Cloudstreet9

The Quike is rolling!

2009-05-16T11:26:00.003+10:00

Last year sometime I posted about a very unique bike owned by a very unique pair planning a VERY unique adventure. Megan and Roger from Melbourne are now underway on their 15 month adventure across the Himalayan steppe on the 'Quike' - a custom built side by side tandem mountain bike which looks weird but is an amazing piece of engineering designed purely to move two people at just the right pace across a spectacular part of the planet. Check out the progress and the Quike on their website

5%? Why bother...

2008-12-18T14:33:00.003+11:00

A friend of mine refers to Kevin Rudd as 'John Howard Lite'. I have to agree.

Australia is not a police state, yet.

2008-12-05T17:37:00.002+11:00

Have been doing other things while waiting (about 7 weeks now) for some flying weather to arrive. Please sign this petition which is an attempt to derail the current initiative to introduce internet censorship in Australia.

Hopefully spring will finish sometime before the New Year and we can start flying.

Shoulda, coulda

2008-11-09T19:17:00.002+11:00

From last Wednesday I was keen about Table Rock for today - very light southerly drift getting stronger further north, high base, cumulus all had me dreaming of drifing over Mudgee and flying on into the sunset. Reality really bites hard sometimes. So after and short flight and a long walk back up the hill, I ate my humble pie, climbed in the car and chased Andy and Kacper who had headed (slowly) north. They got to Lithgow and beyond in what was generally light headwind.

I think the forecast was spot on with decent cloudbase and the L&V wind. However in hindsight I think light and variable days are never going to be great for flying away from the Blue Mountains as they suck so much air in on a sunny day that you are always going to be punching a headwind to the W or NW. What will be interesting is to learn how much S or SE influence is required to overcome the mountain suck and if the amount required is more than we can launch in at Table Rock. I'd love to know what pilots in Forbes (200k further west) did today.

You are being watched

2008-10-25T13:24:00.004+11:00

Great day at Blackheath, the picture is by Kacper from a few weeks ago but gives you the idea - we got H-I-G-H!! 2900m ASL at launch in possibly the most consistent 5m/s climb I've ever experienced, cloudbase was a few hundred metres higher, exactly what XCSkies predicted. Headed NW towards Lithgow punching slight headwind, we had spoken about the possibility of crossing the mountains to Penrith, a flight that is yet to be done on a paraglider, I was keen and it was definitely the day for it but everybody just meandered off to the North. Of course I followed, bleating in their wake.

I landed with another pilot after flying through a world of sink and less than 20k from launch. The police came along after we had packed up and walked down the road a bit. They asked if in future we could avoid landing where we did as the guy who owns the land is quote "completely Jatz crackers" and he calls the police every time a hang glider lands on or near his property. The nice officer also told us that he (Jatz cracker land owner) also said "he told us he was watching you guys through a scope, but he didn't say what kind of scope"

Apparently it takes all kinds of people to make the world go round, even this kind.

Edit - for non-aussies, a 'Jatz cracker' is a type of biscuit which sometimes goes with cheese and dips. Can also be used as a colloquial term for a person who sometimes goes with a mug shot and hand cuffs.

Late start at Beechmont

2008-10-20T22:36:00.000+11:00

Today we got off Beechmont pretty late, launching at the tardy time of 9.55am. Apparently in December there are days where you can get away from launch at 7.30am and be crossing the Kerry valley not long after. Beechmont is a great site, but this also says something about the sanity of the Queensland government in not introducing daylight savings. There are all sorts of reasons why they don't do daylight savings, I've heard the fading curtains and cows producing less milk arguments but until now I had never heard the 'children will be killed if we have daylight savings' argument!!

I flew today with Brian Webb, Middy, Matt Senior and Grey Hamilton. It was a really fun day, wind was more to the NE than yesterday and base was much lower (1500m) but it was great fun to keep pushing on with those guys and just see how far we could get. There were a couple of lowish moments but we all got out to the range, Middy flew onto the range at Carr's lookout and continued on to land at Andrew's house in Killarney. I eventually got high enough to take a committing glide onto the range but chose to fly back and land as I wasn't feeling well. I didn't have coffee in the morning and I know that is a really bad thing for me. Well, at least at my current 'caffeine maintenance level' if don't have coffee I can tell you when it's about 1pm because I will start to get a splitting headache, which I did today, coupled with some nausea while turning in the last few thermals which is a new and exciting sensation for me.

I know I can solve this problem long term by drinking coffee less regularly, but I can also solve it immediately by just drinking coffee. Not a hard call :-)

CC08 Day 8 - Task 5

2008-10-19T23:56:00.003+11:00

Geoff climbing out from Beechmont, pic by Hamish

I had planned on not doing the comp task today and launching as early as possible with anyone else who was willing to try and do some long cross country. We decided to hang around and do the task when Enda said it would be a good XC day but not one where you could get away from Beechmont super early.

One of the big items on the the 'the things to do free-flying around Caunungra' checklist is to cross the Great Dividing Range. Today the task committee called exactly that with an 88Km race to a goal paddock Just over Cunninghams Gap and a turn point around Lake Moogerah. It was an almost perfect cross country flying day with all the right ingredients - nice cloud, light wind towards goal and a bunch of friends. Conditions were great all the way out to the lake where things got a bit slower and sinkier except for those who stayed well north of the course line. 35 people made goal including a couple pilots on 1/2 gliders and they don't go over the range very often from what I'm told.

Final scores are here Our team ('Election Fraud' - Geoff, Antje, Hamish, Dave Snowden and me) came second overall, woo hoo! Geoff was 5th overall/1st Serial, Dave was 9th and Hamish 2nd in the sports class after a hard battle with Lindsay Wooten on the last day and Antje was 2nd woman after Michelle. Electing to land on the rainy tasks didn't do me any favours on the scoring front but comp or not, flying in the rain is just playing with fire, well, and water, neither or which is good for paragliders. The next exciting episode will be seeing how the team selection ladder has been shaken after this comp is included. Stay tuned.

Thanks to Matt Rosser in particular for putting in a ton of effort to organise the comp. Looking forward to Killarney already!

CC08 Day 7 - Task 4

2008-10-17T22:43:00.004+11:00

Photo taken over launch by Hamish Barker

We flew from Beechmont today under a very cloudy sky though conditions looked much better to the west which often seems to be the case on these moist days from Beechmont.

A 57Km task to Boonah goal was called and for me it was a carbon copy of Task 2 - launch, struggle around the hill for 45min, get rained on, head out to land. Perhaps I need to grow bigger balls to fly in comps because I just can't seem to sit with the idea that it's OK to fly an aircraft made of porous fabric in the rain. I chose to land not so much because I was already getting rained on at launch but because there was much worse looking weather nearby (towards the gold coast). About 9 got to goal. Much of the field flew through heavy rain along the course line with a few reports of parachutal experiences. Somehow most people were OK with that and I heard from several pilots comments along the lines of "Oh I couldn't fly out of the rain because that was the only place there was any lift". Enough said.

Several big names didn't get to goal, Fred, Craig C, Brian Webb so the comp results will be mixed up after today's task. Also the aussie team selection ladder for the worlds will be shaken up quite a bit as several pilots in the top 10 have said they won't be going to Mexico if selected.

Tomorrow is actually shaping up to be a good day for open distance, it's possible to launch at 8.30am and get away from Beechmont so a few pilots who aren't so concerned about a comp result are going to try for some big XC.

CC08 Day 6

2008-10-16T22:39:00.001+11:00

Howling wind today so stuff other than flying happened. Here is a video that Dave Snowden made on Task 3.

CC08 Day 5

2008-10-15T22:29:00.000+11:00

Windy pre-frontal today so no flying. Pool comp night at the pub was a hit!

CC08 Day 4 - Task 3

2008-10-14T18:10:00.001+11:00

First gaggle away from launch with Trelawney front and centre. Thanks again to Hamish for the great pics.

The forecast for today was as poor as the last few but again it was
wrong, fortunately even more wrong than the first two tasks.

We had a 57Km task from Mt Tambourine to Maroon goal via one
turnpoint. Conditions were very light around launch so it took some time to get the whole field off the hill. Antje hung around the ridge just a little too long and was not quite able to glide out to the Cat Motel. Antje made it to a small backyard next to a dragon fruit plantation but both looked bad so she took the safer option of a small tree. The excitement was reported on the local TV news including that Antje was 'found' by the land owners jack russel named Ozzie, not true but it makes a warm fuzzy story for the Tuesday evening news :-) Antje was fine but the wing took a small beating. Some pictures from launch and Antje's glider being mercilessly yanked out of the tree can be found here.

A north east wind on course made the run to the turnpoint fast for those who managed to stay high, and for those who didn't it was an exercise in patience. Base was around 1500m but below 1000m the climbs were broken and about as organised as an explosion in a cat food factory. About half the field made the turnpoint and glided off on a strong crosswind leg towards goal but most didn't survive the glide away from the turnpoint as the sea breeze moved in. 6 were in goal, Fred, Middy then Craig with Ron Mackenzie sliding in fourth less than a minute behind. Day results are here and the scores for the whole comp are now online.

CC08 Day 3 - Task 2

2008-10-13T23:55:00.001+11:00

XC Skies predicted a cloud base of around 600m and top of usable lift at around 300m today, the Queensland RASP actually confirmed this so we were less than optimistic.

Johnny Durand played wind dummy on Beechmont and managed to stay up (as he does) so a 50Km elapsed time task was set under a very low, 80% cloudy sky. Some small gaggles dribbled across the plateau only a couple hundred metres above launch while the majority of the field ridge soared around, searching for anything. Much of the field crossed the plateau and landed in the Flying Fox valley. I was around launch with about 20 others when it started to rain quite heavily. I made what I thought was a brilliant strategic decision to land, ride back up in the bus while the sky cleared and then re-fly in lovely afternoon conditions, surfing cloudstreets all the way to goal. Hmmm.

When we got back conditions were nicely launchable on Beechmont so I re-flew, got whacked around a bit then parking into a very strong NE sea breeze and then landed over the back. About 10 other pilots on launch wisely decided not to re-fly. Several pilots made goal and it turns out almost every pilot got rained on somewhere on course. Richard Costa was first with Brian Webb and Matt Senior following up.

Another picture courtesy of Hamish head.

CC08 Day 2 - Task 1

2008-10-12T18:44:00.001+11:00

Despite a complete blanket of low level cloud, we headed to the Beechmont launch and had a social morning. When it started raining there was a rush on Alistair's coffee van as nobody was worrying about needing an in-flight pee. The day was cancelled at 11.30, more free goodies from Mr Coffee were consumed and then the day was un-cancelled about 10 minutes later.

We moved to the Hinchcliffe launch where conditions were light/soarable/not raining and a 38Km task was called. People dribbled away from launch in small groups with most not getting more than a couple hundred metre's above launch. Nobody got to goal but Craig Collings got within a few kilometres and locals Jason Turner and Dave Gibbs were just behind. The day was good in that it really showed what you can do on a day that almost everybody had written off at 9am.

Also Hamish got to test his head gear, the picture above says it works ok!

Canungra Cup Day 1

2008-10-11T18:33:00.005+11:00

The first day of the comp was rained out so we went on a shopping expedition. Geoff, Antje, Hamish and I are sharing a house in a beautiful spot on Mt Tambourine. I wanted to post a picture of the view but the house is above cloud base today so maybe later in the week. Instead here is a picture of Hamish and his new helmet camera mount he which he hacked up himself. Despite what it looks like, Hamish is not drinking his own brain (though Trelawney wonders), the tube actally activates a pressure switch which fires the camera.

Hamish has so far dismissed the most obvious suggestion of turning it into a dual camera/beer helmet.

Not very amusing

2008-09-27T17:53:00.004+10:00

This cartoon was in the Willamette Week right before I left Portland. Some Scary stuff happening in the US right now.

Centre of the universe

2008-09-09T06:28:00.001+10:00

I was talking to a guy in Portland and told him in conversation that I was going to Yosemite and saying goodbye he told me to enjoy my trip to the centre of the universe. I think he's right. Katje and I spent a few days around San Francisco and then headed out to Yosemite for 4 nights camping in Wawona. We didn't over exert ourselves, choosing to just relax around the river in Wawona which is a beautiful spot in the southern area of the park. Some pics below from a morning we went to Glacier Point pre-sunrise and a return to the enormous trees I saw here last year. They're just a tiny bit bigger now :-)

Have a look at the picture of the tree with the fire-scar in it - it's called 'The Clothespin Tree'. You can walk through the middle of the tree which is still very much alive and probably will be for many hundreds of years. The almost invisible figure at the bottom of the tree is Katje and you are seeing much less than half the tree in the photo. There isn't any way to describe how big these trees are.

