Lakeview August 8 - 16, 2007

C.J. and I are in Lakeview for our annual camping/flying get-together with Wally and Ginny. The camping part has been good with cooler than usual weather but the flying has either been blown-out (i.e., perfect for hang gliders like Wally, Roger, Dirk and Page Perrin - who was up from his lair at Hat Creek to do a gold Lilienthal award flight) or, like last night, almost calm and not soarable.

We've done some exploring since the flying has not been great. [The first three days there was some kind of international air force maneuvers and we were restricted form flying until after 1500. In fact, on Friday morning, F-16s screamed over our heads in camp several times - fast and low!] One day we drove west of town to Drews Gap and up toward Grizzly Pk to a new hang gliding ramp that Mark Webber and Mike Tingy built. It juts out over a cliff facing east and is secured with chains bolted to the clifftop and cliff face. It's definitely not for paragliders and I think many hang glider pilots would consider it pretty extreme. Ken Musio and Mike Tingy are the only ones to have flown it so far and they did not need to utilize the LZ near Cottonwood Lake, flying to Abert Lake and Lakeview, respectively. Sunday we drove down to Canby to see the progress that Debbie and Roger (debbie@strawfly.com) have made on their property and straw-bale home. It looks really good with the stucco on the outside and some new concrete windowledges. They have an 800 kilowatt bank of solar panels for the house and another rotating arrangement of panels for the well pump. For such a dry ridgetop, they have a great garden (two gardens, actually) with serious fencing with electric wiring to keep out the rodents. Yesterday we went out to the airport to see Jules Gilpatrick in his hangar. He's got a big rotary engine Howard and a towplane he calls an "ag wagon". He flew the Howard out to Oshkosh again this year.

Last night we drove up a road behind the Buck Creek Guard Station to a high point and hiked out about 0.6 mi to Wally's launch. The idea is that when you launch you are already across the Fandango Valley gap and can hope to get up in the glassoff and head N toward Lakeview. Unfortunately, we picked the wrong night because the wind pretty much died and we had barely-extended flydowns to the field below (owned by Ray Cloud, whom a neighbor assured us would have no problem with us landing there; the neighbor even invited us to hand in his field where he has mowed a perfect heart enclosing "B+E"). C.J. and Ginny accompanied us down to launch and had to hike back out to the car. Along the way Ginny lost her fleece jacket so we went back to look for it this morning - and found it! Then we went up Sugar hoping to get C.J. and Wally flights on their hang gliders. It looked good until the wind picked up around 1130 and canceled the flying. Later we tried Sweet-N-Low and were able to soar our paragliders, and Wally managed to get to 9200' at Sugar and cross the Fandango Gap as far as where the county road meets US 395 south of New Pine Creek. Shortly after I returned from Sugar (having climbed only to 6600 ft) the wind died down and the hang gliders watched Roger sink to the bailout. I toplanded on Sweet-N-Low; or rather sank out and stalled my wing in the last three feet. C.J. and Dirk broke down their gliders and we all drove down.

The last day we tried Sugar again but much earlier - still too strong and lots of cumulus we haven't seen this week until now. We had toasted ham and cheese sandwiches and veg-ed around camp until Ginny suggested we go in to town to check out Blackcap. We did, but it was way too south so we headed back to Sweet-N-Low once again. Dirk was already there and optimistic on the radio about conditions. By the time we got there I thought it was too strong for PG (although Wally was getting his PG gear ready). C.J. set up her Falcon and the wind got even stronger. It looked like we were skunked again. Wally gave up on the PG reluctantly and set up his U-2, and the wind moderated. Roger and Dirk launched; we helped C.J. get her glider out to launch where she had a great takeoff and ridge soared for a while before heading over to Sugar. Conditions had improved enough for me to launch and I got off pretty easily and crept slooowly over to Sugar climbing steadily. When I got to 7000 ft (launch at 5600), I had single-digit speed into the wind and didn't waste any time crabbing out to 395 in front of S&L and heading downwind over the back. Crabbing I was making 24 mph and turning straight N (lined up with the road to Buck Creek) I saw 33 mph on my GPS. Not a bit of lift so, after crossing the Lassen Creek canyon, I turned NW down FS 30 and glided out as far as I could, turned around and landed in no (!) wind. C.J. checked with me about wind speed and direction and chose to go out to the Sugar LZ. Meanwhile, the hang gliders had all gotten to 7500 or higher and flown across the gap, landing about the same time I did just north of New Pine. Ginny drove down and checked on C.J. then picked me up and dropped me at camp so I could get the Trooper and go retrieve C.J. while she went after Wally and crew. C.J. and I got back to camp with plenty of time to shower (in the dark) and heat up some more of Wally's Mexican spaghetti sauce for dinner. It was a great to end on a winner" for our Lakeview trip".

