BAPA Elk mountain fly-in
May 1, 2006
This weekend, there were several social getogethers that Jo attended. The get togethers all went off well, but I wouldn't know for I was away at the bay area paragliding association (BAPA) fly-in at Elk mountain for the weekend. Many thanks to Jo for letting me do this, and for managing these get-togethers without me.
I had two great flights, and on one I managed to soar again (get above launch), although only by a few hundred feet this time (about 3000 feet above ground, and 4600 mean-sea- level). Unfortunately, I had found a great thermal and was going up at a mellow 400 feet per minute as per my brand new variometer, when I heard someone shout on the radio "get back down NOW". I heard this preceded by my name I thought, and I decided to leave the thermal I was in and fly away from the mountain. Unfortunately, I had misheard, and the yelling was for someone else (Graham actually), and I misheard "Graham" for "Praveen". Lesson for next time: IGNORE THE FRIKKING RADIO! I still rue what might have been another long soaring flight, cut short to only 20 minutes by this, since I could not find any other thermals to work. At least I soared; many of my friends didn't do as well, and didn't get above launch at all. Again, I think I can say that I "outflew" most with comparable skill and experience levels.
Anyway, the scenery was great as usual, with the snow-capped Mt. Snow range to the north, Clear lake to the south, the long clear creek meandering through the valley, the mountains still a velvetty green with bursts of purple flowering trees here and there, and the ocassional horse grazing peacefully near its barn. I had great launches and landings. Almost 20 pilots were there, and I did my second launch with about 12 of them watching. Usually this makes me a bit nervous, but my friend said that I had a "textbook launch" each time. We camped there for the night, exchanged humorous tales as the libations flowed freely, and, as the mercury dropped, huddled around an enormous bonfire that BAPA has a known tradition of building (> 700 lbs of wood) and watched the flames leap into an inky black sky with its plethora of stars.
We got skunked out on the evening flight on saturday, dashing our hopes for a smooth glass-off (in a "glass-off", the ground gives up its heat as the day cools and the sun sets, and generates a very wide cushion of warm rising air that creates very smooth lift, enabling you to stay up for a while with little effort). It was blowing like a hurricane up there (well 14 mph on a mountain top is pretty much a hurricane for most of us), although a few of the ballsy advanced guys did launch and have great ridge soaring flights. Sunday morning the winds were from the west and cross, and we para-waited for it to straighten out.
Meanwhile, Enlau Conner, a well-known daredevil pilot, took out his motorized paraglider, took off from the LZ (landing zone), and straffed us, taunting us with his buzzing motor. All we could do was watch as he and Guisseppe in another para-motor had the air all to themselves and exlored the valley to their hearts content, skimming the tree tops and doing powered wing overs and spiral dives. I really hope that there will be an electric version of this one day; the thought of a noisy propeller on my back and tank of gas on my butt scares me just a wee bit.
Soon, there was window of about an hour when it straightened out and 15 of the 20 launched; a regular runway up there! We went back for a second but by then the LZ was cooking (too turbulent to land), and lots of turbulence in the air as well, so we called it a day. Some stayed back for another shot at the glass-off, but I and many others headed home. All in all, another great flying trip and more things to log. Lessons learnt:
1) Turn OFF the vario for the drive up the mountain. The constant beeping here is infuriating.
2) Don't hear things on the radio!
This weekend, there were several social getogethers that Jo attended. The get togethers all went off well, but I wouldn't know for I was away at the bay area paragliding association (BAPA) fly-in at Elk mountain for the weekend. Many thanks to Jo for letting me do this, and for managing these get-togethers without me.
I had two great flights, and on one I managed to soar again (get above launch), although only by a few hundred feet this time (about 3000 feet above ground, and 4600 mean-sea- level). Unfortunately, I had found a great thermal and was going up at a mellow 400 feet per minute as per my brand new variometer, when I heard someone shout on the radio "get back down NOW". I heard this preceded by my name I thought, and I decided to leave the thermal I was in and fly away from the mountain. Unfortunately, I had misheard, and the yelling was for someone else (Graham actually), and I misheard "Graham" for "Praveen". Lesson for next time: IGNORE THE FRIKKING RADIO! I still rue what might have been another long soaring flight, cut short to only 20 minutes by this, since I could not find any other thermals to work. At least I soared; many of my friends didn't do as well, and didn't get above launch at all. Again, I think I can say that I "outflew" most with comparable skill and experience levels.
Anyway, the scenery was great as usual, with the snow-capped Mt. Snow range to the north, Clear lake to the south, the long clear creek meandering through the valley, the mountains still a velvetty green with bursts of purple flowering trees here and there, and the ocassional horse grazing peacefully near its barn. I had great launches and landings. Almost 20 pilots were there, and I did my second launch with about 12 of them watching. Usually this makes me a bit nervous, but my friend said that I had a "textbook launch" each time. We camped there for the night, exchanged humorous tales as the libations flowed freely, and, as the mercury dropped, huddled around an enormous bonfire that BAPA has a known tradition of building (> 700 lbs of wood) and watched the flames leap into an inky black sky with its plethora of stars.
We got skunked out on the evening flight on saturday, dashing our hopes for a smooth glass-off (in a "glass-off", the ground gives up its heat as the day cools and the sun sets, and generates a very wide cushion of warm rising air that creates very smooth lift, enabling you to stay up for a while with little effort). It was blowing like a hurricane up there (well 14 mph on a mountain top is pretty much a hurricane for most of us), although a few of the ballsy advanced guys did launch and have great ridge soaring flights. Sunday morning the winds were from the west and cross, and we para-waited for it to straighten out.
Meanwhile, Enlau Conner, a well-known daredevil pilot, took out his motorized paraglider, took off from the LZ (landing zone), and straffed us, taunting us with his buzzing motor. All we could do was watch as he and Guisseppe in another para-motor had the air all to themselves and exlored the valley to their hearts content, skimming the tree tops and doing powered wing overs and spiral dives. I really hope that there will be an electric version of this one day; the thought of a noisy propeller on my back and tank of gas on my butt scares me just a wee bit.
Soon, there was window of about an hour when it straightened out and 15 of the 20 launched; a regular runway up there! We went back for a second but by then the LZ was cooking (too turbulent to land), and lots of turbulence in the air as well, so we called it a day. Some stayed back for another shot at the glass-off, but I and many others headed home. All in all, another great flying trip and more things to log. Lessons learnt:
1) Turn OFF the vario for the drive up the mountain. The constant beeping here is infuriating.
2) Don't hear things on the radio!
posted by PM at 2:33 PM
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