Jon Stewart for Pres

2008-09-03T06:32:00.001+10:00

This is hilarious, until you think about it and realise that these talking heads are the people supported by half the voting population of the worlds most powerful country...

Cliffside

2008-08-15T10:48:00.000+10:00

Brett took me out to fly a site up the Columbia river, past Mt Hood. The picture is looking back towards Mt Hood to the west. Really dry, hot day with rough climbs not getting us very high. It was good 'get in touch with your glider' air :-) Brett flew about 25Km XC.

I want to ride my bicycle

2008-08-13T05:40:00.002+10:00

Portland is possibly the most bike friendly city on the planet. To that end I did what locals do and headed straight to craigslist to find myself a shiny but no so new machine - $60 landed me a neat, 3-speed, coaster brake ultra simple step-thru straight out of the early 70's. Yeah so it's 'girls' bike, that doesn't make it less fun!

It's fantastic to ride around a city where motorists are actually courteous to cyclists and riders are seen as a positive part of the solution to a very big problem. A world away from Sydney where a person on a bicycle is simply considered an annoyance at best or a target at worst.

The day after yesterday

2008-08-03T14:33:00.001+10:00

Today's forecast was for a slightly higher base and even less wind than yesterday. We all got excited about it, I was aiming for a 100K out and return but not long into the first climb I realised I was kidding myself. The day was definitely as good or better than yesterday, the air was sporty and I was so tired I was reacting to almost nothing. If you know Gary from Team America when he is 'making the signal', I felt pretty much like that.

I took a glide across the river and back to the nice green soccer fields. Lesson of the day, don't be too greedy. Or if you do plan on flying the day after a 7 hour flap, drink as much water as you can handle the night before and go to bed for 10 hours.

Chelan Open Day 6, Task 3

2008-08-02T22:26:00.000+10:00

Well today was as forecast, absolutely astounding. The task committee (Josh Cohn, Keith Macullough, Eric Reed and Brian Webb) did a great job setting a 118Km triangle starting and finishing at the Chelan soccer fields.

A bit of a sink cycle about 10 minutes before the start had much of the field a few hundred metres below base but the glide across the Columbia to the SE is a bit shorter so almost everyone made it across and climbed immediately to 2800m. The clouds out in the flats were excellent and dust devils were going off in every direction, it was a race day for sure. Getting around the first turnpoint and the first half of the leg to Leahy (2nd point) was the fastest part of the day for me. The gaggle I was flying with dispersed and the clouds left us about 15Km from Leahy making that leg very slow. It was after 4.30pm by the time we got the Leahy turnpoint and while the flats will work til sunset the day was definitely slowing down. Regrouped at with Cherie Silvera, Dave Wheeler and a couple other pilots and we spent an hour turning in 1 m/s up or less and slowly pushing towards goal. At about 6pm we glided above a dusty which eventually got us back to 3200m and home with one more top-up on the way. The final glide was fairly tense - even with a 5:1 glide to goal 8Km out you still don't have a visual on it because of the high canyon edge on the Columbia river. Concerned, I grabbed aother 100m in a light climb about 6km out and then flew through lift all the way to goal. Course time was 6 hours and a few seconds for about 7.5 hours total. Over half the field (44 pilots) got to goal - the Chelan regulars said this was a pretty good day, but not the absolute best Chelan can turn on. Wow.

Might flight is here, final results are here.

Tomorrow looks even better than today.

Chelan Open Day 5 and a half

2008-08-01T17:32:00.000+10:00

The weather tomorrrow is looking EPIC - light and variable with top of lift just over 10,000ft so stay tuned for reports of an amazing task tomorrow :-)

Chris Galli is here at the comp, one of the founders of the XC Skies weather forecasting service, if you haven't seen it, check out www.xcskies.com - pretty amazing tool he and a couple others have put together.

Chelan Open Day 5

2008-08-01T10:50:00.004+10:00

It seems we are alternating, windy and flying days, today is windy.

We are camped out at Chelan airport, it's a reasonable tarmac strip with mostly single engine aircraft but a couple twins flying in and out each day. The airport is up on a plateau above the river and there is a steep ridge at the south end of the runway which is soarable and is actually a free-flying site.

On Wednesday night conditions were perfect and a few pilots had a go at it. You might think soaring in the climb-out path of an active runway a little too adventurous but it appears to be no problem. The Cessna I watched climb out had at least 50 metres clearance above them.

Chelan Open Day 4, Task 2

2008-07-31T22:52:00.001+10:00

The launch at Chelan is on the western side of the enormous Columbia river, and the hardest part of most flying days here is crossing the river valley and getting into the flat lands. With southerly wind forecast, oday's task was called as a 70Km race directly up the river to Okanogan in the North and debate raged around one question, to cross or not to cross? Fly the west side of the river in the hills or cross immediately to the flats and get a straighter downwind run at goal? Much talk of how the hills never worked, the early wind techs not getting great height and dusties showing all over the flats combined to make up my mind - cross early and fly the flats.

If you want a succinct and intelligent breakdown of the whole task, I recommend heading over to Brian's blog now. However if you want an excruciating blow by blow description of the first 10Km, by all means read on. Sorry, need to do this for me as much as you ;-)

The majority of the field formed a large gaggle around 2100m a few minutes before the start (the same height we comfortably crossed on Monday) and most pushed to the upwind side of the start gate preparing to cross the river. Then something happened. The race started and a group of about 15 gliders directly upwind from me began to cross, I turned and began to cross the river and a few moments later looked over my shoulder to see the remainder of the field flying directly north to try the west side of the river. I was already downwind of the crossing group and likely to be further downwind, and alone, by the time I crossed, I watched Brian zig and zag working out which way to go and a few moments of indecision later I turned left and went for safety in numbers.

There wasn't any major sink on the first glide but we were flying onto higher terrain so not a huge amount of height to play with. I joined a few gliders climbing away from the main gaggle in what looked to be a much better climb. There was plenty of lift around but it was more a case of averaging out the general area. Back at 1650m I had hunted around for several turns in zero and less when I saw the lead gaggle a short glide downwind and climbing well. I glided in under them, found nothing, flew to a smaller group of pilots circling nearby, found nothing. Even 100m off the valley floor I wasn't overly worried as I'd managed to fly onto a rocky, sun-baked windward facing bowl - the kind of place where you would think the laws of thermodynamics shouldn't actually allow air to go down on a sunny day. Apparently they do.

In the end, half the field of 82 pilots got to goal, including all the pilots I was with in the climb I left to chase the lead gaggle. Brian was in that climb and said it eventually got them to 2300m, slow but it got there. I was happy with all of the decisions I made during the flight, but obviously leaving that climb was what broke the day for me.

The lesson for me was to get established on course before you start racing. Zeroing at 1650m about 1100m terrain doesn't count as established, not enough to go chasing the lead gaggle, especially when they are less than half a glide ahead. Also I should have been positioned better at the start, I wasn't focusing as well as I could have been in the 10 minutes before start which is when the decision should have been made on which route to take.

Results are here

Friday looks like another windy day.

Chelan Open Day 2

2008-07-30T13:54:00.000+10:00

Only our captain America could fly today...

Chelan Open Day 1, Task 1

2008-07-28T21:31:00.003+10:00

What a learning experience today! We had a 58Km task with a 48Km leg fighting a strong crosswind from the south. Have a look at my saw-tooth tracklog:

The batteries on my new vario went flat about 10Km into the task with no spare so I was flying off the gps altitude only. My fault, I know much better than to turn up to a comp with an instrument that I have previously turned on only once and tested exactly never. It was actually nice to go back to basics and feel out the lift and I had a lot of fun toying with myself in the crosswind - climb high or leave and push back to the course line? In the end some high cirrus drifted over and slowed the climbs down to make the task very tricky for pilots who were behind the leaders and downwind of the course line.

Looking back at my tracklog was a good exercise though - you can see that all the climbs were drifting directly north once we reached the plateau and it was hard work going crosswind like that, but in my last climb the wind hand changed 45 degrees to the south west. I didn't notice this at all during that climb as I think deep down I had convinced myself it wasn't going to be possible to get to the SIMS turnpoint anyway. In hindsight I could have taken a more easterly track on my last glide had I realised how much the drift had changed, covered more ground and maybe got back up. That's one of the great things about comps, after the fact you can always see where you went wrong, what worked for other pilots then go forth and emulate!

Results at www.chelanxcopen.com/results.htm

Portland to Chelan

2008-07-26T19:23:00.001+10:00

Brett Hardin, Doug Mullin and I traveled to Chelan together in Brett's ute. Brett has some back issues so sitting isn't very comfortable. He worked out a novel way of making the 7 hour drive :-)

USA bound

2008-07-18T06:06:00.001+10:00

Landed in the US to spend about 10 weeks over here in Portland with Katje. I've been here 4 times in the last 2 years and always the same question going through customs when they ask how long you'll be in the country, if you say anything more than 2 weeks you get "How can you afford to spend so much time away from work?" They don't ask about being away from home or away from family or away from your dog but away from work, because that's what life is all about right? I'm tempted to tell them I'm here for 12 hours and have to rush back to Oz but no doubt that would end with me stuck in a small room with a sinking feeling and latex-gloved customs official.

Ability

2008-06-25T17:19:00.002+10:00

There is something wrong in a world where a person like this is labeled as having a disability...

It's why they're called the Blue Mountains...

2008-05-28T15:02:00.003+10:00

There was HEAPS of people flying a Blackheath on Sunday, quite the following out there now. I set up to fly but conditions on launch were pretty sporty and I was half asleep from the long drive back from Melbourne so I decided to sit out. Here's a picture of Kacper landing, as you can see, conditions were perfect...

Fake rolex and spice and everything nice

2008-04-19T15:11:00.002+10:00

I spent all day everyday in the office so I didn't get to see a whole lot of Dubai though I did escape one evening to go to the old part of the city and wander around the souks. Traders have been in this area for hundreds of years and while the souks are labelled 'tourist attraction', the shifting of goods is still their business which means you end up with a very eclectic range of goods for sale. The different traders are generally grouped together so you can play them off with each other - textile traders are all in the 'silk souk', there's the gold souk, the spice souk, the perfume souk, the 'hey mister you want a fake rolex' souk and the chinese made plastic remote control toy souk. It's all there.

One of the things I love about traveling is finding quirky little gems that you would never come across at home, here is a picture of #246 on the list of things you will never see for sale in Australia:

No your eyes are not deceived, that is actually a giant sack of dehydrated prawns. It is sitting at the front of a spice traders shop, outside where the temperature is hitting mid to high 30's every day. Though in his defence, this is the cooler less humid part of the year, I assume the prawns are taken inside or not for sale in August when the temperature is hitting the high 50 degrees with 90% humidity. Hmmm...

I've had this thing nagging at me the whole time I've been in Dubai, it's a question
nobody has been able to answer, even the people actively involved in creating this crazy place. It's this: By 2015, there will be enough residential accommodation in Dubai for over 3 million people plus the equivalent commercial space. Dubai's population is currently 1.4 million, 250,000 of which are imported Indian and Pakistani labourers who are certainly not going to be buying new houses and settling here when it's all finished. Where are all the people coming from? Maybe they're all waiting for their house on a palm frond to be finished before the sell up and hop a plane to their island paradise. The rumours are anything from the Russian mafia diversifying to rich folks in third world countries creating a fail-safe if/when their own countries become a little too politically awkward. Whatever it is, the fact that they have designs on tripling the population in the next 7 years is probably the least weird thing about Dubai.

My palm is bigger than your palm

2008-04-15T03:03:00.006+10:00

I flew into Dubai and landed at what will become the worlds biggest airport, had the worlds biggest cup of coffee and got into a taxi which took me along a freeway through the worlds biggest construction zone. The office is right near the Palm Jumeirah which in September last year became the worlds biggest man made island.

It held the title for a pitifully short time - it's already been eclipsed in size by the Palm Jebel Ali a few km's to the west which in turn will lose it's title to the Palm Deira just to the east. When completed in 2010, the Palm Deira will be 8 times the size of the Palm Jumeirah. Oh and I forgot to mention 'The World Islands' on which construction has just begun - this will be an archepeliago of 150+ islands in between the Palms Jumeirah and Deira formed in the shape of, wait for it, you'll never guess...the world.