Thursday we got up around 0700 before the sun had a chance to heat up the tent and broke camp. We were out of Lassen Creek by 0845 and home almost exactly twelve hours later. We stopped at Picture Rock Pass between Summer Lake and Silver Lake to walk off the road to see the pictographs (petroglyphs?), in Bend at the Columbia Outlet, in Madras at the Dairy Queen, and for dinner in Yakima. Just outside of Madras there was a raging brush fire right alongside the road, and for the whole trip there was plenty of wind especially up near the OR-WA border. {C.J., Ginny and the bears}

Tables, Cabinets and R/C Gliders

I finished that bistro table for the porch and then the next issue of Wood magazine had the plans for matching stools. Actually, the kitchen stool worked okay and I cut down the legs of my old classroom stool for a second seat, but it would be nice to have the stools match the table. I made the first one with the only change being to attach the seat to the legs with screws from the bottom, instead of glue, so the seats are removable just like the top of the table. After finishing the first one, I pulled the metal linen closet out of the bathroom and started building a replacement. The carcase went together pretty easily except for having to "convince" the shelves into the dados. The outside was stained dark walnut, then varathaned and the inside painted white. Putting the face frame on was a little trickier because I had to get the face frame cross members lined up with the top surface of the shelves. I installed the completed carcase in the opening even with the back of trim boards around the opening. Then I built two doors out of a 6 ft x 2 ft glued up panel and some 1x2s. After staining and varathaning and finding the right hinges, I installed them flush with the trim and put on a couple of porcelain and chrome knobs. It certainly looks nicer than the old metal cabinet (which got moved out into the garage and is now being used to hold the unused freezer containers and such).

Meanwhile, I finally got together with Scobie Puchtler at Gas Works Park and used his trainer transmitter to try out his Swyft radio controlled glider. After getting a couple of hours of "stick time" I decided to go ahead and get one so went back to his shop and got the kit, the servos, a battery set and went over to Woodcraft and got CA (high-quality super glue). Clearly I did not know what I was getting into because it took me two days just to read the direction (on PDF). I got started in mid July and, when I left for Lakeview around Aug 7, I was on the last few directions out of 190 steps. So I hope to finish it up and get with Scobie for trim and first flight so I can be flying by my birthday - maybe not soaring, but at least launching, turning and landing.

Chelan XC Classic 2-7 July 2007

Chelan XC Classic 2-7 July 2007

7/4/07 Wednesday - After a reasonably early start, we spotted two paragliders descending from Granite Peak (Later we found out that it was most likely Steve and Teresa) as we drove up Snoqualmie Pass. We got to Chelan around noon and dropped off a bunch of camping gear at Tom and Lori's house before heading up the hill. We arrived early enough to help Brian Scott with launch director duties - it was a busy day with lots of free-flyers as well as the 40-odd competitors. Andrei, Irina and Chris got good flights north to Okanogan, Omak and north of Omak, respectively for almost 60 miles. Later, C.J. flew to the soccer field. We had dinner with the other guests at Tom and Lori's: Mike and April, Meet Dir. Darren Darsey (and his wife, Kari), Scorekeeper Paul Dees (gone home for a couple of days), Peter and Naomi (arrived later after Peter retrieved Naomi who had a 6.5 hr triangle flight but no radio contact); Conrad Kurp and Herta also ate with us. C.J. was able to get some work done using the wireless internet connection - or maybe nor since there were fireworks off in the distance at Manson.

7/5/07 Thursday - We got up at 0715 before the sun got too close to the tent which we had pitched in the backyard to take advantage of the shade of the house and headed up the hill around 1015. We were there for the pilot's meeting at 1100 and acted as launch directors until everyone had taken off. There was a smaller crowd today as many of the pilots who had been here yesterday had headed back to work. We got back to the house fairly early and figured out a dinner plan with Lori - the temperature had risen past 100 deg F and Lori wanted to avoid cooking inside the house so we went to Safeway and bought bratwurst, rolls/bread, chips and corn on the cob. Darren made a salad using jicama and we were set. I cooked the corn right on the barbecue grill along with the brats. Mike "went long" today -132 miles - so he and April did not make it back for dinner. We didn't need any blankets until early in the morning because of the heat.

7/6/07 Friday - Same schedule today as yesterday except that there was a picnic/BBQ at the soccer field in Chelan Falls organized by Trygg Hoff. C.J. helped make sure that it broke even by collecting $10 from everyone who got served (There was some confusion about whether the picnic was included in the entry fee - it wasn't.) The temperature dropped in the middle of the night and I had to pull the down comforter over us for a while.

