Monarca 2011–Task 4–Cancelled

Today the forecast showed that the winds would be picking up to around 25Km at 12,000ft. At launch it started off a bit like Monday, mild then strong,  but got progressively worse far quicker. A lot of blown launches and collapses in mid air. The clouds were developing very quickly and it was easy to see that this was going to be a hard task.

At 12:25, 5 minutes before the task started they cancelled the race.  I hadn’t launched as I could see the weather deteriorating, so it was a quick ride back to the LZ to see those who were still in the air take only 1 glide from Espina back to the LZ!

The next 2 days looks like being the same weather wise so it may be the end of the comp after only 3 tasks. Fingers crossed the weather system blows through quickly.

Monarca 2011– Task 3 70.2Km

Launch – Piano (5K start)– Divisa – La Pila – Capulin (0.5 enter) – Capulin (6K exit) – Capulin (0.5K enter) – Torre

Ok, I have to admit up front,  I didn’t fly the task today! With all good intentions I got to launch with my wing and went through the usual routine of unpacking, clearing the lines, setting it aside, programming my gps and getting ready to fly. Problem was my touche was still a hurting and the thought of 3 hours in the saddle and a potential hike out put paid to my big ideas of getting off the ground today. I actually did fly today but more of that later.

The task that was called today was indeed a little strange to a lot of folks. Rather than a real route it was more of a task. It started with a 5K start cylinder around the Piano LZ as usual which has been a great way to spread out the field on high pressure days where it takes some time for the inversion to clear. Then it was off to Divisa and La Pila. But then it got strange. They set the next waypoint, Capulin as a 0.5Km enter cylinder, then a 6Km exit cylinder followed by another 0.5Km enter cylinder. This meant that pilots had the choice of flying in any direction they wanted to for 6Km before coming back to the same waypoint. A novel idea indeed.

I watched folks launch today and get high and then move out. It got a little stronger on launch around 12:00 but then dissipated. Folks didn’t seem to have any problems getting over to the mesa where they waited for around an hour until the start of the race.

I got a lift back to town with Oscar and JC and went for lunch to the café where they had internet so I could watch the Seattle’s folks progress via their SPOT updates.

Most didn’t have a problem getting to Divisa but then quite a few got stuck there. Jeff seemed to be flying a funny route indeed. It turned out he had forgotten to clear his route from the previous day and it was taking him to the wrong waypoint. He ended up landing close to where he dirted the day before. With hindsight, he chose to fly into the valley where there were better options to get retrieved.

Gilead, got to La Pila and then got stuck trying to get back up on to the mesa. Preacher and Mer got stuck on the mesa  flying back from La Pila leaving it to Frank and Dave to get to goal today. Congrats to them.

After lunch I went down to the LZ to get a massage and see if it helped my back. Best 50 bucks I spent this week! Pity it doesn’t work on the tailbone though. After the massage I walked back to Alas Des Hombres and got a ride up to La Torre. I wanted to see how sore I would be flying, This turned out to be a great choice as I was treated to some spectacular views of Valle De Bravo and had a great flight right into the middle of the lake. I will try to get a video snippet posted  later.

This gave me a little boost and raised my hopes to fly a task tomorrow. We shall see!

Monarca 2011–Task 2 63 Km

Launch – Piano – Laguna – Quintalia – Iglesi – LaCasa – Iglesi – Torre

Results are posted here http://www.monarcaparaglidingopen.com/files/Task_2_02_01_2011.pdf

A no flying day for me today so little to write about from a personal flying perspective, so I have to report what folks told me.  I am feeling much better after my incident yesterday and I will be flying tomorrow. Really looking forward to it.

So today I first went down to check out my wing was okay. It was stored at Alas des Hombres. All was well. No holes or damage so I was happy. I managed to unpack it and repack so that was good. Walking is fine and sitting is fine but the transition was a little sore early this morning. By afternoon it was much better.

I popped into Alas Des Hombres HQ to have a chat with the folks there. Chifus was having some issues with the scoring application on the computer so I dived in and helped him out. Ended up talking to an English guy in Europe to cobble together a workaround that allowed us to print off the scores and rankings from yesterday which then made it’s way to launch to be posted. My good deed for the day done.

I had breakfast at the café across the street and waited for Doug to come and join me. After that we walked down to the landing area to see how high the water was. That was my first time down there this year and the water level was high. It sure was beautiful.

Headed back up the road to a café where we got internet access and watched the updates on the SPOT application I developed for the Windows phone. It worked a treat!.