The surreal Burj Al Arab is the world's only '7 star' hotel (actually there is no such thing as 7 stars, the industry chooses to call it that and the hotel choose not to say otherwise), the worlds richest horse race is in Dubai, the worlds largest indoor ski slope (though a newer, bigger one is currently being built) and not to be outdone on any front, just last month Dubai broke the record for the worlds biggest car crash involving more than 300 vehicles.

Family Bike Ride

2008-04-06T20:43:00.003+10:00

Broke in the new bike today on the standard blast around Manly Dam in Sydney's northern burbs. I haven't done the ride since before my old bike was stolen so it was great to get out there on what Kacper appropriately calls the Family Bike Ride.

I christened the bike properly just as we were coming towards the end of the loop when I came across a small lady with a very large dog standing right in the riding line at that part of the track. I popped over a rock to get around her and saw, just as I hit the point of no return, the muddy hole that my front wheel was about to rest in and the piece of track my face was about to rest on as I went over the bars. She was very apologetic but didn't offer any practical assistance such as taking the bike off my head. Glad I bought the lighter one.

Heading to Dubai on Wednesday for 8 days work then continuing on for a quick lap through the US and back to Sydney on May 7th.

Table Rock

2008-04-05T19:05:00.001+11:00

Went to a site called Table Rock on the western side of the Blue Mountains. I haven't flown there but Kacper and the other kids have been going out there pretty regularly. The site has great potential for XC flying and you probably want to get away from it as the landing is pretty average - the place is just rolling hills so everything is in rotor plus a spider web of power lines. Thanks to Andy for picking Michael and I up from the least shitty landing paddock (read: only one I could find with no power lines running directly across the preffered approach).

The Quike

2008-03-30T22:45:00.001+11:00

I went to Melbourne for the weekend and stayed with Hamish, the bike store down the road had 20% off all the bikes they had on the floor so after 4 months of procrastination I couldn't reasonably hold off any longer. I felt pretty comfortable on this one but it's not quite what I ended up buying, apparently this model is pretty hard to get parts for:

On Saturday night a bunch of us went into the city to see Mark Watson as part of the comedy festival, having a drink in Federation Square before the show we came across this:

Check out Roger and Megans website at www.steppebysteppe.com.au - what an awesome adventure they are going to have!

Also at Easter

2008-03-25T23:25:00.000+11:00

Easter in Manilla...or was that Bright? Or Manilla....

2008-03-24T20:43:00.004+11:00

Finally decided to go to Bright for Easter, but not before 5 or 6 reversals between going north or south and silently declaring I was never going to try and forecast the weather again - I was leaning towards Bright at the time so there I went.
On Friday we headed out of Bright to fly at The Pines. There was an interesting mix of air out there - with a strong SE forecast we were surprised to arrive at launch and find absolute calm. After launching we even had a slight tailwind heading towards Bright at times which got us all excited about flying home. Staying up on the flats in front of the launch was easy with some BIG dusties kicking off now and then but every time we left the 5x5 Km square in front of launch it was into a whole world of sink. We still flew for a couple hours and in reality it would have been soarable hours before we launched had we faffed less.

Pic of me by Michael Roelens, looking towards Mt Buffalo

Saturday was a stunning day in Bright, I've somehow done more flying in Bright this season than anywhere else and this was the best day all summer. Climbs were a bit slow down low but above about 1200m it was game on. Nice Cu which filled in throughout the day and strong consistent climbs - I had the vario pegged out a couple of times :-)

Antje enroute to the Big Shed

At Easter the Skyhigh club from Melbourne run a similar gig to the State of Origin in Manilla where a group of pilots with lower airtime team up with pilot with somewhat more airtime and try to fly around. I had my own group of fledglings in Lauren, Jenny, Jim and Ilin, although Ilin doesn't count as he's a gun now! It was great just flying around the valley as there were loads of sailplanes around towing out of Porepunkah. The sailplanes are fun to thermal with but they never seem to climb for long, on a day like today I'd guess they get one decent climb to somewhere near cloudbase and then spend the rest of the day flying the ridges and averaging out the whole sky.

We took our own apple harvesting machine to Kamp Krusty...

On Sunday and Monday we flew some tandems with Antje's housemates who came up from Melbourne for the occasion. Geoff and I did a couple rounds, they weren't long flights but I'm really enjoying flying the tandem.

Weekend Warrioring

2008-03-10T21:51:00.002+11:00

Checked the forecast on Thursday, out of habit really and noticed that it was looking about as good as it gets for Manilla. Having been away the previous week nobody was really keen to do the drive and there was talk of flying the Hunter Valley, 2.5 hrs closer than Manilla so I couldn't convince anyone. I drove myself as I was too late to get a ride with another car load and couldn't convince anyone else to come up and certainly couldn't convince myself to stay at home. Saturday had very weird cloud early on and nicer cloud after about 1pm, got to 2300m then glided into the dirt in less than 10Km. Oops.

Sunday looked as classic as any day I've ever flown in Manilla. 15-20k tail wind, perfect Cu from horizon to horizon. I climbed out to 2300m with JJ and Shep and we headed west. 15Km out I'd picked the paddock I was going to be landing in right behind Shep when I saw his glider pitch back and he screamed away. I flew in under him, about 50m off the deck before I got the climb...and we were away. Again. The sky was saying 5m/s climbs everywhere - we hardly found anything more than 2m/s and usually fluctuating between that and zero. Very frustrating. I got to Narrabri and pushed it past 90km in 4 hours and then had to leave the best climb I'd found all day to spiral down and land as JJ had already gone out of his way to retrieve me. It was easily on for Wee Waa (130km) and if I didn't have to be back in Sydney I'd have thanked JJ and sent him on his way. But looking at gliding down the train line west of Narrabri at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon with no retrieve was a very lonely prospect.

Thanks for the ride JJ!

Photo is the sunset on the way home as I managed to forgot to fly with my camera both days... :-(

Bright 321 Comp - Day 6

2008-02-28T09:00:00.000+11:00

No flying yesterday, looking windy today. The nights have been absolutely freezing and the alpine forecast is calling for snow tonight on the mountains. Gav might get to use his speed wing as it's makers intended!

Here I am using the competition rules to my advantage.

Check out Brett's page as all this non-flying spare time has me so busy I just don't have time to blog...

Bright 321 Comp - Day 4

2008-02-26T23:39:00.001+11:00

Gavin, the crazy little bugger, flying his speed wing off the hill after the task was finally cancelled due to strong wind. Aparently the users manual for the speed wing starts off something like 'don't ever, ever fly this thing unless you are on a steep, snow covered mountain with skis attached firmly to your legs...'

Bright 321 Comp - Day 2

2008-02-24T22:32:00.004+11:00

Lloyd was kind enough to take us gold panning in Morses creek today and show us a few tricks. He knows quite a bit about finding gold. And catching deadly snakes with his bare hands.

Manilla - Bailing Out

2008-01-20T23:17:00.004+11:00

Bad pun indeed. So my Manilla adventures have ended for a little while with extraordinarily bad weather conditions. Monday might have been 'the one that got away' but that was the only possibility for a big flight all week. Next time...

A few pics from Manilla and surrounds.

Manilla Day 9 - Always flying somewhere

2008-01-19T14:38:00.000+11:00

I hear they've been flying in the rain in Queensland, and it's been pretty windy down in Bright with a few good days squeezed in, Brett had a good flight on Thursday and Heike was attacked (repeatedly and for several minutes) by an Eagle. Not a fun encounter at all but it reminded me, on Tuesday's flight, I thought I was going to get rolled by an Eagle for the very first time. James and I were thermalling over the NE launch on Borah with two wedgies, I was watching one above and to my left and at one point he tucked in his wings and dove towards me but he pulled away at the last moment without contact. I actually felt pretty excited about the idea, though I'm sure my sentiment would have changed the first time he hit me. If not definitely by the tenth time he hit me I'd be getting mildly agitated.

This morning James and I were standing outside (it stopped raining for a few minutes) an there was a steady north-easter and we remarked how nice it would be to just go up for a bit of ridge-soaring. Then it started raining again.

Headed home tomorrow.

Manilla Day 7

2008-01-18T21:21:00.000+11:00

Today I went into Tamworth and got into a whip fight. These things happen in the bush and I guess you just do what you can at the time. What’s a whip fight? Well, a fist fight is a fight using fists and a knife fight is a fight using knives and a whip fight is…well you do the math. Imagine it like ye olde English duelling days, but without the 10 paces, pistols at dawn, “By jove I say” and poncy cravats. Whip fighting is a down the line no messing around argument settler if ever there was one. You put on a drizabone, pick up your stock whip, put your useless non-whipping hand in the pocket of your drizabone, tell your blue heeler called Bluey to ‘get in behind’ (if you have one and that’s what he’s called, and ideally you do and he is) and then you proceed to lash the guy standing in front of you about the head. It’s a fair and decisive way to solve those pesky disagreements in the pub such as deciding once and for all if Ford really is better than Holden but I think it has potential to go much further. In fact, I’m sure John Howard had something in the back of his mind when he made all the delegates of the APEC summit pose with Drizabone’s on – namely winning another term, setting up a whip fighting arena in parliament house, handing over the leadership and then enjoying retirement watching PM “Lightning wrist” Costello and Kevin “Super Crack” Rudd settle their disputes like real Aussie blokes.

Manilla Day 6 - You are what you eat

2008-01-17T15:14:00.000+11:00

I just ate a muesli bar. Really this is a noteworthy event as I have some very nice museli bars. Some time ago my friend Dom recommended them to me as an alternative to just about everything else on the market, so I keep buying them. They're called AO bars which the packaging tells me stands for 'Adults Only' and all my social conditioning tells me that means they must be good. The problem is, I never seem to eat them. There is 6 bars in a box and and if I've bought 10 boxes in the last 2 years flying then I'm sure I've eaten no more than 1 box worth. They do get used for various purposes, some are thrown in cockpit for that ‘one day’ when I might actually eat something in flight, a few go in with my lunch, these tend to get cycled out of the lunch bag at the end of one day and back in the next meaning one or two muesli bars are clocking up some airtime, a few get left behind in whatever car took me to launch and I’m sure a possum once took one away from me in Bright, they just don’t get eaten, at least not by me. On the box there is a cashew and almond model (for the bars made of cashews and almonds, of course…) striking a salacious pose and the assurance that the bar contains ‘100% unadulterated taste’. So imagine how much I was looking forward to finally savouring one of these pre-packed delights. Unfortunately what this all seems to mean – the sexy fruit figurine, the AO label, the price tag – is that you end up with a muesli bar, minus all the fun. The French have the philosophy worked out perfectly with snails - simply a vehicle to deliver an artery clogging amount of garlic and butter to your body as quickly as possible, likewise a muesli bar is not about eating muesli and nuts but getting sugar and low quality chocolate straight to your stomach in the guise of a healthy snack. I think I’ll go buy some jelly snakes to fly with.

If you couldn’t tell, it’s still raining.

Manilla Day 5

2008-01-17T00:05:00.000+11:00

Today the rain came. Bob and James (in picture) both flew around for a bit before squeezing around the mountain back to the farm and landing a few minutes before the rain started. I pranced around on the west launch for a while, kiting the glider and messing around, but with rain approaching from every visible direction, I thought of Ewa and put it back in the bag.

Manilla Day 4

2008-01-15T23:43:00.001+11:00

The wind was forecast to be lighter today so James and I were leaning towards doing a triangle. While my main goal is to fly a big open distance flight, triangles do have some very positive aspects. For example, if you attempt an open distance flight and you are even remotely successful, you will be landing a very long retrieve away from home. You fly a 100km triangle, you've had a great flight and you get to land in a nice grassy paddock with cold beer a few steps away...most would say the decision is easy.

However, as soon as we arrived on the NE launch we knew it wasn't to be a triangle day. A solid ENE wind was blowing and we went up and down on the NE side of the mountain for about an hour. There were clouds to the south of us and a line running out to The Gap so James suggested we fly south to Baldwin and try to connect with them. It was the best idea all day, James led, Oli Blonske and I followed and promptly got flushed. James got low near Baldwin but scraped enough height to get back to Borah. The sky blew up in the afternoon making for an amazing sunset.

Manilla Day 3

2008-01-14T22:53:00.000+11:00

Had a wicked storm last night which blew my towel away, probably into the paddock where it has been thoroughly devoured by Godfrey's 8 goats. It seems the amazing lightning show off in the distance late in the evening moved a lot closer by about 1am. My radio and battery charger were out on the blacony and were sitting in a puddle when I found them in the morning. The battery charger exploded but the radio was fine, I fared better than James who after the excitement of the Weekend Warrior Weekend left his GPS and 5020 out in the storm...we are yet to find out if they lived.