7/7/07 Saturday - Today was the last day of the competition and James Thomson turned in a 100 mile paraglider flight to Reardon and Peter Gray had a personal best to the south of Spokane for 120 miles. Lori didn't get back with Tom (landed near Hartline?) and Peter until after midnight. Meanwhile, deciding not to fly after the competitors had all launched, we took a drive out to Field's Point, 25-Mile Creek State Park and then up many switchbacks to Slide Ridge for the view back to the Butte and down to the lake. We got back by 1930 to have leftovers from the picnic and from the last few dinners with Naomi, Paul and Darren (with Naomi’s margaritas!).

7/8/07 Sunday - We drove up early (0900) to try to get me a flight before the awards ceremony and dithered a bit between Lakeside, Sunnyside, Upper Lakeside and, finally, the back of Sunnyside (facing south). It was soarable and I climbed over the Butte in spotty and disorganized lift before heading north of the LZ to look down into the Chelan River canyon. I landed just before Aaron started his aerobatics over the field for about a 20 minute flight. After the awards ceremony (for which many of the winners were missing) we picked up our gear at Tom and Lori's and went back up so C.J. could fly. Unfortunately, there were so many dust devils around launch that it didn't appear to be a good idea to fly a paraglider. In fact, there was only one other pilot up there who was setting up a hang glider. I guess the competitors had had their fill of flying and Chelan heat. We bought some more cherries at Safeway and headed home beating the worst of the Sunday traffic.

Lakeview Paragliding Nationals June 24-30, 2007

June 24 – We got up early enough to drive Irina to Cantrall-Buckley campground to meet Arun who is going to give her a ride back to Issaquah. Andrei and Chris had already left for Lakeview right after the awards ceremony yesterday. After dropping Irina off, we returned to the yurt, packed up, cleaned up and stopped to thank Terri and Geoff. We gave them two gift cards for the three-diamond Porters restaurant. C.J. is going to make a t-shirt lap quilt for Barbara Summerhawk, owner of the yurt. Instead of taking the more direct SR 140, we took SR 66 from Ashland and wound slowly through the Siskiyous to Klamath and then on to Lakeview. It took at least four hours but was nicely scenic. The wind was strong all the way to Lakeview and we arrived just as the task was being canceled with only a very few people flying. We set up the tent at the fairgrounds and went into town to see Caro at the Chamber of Commerce who gave us a tour of the new bank in the old saloon/bordello across the street, and her latest project, a mural of hang gliders and paragliders on another bank building right on the main street. After a strawberry shake at Jerry’s we went back to HQ at the fairgrounds and scrounged some additional sleeping bags/blankets in anticipation of the frost warning that has been issued for tonight. Later we went to El Aguila Real for dinner with Chris, Andrei, Sam Crocker and Dave Wheeler. It seemed like it was the place to be for pilots and locals as well.

June 25 – There was frost on our chairs when I got up this morning but we were comfortable in the tent with our down comforter, blanket and fleece over flannel sheets. The first task of the Nats is to fly from Blackcap north along the ridge west of the Warner Range to Ennis Butte just short of Paisley, then to Sims Ranch and back to goal at Valley Falls. We drove up to launch with Alicia and somehow C.J. inspired me to fly even though I had not really been considering it. Conditions were light but I got a “wind tech” wristband from Karl Decker (predatorwings.com) and got as ready as I could without any fleece, camelback or warm gloves. After a few other wind techs had launched (including Alicia, Lori, and a guy flying a Gradient Bolid) I took off at 1227 and sank right down the face towards the LZ finally catching a thermal when it seemed too late. C.J., who had launched shortly after me, was below and did not get the lift I was in. I spiraled up over launch and to 7000 ft, moved north, sunk and climbed again to 8000. My plan was to fly to goal at Valley Falls without going to Ennis first. That was a pretty ambitious goal since my longest XC flight at Lakeview was only 3-4 miles. Still, I was moving north at around 28 kph and had reached 9000 ft at least once and the turbulence was pretty endurable. I crossed Hwy 140 and was now over lower relief topography. By the time I reached 13 km from BLA146 I was low and I decided to cross Hwy 395 where it turns east and goes down a canyon to the big valley below Palisades launch. Hitting no lift, I flew down the slope into the valley, crossed 395 again and landed into the wind to the north. (Lori landed a short distance north but I did not spot her). After packing up (outside of the fence of the field in the shade of the only tree around) I walked up the dirt road to the highway, refused a ride to goal from a couple of drivers and spent some time talking to a local couple who had come out to watch the gaggles flying north along the ridge leading to Ennis. After I landed I had no more contact with C.J. either on simplex or the 147.00+ repeater on Black Cap so I accepted a ride back to town with the Vietnam vet and his wife.

