Some day's you're a Rock Star, some days a rock...

Today the weather was much like yesterday, high pressure, not too much wind, clear skies.  A task of 108km was called, heading east across a valley, over a mountain range, across another valley, then north along a range for a total of about 70 miles.

A couple issues delayed my launch; first, a pilot on a comp wing augured in just below launch (no news on his condition yet), then I found one of my reserve pins had pulled out.  When I finally was able to launch, it was past start time and the wind had picked up.  I felt my wing wanting to spin over and over and I didn't want to repeat what that other pilot did, so I played it safe.  The guys that got in tight to the hill managed to get up and out, but a lot of us flushed to the main LZ.

Just wait 'til tomorrow!

Finally!

We finally had a break in the weather today and got to fly.  It was a good-news, bad-news weather day.  The good: temperatures warmed up to the high 60's low 70's on the valley floor, and the sky was clear blue.  The bad: high pressure, which means the air is stable, and the lift that does exist tends to be in tiny thermals moving fast.  It's kind of like riding a bull in the rodeo...

After crossing the ridge in the fore ground, a group of us headed towards a rocky hill that looked like the plug from a volcano.  Most of us managed to get up there, but the rock-and-roll flying took it's toll; Bob and a few others put it down in the meadow and had a long hike out...

I moved on three more ridges and grouped up with three other pilots.  I thought I was going to make it, but then two of us zigged, and the other two zagged.  Turned out zagging was a better choice.

I flushed down off the ridge and landed beside the road (beats a long hike any day) and a local stopped to help me pack up and gave me a ride into town.  If you have to land early, that's probably the best thing that can happen.  Fun day!

Sun Valley - Day 3

Today there was no need to head to launch; we all decided there wasn't going to be any flying just by looking out the window. Just to be sure, we checked on line, and the winds at Sargent Mt. were blowing 46-60 mph. A morning to sleep in... The organizer had a meeting at HQ just to keep people busy, but we went spelunking instead.

There are lava tubes in the planes south of Ketchum. We went to the BLM office in Soshone and picked up some maps showing the non-commercial caves and took the station wagon off road. What you see above ground is this:
Look a little closer and you find...


This was in Maze Cave. We were determined to find our way so pushed on with flashlights and head lamps into some very tiny openings. Lots of crawling on hands and knees, bumping your head and generally wondering if you would find your way out again.




We went to three caves today, the most impressive was Tee Cave with tunnels like a subway. You had to crawl to get into the cave, but when you got a ways down the tunnell it opened up to 30 feet wide and 15 high. These were underground rivers of lava, and when the lava stopped being pushed up, most drained out leaving the tunnels half full.

Sun Valley - Day 2

Todays weather was a repeat of yesterday: low clouds that sat on launch until after noon, and cold, cold, cold. A task was called, and we all geared up and started launching the wind dummies (essentially test pilots that test the air before the competitors all launch to feed info back to the safety committee). It was clear the conditions were difficult, and the wind started to cross. We changed to another launch facing another direction, but the committe quickly decided that wasn't going to work either, so they canceled the day.

We did get some quality time with the 3-d topo map:

2010 US National Paragliding Championship, Sun Valley

Today was day 1 of the Nationals in Sun Valley. This is my first time here, and I really like the area. From what I've seen in the first day, it's a lot like Park City and the people I've met have been great.

One of the great things about paragliding here is taking the gondola and chair lift up the mountain and launching from the top of the ski area. Everywhere I've ever flown we've jammed as many pilots as humanly possable into a truck for the very uncomfortable drive to launch, and one person has to drive it back down. Not here; the main Landing Zone is right next to the lift so you park, get on the lift, and when you land you are back at your car.

Another great thing about flying here is that there are miles and miles of 10,000 ft mountains in every direction. The flying is going to be fantastic.

Except today. Today the weather over developed, the clouds filled the sky killing the lift, and it snowed. In August! What's up with that?

VDB09 Day 4

No joy in mudville for me today. Heavy overcast, very, very light lift (200 up), tops at 9300. I sat on launch for as long as I could, waiting while others circled and sunk out to the piano. Finally some got situated at the wall behind the pinon, and I launched. I got to 9300 twice, watched others go over the back and sink out, and finally decided to make a play for the pinon. I took too direct a line and lost over 3k on the way arriving just above the trees. An air shark tried to take a bite out of me in front, but I caught it early. The pilots I had been watching thermal left as I arrived, so I made two passes and headed out.

Just after I landed, I looked back at the pinon to see the air shark had gotten someone else, and they were going down under reserve. Got to stay vigilant!

Many others waited and launched later and made jovans or the lake.

VDB09 Day 3

Lots of clouds in the morning when we got up, and it was looking questionable as to weather we would be able to go XC due to the development. We launched and worked up to 9,300 feet or so and Kevin two-dogs and I went over the back towards the house. We hadn't gone a mile when the vario started chirping. I looked over at Kev and he was already in big ears (descent manover) so I reached up and grabbed the outside A's as well. My vario really started singing as we went up into the clouds at 1,400 fpm. I kept focused on Kev's wing, grabbed even more outside A's and folded up almost half of my glider while pushing on speed bar. We dropped out of the cloud, right next to each other just as we went in, no problems.

Unfortunatly that was the last of the lift and I landed in a little soccer field just past Sacamacante, about a mile from Jovons restaurant. By the time I got packed up and over the fence, Raul was there to pick me up and take me to lunch.

After lunch we waited on launch watching the hang gliders fly in the strong winds. About 5pm we launched into very, very light lift and boated around for over an hour as the sun set.