Today shaped up as a classic Manilla XC day, some instability, some clouds and moderate SE winds had me imagining landing at sunset somewhere far away. It was windy on the hill and difficult to drift with some of the lighter climbs, but after half an hour of yo-yoing above launch, I hit 22oom and and headed towards Narrabri with Andrew Polidano flying his tandem a short distance behind. The drift away from launch was SE and ground speed was up to 60Km/h hand up so all was looking good for a long one. Clouds were forming around Mt Kaputar and further north but not accessible to us until we got much closer to Narrabri. It was relatively easy to stay high but it would have been much nicer to have a few clouds in our area. Andrew landed after about 20Km and I continued on flying north of the Boggabri gap and into the flat lands where I hoped I could speed up a bit. I left the last of the hills at 200om and lined up a row of nice brown paddocks about 10km long. I flew the entire length and only heard my sink alarm turn off once. I landed in a stubble field with zero groundspeed into wind as I descended, 50km from Borah. The wind was much further south after I hit the flats and I later heard that the Japanese all ended up flying north to the Horton valley after the wind becames southerly on launch, a much better direction. I ended up with the easiest retrieve imaginable from probably one of the most remote places I've ever landed around here, the farmer whose property I landed on drove me half way back to Manilla and then just as he was stopping to let me out, a ute came past and took me the rest of the way. Love the locals out here!

Manilla Day 2 - Weekend Warrior Weekend Task 2

2008-01-13T22:40:00.000+11:00

The second task for the Weekend Warrior Weekend was a 45Km round the valley run, up to Tarpoly, down to Manilla then back to the farm. It was a similar day to yesterday with few clouds to help out and mercifully, a 3Km radius was set around Tarpoly so as not to put the entire field on the ground. The pilots who paid attention to that survived (mostly), yours truly flew half a km into the cylinder before working it out, got low battling a headwind coming back to the ridge and bombed out on the wrong side of the ridge (that is, the hot, long walk out on a very quiet road side of the ridge...)
Godfrey, Patrick, James, Che and Crannie on the tandem all got to goal.

The weather is looking good for some distance the next couple of days, James is hanging around and a group of pilots from Japan have just arrived so I have a few bodies to fly with. Hoping to go big...

Manilla Day 1 - Weekend Warrior Weekend Task 1

2008-01-13T17:00:00.000+11:00

I'm in Manilla for the next week, hoping to do some good cross country flying. Today was the very first 'Weekend Warrior Weekend' - an informal competition organised by Che and James. Competitors fly in one of four clases - Xena (the fairer pilots), Wookie (just wanna go up), Warrior (still driving to Manilla every weekend) and Jedi (mmm, fly twitchy glider, you will). Pilots came from Sydney and and the North Coast folks managed to swim out and escape the deluge up there so we had 30 pilots competing - not bad for an event that was only announced 3 weeks ago and great work by James and Che to get a weekend series started in NSW which has been a long time coming.

We had a 50Km task to the north with goal at Cobbadah. It was a day that needed an enormous amount of patience, lots of circling and drifting. Many went down just around Barraba and Tarpoly claimed the usual haul. Wes Manzke, Tim Smith and myself all got to goal then Wes and I continued on another 15Km after getting the best climb of the day right over goal, always the way :-)

Get him out

2007-10-30T21:35:00.000+11:00

Back in Australia, have been hugely busy with work since I returned including several trips up to Brisbane and a couple to Melbourne. Just a quick one to ask people to support the GetUp campaign running a cross-party advertisment to get Howard and his band of bloodless freaks out of the senate. The ad they intend to run in marginal electorates that need the swing is shown here:

You can donate to the GetUp campaign here:

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/campaign.php?alias=ThreePartyAd&id=183

Thanks for supporting this. While it is incomprehensible that Howard could possibly win this election, it was something approaching highly unlikely 3 years ago and the coalition actually gained power, rendering the senate a political joke that has been abused quite enough. Please, I'm begging now, Labour will preference the Greens so if you can't bring yourself to vote for Rudd at least give it to Bob Brown, just don't throw your vote away. If you abstain you are for all intents voting for Howard, please don't.

I promise this will be the only election related blog, other than a little celebratory one when Howard's political career is finally over :-)

Alaska

2007-08-18T17:19:00.000+10:00

I'm in Denali National Park - W0w, wow, wow, wow and wow. My time up here is much too short and rushed and internet is sparse and expensive so I'll blog about it when I'm done. So much to see here, need a year not a week...

Catch up soon.

Portland...again.

2007-08-13T11:14:00.000+10:00

I've ended up in and out of this town much more than I expected and here I am again. The flights out of Seattle to Alaska were much cheaper so I'm headed back up there. Found myself back in Portland to do a two day options trading seminar, something I've been dabbling with on and off (mostly off) for the last 5 years. Not exactly a holiday activity but the timing was perfect and it was a good kick in the pants to get some focus on my financial health (damn I must be getting old... ;-).

I stayed with Brett and Heike who very kindly shared their cosy little basement apartment with me Portland has it's attractions, not least is Mt Hood which can be seen from points all around the city. I took this shot on the way back tonight. Not a tough place to live with this view showing up all the time...

Brett took the ultimate revenge on his reserve parachute after the hard landing at the Rat Race by cutting all the lines off and using it as a picnic blanket! (It was due for retirement) Sitting down to dinner with Heike, Katje and Brett:

Northern Exposure

2007-08-12T14:34:00.000+10:00

Getting to Vancouver I felt like I'd run out of momentum and while I had initially planned on hanging around BC and exploring some of the places I'd visited before, that just wasn't grabbing me. I needed to do something, I needed a little a motivator. So I decided I'd go to Alaska, as you do. I've always wanted to see the midnight sun and although it wont exactly be overhead, there is still twilight all night at this time of year. It's uncommon but still possible to see the Northern Lights at this time of year, anything even hinting at this would be a gift:

The bottom line is I'm much more likely to be coming back through Vancouver than I am to be any closer to Alaska than this so I'm happy to just poke around, see some mountains and glaciers and try not to get mauled by a polar bear. I'm heading back to Portland for a couple days then fly out of Seattle to Anchorage on the 14th.

Vancouver

2007-08-12T00:08:00.000+10:00

Gavin and I drove back to Vancouver the day after the comp. I spent the next 2 days wandering around in some kind of daze, trying to recover from the week of sensory overload in Golden. I really did do about 5 days of completely spacing out which was just fine. Also caught up with Andy who some Oz and Kiwi readers will remember from many moons ago. It was fantastic to catch up, and we did the Grouse Grind - not some weird kinky dance, but a very popular hiking trail in North Vancouver. We hiked with John who I met earlier this year when he was traveling downunder. Grouse mountain has all sorts of tourist catches including a couple of re-homed grizzly bears called Coola and Grinder and some timber wolves at the base of the mountain. It's a relatively steep, short hike under a thick green canopy, beautiful but very busy.

I have to give you the quote of the month which comes from Andy. If you walk up Grouse Mountain you can take the gondola back down for $5, we did, and we were about half way down when Andy, standing in the middle of perhaps 80 people squashed into the gondola, says, in a very honest tone and to nobody in particular but loud enough for all to hear "So, I never thought about the cable breaking..."

Classic :-)

Goodbye to Golden

2007-08-06T23:46:00.000+10:00

The week in Golden had some more meaning to it for me personally than just coming here to compete. In 1999 i was here in Canada and learnt to fly just outside of Calgary on a hill that was about 30m high. Then I had my first flight from a 'proper' hill which was the launch we used all week on Mt Seven. Those first flights were just glides off the hill at 7am but they were the ones that had me hooked. On the last morning, a group of us went up the hill early and I repeated my first flight.

Looking north. Launch is the bare patch on the ridge just right of centre

The morning also gave Gavin and Karl the chance to fly the speed wings. Some video footage is here. Those crazy kids...

Canadian Nationals Day 7

2007-08-06T05:07:00.000+10:00

The Nationals ended with 1 final task, a 55Km race to the south. The sky was completely overcast in the morning and again the forecast was for afternoon thunderstorms but again they didn't arrive. Conditions were really light at the start (but apparently ballistic later on) and many people scratched around trying to survive after the start gate. Heike and Nicole were both low heading south from Mt Seven, Heike fought hard but wasn't able to get high, Nicole flew low all the way to goal and took out the womens class. One of Craig Collings comp flying tips is to get ahead early in the comp, then you only need to fly as well as but not better than your nearest competitors - Nicole employed this tactic with Heike from before the start gate and it was fun to watch! I saw her launch and fly into the thermal I was in, it was quite useable but she made only 2 turns and then flew straight for Heike who was further away from launch and proceeded to lock on. Gavin had the opposite situation and needed to go all out to beat Keith and pick up an extra 30 points. After getting low around launch, Gav climbed in his own thermal near launch and tracked the lead gaggle down just after the start. He ended up beating Keith into goal by 30 seconds, but it wasn't enough and he finished just 21 points behind Keith who became the new Canadian National Champion. The End results were:

Open Class:

1 - Jamie Messenger, UK 5215
2 - Matt Beechinor, USA 5014
3 - Keith Macullough, CAN 4725
4 - Gavin Zahner, AUS 4704
12 - James Thompson, AUS 3912
18 - Heike Hamann, AUS 3133

Womens:

1 - Nicole McLearn, CAN 3865
2 - Heike Hamann, AUS 3133
3 - Michelle Macullough, USA 2207

The winners with trophies, some of them animated...

It was great to do so much flying in such huge, inspiring terrain, but everyone was mentally broken by the end of it. I didn't meet anyone who had flown the nationals and was planning to hang around for the Willi Mueller XC comp - sleep was the only wish. In the end we had 6 tasks out of 7 days, average task distance was 66Km for a total of just under 400Km of task distance flown with some very good racing by the fast guys.

We were told by all the locals that the conditions here during the comp period were 'not the best Golden has' and if that is halfway true, I can't reccomend coming here for comp or free flying highly enough.

Canadian Nationals Day 6

2007-08-04T02:42:00.000+10:00

Task 5 was another race up and down the valley, 55.5km with goal to the north. Today was the most unstable day we've had all week and the forecast said possible thunderstorms late in the day so the task was kept short with an early landing time. We had more wind today than any other day and some of the glides away from launch were very slow and very sinky. There are some reliable thermal triggers just in front of launch which are two round bumps on the ridge line below - affectionately known by the locals as something like the Two Individual Thermal Starters, or T.I.T.S. for short. If we are to be anatomically correct and you imagine Lady Seven lying on her back with her nose being the launch and feet out in the valley, I was thermalling high above her right ear and at one point had enough sink and headwind that my glide angle was aiming me somewhere around her shoulder blade.

The day didn't strike me as being very flying friendly. I grabbed the start and flew back towards the second turnpoint but landed without attempting it, after task 2 I was out of the contest so I see no point in pushing the envelope any further than necessary. A gust front moved through goal and most who made it flew back to the south to land in what was reported as very strong headwind and lift up to 12m/s. Days results:

1 - Will Gadd, CAN
5 - Gav Zahner
13 - Heike Hamann
31 - James Thompson
41 - Moi

Today has set up a very interesting day for tomorrow if we can get a task. Gav beat Keith Macullough into goal today and is still in 4th place only 30 points behind Keith. Heike is 15th overall and chasing Nicole McLearn but needs 300 points to catch her tomorrow. James is 14th overall. The points also compressed between Jamie and Matt in first and second place, should be a fun day!

Canadian Nationals Day 5

2007-08-03T12:01:00.000+10:00

Task 4

Well, if you’re still reading after yesterdays post, you’re either a glutton for punishment or you’re my family and wondering why I haven’t called. I got back after midnight last night – the almost 1 to 1 flying/retrieve ratio is something I’ll try to avoid from now on ( 5 hours flying, 4.5 hours retrieving yesterday…) It was interesting enough though, I got a ride with a guy named Helmut (long time local originally Austrian) who spent the last 13 years coaching the Australian alpine ski team – he’s been around since the days of Zali Stegl, coached Alyssa Camplin and until 3 months ago was working with Australia’s next medal hope (Johnny someone?) who he says is an absolute natural on the snow but is a bit injury prone. A really friendly guy, he was the only one to stop, right on dark after I’d been walking down the highway for 2 hours waving a $20 bill at all but empty passing cars. I can safely say that petrol is still way, way too cheap. But walking along the road was a bit nostaligic – the Red Bull X-Alps is on again right now and I spared a thought for the guys out there suffering. Actually they’re having the time of their lives, they just don’t know it right now ;-) Have a look at the site and send a message to Lloyd who is competing for Australia this year, he’s doing great, currently in 18^th place and over halfway to Monaco. Go Lloyd you man machine!

