The annual start-of-the-season Chelan fly-in had absolutely
wonderful weather this year. The beach at Lakeside City Park (photo, left) was larger than ever - the PUD is keeping the lake level lo wer than usual in anticipation of a big spring melt-off. You can see in one of C.J. photos above just how snowy the Cascades are, unusual for this late in the year.We left early enough Friday to allow time to XC-ski at 4000-ft Blewett Pass. Surprisingly, there was very little snow there except where it had been packed down on the FS roads by snowmobiles. Strange, because when we drove over Snoqualmie Pass (3000 ft) there was still lots of snow with a nice layer of fresh white. So we arrived early enough to pop up our Aliner in Beebe Bridge CG and drive up Chelan Butte where a number of hang gliders were set up and launching. It was a bit windy and, by the time C.J. had put her Falcon together, it was stronger and gusty so she decided not to fly. We ended up having dinner of some Friday-special Safeway meatloaf with Chris and Christine in their trailer.
Saturday we got to Lakeside around 0900, signed in and went up the hill early. I took off and got up above launch then tried going west and sank below the top of the hill on the west side of the saddle and found myself in leeside rotor. I slid down towards Lakeside but it didn't look like I had the glide to reach the beach. The Lone Pine LZ was soarable and I realized that there would be quite a rotor coming over the berm so I worked the uphill side of the field and drifted to the far east corner. It was still turbulent landing. I got a ride back up the hill with Andreas and Allison(?) in their new 2010 Forester. C.J. had flown her Falcon and had a good flight and landing on the beach. She came back up to launch in the Trooper with Chris and Christine (photo, left above with one of Kamron's stylin' new gliders) and had another flight where she got to 7500 ft and took some pictures in the air. Dinner was early, at 1700 or so, and a good thing because the sun was still high enough to keep the temperature comfortable. Before the pizza dinner I spent some time helping Doug and Denise with their new students who were just learning to kite their wings in the park. C.J. and I didn't stay too late and returned to camp for an early-to-bed. Meanwhile, the Big XC Guys had launched between 1200 and 1300 and gotten to 9000 ft over the flats and some had flown as far as Creston on their paragliders.
The weather continued to be good on Sunday with less wind and fewer cumulus clouds. The wind was coming up Ants launch and sometimes up Between-the-Rocks. That meant that, to reach the beach, one had to fly all the way around and through the saddle. Some of the early hang gliders cleared the saddle with what looked like less than 100 ft. As conditions improved, people started to find lift and I launched off Ants, got up to launch and a bit in front of Rocks, then flew across to the other side of the saddle and climbed back to launch level on the low hill. Today I had plenty of altitude to play with so I toured around a little before heading for a landing within the 25 pt. circle but short of the spot. (photo, left above, Tom Lee and his girlfriend) When C.J. landed and broke down we took Chris and Christine back to the top thinking we might fly again. However, both of us were happy with our flights and tired enough from all the sun, wind and flying that we were happy to hang out for a while before driving back down (shuttling Chris' truck down). While we were in the LZ a PG pilot crashed when he tried to land near the spot. He complained of lower back pain and we had to call 911 for an ambulance and paramedics. [Amazingly, we and the EMTs were able to get his gear off without having to cut anything.] Around 1500 C.J. and I returned to Beebe to pack up the trailer. Since it was after 1300, we had to pay for another day - next time we'll know that we have to move out of camp earlier. Fortunately we were paying only half the off-season rate as seniors (and we shared space with Josh who gave us half what we had paid.). We had tried to check out the Riverside Park Hotel, or at least its ice cream but they were closed on Sunday, So we had to stop at the burger place in Monitor for so-so shakes on the way home. We were back by around 1900 and the weather held until nighttime when it returned to rain and gloom. Glad we were able to get away to the sunny east side!
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