Some pilots were already back when I got to the fairgrounds and HQ but most would trickle in during the day and into the night and others decided to head home complaining about rough air (Dave Wheeler was already gone). We waited until Chris showed up and went to dinner at Jerry’s with Kyndel who had come closest to making goal; Sam Crocker and another pilot showed up, then Stefan and Meredith so we had a full table plus more pulled together. Meredith (with David Salmon) was among those who had a two hour hike out of wherever she landed. Andrei was even later – not back by the time we went to bed. Later he said it was like hiking through a Discovery Channel show.

June 26 – After cooking another batch of oatmeal in the frying pan we went to the 0830 meeting with Mark Webber to hear what he had to say about using ham radios (and grab a breakfast smoothie). Afterwards I helped a couple of pilots program in the repeater frequencies and tone. After saying goodbye to everyone, and thanking Gail, we broke camp and were out of Lakeview by 1000. The trip to North Bend took almost 12 hours because we stopped to shop at the outlet mall in Bend and bought gas (296.9/gal) in Yakima and had a Costco food court dinner. [We learned later that a task all the way to Frenchglen (145.3 km) had been flown that day.]

The Rat Race Paragliding Comp June 18-23, 2007

June 16 – We got started from the house around 0800 but had to turn back for my computer before we reached I-90. It took just about 8 hrs to get to the HQ where I signed in as a volunteer and attended a meeting and C.J. went to the mandatory pilots’ meeting. We had dinner at HQ then drove out to Humbug Creek with Diana Gerion (from Cali, Colombia) and found the yurt. Irina, Andrei and Chris had already arrived. Later Terri and Geoff stopped by; they had some food for Diana since they thought she had not eaten. Hawaiian "Rat Race" T-shirt -->

June 17 – After the pilots meeting we drove up to launch and I set up seven or eight packing boxes and fitted them with rocks for weight and plastic bags for garbage. Kristine, Arun’s girlfriend helped me. The task (Launch-Rabies-Launch-Burnt-WoodratPk- WoodratLZ-MuleLZ out near Applegate Dam) was relatively short and a large percent of the competitors made it. I collected all the garbage and stupidly put the bags in the back of the car. As a result, I had to wash out the rear area when I got back to HQ. We went out with Beth, Ernie, Irina, Andrei and Chris to Bella Union in Jacksonville for a good dinner. I hope they don’t send us a bill for the detached tabletop… Mike Haley -->

June 18 – The task was almost the same as the day before. Attended Len’s Mentoring session at 1800. Dinner at the Back Porch BBQ in Jacksonville was organized by the comp.

June 19 – Windy so the task was changed to a short downwind to Donatos from Burnt via Cemetery. It was too short – first finisher did it in less than 16 minutes. Since the nominal time was 1.5 hrs, the validity was low – 120 points instead of 1000. Other factors include 70 people in goal and few pilots down along the route. The meet official put on an “impromptu” barbecue at the goal. On the way there I took the wrong turn and ended up driving almost all the way up Andersons Butte so we got to the party late and had to eat hot dogs.

June 20 – Long task day first to the west almost to the yurt in Humbug Cr valley then back to Jacksonville Hill and other turnpoints finally to Donatos. Chris made goal on this day. C.J. went down after the Wellington turnpoint in the Applegate Valley and got a retrieve on the school bus. Dinner party at La Fiesta in Jacksonville was organized by the comp.

June 21 –The task was cancelled after most of the field had launched and some had re-launched. Light conditions at first kept the gaggles low, below and barely above launch. Then the wind speed increased abruptly especially in the valleys. Mike was getting input from pilots in the air, Len Szafaryn, for one and when he heard that the comp pilots could not reach the turnpoint on Rabies Ridge, he stopped the task. C.J. had tried to launch early but stumbled and backed off launch to watch the sometimes entertaining launches. After driving down we hung out at HQ until 6 p.m. when Rob Sporrer did a mentoring session. Then we went in to Jacksonville to gas up the Trooper using a Rat Race voucher. We had dinner back at Ruch at the Magnolia Grill where we ate on the patio and watched PG soaring above mid-launch – turned out to be Irina, Andrei and Chris. C.J. getting launch assist -->

June 22 – A long task to Donatos LZ followed by the Rat Race party. I missed a good bit of the party because I went up to fly from mid-launch with Julie and Gever Tulley at 1800. It was too windy so we and a bunch of others waited until 1930 before we launched into soarable conditions. It was windy from the W and I was making only 5 mph toward the LZ and 29-30 mph back towards the mountain. I got up about to the level of the upper launch and headed out to the LZ where the last 500 ft or so was turbulent with alternating lift and sink. I made a couple of circuits of the LZ gaining some and losing some, and had to core sink at the NE corner to get down. Gever called on the radio to say that the wind had turned catabatic and I set up over the lower LZ and landed toward the mountain. Later I got back to the party in time to see the amazing “Magic Mike” do phenomenal card tricks. C.J. and I gave Gever a ride back up to mid-launch to retrieve his vehicle.