Today’s task was much shorter and kept us closer to Golden which everyone was thankful for. A 55km race first to the south, back north past launch and return south to a westerly waypoint and goal at the HQ. The day was on and we hit 3300m just before the start. Having monumentally screwed up the second task I was in no position to challenge anyone so I thought I would take the opportunity to practice some of the things that I don’t do so well in, one of which is flying fast. Gavin and I were first out of the start gate gliding right next to each other, it was on. We took a couple of turns in lift that wasn’t worth wasting time in (or so I thought) before gliding to the next mountain to the south. I took a line about 100m west of where Gavin was and that was the difference between him getting up on the main ridge and me scratching the cliffs out in front. The rest of the field had topped up before leaving Mount Seven and flew past quite soon after (nice and high) while I was low and now groveling. In short I was really happy with my flight at the end of the day – firstly I learnt not to be too greedy about speed and then I spent an hour and a half scratching around including a save from 100m off the valley floor, climbed back to 3000m, blasted along the ridge tops and landed just as the day was shutting down 1k short of the northerly turn-point.

Gav played follow the white rabbit (this alternates between Keith and Will who both fly white boomerangs – and take you places you normally wouldn’t go…) and came in 5^th. James and Heike were both in goal. Gav is 4^th overall, a few hundred points behind Keith, and flying incredibly well. You can all expect the boy to do very well back home this summer, no pressure Gav ;-) Heike is flying really consistently and working hard to try and catch Nicole McLearn of Canada. Days results:

1 – Matt Beechinoor – 1:54:36
5 – Gav Zahner – 2:09:39
16 – James Thompson
26 – Heike Hamann
Plumbing the depths - Me

Canadian Nationals Day 4

2007-08-02T16:33:00.000+10:00

Task 3

An American person asked me a few weeks ago if anyone in Australia other than Steve Irwin actually used the word ‘crikey’. I said that I didn’t but there were definitely people who’d never been on TV that did. This occurred to me while I was puzzling over how to describe today’s flying conditions, and the only single word I could come up with that generally did the job was: Crikey! Read on if you dare…

Competition organisers always want to set a long task when they can, and today was that day. We had a 109km race to the south with goal at Invermere. All the Aussies were in goal and a total of 33 pilots flew the distance and another 5 went over 100km. In a field of 65 that’s fairly impressive. Results were:

1 – Marty Devietti, USA – 3:52:05
7 – James Thompson - 4:05:01
8 – Gav Zahner
28 – Heike Hamann
31 – Me

Looking south towards Invermere, about 50Km from goal.

What was more impressive about having 33 pilots in goal on a relatively slow, 109km task is that so many survived the psychological beating that the day handed out. My flight today was about 5.5hours, I’ve had several flights longer than this and all are tiring but today after 2 hours I was as mentally exhausted as I’ve ever been in flight. The ridges here are big, so big that you don’t need to be on top of them to fly a very long way, Will keeps telling us this – fly the front, it works – he knows better than anyone and he’s absolutely right. The drawback is that flying the front of the ridge seems to be the paragliding equivalent of going 10 rounds with Mike Tyson – except that you get your face smashed in the first round and then Mike spends the next 9 rounds shadow boxing you so you don’t know when or if that knockout blow is coming. Seriously, I wish I was exaggerating here. I’ve flown a lot of places now and absolutely none are even close to the commitment required to fly here. It’s not exactly difficult flying you understand, every single spur you fly over will have lift on it somewhere so you shouldn’t really sink out (most of the time) but the hard part is dealing with the mind-job you get handed every single time you fly into a thermal. It goes something like this:

You’re gliding along the face of a 2500m ridge and you approach a spur running up to a peak. You feel the usual turbulence associated with impending lift, then you almost instantly hit a peak of 5m/s. Your glider pitches behind you and you have that hands-up-and-wait moment, you catch the massive surge then just as quickly you are doing zero or less. You fly for a couple seconds, trying to gather your wits when your glider spontaneously shoots out to the horizon away from the ridge for no apparent reason. You mentally scan your underpants for fallout as you swing under the glider and somehow fly into a solid core where given all you’ve learnt in the last 15 seconds there should only be sink. The climb seems good, solid 4-5 up so you fly straight and consolidate in it for 3 or 4 seconds, the lift peaks so you turn a sharp180 degrees to the right, and you are in still air. No problem you think, it didn’t feel like it but the centre of lift must be to the left, so you continue the turn through 360, find the thermal again, consolidate in it, turn left, and you are doing 3m/s down. Your glider goes behind you to what feels like the horizon but the vario doesn’t make a sound. You check your undies again and prepare to be smacked out of the sky. Nothing happens. You keep turning, out of sheer terror now and repeat this pitching, rolling aerial rodeo ride and the end result is a series of eclectic 360 degree turns about as round as a kidney-dish that get you an average of 1-2m/s (most of the time averaging up, though occasionally it’s down and occasionally that’s better than the alternative). Every now and then you put the wingtip on the horizon, deliberately rather than by act of god and you turn the 5/ms sliver of lift into a 2m/s average. This is bliss when you can manage it. After 10 minutes of the above, you arrive somewhere near or just above ridge height and you head on a glide wondering what the hell just happened to you and exactly where your mummy is right now. With many sadistic variations on the above theme, you repeat this every time you hit lift for the next 5 hours.

The flying here is truly awesome – and I mean that in the oxford dictionary sense not the bastardized skateboarder sense. It took me almost 2 hours to fly the first 30km and my nerves were destroyed by that point. I somehow managed to get the shits (literally, sorry) a couple hours before the task started so I launched late and didn’t leave the start gate until half an hour after the start time. Combined with the first 2 hour struggle it was looking marginal that I would make goal by the 8pm close time but there just seemed to be no way to make up time while staying in the air AND not having a nervous breakdown. With 45 minutes until goal closed I was 25km out at 3400m, my GPS was telling me I needed a 9 to 1 glide and my time to goal was 43 minutes. Nothing left to do but glide – and pray. I made 2 turns in one strong climb and flew through what little else there was. I got to goal 6 minutes before close with about 50m of ‘spare’ altitude when I crossed the goal line. Very exciting. Gavin and James were both in fast, Gavin might have been much faster had he not broken his speed bar 30K from the start.

The positive I take out of the day is that I had a 109km flight that would never have happened if this wasn’t a comp day. At about 30km I would have said ‘This is pretty dumb’ and flown into the valley and landed, rather than saying ‘This is pretty dumb’ and continuing because it was a comp task. I like that comp flying encourages you to stretch your limits and today was a classic example of that….but if anyone or anything that has the power is listening out there, can we please have one, nice, consistent smooth thermal that goes up all the way around? Just one?? Thanks.

Heading on an optimistic final glide...

Canadian Nationals Day 3

2007-08-01T10:28:00.000+10:00

The wind was looking strong early on so we waited until 4pm for another update, but it wasn’t looking good so the day was cancelled. Surprisingly few injuries were reported for a non-flying day (to all the non-flyers out there, the days we don’t fly during paragliding competitions are generally when people get hurt), just a few minor volleyball related strains.

Karl from Jackson Hole had his speed wings out for some ground-handling in the strong wind. They look almost like real gliders…only smaller. Much smaller.

Canadian Nationals Day 2

2007-07-31T12:30:00.000+10:00

We had some early cloud that looked to be building quite solidly. Will and other locals suggested that it would probably 'blue up' as the day progressed, but it looked like the kind of day in Australia where it would blow up before it would blue up. The sky did clear, or at least stopped building though nobody was in a hurry to launch after a couple windtechs probed around the sky without success. The task was pushed back a couple of times before Will told everyone that there would be no more waiting, conditions were soarable, so get off the hill you bunch of girls blouses (or something like that). He's a really nice guy so we all obeyed.

The task was a 75Km race to the south with goal at Spur Valley. When we finally dragged ourselves off the hill there was a moderate westerly, see previous comments about mozzies and grizzlies. This was enough incentive for all but a couple of adventurous souls. In terms of flying conditions, today could not have been further from yesterday. Very strong climbs with sharp edges and some punishing sink was the norm. Those who stayed high flew the task relatively easily but it was at the maximum work rate to keep things in shape and overhead. One pilot flying a Magus broke some C lines recovering from a series of collapses. Our own Gavin Zahner blasted home finishing third for the day and currently 4th overall.

Task 2

1 - Jamie Messenger, UK - 2:08:06
2 - Matt Beechinor, USA
3 - Gavin Zahner

7 - James T
11 - Heike
47 - Benn :-(

Flying for me is always a process of exploration and today I explored just how much sinking air can possibly exist on a very large, sunny, wind-ward facing mountain range. Further testing is needed for a definitive answer, but the prelimianry results suggest it's a hell of a lot more than you'd imagine.

Results are not online yet but will be at:
http://www.gravsports.com/Paragliding%20Pages/Canadian_Nationals_07/Canadian_Nationals.htm

Canadian Nationals Day 1

2007-07-30T05:41:00.000+10:00

The whole competition is being run out of the Golden ECO Ranch so it's only a short stroll from tent to the headquarters where a dedicated group of ladies cook breakfast for us each day. We are not worthy. The whole shebang is being run by extreme sports legend and all around great guy Will Gadd. Will welcomed us and ran through the normal comp stuff including that there will be no point penalties this year for any indiscretion (cloud flying, not signing out etc) - any offenders will simply be thrown in the Columbia river. Except if you land over the back of the range in which case the Grizzly bears and the mosquitoes are enough punishment. Everyone agreed to behave.

We headed straight to launch but a re-brief was called for 4pm and eventually a task set with a start at 7.15pm and a goal close at 10.30! One of the amazing things about this place is that it's actually possible that a determined pilot could still be flying that late. We got to 2800m (a couple hundred higher than Mount Seven) in light, extremely smooth air prior to the start and then basically raced around the 35k course on the speed bar, slowing up only once to thermal. Sure it's mickey mouse but it's super fun as they say in the local lingo. The results for the day were:

1 - Matt Beechinor, USA - 42.07
2 - Jamie Messenger, UK
3 - Keith Maccullough, CAN

And Aussies:

5 - Gavin Zahner
6 - Me
9 - James Thompson
15 - Heike Hamann

It was easily the fastest task I've ever flown, Gav caught me at the second last turn point while I was screwing with my GPS thinking I still needed more height to make goal but we ended up arriving with many hundreds of metre's to spare. The air was so relaxing I managed to take photos before during and after the task. You've gotta love doing tasks in air that allows hands-off-the-brakes, speed-bar-on photography :-)

Heading North

2007-07-28T11:09:00.000+10:00

I came back from eastern Oregon via Hood River - the Kite boarding and Windsurfing capital of the world, well the western US anyway, OK maybe just Oregon, regardless, the wind blows here often and it blows hard. I met up with Kari who has just officially become a kite board instructor so I could be her first guinea pig. I had a nightmare with the Greyhound service (actually the complete lack thereof) the night before but at the risk of being branded a serial bitch, I'm not going to tell you about it. Short of saying it was bordering on heaven to get off the bus in a place like Hood River:

Kari went out on the board for a bit and she can make that thing move! Then we got in the water and she strapped me into the kite after a few brief but vital instructions. It's a whole lot of sail for one little human! It was good fun and we messed around until sunset just flying the kite which really is what the sport is all about. It was fun to fly it back and forth as you have to keep the kite in the 'safety zone' - this is the area of the wind where the kite does not have any power, outside of which you are likely to be dragged so hard that water will go in your nose and out your eye balls in a very comical but painful fashion. It keeps you on your toes - and as I found out it keeps Kari on her toes when you once or twice accidentally dip into the power zone. Sorry Kari ;-)

I was back in Portland for a night and then caught the train with Heike up to Seattle . For the non-flyers out there, this is what 2 (that is two) paraglider pilots kit looks like:

I also have camping gear stuffed amongst all that. We drove into Canada with Bill Hughes who is the competition scorer extraordinaire in this part of the world. We got to Golden and had a flight Friday afternoon in fairly light conditions. Gavin (good mate, Aussie pilot, can fly a bit) was already here and disappearing from launch for a 60Km out and return as we arrived. I only had one flight as I managed to pick up a cold somehow and am not feeling the best for flying. Rumour has it that people regularly get sick after they have been in the water at Hood River, nothing has been proven yet... Here are a few picks around the campsite at Golden which is a brilliant place, huge fields, nice shady campsites, occasional friendly black bear. The Columbia river flows in the valley here and it is large. The river itself is deep and fast flowing but it overflows at random points turning the better part of the valley floor into swamp land, and if there is one thing more at home in a swamp than a redneck with motorised pleasure craft, it's the mosquito. Don't misunderstand me, these are not normal mosquitoes. Then entire valley around Golden is like some kind of Olympic training camp for mosquitoes and the camp site here is the nerve centre, where only the strongest, fittest, most doped-up mosquitoes are allowed to train. Since arriving I've been bitten by mosquitoes on parts of my body I've never even seen. I grew up with the regular teenage skin issues bur right now it looks like I have acne on my lower legs.

