

I shook my head in shame and got the kids to help me pack up. My race day finished.

 

 

Later that day I got the  reports of a few incidents after talking with John and Arun. John had a good flight and managed to get the first 2waypoints before sinking out. Arun is flying great this week and almost got to Mesada probably a good 40+ Km into the task. Gordon flew great again alos, getting to around 52Km into the task. Meredyth went into trees around the Gordo area where she had sunk out quite a few times in the last few weeks. Haven’t managed to speak to here about that yet  but by all reports she is fine.  Constatntine had to throw his reserve and landed in a tree. He radioed for help and initial report is that his back was hurting a bit. Still to here how that turned out although a helicopter was sent for him but couldn't get to him so they were sending people up to get him. There were a few other incidents along the same lines. The air was trashy in places, and talking with Kirsty Cameron ( top UK women pilot) later that night she said that around Diversia was bad.

Prior to all this bad news I decided to go back up to the Penon and fly in the afternoon. And i am glad I did. The air was super smooth and lift around 200ft/min. It was like a Tiger glass off. Gorgeous to watch the sun strike the Penon, I got around a 1000ft over launch and after boating around for a while headed over the back and landed at the soccer fields at Penitas.  

Lesson learned for the day…Tank up at launch to the max before heading out. Dave Byrne had sent me a text that I only managed to read after I sunk out…”..don’t race.just stay high and follow others for lift.” the words are still ringing in my ears. Today for sure!!!

Race Day – Task 1.. Oh No…

What a day!. The grand opening of the new toilet they just built on launch was delayed as there was a problem with the water supply. Bummer. Another trip to the woods! :-) Turns out Marc Chirico had built the first toilet there many years ago which is now the extended launch area so as a tribute to you Marc here is the new building to bring a tear to your eye!.They called a 72 Km task which is further than I have ever flown before so it was interesting to see how things turned out. Quite dramatic to say the least is the answer. The launch window opened at 11:30 and for 15 minutes before that anyone could fly so most of the Seattle crew decided to take that opportunity and launch. However, that meant staying in the air for 1hr 15 minutes before the race even started, A daunting enough task for me I thought.

I got to the launch area to see Mer take off and I set up on the far right of the launch area an prepared to launch. Launch was pretty well organized and I found that there were only a couple of others ready to launch including John although I did not know at the time but I was soon to find out!

I got the go to launch turned and had a good take off but then….what the hell..a pilot had also just launched from the far left and was on a collision course. I turned to the right and our wings crossed each other sliding off each other. i took some deformation but managed to get it back on track. The other pilot was flying fine..Phew… a real close call. And when I looked at the other pilot it was none other than John Mann my buddy. Wow.. were we lucky…..now that was over I thought so let’s go fly the course.

The weather was a high pressure system and cloud base was only just over 9000ft. It was pretty rowdy and having a lots of pilots in the air at low level was pretty intimidating. After a while I headed off to the Penon and soared up the front face before heading to the Wall. The Wall is a vertical cliff face that extends behind the Penon. For whatever reason I had a hard time getting up from there and got trashed a few times as I headed too far back inland with not enough height. After about 15 minutes and recovering from some deflations and seeing another pilot stall his wing and other plots managing to make it up heigh and get out I decided to go back out in front of the wall in the valley and try and get some lift from there. I did eventually find lift but from a very low height and made a good save to get back up and ready to head to the start! Yes the start! It seemed like I had been flying all day by this time. However I headed back to the start and found a nice convergence line and got lift all the way. I tagged the start and then headed back the way I had came. Taking this route meant I had caught up with most of the main group of pilots as they had headedto the penon and then to the wall. I shortcutted that route by flying straight to crazy thermal location as it is called.  I caught the crazy thermal site and yip it is as rough and as crazy as it gets. I got some stonking thermals in there, well in excess of 1300ft/min and got up high enough to see for the first time the whole flying topography of Valle de Bravo. wow. What a sight indeed. I headed of to the next waypoint flying over a few ridges  a little too low and getting worked by the turbulence on the other side. However perseverance prevailed and I got to the first Waypoint Divisa! Woo Hoo. Yeah baby. On to the next  waypoint Lapila. I enjoyed this glide as I found a nice convergence line and got to the waypoint with not really much thermalling. Another waypoint tagged. Things were looking good. I headed back to the next waypoint but started sinking out. I got another low save about 300 ft above a cone cylinder with corns cobs growing inside of it. Back now to the 3 kings and Mageuy. Here I really got stuck trying to get out and after  about 20 minutes decided to make a dash for Gordo. There I sank out and landed. Over 4 hrs flying!. Man was I tired but what satisfying feeling to have flown so far. I just couldn't wait to get back and log my score.