June 23 – Last day of the Rat: A relatively short task to LZ-Jville-Poormans-Cemetery-Donatos. C.J. launched early and flew with the poorly organized gaggle until the wind picked up, then went out and landed in the LZ. I helped out on launch and then collected garbage, disassembled the boxes and drove it all down to HQ picking up David Salmon along Sterling Cr Rd on the way. Leaky garbage bags made the usual mess on the car; I washed it off later at the HQ. We’re off to Lakeview tomorrow where it is supposed to be windy and cold. At the awards ceremony this evening I caught some photos of the awardees then we went out to eat with Irina at the Magnolia (again). People were soaring after 2000 but we decided to go back to the yurt and get cleaned up and rested. First Place in Women's Division Kari Castle -->

Subbing and Groundbreaking for the Gym 4 June 2007

Up at 05:30 for a substitute teaching assignment for Amy in the fourth grade
at St. George, I was out of the house before seven o'clock. Chairs were set up under a sun/rain shelter near the flagpole for the guests who were attending the groundbreaking ceremony for the "miracle gym". Amy was a very big part of the planning and fundraising for the gym so she was going to be busy with the setting up of the ceremony and smoozing with the dignitaries and contributors, so I would be trying to keep her fourth grade students on track with their math and social studies. So we did some math and had recess and did some other stuff and by then it was time for the groundbreaking. Archbishop Brunnett, Bishop Tyson, Fr. Fellino, deacons, Knights of Columbus, and altar servers processed in between lines of older students wearing their sports champions t-shirts. The fourth grade, with help from older choir members had a couple of songs to sing. Mrs. O, the bishops, Amy, and a representative from the Shea family, the major contributor to the gym project, all made short speeches. The Archbishop blessed the grounds and two teams of nine each took ceremonial shovelfuls of dirt. The only downer was the rain which had held off all morning until the ceremony. Most of the guests were under shelter but the students were outside; the bishop finally had them all squeeze under the rain shelters. The groundbreaking was followed by a reception for the guests in the school hall while the students went back to their classrooms for lunch. In the afternoon, the fourth graders worked on their Washington State History "books" for literacy day. At the end of the day there was a ton of food left over from the reception and I took home some chicken satay skewers and some sandwiches.

Paddle to West Point 3 June 2007

Tired of staying home and building the bistro table (which I had just completed the day before) and digging the buttercup weeds out of the "lawn", I suggested that we do a little kayak day trip. Since the weather was supposed to be unstable with the chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, I picked something relatively close to home - West Point, which extends out from Discovery Park in Seattle. We drove along the waterfront where a cruise ship was loading passengers and across the Magnolia Bridge to Smith Cove Park but found that there was not an easy way to get down to water level (across boulders and then mud flats). We met another kayaker there. he had some other suggestions but I thought we'd try Commodore Park on the west end of the Ballard Locks on the south side of the Ship Canal. That worked well - parking, easy access to the water and no big openwater crossings to our destination. The only drawback was that the water level was way below what we had expected from our last trip on the Ship Canal. I must have read the tide table wrong, mixing up the A.M. and P.M., because I was expecting a high low tide but instead it was a minus tide. That also made the paddle past the mouth of the canal interesting because the sand bar on the south side extended far into bay and the mixed waves and wakes were breaking on the shallows. We gave that area a wide berth and stayed out farther than usual from the shore [Many of the places we have paddled have been along rocky cliffs where the depth drops off very quickly.] although we did paddle between some big boulders (glacial erratics?) in the water. There were lots of people walking on the beach and lots of motorboats, sailboats and some ships and barges out this Sunday. We paddled as far as the cliffs below the old sand dune HG launch at Discovery Park before turning back to have lunch on the north side of the point. By the time we had finished lunch, the tide had come up enough so that we could paddle across what had been sand just a couple of hours before. After getting the kayak out of the water and back up on the Outback, we stopped to tour Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center where we had a view down to part of the route where we had paddled (about 6 miles in total according the the GPS). There was also a nature trail with local plant species labeled with their uses by the native people.