The Wallowallowas

2007-07-24T10:23:00.000+10:00

I left Portland for eastern Oregon and a place called the Wallowas. I was saying 'WOL-OH-WAS' but apparently it's 'WOL-AH-WAS - either way it's a name that would not be out of place anywhere in Australia.

I got to the bus station to go from Portland to La Grand with plenty of time, had the bus not departed 15 minutes early. I would've been angry except it was midnight and the concept that a public bus service would leave 15 minutes before the scheduled time was so ridiculous that it made me laugh. I laughed slightly less when I realised it was true. Volumes could be written on how woeful the bus service is in the US but generally it seems to be that the service is only run as some kind of bizarre punishment to those who chose not to buy a car.

I met up with my old friend John and local Oregonian Pete and we headed into the wilderness on Saturday. Well, Saturday afternoon - we had to procrastinate a suitable amount in the morning, have breakfast, coffee, a bit more coffee, get some gear together, debate the relative merits of hiking into the hills versus sitting drinking beer and looking at them, eat enormous pizza and drink some beer, then hit the trail at 3pm. We still managed to arrive at Ice Lake, 12Km in and 1km up, before dark and caught a fish to to go with our Mac and Cheese. Pete fell asleep so John and I drank the two beers we carried in and ate the fish in his honour. The next day John and I climbed The Matterhorn while Pete scrambled up some creeks and went glissading on a snow drift. All around the lake were amazing wild flowers, birds, squirrel type creatures and we even saw goats up high on the mountain. We met back at Ice Lake and started hiking out just before 6pm, but not before Pete suggested we take an impromptu swim just before we split from the lake. It was random and excellent. We got back to the car right on dark which is just about perfect use of the day.

I'm supposed to tell you that the Wallowas is a place in Nebraska, it's boring, dusty, hot, there is nothing of interest and you will be infected by nasty diseases if you go there.

Below are pictures from somewhere else.

Sarma in Portland

2007-07-21T08:18:00.000+10:00

There is a big difference between Sarma in Portland and Summer in Portland, but both of those things are not quite what you'd expect.

Summer is that part of the year squeezed between Spring and Autumn, hot, sunny and generally pleasant in most parts of the world. Portland has an interesting take on Summer. I grew up close enough to Melbourne to know the need for a storm jacket and a speedo all in one day, but Portland has you going for the wet weather gear and the skimpy underwear multiple times in each hour of the day. I spent a couple days back in Portland after LA and I've never taken my jacket on and off so much in such a short timeframe. I was afraid it would catch fire from the build up of friction.

Summer in Portland

Sarma is an absolutely delicious traditional Croatian dish which my father cooks. Portland has an interesting take on Sarma. Looking for lunch, I found a bunch of food stalls, one of which was offering 'European' food including Polish Golabki (Sarma from a different corner of the continent). I'd actually just eaten a Souvlaki when I found the Sarma seller, but I couldn't go past ordering one as it was the first time I've ever seen it for sale anywhere. It looked sooooooo good. But it was sooooooo disappointing. Other than it looking exactly the same it was unrecognisable as the same dish Dad serves up and I eat by the bucket load. I finished a couple of bites hoping the flavour was hidden in there somewhere, then I thought about garnishing it with the paper plate it was served on for at least a little spice, but I walked away instead. Things are not always what they seem.

Sarma in Portland

I was taken to a Soccer match by Liz, Amity and Garrett - guys I'd met at the Rat Race who were organising, driving, feeding us, entertaining us and generally being awesome throughout the competitions. It was the Portland Timbers v the Vancouver White Caps - a poor choice of name by the Canadian side if you ask me. The 'Vancouver White Ants' would make for a much more epic battle and surely one they couldn't loose, well, not against the Timbers anyway. It was the most fun I've ever had at a game. The Portland supporters are, how do you say...insane! There was singing and horn blowing and drum beating and yelling and beer spilling and singing and dancing and key-rattling and they have a mascot called 'Timber Tim' who is a burly man with a VERY large chainsaw who cuts a slab of timber off a waiting log each time the Timbers score a goal. Then he puts the chainsaw back in the log and does a back-flip for good measure. After half time, some ground came out loaded with beach balls and threw them all INTO the croud. Can you believe that??? It was an eye opener to how sterile big sports games in Australia have become. By the end of the match most of the Portland supporters had lost their voices, their beer and their inhibitions. It made an Aussie rules game look like lawn bowls on valium.

Oh and the Timbers came home 2-1.

Los Angeles...

2007-07-19T08:03:00.000+10:00

...The City of Angels - who can no longer ascend to heaven because they're trapped in an eternal smog inversion. Poor Angels.

I travelled down to LA with George and Sue and we stayed with Tin and Katherine in Long Beach - Tin and George were friends when I met them both back in 2000. Tin and I did some biking around class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Palos Verdes, past Donald Trumps golf course, a road that is no longer straight because the earth wanders around so regularly and up to Venice beach - a real live human circus, this is reality TV up close and in the flesh.

Yosemite

2007-07-14T03:06:00.001+10:00

I was almost going to pass on Yosemite but very glad I didn't. Flying up from LA to Portland I'd see Half Dome from the plane and that was my goal - an 8000ft high granite boulder. I'd read a little about the problems with bears in Yosemite and their taste for just about ANYTHING that can produce an odour, but it hadn't hit me as a major issue until I spoke to my friend Tin who has spent a lot of time there climbing. The general gist of what he told me was that if I wanted some delightfully random panel work, perhaps some unconventional door removal on my car, all I needed to do was leave a small piece of chocolate or fruit in the car and leave it overnight. Given I was driving a very neat, very new, borrowed VW beetle I decided against testing the theory. Before I even got near the park I searched the car for anything that might produce an odour and stuffed it all in a single bag to put in one of the bear-proof lockers, fully expecting that as soon as I pulled into the car park, a mountain lion was going to attach itself to the roof of my car and I would have to run for it, performing a commando roll through the legs of a waiting grizzly bear while a bald eagle clawed at my face. When I arrived, I was immediately surrounded by killer deer, an evil squirrel posse and an intimidatingly overweight marmot, they all had venom in their hearts and probably rabies. I barely survived.

Had a 5am start to hike Half Dome. It's a long days hike up and down, but in the end I realized the early start was good not because the hike was long but because you spend so much time taking photos. As you climb away from Yosemite valley, every switchback opens up an incredible view so you stop and take a dozen photos. The you climb a little higher and take another 20 shots because this has to be the best view, then you climb a little higher and take another 56 photos because it can't possibly get any better than this...and so on and so forth. Here is a selection from the couple hundred snaps of the day:

The hike up half dome is OK as a really long day - about 27km round trip with 1500m climb from the valley floor. Walking through pine and cedar forest all the way until you get onto the granite. The last few hundred metres is up a line of hand cables which are usable but a bit intimidating for some people who just sit out at the bottom. A hiker was killed a few weeks ago when he climbed outside the cables to take a picture and, with a heavy pack on his back, lost his balance. It's more than steep enough for that to be a problem, but if you stay inside the cables and focus on what you are doing it's fine. That said it was interesting that in this age of life by litigation, a setup like this which can reward stupidity with a rather alarming surprise is still maintained by the national park service each year. Most places would tear the cables down at the first incident and tell people to proceed at their own risk with their own equipment. Not sure if the pics above do it justice but it is as steep as it looks, if not more.

The next day I drove around Yosemite valley and had a look at El Capitan. I'd seen so many pictures of this piece of rock in books and magazines, lost who knows how many hours of my teenage years to day dreaming about it that seeing it in front of me was rather surreal. That might just have been left over delirium from the previous days hike though... I decided to drive out of the south entrance of the park and see Mariposa Grove - one of 70 remaining stands of Giant Sequoias in the Sierra Nevada range. These are not the tallest trees on the planet (though they can still grow to 80m), or the widest girth (that goes to the Kauri)or even the oldest lived (but they do live to 3000+ years), but by sheer volume, Giant Sequoias are the largest living things know to man. They grow much like humans, reaching their peak height in the first quarter of their lives and then slowly shrinking and putting on weight all over for the remainder. A trail takes you through the grove and you begin by walking past the young trees – 700 to 1000 years old - but you soon reach the Grizzly Giant, a 2700 year old behemoth.

It strikes me as disrespectful to try and put words to such a noble being using a language that didn't even exist when it was a sapling. I stood there trying comprehend how immeasurably old this living thing is, what it has seen and overcome, and my head wanted to explode. It's one thing to look at a huge piece of rock that has been shaped for a million years - it was as dead then as it is now - but here was a living, growing organism that is older than Christianity, it was fully grown before work even began on the hanging gardens of Babylon, it was 1000 years old when the Mayans began building all their temples. I turn 30 next month and I'm happy with that, but if I live to be 130, my life will have lasted a matter of days in the shadow of a Giant Sequoia.

San Francisco

2007-07-11T12:05:00.000+10:00

I stayed in the San Francisco bay area with my friend George and his wife Sue - I met George while traveling through Idaho in 2000 but we haven't seen each other since so there was a lot of catching up to do. George and Sue spoiled me with a place to stay, feeding me and even lending me a car to drive around, thanks a ton guys! I spent a couple days looking around San Francisco and Marin county (the area north of the Golden Gate bridge). I had been through here years ago but only really briefly. I wandered around Sausalito which is like a Manly or St Kilda for San Francisco. After spending much too long in a café I went for a walk along the waterfront in Sausalito. Sometimes you realise a camera just isn't the best method of recording your surroundings - hundreds of yachts are moored together in Sausalito and a strong sea breeze was ripping through the bay (it would seem San Fran is very rarely calm). The wind blowing through this forest of masts made a low undulating base sound which was mixed with the high-pitched squeal of the wire rigging. It was an eerie soundtrack and I almost expected the four horsemen of the apocalypse to ride onto the wharf, followed by Bruce Willis and bunch of guys who would save the day with some creative but totally unfeasible use of a nuclear weapon. But there was only sunshine and ice cream and other things not really befitting the end of days. I walked on, deciding I'd had more than enough caffeine.

San Francisco overall is remarkably like Sydney, just with larger sea gulls and a public transport system that actually works. San Fran has lots of water, a big bridge (actually several), open-minded residents and about the same number of Gum trees. Seriously the place is covered in them; there is an island in he middle of the bay that could easily be any bushland park in any Australian city. I don’t know how they got here but they definitely don’t mind the climate.

I guess it’s the waterways and their uses that make San Fran so similar to Sydney, people boat and windsurf and swim - George was telling me that people swim regularly but even in summer the water is cold enough to need a wetsuit. I had this in mind as I walked along a curved pier which forms a sheltered anchorage for yachts. Where the pier opens into the bay there is a stretch of just 50 metres where the boats enter. It was windy, choppy, flowing strongly and generally inviting disaster, so I was amused when I saw a large sign on the opposite side of the channel which said 'Beware of swimmers!' I wondered if this was a warning to skippers sailing into the small bay not to run over the swimmers or a warning to the general public as anybody swimming in this piece of water was either there because they'd escaped incarceration (San Quentin is a decent swim away but Alcatraz is just nearby...) or they were there by choice in which case their mental stability was seriously questionable and they could come at you with their webbed feet at any moment. With that I looked over the edge and there was one of them - a man roughly 60, with swim cap but sans wetsuit, happily splashing up and down. I said hello, out of surprise more than anything, and he responded in kind, then before I could ask if he needed assistance he started backstroking across the channel doing his best impression of a sane person. People think paragliding is crazy...

Hanging out in Jefferson State

2007-07-08T16:44:00.000+10:00

What would be the 51st American state (I guess Australia will have to challenge for 52nd spot) is a large chunk of Northern California and southern Oregon. In the 1940's a group of folk fed up with bad roads and falling down bridges declared they were seceding and Jefferson State was almost born. Pearl Harbour was bombed a short time later and the whole thing lost momentum - the war was in full swing and Oregon and California decided to repair the roads and bridges of their outlying counties so they could get in to dig up the resources and cut down the trees. Jefferson State was never fully realised, though it lives on as a state of mind, perhaps best displayed in a lovely little town called Ashland in southern Oregon.

