Veni, Volavi, Valedixi or "How I spent all day with my family and still flew Hat Creek in the evening"

June 21, 2008

Ok, so "Veni, Volavi, Valedixi" doesn't have the poetic simplicity of "Veni, Vidi, Vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered" as Julius Caesar said after conquering some place in modern Turkey), but (I think) it means "I came, I flew, I said goodbye", and that pretty much sums up my participation in the BAPA annual summer solstice Hat Creek fly-in held on June 20-21 2008.

The flying itself was below average since the famous Hat Creek glass-off didn't happen. But it was my first flight at this site, and the trip was notable for other reasons.

Since Hat Creek is a 5 hour drive from Fremont, and the flying only happens late in the evening, most people take friday off, and fly friday and saturday evening if they can. I felt a bit guilty about leaving Jo and Chinmay for 3 days, and was thinking of just going saturday-sunday. But that's a lot of driving for a 1-2 hour flight. So I suggested that Jo come along, she agreed, and we ended up going on friday anyway, but not to fly since she wanted to stay in the railroad park resort in Dunsmuir, about 70 miles away from Hat Creek. This is a hotel where the rooms are all cabooses on tracks. Chinmay would love it we thought.

Railroad Park resort, Dunsmuir

Caboose cabin

At 7am on saturday, the sound of raindrops on the caboose's roof woke me up. WTF, I thought. No no no, there's a glass off scheduled for today! It was overcast, and looked like thunderstorms were possible. But the light was great and I had a good time photographing the grounds of the hotel and Chinmay.

Railroad Park resort grounds

After a hearty breakfast in Dunsmuir, we checked out Hedge Creek falls. It's a short 5 minute hike, but I was concerned for Jo as she's 5 months along. But she was ok with it.

Hedge Creek falls, Dunsmuir

Now it was 11, and there were no signs of clearing. Called Mihir, and happy that he picked up. Turned out that he got skunked by work and never came! Anyway, he was bummed but happy to hear of the thunderstorms, and read the forecast for Burney to me: thunderstorms, partly cloudy, thunderstorms again at 5. Well, yesterday had been a scorcher, but without the sun, not only no glass-off, but with t-storms not likely to be flyable either.

Went to the lavender farm north of Weed, and took lots of pictures of an iconic landscape. This place is only open for a month in the year, and we are lucky we caught it on this trip. Came down via lake Siskiyou, and were at McCloud off 89 around 3pm. Decided that since the possibility of getting skunked was high, might as well do the McCloud railway excursion train for Chinmay.

Lavender farm and Mt Shasta

Yellow wildflowers and Mt. Shasta (Rt. 97)

McCloud Railway excursion train

Left McCloud around 5:30pm, reached Hat creek around 6:30pm, and tried radioing. Got Ann, and she said conditions looked pretty bad and they were already on their third cocktail. Well, I thought I would check out the launch anyway. Drove up on the unpaved road, much to Jo's concern that she would have to drive down the same way, and got to launch. Met Kevin, Mike, Chip, Ann, Carl, and Kurt. Most folks had a great time yesterday, although noone got too high.

After 20 minutes or so, conditions suddenly improved and Shad launched and seemed to stay above launch easily. Chinmay started bugging me incessantly as to why I wasn't flying yet. The worst pressure is from your own toddler; time to go! Got ready, launched, and had a 20-25 minute ridge soaring flight. This was the first time that Jo and Chinmay saw me fly in person, and Chinmay was excited as hell. Jo said that after I launched, some folks who had to wait longer for cycles to come through also had to endure Chinmay loudly asking her why they were taking so long! A 4 year old on launch can be dangerous.

My launch (with all BAPA members present assisting - respect!)

Chinmay's shot of the flying

Chinmay shows how you have to BEND your knees as you run for launch

Flying Hat creek (blue glider is me)

Mt. Lassen to the south, Mt. Shasta to the north, and Chinmay sitting on the bench waving to me as I shouted out to him passing by launch provided the eye-candy as half-a-dozen PGs and HGs boated back and forth along the ridge, about 100 feet above launch. The lift started dying, I floated over to the LZ and landed. Jo and Chinmay saw me land, and were at the LZ 10-15 minutes later as I was finishing my packing. Said my goodbyes, and I was back to being a dad and husband. Checked into the Rippling waters resort about 5 miles away, and had a great dinner to end an awesome day. To do so much with family and then cap it with a flight in the end makes for one extraordinary day indeed! I may fly here again someday, and may have a much longer or higher flight, but this one is special nonetheless!

Gone fishing!