NW-XC League - Event One

10 May 2015

C.J. flying away from BJ launch, North Fork below

C.J. and I were all set to go camp with the Aliner at Larabee State Park and participate in the first event of the new Northwest Cross-Country League when the weather decided not to cooperate. T.J., our local weather guru, called for "Wow" conditions everywhere but near the water. Owen Shoemaker, organizer of the NW-XC changed the venue from Blanchard to "B.J.", Big Johnson, near Deming sometime after he got home from a long flight out to Chickamin from Ranpart. That left us kind of scrambling around at 2200 packing sleeping bag, pads and tent and mostly non-cooking-type food into the car.

9 May, Saturday - It was close to 0730 before we got on the road

but we still arrived before the meeting time of 1000, and well before Owen. There were about twenty "competitors" and some local pilots, plus launch and retrieve coordinator Tom Keefer. Frank Hernandez helped people get the waypoints uploaded to their flight instruments (for those who had not got the new waypoints done at home - Owen had emailed them out at 0200). Owen did a short pilots briefing and then sent up the two shuttle vehicles with a load of pilots who had competed before. [The shuttles consisted of Owen's pickup driven by his brother, and his brother-in-law's Honda SUV; two other retrieve vehicles had failed to show up.] Those of us waiting for the shuttles to return got together with Andrey Yakimov for some talk about how an XC comp works - start cylinders, waypoints, routes and goal/end-of-speed-section lines. Owen worked out a task and Trent wrote it on the whiteboard.

C.J. inflating her wing on BJ Launch

When the shuttles returned, almost an hour later, we piled in and drove up the gravel road which was rough in some places. Since there was only one key (Roger Brock's) we had to stop and retrieve it from a hiding place near the gate. Launch is an old logging landing with the usual pretty flat area, and a dropoff into a clearcut; BJ has room for only one pilot to launch at a time and not a whole lot of room for setting up gliders. One local had already launched and was maintaining, and Doug Mashburn was climbing to the left of launch. Dave Wheeler and I both got ready to go while the pilots put the task into their flight instruments and then had a more-detailed task briefing. Wheely launched and got above launch to the right so I went the same way. The lift was small and punchy and I may have missed a chance to get up by looking for something larger and smoother to work. As it was, I was sinking around the corner to the right of launch and finding a venturi-like strong wind from the SE. I flew out toward the easily-recognizable LZ and continued to sink. Since the wind was so strong, I kept upwind of the LZ until I was low and then did not want to go back farther than the middle of the field. It was pretty bumpy on approach but I was able to land lightly and drop my wing (0:07min). Dave landed

C.J. Launching at B.J. (photos by B Hobson)

not long after me and then a steady stream of pilots joined us in the LZ. C.J. landed as well after doing some sharp turns near the ground to get into the field (0:15). Most of the other pilots headed back up as soon as there was a shuttle and most of them found better lift on their second flights. A good number went left and got high enough to cross to Porter Mtn. to the south, some got to VanZandt Dyke and most eventually landed in the LZ. [I think the task was BJ to Porter, back to BJ, then VanZandt Dyke, across the river to Sumas, and back to the BJ LZ, some with 2K cylinders.] C.J. and I hung out with the rest of the pilots in the shade on the west side of the LZ watching people land and talking about the event until almost everyone but Brent had landed. Last we heard he was working hard trying to get high enough to make it out to the LZ instead of landing on a logging road. Around 1830 we headed home and made it by 2100 when it was not quite totally dark.

10 May, Sun - Owen posted a cancellation for the rest of Event 1 -

Mt. Baker from BJ   (Brent Taylor)

conditions were not expected to be very good for XC flying on Sunday on the west side. He was heading for Chelan and hoping to fly west into the mountains. I tried to get the Telegram app loaded onto C.J.'s new phone but even at home with wi-fi, I couldn't make the App Store work. Finally I called Consumer Cellular and they had to reset the phone (?) or the app(?). Whatever they did, it worked and C.J. can now add apps. As soon as Telegram announced that C.J. had joined, Meredyth invited her to join the NWPC Flying group. Now if we could just figure out the logic of how to send a message with the DeLorme inReach.

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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Oceanside Open 2015

24-26 April 2015

It's been years and years since we braved the fickle Oregon Coast weather and went to a spring fly-in at Oceanside. Even with the trailer we didn't feel it was worth the 5-hour drive to possibly sit in the rain. This year we thought we'd take a chance and go even though it was raining when we left on Friday and the forecast was for unflyable east winds on Sunday.