Gilead sunk out in a flush cycle from launch, Jeff made it to the first turnpoint and Mer, Dave, Frank and Preacher were all doing good. So I walked back down to the LZ area at the lake to see if they would make goal.

On the way down there I picked up a bottle of Whisky that came with a set of binoculars. I thought that was pretty cool and I could use them to watch from a distance. I sat at the lz and poured myself a shot and pulled out the binoculars. I couldn’t see a damn thing! I was sitting next to JC the launch director and asked him to take a look to see what was wrong. We both laughed our heads off as we discovered that the binoculars were actually a Flask!!! I sure had fun that day passing them around to folks who saw them lying on the table wanting to view the pilots! :-) Even worked well on the Seattle crew too!.

I watched Frank, Dave, Mer and Preacher arrive at goal! Congrats to them. They said the conditions today were much mellower than yesterday but it was a little hard at the beginning getting up high. However once the convergence kicked in it was not a problem. In fact getting down to the LZ was a problem.

From a distance we could all see another reserve toss way up on the mesa and whoever it was was really high. Pilot seemingly was ok.

Doug had walked down to the LZ with his wing and both he and Gilead went up to Torre for a late evening flight which Doug really enjoyed. Doug is set to do that each day instead of going to the Penon.

Well that’s it. Well almost. I forgot about Sparky!. Yes, one of the pilots I know flew into a  live power line  whilst landing today. He was slung shot back when his chest hit the lines while  his wing ended up being draped over the lines. A few sparks and singed lines but all ended up well! Except for the citrus tree that the local farmer was not too happy about!.  One lucky man indeed!

Monarca 2011 Task 1 - 61Km

Launch-Piano Start, Divisa, Saucos, LaCasa, El Torre

What a day!  Cranking winds on launch, crappy launches, misplaced pilots, downwind landing tumbles, trips to hospital, reserve throw and tree landing. Not a good start at all.

Today the thermals were coming through launch really strong. There were a few light cycles but as soon as you took off it was chaos. Comp wings were being bent out of shape, huge surges and minimal penetration and not much gain initially.

The launch window opened at 11:40 and I got in line around 11:45 and by this time it was really long. While we were waiting in line we watched the carnage unfold. Not really good to watch. Jeff had managed to get to the start line  with 6 other people and got off the hill early when conditions were milder.

I got to launch when the thermal cycles were a little lighter than earlier but just off of launch gliders were being thrown around like rag dolls. I brought my wing up turned and launched. A thermal came through and plucked me up and threw me right almost into another glider taking off.Not pretty. I headed out to find some smoother air. Not to be! I also found that I had forgot to turn on my vario but I sure as heck wasn’t taking my hands off the brakes. So I headed out in front a little. The wind was gusty and strong. I was also sinking. By the time I got my vario on and turned around I was at midway between launch and the Piano LZ. I struggled to try and get back up but it was a case of the frog in the well – climb 200 feet sink 300 ft. I eventually had to go and land. I thought I would land in the field beside the road but it was thermic and really windy. I kept getting popped up. I got one pop that took me high enough where I thought I could make the Piano. Bad choice! As I headed out from the foot of the Penon across the road I sunk like a stone. I navigated through some trees saw a small landing area and as I came in to land I dropped about 6-8 feet onto a rock outcrop. I felt my back compress with the impact. Crap, surely not a broken back. I lay there and called for help on the radio. After about 5 minutes I felt a little better and I had full movement of my legs. I struggled to my feet and my back was sure sore. I radioed to let folks I was ok but needed an ambulance to get me to hospital to check out the damage. As it turned out I was very lucky. No broken bones, just muscular strain and inflammation! Phew. I will take tomorrow off flying but hope to be back in the air Wednesday.

Dave Wheeler didn't have much luck today either. He ended up in the Piano area too and had a downwind landing in tall grass with a roll down the hill. Coupled to that, his flight deck got snarled in the grass and disappeared! However, the good news was that some kids found it later and handed it in. Another lucky guy!

Gilead landed at Maguey on the mesa at 1:38pm but it tool retrieval over 6 hours to get to him! He had hiked for many many miles to get out and had been sending constant update messages. A long day for him.

Jeff Smith managed to fly 31K along with Frank and Mer. Preacher managed to almost complete the task flying around 52 Km.

One pilot threw his reserve over Avandro and landed in a tree but was ok.

All in all not a great start to the comp. I believe there were only 7 that got to goal today. Results are not posted yet.

Let’s hope for better weather and conditions tomorrow!

