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.

Getting Ready for Monarca Paragliding Open

Less than a week now until I fly off to Valle de Bravo for the fist time to compete in the Monarca Open Paragliding competition. On one hand I am looking forward to it and on the other I am a little anxious still to be flying with over 150 world class pilots and in my new pod harness with no real thermalling hours on it yet. I am sure I will get lots of time to have that in Valle though! Meredyth and Arun have already left and I expect are probably flying as I write this blog entry. I will be traveling down with Gordon Grice and John Mann on January 1st. First comp task is Jan 4th.

For preparations I have been looking at the Leonardo flights from last years comp on google earth trying to get a handle on the routes folks are taking and figuring out where the thermals are going to be. Of course, in a large gaggle its easy to just follow the leader. At Woodrat this year I had my first experience of flying in a large gaggle and it wasn't as scary as I had thought. You are too busy flying  to be worried about anything else. Now I need to start to remember how to use my GPS again.

Since It has been a while since I actively used my GPS to enter routes I have been taking a different approach to getting used to it again. During the summer I had my flight deck on my lap and as I drove to work I hit the Mark key a few times along the way to enter waypoints. On my way back from work I entered the route of the waypoints from my house and then "navigated" back to my house. This simulated what the GPS would do as I neared the waypoints. This month I have been practicing with a little tool called GPS Simulator from FlywithCE. This little free tool from their website allows you to load a .IGC file (Leonardo format) and then send NMEA sentences to the com port of your PC. NMEA is a protocol for transferring GPS information from one device to another. As it happens, my Digifly Cartesio 2 vario allows for external GPS input and I use the Digifly connected to my Garmin GPS as the primary device for flying tasks. This is a great training tool. However, even better I managed this month to discover that Franson GPSGate can also read Nmea log files and then send the output to google earth as well as com ports. So now, I download the tracks from Leonardo of flights taken at Monarca last year and convert to NMEA format using GPS Babel. After downloading the Monarca waypoints and loading these into Google Earth I can see the route taken for tasks.

Now, I just enter the waypoints for that route into my Digifly, Load up the Nmea log file in Franson GPS gate and tell it to send the output to my Digifly and also Google earth at the same time. Voila! Simulated flight of actual tasks visualized in Google earth with my Digifly showing me all the information from that flight in real time. Pretty cool!.

I plan to keep a blog from this years comp and enter some pics/video on a daily basis so stay tuned for updates!

Iain