Line at the Cape Lookout Takeoff

24 April, Fri - Out of North Bend around 0930,  a bit late but we didn't expect there to be any flying on this notably unstable wind-rain-and-sun day. We filled up the half-empty tank at Costco Olympia (259.9) to avoid having to get gas in the small towns along the back roads southwest of Longview. We found the old route we had used years before through Vernonia and Timber before hitting Oregon Rte 6, the main line to Tillamook. We went directly to Cape Lookout State Park to secure a site just in case there was going to be a shortage on Friday night. I tried using my Washington State veteran's card for free camping but, although Oregon has an almost identical program, it was not accepted. The "discovery season" prices were in effect through the end of April so we "only" paid $27 per night for a trailer site. Once set up we drove back to Oceanside where to our surprise a veritable slew of gliders were flying, soaring easily on light wind and heavy air. As we watched, several landed saying that the storm cloud to the west looked ominous. As it turned out, the squall passed to the north and there was only a little rain. C.J. and I decided to take a pass on flying in the wet, especially after we heard about the squall that had come through earlier and put three gliders in the trees. Instead, we drove back to Tillamook and went to the cheese factory for a self-guided tour complete with free cheese samples. Afterward we each had a sampler dish of three ice cream flavors - ones that are not generally seen in the grocery store freezers. By then it was after 1700 and the Tillamook Visitor Information Center adjacent to the cheese factory was closed so we could not find out about the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center or all the quilt blocks on barns and other buildings. We went back to Oceanside to register at the community center early for the fly-in and the dinner (which is now held at the Elks lodge in Tillamook). Back at CLO we had a late dinner of soup, salad and bread. This trip we had brought our sleeping bags so we didn't have to get the sheets and quilt and comforter out and make the bed. It wasn't as cold as at Frostbite the previous weekend but it was chilly and damp enough that the furnace felt good when we ran it.

25 April, Sat - The pilots meeting was scheduled for 1000 at the Oceanside Community Center and we got there early enough to hand over a check for the registration and dinner, and check out the t-shirts and sweatshirts. Dave Raybourne had his own table where he was selling his history booklet of hang gliding and paragliding in Oregon, and a bunch of free-flight refrigerator magnets. A good crowd had gathered out on patio behind the center in the sunshine, and there were a few optimistic pilots doing sledders from Maxwell. At the meeting we found out that Reed Gleason had bought his

Launching at CLO

second lot up on Maxwell Mountain and configured it as a parking lot for pilots with a launch on the slope side. Since the wind was forecast to be more northerly than southerly, the call was for either CLO or Solly Smith. Since we've soared Solly a number of times I was in favor of the launch at Anderson's Viewpoint. We drove down there and left our car in the day use parking lot and then scored a ride with Rosa who was driving a pickup truck shuttle. Conditions were still light on launch and it wasn't until Jim Baldo had managed to stay up that Mike Brand and Kort decided to launch. They soared also so I followed them. I tried two reverse inflations but couldn't get the wing solidly over my head so I took a break and went to the back of the line which had formed. Fortunately there were only a half-dozen folks ready to go including C.J. who got off neatly with a forward inflation. When my turn came up again I had another abort. Not wanting to give up, the next time I did a reverse and kept running backwards down the slope to get into the air. Conditions were light but it was just barely soarable. At times I was below the 400ft launch and at others I was close to 700ft and above the trees west of the highway. Still, I was unwilling to commit to crossing the canyon to try to soar the cape itself as Mike, Kort, Jim and a very few others were doing. C.J. felt a flush cycle coming so as soon as she got low she headed for the spot to avoid having to land at the same time as a bunch of other pilots (How many? At least 18 in the air at the one time we counted). I was high at the cycle and managed to hang in for another 25 minutes for a total of 58 min. I was high when I went out to try for a spotlanding and I did a classic aircraft approach; all to no avail as I overshot the target and landed softly out beyond the rings. C.J. and I got our lunch from the car and hung out on the bluff above the LZ to watch the landings and enjoy the sunshine. Later we drove south to Cape Kiwanda. Not knowing what the driving might be like on the beach, we parked in the upper lot and walked the mile to the dune. [We could easily have driven - the sand was nice and hard and the tide was way out.] There were a couple dozen people with paragliders, speed wings and a lone, and probably overwhelmed, hang glider.   The wind was just less than strong enough to be soarable but there were plenty of crazy antics going on. We saw one guy flying with two others hanging on to his harness. The Little Cloud van was there with demo gliders and it looked like there were plenty of takers. We ran into C.J. B, Derek, Susan, Reid and Sarah Doherty who were just leaving for CLO to get a flight there and a tandem flight for Susan's friend, Heather. We walked back up the beach and returned to the CLO launch, too. There was still a line and about the same number of wings in the air. We had had such good flights that we weren't dying to fly again. We returned to camp where C.J. hung out at the LZ while I took a shower. Then we headed to Tillamook for dinner. It was a great venue for a dinner; too bad that only a fraction of the 110 pilots who registered also signed up for the meal. There was a cash bar with very reasonable prices and then a salad bar, chicken, ravioli, cheesy potatoes, green beans and rolls. We got to visit with Marybeth Wells and hear about her adventures in Australia. When the prizes were awarded, CB Schmaltz handed out the silver dollar spotlanding certificates and C.J. took second place [There was a definite lack of women pilots competing at this fly-in, so she also got third place for distance flown]. Since I was one of the few to turn in my results slip I received the huge, curved-glass trophy for longest duration.[My 58 minutes was nothing close to Jim Baldo's 3hr16min, but he wasn't there and had not submitted his results.] [On Sunday I dropped the trophy off at the community center and told Jim where it was.] Ray Berger got most of the awards for hang gliding - a long, high flight at Kilchis. Rick Lai also received one of the awards; after all he had flown both Kilchis and CLO on the same day.

