Chelan Beach'N 2015

 1-3 May 2015

Third fly-in weekend in a row...and we're already thinking about next weekend at Blanchard!

1 May, Friday - The weather looked good but not especially fly-able so we didn't leave at the crack of dawn. We stopped for gas at Costco in East Wenatchee (251.9) then pulled into a riverside pull-thru at the Beebe Park PUD campground. After setting up and paying our discounted rate for two nights we drove up through Chelan to Lakeside Park where we found nobody(!) and a much smaller-than-usual beach. We took the Butte road as far as the Lone Pine bailout. Darren Fox was coming down the hill and we found out that the wind was pretty strong up there and no one was flying. We stuck around long enough to put some streamers on the poles in Lone Pine. Back in Chelan we went to the USFS/NPS ranger station and the new location of the Chelan Visitors Center to see what suggestions they had for hikes nearby. The newest trail was a continuation of the Lakeside Trail to the east past the dam to a parking lot across the street from the Junkyard LZ. From there the trail dips down into the Chelan River

Informational sign on Reach 1 Trail

Gorge and turns west until it stops at the river bend before the dam. We walked the whole 1.67 mi (one way) and enjoyed the three viewpoints with information on the history of the area. We also stopped at two viewpoints nearer the dam after returning to the car. By then it was close to 1700 but the library was still open and C.J. used their guest password to download the magazine alpha so she could proofread it later. We returned to the CG for dinner and editing. I forgot to mention that the wind was really strong and gusty from the south all afternoon even down in the valley.

2 May, Saturday - We were heading up to the usual meeting place at the beach when we saw a line of cars all turning onto the road to Chelan Falls. We followed them to the park and found that the location of the spot landing contest had been moved there. After hanging around for a while with Owen Shoemaker and some new-to-Chelan pilots, and Sam Bryant and his wife Roxanne, we rode up with them. That put us on top around 1130. The flowers were particularly good this year with the yellow of the arrowleaf balsamroot and the purple of the lupine covering the hillsides. I spent most of the day just hanging out because conditions looked very north and turbulent (even though there were launches from Ants, Between the

Arrowleaf balsamroot in full bloom on Chelan Butte

Rocks and Green Monster. Owen launched early and got up right away and then disappeared to the north. Hangs were crossing the gorge for short XC flights out on the flats; some returned to do the spot landing. I spent an hour or two pulling invasive weeds on the hang glider ramp. [Later we heard that Tony H had an accident on his approach to the LZ and that he and his hang glider had smacked into Meredyth's FJ Cruiser Hank. Tony had injuries that required a trip to the emergency room but not serious enough to call an ambulance.] After 1700 the launch direction went back to Ants so C.J. and I decided to fly down for dinner. [Brian had flown earlier and had found conditions rough and had come down to land from 6500. He and Johhna had come back up but decided not to fly and drove Owen's truck down.] I decided to wait to be sure that C.J. got off the hill safely and she had a great launch. Kent Hudson from Alaska who was also ready to go noticed that she was flying straight out and sinking rapidly so that she had to go way around to the south end of the ridge. It was pretty clear that she was too low to reach the LZ. Kent launched and did the exact same thing. I bundled my wing up and walked over to Lakeside launch where the wind was too cross from the north. Now I was all alone on the Butte with no direction suitable for launching. The two HG trucks that were left on launch had no keys hidden where I could find them so I packed up and sat down to wait, hoping that the pilots would come retrieve their vehicles before it got much later (and colder and hungrier). About then Kent called to report that he and C.J. were in the Dead Coyote bailout and would walk down a ravine to a paved road in Chelan Falls. [I missed the first call because I had my gloves on and could not swipe the cell phone screen to answer. For some reason, C.J.'s new iPhone 5s had completely run out of battery power.] Fortunately, not too much later Eric Troili, ET, showed up to retrieve his rig and I rode to the soccer field at Chelan Falls with him. C.J. was not back yet so I drove around trying to find them but even with Kent on the phone, and my GPS, I could not find the street name they were walking along. Eventually they got a ridet with Jim Steele who had landed his hang glider not far away. It was close to a mile of rough walking down the ravine, under or over an orchard fence and along the road before they got a ride. Back at the park there was still plenty of cold pizza left although everyone else was finished eating. Lori even made us a nice, fresh spinach salad. Naturally C.J. was pretty tired, but it was my turn to read the alpha so she could rest while I did that (after showers). [Meanwhile, Owen and Andrey Yakimov had flown all the way to Twisp and landed in Dave Verbois' front yard. Leslie was there and we heard that she drove them back to Chelan.]

3 May, Sun - After breakfast we packed up the trailer putting all our packs inside and hauled it over to the soccer field. There were many fewer pilots, especially paras since the big cross-country dogs had gone elsewhere - maybe Mazama [Later we heard that several went to Baldy.]. Joe Gluzinski showed up in his new, white FJ Cruiser and offered us a ride to launch. We had  a chance to catch up on what he had been doing on the ride to the top. Conditions looked reasonable so we started getting ready to fly. I launched around 1230 or so and right away started wishing I had not taken off. The air was turbulent and I was unwilling to turn in the sharp-edged thermals. I continued flying pretty much straight toward the LZ passing over Three-tree point. As I got lower, it was clear that there was a strong headwind as I tried to go north. Meanwhile I was sinking pretty fast and was considering that I might have to land in one of the fields in the town of Chelan Falls. None of them looked very friendly so I kept pushing on toward the LZ. I crossed the RR tracks and then could see my shadow on the roof of the packing plant, but finally I was over the soccer field parking lot and could go directly on final to land just beyond the spot. I was really glad to be on the ground. I contacted C.J. on the radio to make sure she knew about the north wind on the ground. She answered from 6770 feet, so wind on the ground was not a concern for her. Strangely enough, no one launched immediately after C.J. although she was as high as anyone got on Saturday. She didn't land too much after I had finished packing up - she said it was "cold and bumpy" up there. Since we had had enough flying, we thought we would beat the Sunday traffic and head home early. We stopped at Lone Pine Fruit Stand for ice cream and asparagus then cruised on home getting in around 1700

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