I stayed with Peter and Emily who were simply fantastic in housing me, feeding me and showing me around Ashland which is about as perfect as any town I'd care to live in. The town feels like a commune that just grew up a little - they have an organic co-op which is the best place you're ever likely to buy groceries, a Shakespeare festival that runs for most of the summer over 3 different theatre's (we saw Romeo and Juliet on the Elizabethan Stage), it has easy access to flying and skiing, fruit trees everywhere, deer roam the streets and they have an outrageously fun 4th of July parade:

After the parade we headed south and camped in the Shasta valley with some more pilots who travelled up from San Francisco. I had seen Shasta off in the distance while flying at Woodrat and further off in the distance from Lakeview and I couldn't resist Peter's offer of getting up close to this tall, alluring northern californian lady. We flew from Whaleback, a smaller volcanic cinder cone about 8km from Mt Shasta, launching at 6pm Peter quickly climbed out. I took a while to catch up to him but eventually we were able to get just above 10,000ft and glided out into the valley. I'll let the pictures below do the talking - some of these were taken on the second day when we got to almost 13,000ft, again very late in the day.

It was an amazing place to fly with a great group of people. That perfect balance.

Next is some time in San Francisco and Los Angeles to see some friends new and old and then head back north for the competition in Canada.

Some pictures of the Rat Race and Lakeview and all the above pics can be seen at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/BennKovco

More soon.

Lakeview

2007-07-04T02:22:00.000+10:00

In 1959 Fidel Castro assumed leadership in Cuba, the Barbie doll was born, the Dalai Lama fled to India to escape fighting in Tibet and Bob Howard was the Lakeview Tenpin Bowler of the Year.

The discovery of that last fact isn't exactly life changing, but there is something positive about registering these small things while chasing flying wherever it leads. One of the things I enjoy most about paragliding is the places it will take you. Little, nowhere, out of the way places you would otherwise never contemplate visiting and almost always wouldn't give a second glance if you did. Lakeview was one of those places and on a couple of windy days we got to experience it in a way few visitors do. We bowled in the same lanes and sat in the same chrome-legged aqua-blue moulded seats as Bob did 48 years ago - much of the bowling alley interior has certainly not changed though Bob's name now heads a long list of local bowling kings and queens.

Lakeview could easily be written off as just another dying rural town, but the people have a definite sense of pride that their history is something to be embraced rather than replaced. After bowling we walked down main street to a cinema just like you might see in any 50's film - small round box office facing the street, gleaming white billboards announcing the nights only showing and curtains rather than doors between the small foyer and the cinema floor. Gavin and I were slightly late to the film and the interior was dark, so it wasn't until the house lights came on that we realised we'd spent the last 2 hours in a cinematic time capsule. We learnt from the manager that the building was finished in 1949 and nothing has changed - other than the addition of 58 years worth of character and a complete history of modern cinema passed from reel to reel. The decor is original, the entirely comfortable and adequate seating, original. We would have had our popcorn cooked in the original 1949 popcorn machine if not for a heating element which failed only 6 weeks ago which can no longer be replaced. Now in retirement, the long serving machine rests in the foyer, just out of sight of it's young upstart of a replacement - a solemn gesture which I like to think was out of respect, sparing the regal old timer the indignity of seeing his space now occupied by an apprentice who will ultimately serve only a fraction of the masters tenure.

Without doubt there is more to Lakeview than well preserved entertainment venues, but it was good to learn at least that much and it's really satisfying to imagine that over half a century ago, Bob Howard bowled a 300 game at Lakeview Lane's, got up out of his chrome legged chair, walked around the corner to see the latest release - say Charlton Heston in 'Ben Hur' - and bought a cup of popcorn made by a machine that was only just getting warmed up.

US Nats - Final day

2007-07-03T02:30:00.000+10:00

The last day of the Nats looked promising with light winds forecast and the possibility of reaching 12,000ft. A 112km task was set to the north and with a course line running directly along the spectacular Abert Rim, everyone was excited for a good task and visual feast on the final day. Sadly it wasn't to be. There was some quite consistent wind before the launch had even opened and conditions for the first 10 minutes of launch window were just passable for those confindent with very strong wind launches. The rest of the launch window wasn't sensible for anyone though a few die hards did get away with it. With over half the field still on the ground, the task was belatedly cancelled shortly after the start time.

Overall winners:

1 - Frank Brown
2 - Dean Stratton (US Champion)
3 - Kyndel Bannister

Women:

1 - Kari Castle
2 - Meredyth Malocsay
3 - Cherie Silvera

All the Lakeview winners:

The attendance at Lakeview was far less than expected, only 65 started and several departed after task 3, apparently it was due to Lakeview's reputation as a windy, rough place to fly. Maybe it is, maybe we just picked a bad week to be there, that said, the area still gave us 3 days, took people to 16'000ft and set a US record for task distance, you can't really argue with those numbers.

I was all set to head for San Francisco after the Nats when standing on launch on the last day, Peter Warren (see front row right hand side in the above pic) said he and a few others were going to fly the Shasta valley next week and welcomed me along. Mt Shasta is the 14'000ft volcano I mentioned earlier, it loomed up on the horizon on the first flight I had at Woodrat. So I cut off my plans to go directly to San Fran and am taking a little spin on the dune buggy of fate, always the best way to travel. More soon.

Topping out at 12,000ft shortly after the start on task 2. Gavin is in the centre of the photo.

US Nats Task 3, Day 4

2007-06-28T15:13:00.000+10:00

Who remembers Bill Murray when he first morphed into that tragic-comic role that he now owns? Today was indeed Groundhog Day. We went up the hill, the wind was southerly (more so and stronger) and the task committee set the same crosswind leg as task 2. The early wind techs who launched were being drifted directly north in very light climbs and not getting anywhere near the height of yesterdays base, so there was an air of agreement amongst pilots when the task was put on hold, thinking it would be changed to suit the obvious conditions. It wasn't. So we went ahead with a 145km task to the northeast, with the same 20km crosswind leg from launch to the first turnpoint. One gaggle of about 15 gliders got away at the start of the task, many others sunk out or scratched around the hill and about a dozen pilots didn't fly. Of 18 pilots who survived to the first turnpoint, 10 went on to fly the remaining 125km to goal, setting a US distance record for an FAI task. James (who I believe got away early) flew 48km and Gav did exceptionally well after having to top land for new GPS batteries, he re-launched and spent the next hour scratching around launch, getting high an hour after the task had opened and flying 38km by himself. Heike and I both chose not to launch. Just before sunset the pilots who made goal arrived back to a well deserved hero's welcome. Frank Brown was fatest in with a time of 3hr 45min, Dean Stratton was second followed by Dave Prentice. The day wasn't as high as yesterday (a few got to 16'000ft on task 2) but there was a good tailwind with the fastest guys hitting 90km/h on glide. We had a great BBQ dinner and were entertained by a local band and the local rodeo princesses roping (lasooing) boys by the ankles, which the boys didn't seem to mind too much.

It's always a hard decision deciding not to fly during a comp. Well, not always, but you do beat yourself up about it more than necessary. It's hard to deny that there is some external pressure to get off the hill, and sometimes that's good - it challenges you to fly in conditions that you might be totally capable of but wouldn't normally fly if you were outside a comp environment. If I’m free flying I'm either happy with the day or I'm not, I go flying or I don't. Today was only hard because there wasn't one definitive thing that made me decide not to fly. It was a combination of how I felt when I woke up (that we weren't going to fly at all), sketchy conditions on launch, fatigue, windy slow climbs out of launch and the thought of having the same fight as yesterday to stay out of the wilderness (see below). But flying comps for me is all about learning and getting in tune with how I analyse my personal situation on any given day. Today was a win for me, I learnt something, it was different to what I might have learnt if I'd flown but no less valuable.

I don't envy the pilots who take on the largely thankless job of being on a task committee. In some flying area's the job is made much harder by terrain and road restrictions, unpredictable weather etc. Most pilots agreed the SSW crosswind leg on task 2 was simply a fight to stay out of some very rough terrain rather than any kind of race to test piloting skills. So it was reasonably astonishing to me (and some pilots with much more experience than me) that the same leg would be set the very next day with an apparently stronger wind which was even more southerly potentially pushing us further into the land of trees, ticks and very long walks out. Perhaps I'll be on a task committee one day and I can be a bit more humble about the whole thing.

Those packs weren't made for walking.

2007-06-28T01:46:00.000+10:00

The flying is fine, no the flying is brilliant, I can totally cope with getting over 10,000ft every day, it's the walk out that wears you down. The first task I walked out for almost 2 hours, yesterday I walked out with james and another guy for over an hour and today I'm feeling it. The half dozen ticks I found last night and this morning aren't really doing anything for me either. There is a couple roads out here and a whole lot of nothing in between them, I've made a real effort to stay near the roads and still managed to walk 3hrs in 2 days. I don't mind walking at all - with about 10 kilos less on my back and a back pack that isn't just an after thought. What's really scary is that at a little over 20 kilos, my gear is actually lighter than most. I guess I could just start getting to goal and it wont be an issue.

Our 30 knots winds haven't arrived so it looks like we're going flying today. I'm going to be positive and tell you that my next post will be about how I made goal and had a nice 50m stroll to the waiting retrieve vehicle with cold beer and airconditioning. Ahhhh.

US Nats Task 2

2007-06-27T16:50:00.000+10:00

"I climbed to 3400m three times and only flew 20km" - it just doesn't sound right does it. But it was the motto for team Oz today - we all landed within 1km of each other just before the first turnpoint after doing the above. I left a climb at 3200m, 4km before the turnpoint cyclinder and landed 800m short. Never have I found sink so consistent, so strong and for so long. It was a similar experience for most in the area pushing strong cross or headwind.

A 69km task had been set with a 25k leg directly to the east and then a goal directly to the north. With strong southerlies forecast turning westerly late in the day, it was always going to be tricky making the first turnpoint. Added to that, there was some pretty wild terrain we were being pushed into by the southerly. Hard for this to not come out as sour grapes but it was not a well set task. The little I know about task setting philosophy is that the task should get harder as you move through the course - today we had a task where if you lived through the first third of the course, you had a free ride for the last 2/3. Not quite right, and not really the kind of task you'd expect in a contest to crown a US national champion. I'm all for difficult tasks which challenge you to devise a way through, but today was all about survival, not racing. Ahh who knows, maybe I'm just a whining bastard ;-)

Results are at www.mphsports.com

James T's pics at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/m/viewAlbum?uname=jamesflys&aname=USA07&start=0

US Nats Task 1

2007-06-27T01:46:00.000+10:00

The forecast was almost exact - we only got to 12'000ft rather than 13 :-)

The wind was light as predicted and a task was called with a turnpoint 50km to the north and then 30km back south to goal. Getting away from launch was relatively easy but I really hadn't registered exactly how far above sea level this place is (the town of Lakeview is at 1500m ASL - see yesterday 'Tallest town in Oregon'). It's deceptive because the valleys are huge and flat and the hills aren't especially big. I've never flown around consistently at 2500m above sea level and felt so low. Shortly after the task start we were able to climb through 3000m and things started to feel comfortable. The climb was still consistent and the lead gaggle was much higher so I kept climbing. What had been a consistent but not strong climb kicked off at 3500m and started averaging 5m/s and I was on the way to my self imposed ceiling of 4500m (probably 1/3 of the field are flying with oxygen). It all stopped pretty abruptly at 3800m which was fine as I was already starting to breathe rapidly, everyone else was well down the course lind and my hands were going numb. Off on glide we made a wide crossing and flew into a another valley system where we started punching headwind about 20km before the first turnpoint. This decked most pilots, some (including yours truly) high up on the ridge which ran to the first turnpoint with a long walk out. It was actually a really nice walk along a creek through an old pine forest. This really is wild west country - I was following some cattle trails and it felt like Yul Brynner and the magnificent seven might appear at any moment. They didn't. Nobody got to goal and Team Oz all landed before the turnpoint. We do apologise.....

James Thompson has kindly provided a link to some pictures he has taken at the Rat Race and todays task at the nats. The picture of the lake and the huge ridge along it was our view for most of the flight. It's called Abert Rim and is I’m told highest cliff line in North America. Very impressive.