Practice Day –29th January

Woke up to a rather chilly morning in Valle, had a good breakfast at the Hotel, grabbed a taxi and headed up to launch about 15 miles away. Taxi ride $15 for two, not too shabby really. The road up to launch has been re-graded this year and it was a much smoother dirt road ride than any time before. Arriving at launch at 10:15 no one was in the air but the Norwegians had huddled together for their daily chat about what they were planning.

On launch I met up with a few old friends, had a brief chat and then got myself ready. We had been advised it was going to be dusty and it was but not as bad as I had thought.

The sky had high cirrus and I was worried that there night not be that much lift but I was wrong. At around 10:30 a few  folks got into the air and they were soon about 700ft over launch. I got my gear ready and setup in line behind Gilead and Doug.

Jeff had just launched but it was clear he had some issues. He was veering to the right and trying to untangle knotted lines it looked like as we could see a small tip deformation. We watched Jeff unsuccessfully try to get it out and eventually head out to land below.

Gilead, Doug and then myself launched. It felt strange to be in lift again with the wing pressurized and the vario sounding off indicating good lift. It was gusty and windy in places though. I stayed in the gaggle until just under 9000 and headed off to Penon. Flew to the bottom of the wall, no lift headed back to launch and up again and then back to Penon. From there I noticed some folks had headed over the back, others had headed out to Espina and beyond and there were a few folks left in front. I flew around for a while and saw Doug out in front. With no one in the Piano as yet and Doug’s first time landing there I thought I would just go join him. I headed out to join him and we were met with some strong wind, probably around 20mph in places. However we both landed well.

We radioed to see where Jeff was. He had hiked back up the front side to launch! . Doug and I had a beer and headed back to town. Jeff relaunched and flew to Jovan. Gilead landed at Sacamate. Mer and Dave flew to the lake. Dave Norwood however had a great triangle from launch to Pila to Agila and back to launch.

Happy faces all around today!.

Monarca Paragliding Open 2011 Travel Day…28th January

The flight from Seattle was leaving at 8:25am to Houston and then on to Mexico City. I had arrived home the night before after dinner at Matt’s Oyster bar in Redmond where I had my last real American meal for a week – a lovely rainbow trout. And it was fandabbiedozie!!!! Of course this meant getting back home to then pack! Fortunately, I had already looked out all of my paragliding gear and had it in one place. It’s amazing the electronic gear you accumulate over the years – Garmin GPS, SPOT Messenger, Radio, GPS/Integrated Vario, backup vario, GOPro HiDef Cameras (yes 2 this year!), Digital Camera, Rechargeable battery charger, PTT switch, laptop, IPhone (now an ITouch), Windows Phone plus all the needed chargers for all that stuff.

So now I only really had to get the clothes organized.  Glad to say the entire time to pack for the 10 days took a total of 1 hour. So all was good. LeAnn had graciously agreed to take me to the airport so we set the alarms for 5:45 and headed off to sleep at 10:00pm. Got a good night’s sleep at last this week. Work has been busy and a lot going on so I was quite glad to have wrapped it all up before I left.. at least I hope!

In the morning, I packed the car and headed off to the Airport at 6:15 with LeAnn silently tired in the passenger seat as I drove down. Normally not travelling at this time in the morning I was really surprised by the amount of cars on the road this early in the morning. Glad I don’t have to do that on a regular basis. However the HOV lane helps a lot when you have 2 in the car.   I arrived at the airport to find 3 of my 5 travelling colleagues arriving at the same time – Fireman Jeff, Preacher Dave and Hobbit Gilead. Wheelie Bob Dave was already in side and Duct Tape Doug had caught an earlier flight. So we were set. When I checked in I got the option to upgrade to first class on the Houston Mexico city leg for a bargain $79. This was a no brainer. With my paraglider bag I would need to pay for extra luggage but when travelling first class it includes 2 bags, plus you get lots of space, free alcohol and dinner!. Oh yeah. As I write, I am flying over the gulf of Mexico, no oil slicks in sight I am glad to report, and eating a medallion of beef and pork with rice accompanied by lashings of wine!

We had organized a 14 seat bus to pick us all up and take us to Valle upon our arrival so hopefully it will be there!!!

Well, turns out the Van did come but we had a bit of a time finding Doug. He was in a different terminal. When we did pick him up about 1 hour later there was a traffic jam at the airport and we eventaullay arrived at Valle de Bravo 4 hours after we landed. In any event. We are all here now. So tomorrow we should have a flight report.!!!!