Potato hill trip

Hmm, almost 3 months since last post!

Let's see, in that time, got my P3, several flights at Ed Levin, and a couple of hours at the Dump.

Needed to go to India in between for my dad's yearly ceremony, came back on Aug 30th.

For september 6-7, decided to go to Potato hill with Mihir and Ron. Som and Jens couldn't make it. Usual drill: got up at 4:30 on 6th, and met up at Ron's place and set off by 6:15 or so. Broke for breakfast at Denny's in Williams, and got to the LZ at 10:20. Bay area XC league was going to be here this weekend, so we met up with them, and headed up to the campground, dumped stuff, and drove up to launch with Chris and Michal ("Kansas").

Haven't been here in more than 2 years. The hike to launch, although only 12 minutes, exhausted me a bit, reminding me yet again that I need to hit the gym. The XC guys discussed the task for the day, while the free flyers like us got ready to launch. Ron went first, and I followed, launching around 12:30 or so.

Went along the spine in front of launch and found a little lift there, but after a while sunk out and started heading to the LZ. Disappointed! Less than an hour at Potato? Oh well. And Ron is way above me, and telling me on the radio that I am low! (Later he told me that he was 'concerned', not taunting me...).

Anyway, somewhere between hay bales and the LZ, from around 2500 feet I think, I hooked a thermal and got back close to 3200. Then found lots of lift near the slope to the right of launch and was soon at 5900, 2500 above launch. The area above the car park was the strongest and punchiest, and at one point the glider went nuts and scared the crap out of me. Seemed to be doing wingovers on its own, and surging and stalling like anything. It was like being punched on the face out of the blue!

It settled down after what seemed like forever (maybe several seconds). Wasn't sure what to do as I flew away, but remembered Dana Carvey doing Bush Sr. during gulf war I:

"We have learnt well the lesson of Vietnam! Stay out of Vietnam!"

So: go back, but avoid that area above the ridge on top of the car park!

Flew quite a bit more, and relished thermaling in gaggles again with all the XC pilots. Like a swarm of bees they were flying from one point to another, and after a while, were gone to Mt. Snow, St. John, and beyond, while Mihir and I and a couple others had the air to ourselves. Ron had already landed. Continued to find lots of strong lift on either side of the ridge behind launch, but could never get to 6000. The air got pretty nasty at that altitude anyway, and the thermals would spit you out like a bitter seed from an overripe cherry. After a while I learnt to stay in the turn as the best strategy for countering the inevitable turbulence. Part of the wing would do its flapping but right itself quickly. Also learnt to turn without grabbing on to the risers, alleviating the hand strain.

It was getting close to 2 now, and Mihir was already down. Decided to head to the LZ since didn't want to have it get even more turbulent. Approach was prefect, lost my altitude to tree height and came in perfectly and landed right in the middle, on my butt though since couldn't get out of the harness properly! Need to look into this, even after launch it flips me back quite a bit as I get in. Surprised that the LZ wasn't poppy today, even though it was 105 degrees!

In the LZ

Ron relaxing in the campground

Folded up, and drove back to the campground and relaxed a bit. Mihir and Ron enjoyed the "chakkali". Drove to launch and drove a couple of vehicles there down to the LZ, and then went back to launch around 4:30. The hike was really tiring this time. Ron launched, then Mihir went, and I was the last guy on launch. Saw Mihir try to hook a thermal aggressively and do a spiral dive instead. He came out of it fine, but then had a sled ride down as did Ron. Very tired at this point, but still tried to launch. Wind was cross, glider draped over a small bush that took 20 minutes to untangle. Decided not worth it and just packed it. Drove back down, picked them up, went back to camp and set things up. Went back to launch and drove down the remaining two vehicles back to campground to do our good deeds for today.

Mihir attacking a fruit

Had the much awaited dinner: Jo's rotis and MTR rajma. Boy was I hungry and tired! Sat around and chatted, Andy came by for a bit. Some of the XC guys had landed out somewhere and the retrieves were still not done! Settled in at 10 or so. Very comfortable temperature, didn't even need sleeping bag. New compact 1-man tent was great, could see all the stars through the mesh sides and top (didn't need the rain cover).

Day 2:
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Got up at 8, brushed teeth, had coffee, and brought out the 'obattu' from dads yearly ceremony, aka, 'puran poli'. Mihir, being a gujju, amazed, and had one. He loved it. Told me that he would have never guessed he would be having puran poli in a primitive campsite while on a paragliding trip! Ron liked it too.

After working out the logistics for vehicles, went up to launch with Andy and Tom. The hike today was hardly tiring. Didn't need to stop, and heart wasn't racing like yesterday. I still got it!

Didn't want to wait around too much today and launch after noon. Again the XC guys planned their task while Ron, Mihir, and I egged each other to go first. Finally we settled it with a coin, and Ron got to go first, me second, Mihir third. I launched around 12 this time, and immediately went to the ridge to the right of launch. Found the rocket ship there and was soon at 5700, way above everyone else. At one point there were 10-12 gliders well below me scratching, trying to get up. Mihir was well below me for a good half-an-hour, until they all drifted over to the car area and got back up. Flew more actively today, and didn't have any unnerving moments. After a while, it became quite predictable to go between 5700 and 4000; I could always find something around launch and get back up. While the 1000-1200 fpm core was 'efficient', sometimes it was better to circle in a larger diameter and stay in the 400-600 fpm band. The edges were still very sharp and turbulent if you fell out. And the air was as thrashy as yesterday above 5500. Not sure what was going on there, a shear of some sort?! Got the video camera out and took footage and pictures.

Ron was already down, and saw Mihir heading back. I had been up for an hour already, so headed over to the LZ too. On the way, I found more lift, and rode it again. After another 15 minutes, said, ok now let's really land and not risk a poppy LZ.

As I came in, Mihir was several hundred below me, as was Jon. Everyone was trying to land. Started getting a bit nervous: a poppy, not too big LZ is a challenge on its own, without needing to add 3 gliders into the mix. Luckily, I found a weak thermal and hooked it and gained a couple of hundred feet lazily and stayed in a holding pattern. Mihir and Jon seemed to take forever to land, but finally they did, and I could leave my thermal and make my final approach. Landed well, right next to the windsock after coming in a bit high.



Another great 1.5 hour thermal flight in active air! Turned out that Tom also landed in the field next to the LZ because he didn't even want to try the LZ. Said he wasn't "feeling the love" today, and didn't want to fight the active air. So all in all, it was pretty good that we flew in this stuff well with the experienced XC guys. I just need to work on entering gaggles more peacefully!

Retrieved some vehicles from launch, and headed back home around 3:30. Had dinner in Vacaville at a Chinese place and reached home around 8. All in all, another great trip, and perhaps the last for a while!