Blitzkreig Dunlap

June 6, 2008

"It's gonna be a tight one", said Mihir, referring to the crowded gaggles we might fly in judging from the turnout of pilots in the LZ for another BAPA fly-in. Well, we were already piled in the back seat, and were hoping that the thermals would generate some steam heat:

Ay-O-Let's go, Ay-O Let's go!

sang the Ramones in my head as we sped up to launch in Kevin's Element. This fly-in and coop was supposed to be at Potato but was rescheduled to Dunlap again after an iffy forecast for the spud. Too bad we thought, and felt worse when Kevin described his flight there the previous weekend where he got up to 12,500 ft and had a tremendous cross country glide.

I haven't flown since the last Dunlap outing on April 26th. Had to go to India for 6 days to attend my cousin's wedding, then to Japan to have meetings at Fujitsu Labs. After that I was wrapped up in getting a plasma TV, attending yet more birthday parties, hosting relatives visiting from India, and generally spending time with wife and son. I find that flying becomes a vague dream as soon as I leave the hills and coast, and after a large context switch like the above, even become apprehensive about flying. Unlike in photography, this is an activity that you need to constantly stay focused on (well, photography without focus would also suck), or else you soon start feeling out of it.

Carl (?) launching pretty smoothly

Mihir felt the same way, and as a result, he, Bob, and I were the last to launch, standing around debating whether it was too strong (gusts were reaching 15 mph) or too bumpy, but really being a bit wimpy from the lack of flying. I mean everyone else launched, and our waiting around only meant that things would get worse. And it didn't help that most people seemed to have lousy launches with tip folds and surges and turns. Anyway, Bob did launch, then Mihir, and I, dead last. By this time the people who had launched about 90 minutes earlier and had sunk out were back for the second round.

Mihir launches, also smoothly

I had a great launch, and like everyone else, had no trouble staying up to the left of launch. Soon found a great thermal generated by a rocky spine that took me up to 5700 ft, and rode that thing up and down many times. There was a prevailing wind from the northwest through the valley that would keep pushing me back, but I could easily come back and find that thermal.

Unlike last time, things were more turbulent. I had to consciously correct my surges several times, and some of the tight turns to stay in the fastest part of the thermals (900 fpm) had me feeling dizzy and weightless. This was an active flying day even in the stable Arcus. Needless to say, even with the addition of the "grypton" tripod to my chest harness, video or photography was out of question. Too much concentration required for flying.

Shared the same thermal with Mihir and Mike, and again I need to work on entering these gaggles with more distance, even though once it felt like my thermal and theirs sort of "merged" and we found ourselves in the same one, making it seem like I had 'barged' in. Mihir wanted to stay low most of the time because of the high winds aloft that had been forecast. I didn't find anything unusual even at 5700 ft where I topped out and wanted to stay as high as possible.

After a while, I got tired of using the same thermal, and decided to go across the valley where I saw others staying up. This thoughtless decision would give me a good learning experience.

Instead of lift, I hit severe sink everywhere. By now I was in front of the red barn and the property where you are not supposed to land. I sank out so much that at one point a clearing in the forrest in front of that property seemed like the bailout LZ that I would have to come down in. This was a terrifying prospect, given the trees all around it, and even some in the middle. Luckily, I found a small thermal above it that gave me a few hundred feet. It would peter out quickly though, and after two passes through it, I thought I could make the alternate LZ now.

When we launched, we had been told that the school LZ was occupied by kids today, so I didn't even consider it, although it turned out that the game had ended, and people had started landing there. I started sinking again, and now wondered if I would clear the power lines that surrounded the little field in front of the LZ, the field with the abandoned RV. Luckily I cleared them and sank like a stone to be able to put it down in that field without incident, despite flaring hard and early from two feet off the ground. After landing, I felt compelled to kiss the ground! Hiked out to the Dunlap Inn parking lot where Ron picked me up.

'LZ': Looked much worse from above.

Lesson: pay attention to the prevailing wind and glide! I was done in by gliding against the wind for a long distance over terrain that had no bailouts. I should have instead gone south east towards Dan's LZ and made that my landing place. Apparently, he doesn't care if we land there, so not sure why they tell us to only use it in an emergency. That's what Mihir did. Also in the south-east direction you have the horse corral and other possible LZs. I took the worst possible path I think.

All in all, I do not think that the place I landed is particularly bad; XC pilots do this sort of thing all the time. But it was a first for me, to land in a place where I had no intention of landing. This is really the first flight where my launch was the least of my problems! The flying was active and turbulent, and the landing 'exciting' to say the least. Oh well, live and learn!

Hangie launching

Drove back up with Carl, Mihir, and Steve in my Honda, chilled out in cabin 2 for a bit with Uwe, Ron, and his girfriend, and went back to launch around 5. It was blowing pretty hard, and we saw Natalia way back east, seemingly unable to penetrate out. Even the hangies seemed parked when facing west, so we decided to not fly, although many did. At 6, it suddenly shut down, and seemed like all lift was gone as well. We headed back to the cabin, showered, fooled around on Ron's mandolin, and went for the BAPA dinner.

Excellent vegetarian biryani, burritos, and really excellent dal were the main course, for another memorable dinner. Chatted with Bob about his other life where he flies an airbus for United. Crashed early since hadn't slept much the previous night.

No flying on sunday for me as I had to be back home by 11am to attend yet another birthday party, the son of a close friend from Berkeley days. What is it about Dunlap and darned kids!

Here is a video shot by Mihir on sunday, when conditions were apparently mellower. Grrr!