26 April, Sun - There was some rain overnight and the forecast did not look good for either flying or hiking. We had planned to pull the trailer over to the day use area (later we noticed that checkout time wasn't until 1300) and hike out to the tip of the Cape, but it was too wet to look like a fun trip. Instead we drove up to Oceanside, left the trailer at the sewer (?) plant just outside of town and drove in. I dropped off the trophy with Mark Sanzone, the meet director, and we hung out visiting with folks for a while. When we were convinced that the conditions didn't look good for anything, we drove up to launch to see the new parking lot and the sloping ramp. The Little Cloud van was up there probably hoping for another day of demos. We drove down, picked up the trailer and went back to Tillamook Cheese for an ice cream lunch and to find out about the Quilt Block Trail and Latimer Quilt and Textile Center. Unfortunately, the Tillamook VIC was not open on Sunday. We picked up some brochures from their rack and from Tillamook Cheese and decided to drive up Hwy 101 a ways then cut across to Rte 26 on a secondary road just south of Nehalem. From 26 we took 103 through Jewell and Birkenfeld to Clatskanie; probably not the shortest route, but scenic. We stopped for gas again in Olympia (262.9 now) and were home around 1730 with only minor traffic slowdowns.

Frostbite 2015

...or was it "Sunstroke 2015"

Bremer HG launch and Mt. Rainier

17-19 April

Usually held at "Dogpatch", the landing zone for Dog Mountain, this year the event moved to Area 151, Dave and Diane Auman's property west of Morton. The LZ at Dog wasn't totally covered by water but it was much smaller than usual at this time of year. As a result of the almost snowless winter, Tacoma Power had started to fill Riffe Lake earlier than usual hoping to be able to provide hydro-electric power with the smaller amount of runoff expected this summer.

Area 151 was an excellent choice as there was plenty of room for the many trailers, motor homes, tents and other vehicles. In addition there was a large, level, grassy (and dry) landing area for hangs and paras. Spot landings were possible with a small takeoff  in a clearing 400 feet above the LZ and only ten minutes to turnaround. A much longer trip (45 min) to launches on Bremer Mountain was another option and many hangs and a few paras also drove to Dog for good, but not spectacular soaring.

17 April, Fri - C.J. and I got the trailer hitched up and pulled out of the driveway around 0930 and got

Area 151 from the 400-ft launch

to Area 151 around noon. We picked a site [You can see our little A-frame trailer on the right edge of the photo if you click on it and zoom in.] behind a grove of overgrown Christmas trees to give us a little shelter from the bonfire and music stage (a large flatbed army truck). We were soon joined by Aaron and Kerie's big motor home, Debbie and Greg's trailer and many others. I spent most of the rest of the day helping set up the huge cargo parachute over the eating and socializing area. Conrad, a bartender from the Morton Bucksnort Pub, set up his (free!) bar under the canopy and Dave moved his picnic tables in for seating. C.J. and I took a drive over to Dog to see what the LZ looked like. There were a bunch of hang rigs parked in the outer lot so we walked in to the berm. There was plenty of land to land on but there was also plenty of water so one would have to be pretty sure of one's spot landing ability to be sure to stay dry. After watching JJ soaring the point and landing in a dry area, C.J. decided to not fly her hang glider today. Back at Area 151 we watched a few PGs flying from the 400' hill and getting rough rides. We passed on the opportunity to fly and continued visiting with a break for dinner in our Aliner. Although the day had been sunny and hot, as the sun set it got cool quickly and the Friday bonfire provided some welcome warmth. It was downright chilly by the time we went to bed under a down comforter and quilt.