James pics at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/m/viewAlbum?uname=jamesflys&aname=USA07&start=0

Lakeview - Tallest town in Oregon

2007-06-26T14:54:00.000+10:00

First day of the Nats was cancelled due to wind. A 103km task was called but was revised after some opposition about a 40km section of the task over an Antelope refuge where we'd been told earlier in the day we absolutely should not land. There is some very remote country out here so the tasks are constrained a bit by needing to stay reasonalby close to the only roads available.
The launch here is on the west face of a long north/south ridge with some very flat flats out front and a huge lake to the south. Of to the NE (common task direction) is a mix of flats and ridges, typically it is flown in strong winds with (hopefully) strong climbs. Tomorrow is forecast for light winds and base up to 13,000ft.
May it come true...

Lakeview is actually quite stunning, think Broken Hill with mountains, sprawling flat valleys and big lakes, but it is definitely Redneckville central south Oregon. Outside the building where I am typing this there is an event going on called 'Mud bogging' - it involves driving really ridiculously big and over powered pick up trucks through a big trench fulll of mud, and mostly getting bogged in it, hence the name. The irony is that the contestants seem to get annoyed when they do get bogged, which from where we were standing was the only possible outcome, indeed it looked like the whole point of the event. Then you get towed out of the bog by a front-loader which I assume is unboggable and proceed to use the equivalent of a years water supply for the average Sydney household to clean your truck, load it on a big trailer towed by an even bigger vehicle than your mud bog machine and drive home getting 8 miles per gallon. A well spent Sunday.

On to Lakeview and the wild west

2007-06-26T14:35:00.000+10:00

June 23 (much later)

The last two tasks at the Rat Race were the kind of days that make me wonder how sensible comp flying is. Well, that's not true, it's fairly certain comp flying isn't sensible, but we do it because it's a great way to learn and improve, it's a ton of fun (most of the time) and every now and then you get bragging rights over your mates. The last two tasks were run in conditions that while not dangerous for experienced pilots, they were days where the vast majority would not have launched if it wasn't a comp day. But you see it happen over and over. Food for thought, where do you draw the line between risky and just not sensible? For me I guess it's right at the point where it stops being fun, which incidentally is about where you stop learning anything too.

The back to back comps here are quite literally that - we had our last task at Woodrat today, rapid fire award ceremony, drive to Lakeview and first task for the nationals is tomorrow. Looks windy so we might get a rest on the first day.

More on the nats later. Results for both comps are at www.mphsports.com

Rat Race Tasks 4,5 and 6

2007-06-26T14:28:00.000+10:00

June 23
The Rat Race finished today with a total of 6 tasks. After the first 3 short racy days we had the first 1000 pt day with very well called 76km task. Conditions were tricky around the first turnpoint but stellar elsewhere with some people hitting 10,000ft. It was the longest task ever for the Rat Race and 31 made goal. I was really happy with my flying on the task. There were some difficult transitions and a lot of patient flying to get to goal. I managed to get to goal in 16th place and the only time I was really trying to fly fast was when I knew I had a glide to goal. To this point I was having the comp of my life having made goal 4 days straight - flying safe, conservative and having a blast - yeah OK so that means I'm slow, but damm it's fun!

Day 5 had a heavy inversion trapping everyone around launch height and the task was cancelled shortly after the start due to this and strong wind. The last 2 days were very windy but 2 more tasks were completed in somewhat marginal conditions. Both days the crux was getting to Burnt ridge east of launch - if you did this you got to goal, if you didn't you were in the LZ.

US pilot Dean Stratton won 5 of 6 tasks and the comp overall. Our own James was second in the masters and Heike was second female.

Can highly reccomend coming over here next year for anyone looking to escape the rain, the comp is well organised and Mike, Gail and their volunteers do the fun side of things better than anyone.

Rat Race Tasks 2 and 3

2007-06-26T01:31:00.000+10:00

June 18

Rat Race Task 2
Yesterday's tricky flying and the vigorous activities of the previous night had the hawaiian boys all in bed early. The campsite was eerily quiet.

We had another short fast task today to the same goal as yesterday. The race was over in slightly more than an hour but not without a couple gliders in the trees, one landing high up on ridge and a guy landing in a paddock near goal and being set upon by an 'attack Llama' (in his initial panic he reported it as being an emu). It seems Llama's are like goats but with much more fur and malice. They guy was OK, but didn't escape without a physical and psychologically beating. Luckily someone was there to capture it on film for everyone's amusement.

Today was a first for me at a paragliding competition - a hot lunch on launch. We were served up baked potato with all the fixings before the first briefing. Mike and Gail Haley do the little things so well - coffee in the morning, keg at goal, fresh watermelon and lemonade when you get back to HQ at the end of the day. Little things that make you feel like you get something for the time and money invested in these comps.

57 pilots in goal today broke the task 1 record of 51.

Task 3
Some days are unexpectedly fun. We sat around on launch waiting for just one wind tech to get above launch which didn't happen for hours. The task was revised and re-revised from an original 61km out and return to a 20km individual race to goal via 1 turnpoint. A party had been scheduled forthe goal field wether we flew there or not so it was good to have some kind of flying. The winners race time was just over 16 minutes. It doesn't really rate as a serious comp task but it's about as much fun as you can have at a comp when you launch, climb out, fly into convergance just before the start gate then glide around the course without turning to land at goal with BBQ and beer. 71 pilots did just that, a new record. It was also a record for the lowest validity day with the winner scoring 123 points. Also the record for the most fun ever on a comp task.

Rat Race Task 1

2007-06-19T12:14:00.000+10:00

June 17th

Rat Race Day 1
I think you'd agree if you bred a wookie and a great ape you'd end up with a pretty strange beast. Today I'm pretty sure I know the noise that animal would make if you sprayed it with mace and stuck it with a branding iron. It's exactly the same noise that hawaiian paraglider pilots make at 1.30am the day after they hit the mainland. Other people told me (I was far too scared and far too attempting sleep) it also involved some rolling in the dirt and the kind of intimate touching normally reserved for rugby league players. Apparently this is part of the process of adjusting to having so much land around.

Today dawned sunny and the forecast was mostly light and variable with some high pressure moving in after yesterdays cold front. Very taskable so we were quickly in the big yellow school bus and up the hill. With some possible stronger wind in the afternoon, a relatively short task was called - thirty six km including several turn points around launch and a seventeen km final glide up a valley to the west. The wind tech's were staying high so I launched early to avoid the rush and then spent an hour hanging around in some really rowdy thermals waiting for the start gate to open. Before we'd even headed for the start gate, there was a reserve deployment in the gaggle over launch. The pilot drifted in the small but very strong cores while half the. field flew large circles around him. He landed OK. The task was fast with the same strong, tight lift around the course. The comparison has been made already but I have to say how much this place is like bright - for those who know, in shape and size, todays task could easily have been Mystic-Porepunkah-Mystic-Apex-Clearspot-Harrietville. The glide away from Wood Rat mountain towards goal on the last leg is about as close as you could get to gliding from clear spot to the burrs - except unlike the burrs we got up at the end of the glide ;-)
Goal was a busy little paddock with more than forty pilots in. Heike, James and I all made goal with James in first. It was also fairly exciting with one pilot throwing a reserve and missing goal by two hundred metres and another two just scraping in - one did very well to get there just bubbling over the tall trees on the course line side of the goal paddock then completely misjudged his final turn and collected a pine tree with his left wing on downwind leg. He said he wasn't sore but I'm sure the adrenalin was still pumping. Another flew into the field downwind between two pine trees, pulling a feet up cross-tail landing to rapturous applause. In a competition where the philosophy is to introduce pilots to competing, I guess it isn't quite right to applaud an act of such stupidity, but when someone so blatantly disregards their physical well-being for the entertainment of all, you have to let it all out. Especially considering the pilot was in the goal cylinder without the attempted tree hugging.

It was a great start to the comp with heaps of smiling faces which is what it is all about. Results at www.vip2comp.com

Getting There

2007-06-19T11:51:00.000+10:00

Apologies for lumping some togther and a lack of photos, doing this is on the PDA is harder than I thought so will put pics up when i can mooch someones laptop. Sorree also four bad spelink n lack of punk chew a shun in parts...

June 16th
Today was registration and pilot briefing day-the organisers chose to have
the pilot brief before the first day of competition to reduce stress levels
on all, probably a good thing but not really workable in the Aussie comps
given we always start on a Saturday. I was totally shattered today.
Yesterdays drive, flying til 8pm and a late night combined to multiply the
jet lag so I'm in bed at grandpa o'clock tonight.

15 th June
Managed to stay awake long enough to go to bed at a normal hour in an
attempt to get the body clock sorted. It only partially worked. Met up with
Heike Hamman (another Aussie pilot) and Patti, who came from Seattle in the
worlds largest van, for the drive down to southern Oregon. The long drive was beaten with good conversation and we arrived at Ruch (Woodrat Mtn) in time for a flight. That is to say we lanched at 6pm and flew around the valley at our leisure for 2 hours. What a superb corner of the world! It felt good to be climbing out over launch, staring down on a sight which three days prior was only a google earth image on the other side of the planet. There is a very distnct volcano to the east which nobody can tell me the name of and as you climb past 1800m you see the snow covered bulk of Mt Shasta in California. A very enjoyable flight at the end of which I was almost going to sleep (jet lag, definitely not boredom) so landed to seek some rest. I have a feeling this place is going to be fun.

Adapting

2007-06-17T11:47:00.000+10:00

The first glimpse of LA came about 100 metres above the runway - the
cloud/smog base is low. Many passengers clapped and cheered after our safe
landing, unsure why, I did sleep through some of the trip but reasonably
sure I didn’t miss anything that would warrant applause. Or maybe I did and
it’s lucky I was so tired…

I was following an Aussie scout group off the plane towards immigration and
it was encouraging to see that these future pillars of society were
expanding their horizons and before we had cleared customs were already
adapting to their new environment - on boarding a lengthy escalator, the
young scouts stood still in double file and the scout master following said
"Boys you know you can walk down the escalator" to which one of the scouts
replied "No way sir, we're in America now!"

1 hour in line for immigration at LA was not a positive note for the new
'scan em and probe em' border control procedure. You would think they would
have some concession for having been scanned and prodded sometime in the
last 12 months to speed up your entry, but I guess it’s less about
convenience and more about them knowing where you buy your first cup of
coffee after you leave the airport. I had 4 hours at LA before flyng to Portland which at LAX is almost enough time to get from one point to any other. Dodging the scammers collecting for a fake charity (they warn you about this at immigration) I wandered outside for a while, soaking up the heat, the hectic curbside behaviour, the pea-soup air that is the LA atmosphere and let the kind of big stupid grin spread across my face that those with wander lust know well.

Exit

2007-06-14T10:10:00.000+10:00

Pulled an all nighter in an effort to convince myself I’m prepared, the illusion is holdng so far. As we drove into the city, I remarked to my sister how wide awake I seemed to be, then I got on th sky bus, closed my eyes and woke up at the airport 3.7 seconds later. I may just sleep through this one. Thanks to the excessive baggage allowance on US bound flights my 28kilo kit got through without question. God bless America.

Why?

2007-06-14T00:45:00.000+10:00

Trying to describe the attraction of paragliding to non-flyers almost always falls short. I can generally communicate well, but I cringe to think of the answers I've given when asked the question "What's it like up there?". "Gee, umm, it's really nice" just doesn't cut the mustard. So from now on, to answer the question much more completely and save myself from looking like a half-wit when talking about the thing I devote my spare time to, I'm going to show this picture:

And I'll need not say anything. This photo was taken by Will Gadd, flying and climbing extraordinaire who lives in British Columbia. The picture was taken recently at 12,500 ft during a flight from Mt Seven, Golden, where the Canadian Nationals will be held in late July.

Thanks to Will and others like him who so easily show why it is we do what we do.

Welcome to the clouds

2007-06-12T08:44:00.000+10:00

Hi Everybody.

Welcome to my "Web log". It's on the "Internet". Apologies, just a bit lame that it's taken me this long to get this happening.

Recent statistics suggest that there are 70 million blogs on the internet, this makes 70 million and one and your surfing time is limited - so many ebay auctions ;-) - so I'll try and keep it interesting.

I've put this up (just) before I head off the US and Canada for a few months flying, catching up with friends and general shenanigans. I'm flying two competitions in Oregon and one in BC and running around to visit some friends in LA, San Francisco, Vancouver, Idaho and Calgary - that should just about fill up 10 weeks, and should just about keep me away for most of what is looking like an arctic winter. Rug up people!

I'll post some photos and whatever general ramblings I don't manage to filter out, probably every few days. Bookmark this page or use the link to subscribe so you wont miss a moment of the excitement - and so you know when to stop watching the truck driving gorillas on youtube.

More from the road.

Cheers!
Benn