I arrived back at headquarters and submitted my flight only to find out I hadn’t tagged the start point! WHAT I said, you must be joking right? Nope dead serious. They had a 1km start cylinder with the first waypoint inside that cylinder with a radius of .4km. I hadn’t entered that point on my gps cylinder. What a bummer. as it turns out John Mann and quite a few others made the same fundamental mistake! Crap Crap Crap I said to myself. On reflection though what the heck.. I had a great flight to say the least.

Ah… flying can be so satisfying…and sometimes not!

Looking forward to tomorrows task.

Pre-Race day – Not a good one

The day looked to be promising and I was eager to go back out flying and get some more air time down here but as it turned out it was not to be.!I decided to wait a little longer on launch until the clouds that were forming and were becoming increasing overdeveloped and broke up. and got higher. Cloud base was only at 9200 today around launch area. Also since it was a Saturday there were many more people about. I should have guessed things weren't;t going to go my way when my dicky tummy gave one final motion and urged me woodward again. On the way back my sun glass lens fell out and I had to go around launch asking folks for dental floss so I could put it back in. That took more time than I thought. Great time to get off the hill. It was close to 12:00pm and the rest of the Seattle crew had already left for the skies. But looking up just above launch there were about 40 gliders tightly grouped and not going anywhere fast. Ok another 15 minutes and things seemed to be improving i thought. Time to go. I already had my wing bunched up and ready to launch so got on launch and brought it up about 5 ft and checked that things looked good and set it back down. We are off! Nice rotation turned and launched but kept veering right and heard shouts of Knot Knot from the folks below. By this time I was already in the air and heading for the trees on the right. Big weight shift left and started to go left but slowly. Looking up I could see the b and c lines had a not towards the trailing edge and I had a v-notch in my wing. Bummer!!!! What to do. I tried to tugging hard on the lines but to no avail. At least the wing was flying but with major left correction. No other choice but to land out in the Piano Lz. Of course midday Valle is pretty thermic and I had to ride straight though a few thermals getting to the LZ. As it turned out the Ra S performed very well again. I have found this wing to be very stable and when things go wrong its pretty benign. I landed at the LZ without incident only looking up at the gliders in the sky feeling very envious. As it turns out when i got a lift back to town, not many folks had a good flight at all. The low cloud base left quite a few of the experienced pilots feeling frustrated as well as me. Not a bad day really to have a knot. another lessons learned I will be checking more diligently tomorrow when the actual comp begins!!!

First Day at Valle

John Mann and I travelled down to Mexico city together on Jan 1st  and joined Gordon Grice for a shared taxi trip down to Vallle de Bravo. Flights were pretty good actually and we cleared custom and baggage in no time at all. The taxi ride took 2hrs and we arrived at 11:30 at night pretty tired. For some reason I only managed to get about 3 hours sleep and having a dicky tummy on the plane down wasn't a great way to start a flying week!

The Meson de Viente hotel where I am staying at is pretty nice. It has a nice garden and pool at the back and is run by Alex who owns FlyMexico. It was a bonus to find out that breakfast was free and that he provides shuttle rides and pick ups for his guests also for free!. When i went down for breakfast I found a bunch of Seattle pilots already there including Pam and James Bender, Meredyth, Arun, Stefan, Randy, Steve and Gordon. Quite a turn out. Later that day I saw Constantine and Frank.

After breakfast it was up to launch about 15km from downtown Valle.  We arrived at 10.30 am to about 40 people already on launch. I took off at 11:00pm and had my first flight in Valle.

Thermals started quite mild but by 12:00pm they were a little punchy in places and not well rounded. But it was a blast!  Biggest issue was getting used to flying in big gaggles again…and turning right all the time. I spent quite a bit of time just in front of launch going up and down up to around 9000ft (1300 over launch) thermaling with John. Eventually I decided to head over the back and take the direct route towards town following the main road for a bit. I headed for the first hill behind launch called Penitas (about a couple  of miles) and didn't find much lift there until I got a punchy lee side thermal after scratching low for a bit that took me up to head towards Sacamacate the next hill. There I got stuck and just couldn't get any higher. It had become overdeveloped and I looked skywards to find a few other gliders that were on the same route also get stuck and have to land.

Landing was fun to say the least. Very active and I took a couple of collapses trying to get down. But I got down eventually to about 10 kids running to come and help me pack my wing. I then headed to the road and got a taxi back to town for $2. :-) Sweet.

Back at the hotel the other Seattle pilots arrived over the next few hours. John had a great flight going North to Maguey alttough he tought he was going to town! :-)

Now relaxing in the hotel writing this blog and getting 40 winks ready to get some real good flying in tomorrow.