18 Apr, Sat - After oatmeal we signed up for Frostbite, paid for a Dog key, and C.J. bought a pink, performance t-shirt. One thing different about this Frostbite was how many paragliders were present. John Kraske was notable among them, and Kim Smith was a quieter presence. "Oldtimer" John Heckendorn was there to test fly his new-to-him Golden2 and got a half-dozen flights from the 400. C.J. and I got a ride up with Bret Conant, a PG who lives in Morton and is an engineering tech with the USFS. The launch was large enough to lay out two paragliders (just barely). Conditions were very light and I had trouble getting my wing inflated. It took four tries before I got off launch. But then I lucked into some lift to the left and out front. I managed to get above launch and soar for fifteen minutes before sinking out. The light wind was coming from the north, unusual for Area 151, and I

Larry in the mirror of the Wannabe Ranch Dragonfly

came up short of the spot but had a good landing. After lunch I went up again and this time I was all ready to go when a hang glider pilot launched with his right wing low; his glider continued in an arc to the right into a tree not far below launch. John H and I went down to make sure the pilot could get down safely. Kim S showed up with some rope and a saw and he and the pilot went down and got the glider out of the tree after a lot of work. Meanwhile more hang gliders were showing up and since the launch area was pretty small I decided to launch even though two pilots who had gotten to 2000'-plus were sinking out and recent launchers were not getting up. Fortunately, after a good launch, I found enough lift to get me up to launch level and maintain for a few minutes. Then the little thermal dissipated and I headed for the spot, landing well, just a bit off the blue. C.J. got a second flight, also - but hers was in Larry's dragonfly tug. She got some good photos of Bremer and the launches. Since the beer kegs had been tapped by then, I decided I was finished with flying for the day.  Meanwhile C.J. went up to Bremer with a truckload of hang pilots. Conditions were definitely over-the-back making for turbulence in the rotor out front. C.J. and Kerie decided not to fly and drove down. Dinner included burgers, hot dogs, and some ribs and all the other potluck dishes. C.J. had brought her famous blue-barb crisp which went fast. It was cold again after the sun set, the music was loud and went late, but it was a little warmer and more comfortable to sleep.

19 Apr, Sun - Tina organized a "breakfast for boobies" fundraiser for Kerie's medical treatments that were not covered by insurance (some $10,000). Much of the food was donated by Justin's parents so the breakfast raised more than $1000. Around 1100 C.J. and I joined Brent Taylor and Monique from Yelm in his big Chevy 4x4 pickup to go to the paragliding launch on Bremer with Alan, Adam, and Rob. The idea there is to get off the hill before the usual north winds pick up and blow over the back. Hopefully there will be enough heated air coming up the south face will provide lift to get you over the ridge and into the convergence. After Rob took off and soared, I tried launching several times but neither a forward inflation nor a reverse would work for me, and the slightly up-sloping logging landing dropped off steeply into rough clearcut so standing below the lip would not work. The other

Bremer PG launch by Harmon

pilots were all successful, but C.J. had to give up until the cycles became stronger. She took several tries but finally got off and, like the others, soared and was able to fly east past the hang glider launch and then cross the valley and make it back to Area 151 and a hundred-point landing. I rode back down with Monique. Everyone had made it back to Area 151 so we did not have to retrieve any outlanding pilots (a task that would have been difficult without cell phone coverage in the Tilton River valley). Back at Area 151 leftover burgers and hot dogs and some of the potluck goodies were available for lunch...or an early dinner. While the awards were being handed out for spot landing (Tom Johns won again, no surprise), I worked on breaking camp so we could leave by 1700 - that way we could make it to Covington Costco before the gas station closed at 1900. We made it with minutes to spare and were home before 1930.

At the awards we heard that a record number of keys had been sold – 70, and that around 80 people had paid the entry fee of $30 to support Dog Mountain. Maybe having Frostbite at Area 151 was a good thing for the purposes of fundraising; and it was good to add another new flying site to our list (two new sites for C.J.).