Monday, February 03, 2014

Superdill Sunday

While most folks were home watching some kind of sports game or something on TV, a team of fourteen intrepid souls assembled at Dillingham in hopes of scoring some winter season airtime in a short break between frontal systems. The lucky half of the team was rewarded with many hours and miles of airtime, in a sweet mixture of light ridge lift and nicely organized thermals. The less lucky half was punished with a treacherous wet hike up, a long hot wait, and then either extended sled rides or super slippery hikes down. Just another day at one of the most challenging and beautiful sites on the island.

The first obstacle was the slick and scary steep hike up. As some of us have suspected, it turns out the trail we use to attain the knob launch is actually a runoff stream bed, which was draining the hills of the past few days of frontal moisture. Then after we got up to launch, we realized that the conditions were too straight in from the north and too light to inflate our wings. The only airflow on launch was straight up the nose, but it was not wrapping consistently up either side. The air was basically a big dead bubble up there. We considered forward launching in a valiant dash down the length of the knob, but no one was feeling quite that desperate.

After an hour and a half up there, I finally just got too antsy to wait any longer, and I tried my luck with the light east cycles that seemed to be trying to fill in. I got off lightly loaded but well enough, and immediately headed west, milking zeros until I got to the spine just before the abominable ravine hike to the pasture, and there I found the lift was collecting perfectly. In hindsight we should probably have hiked that ravine to launch the pasture, although I am pretty sure that "trail" is also a runoff stream bed, not to mention a much longer and tougher climb.

Despite the challenging launch conditions at the knob, flying conditions along the ridge were perfect: very light ridge lift with plenty of sweet thermals to play with. But as conditions got better and better in the air, they got worse and worse on launch. Later on I heard there were some very exciting launches, both successful and attempted, before the game was finally called. Those left on launch ended up hiking down, whereas those in the air were finding it hard to get down for landings!

JK and I made the most of the light conditions to log two thermal-powered loops each, stretching from the point to the fingers deep behind the drop zone, to notch the year’s highest scoring flights so far on the league scoreboard with distances of 18 and 17 miles. Visitors Bill and Sean from New Mexico were overjoyed to get into the air during a rare sunny break on what might be an otherwise rainy trip. And Jeff and Kevin were both super stoked to be on the luckier half of the team this time around.

Meanwhile, after many months of planning and multiple previous attempts, two of Kauai's most intrepid pilots were scoring possibly the most dreamed of (and never before achieved) flights in island flying lore: the Na Pali coast, from Kalalau to Hanalei. Congrats to Bob and Adam on their achievement.

The Dillingham team: Woody, me, Diamond Head Paul, Thom, JK, Sebastian, Jeff, Berndt, Rich, NM Bill and Sean, Kevin, Dave Nickels, NY Rudi.

7 comments:

kauai bob said...

Thanks for the mention it was all we thought it would be and more

firedave2 said...

Hold it. Matt Coombs flew most of the way to Haena, Jared as well. And the Hangies were doing it years ago, i believe.

Nice flight none the less. I would love to do it.

JK said...

I'm just sorry The Knob denied some. I'm hopeful that one day we can find The Bowl. And so the next time we fly on this particular Sunday, all will get off the ground, and the title for the write up will be thoroughly confusing. Here are a few more shots: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49314573@N00/sets/72157640482137346/

Alex said...

JK, awesome photos, I added them to the story. You are right, we need a bowl and not a knob! The search for the perfect Dillingham launch is far from over...

Alex said...

Dave, I think you may have been misinformed. Jared didn't document his sled ride to nowhere, but Coombs did. He didn't even make it halfway to Haena, though I'm not sure he was really trying, or what his plan was, if any.

Bob and Adam are not asking for anyone's respect, but I will be the first to say they deserve kudos for doing this flight right: a couple of local guys planning it out, doing their homework, heading up there a few times on the wrong days, but waiting for the right day, with the best wind direction and cloud base and thermal conditions. And on this day, Bob managed to ride thermals for an hour above Kalalau Valley waiting for Adam to launch.

Adam is a helicopter pilot who flies above that terrain every day. Bob is one of the old Kauai hang glider pilots from 25 years ago, and he is flying a paraglider now. He says his buddy Gerry Charlebois was the only pilot who ever made the flight in a hang glider. Both of those guys have some serious stories to tell. This is only the latest story Bob will be telling. Hopefully it gets told on these pages someday soon!

Alex said...

Sorry for the off topic rant! This is really an Oahu story about yet another winter day at the Dill. We didn't get many chances while Obama was here but since he left we've been out there a bunch. At this point I'm sorely disappointed in the knob. It seemed so promising. It's a good option on certain days but it's not a good option for most people on most days. Maybe there's no such launch. But I'll keep dreaming and searching out there...

Stalker said...

Big thanks to Thom, Berndt, and others for the launch assist (or 12). It was awful trying to get out of there, but once you got off there was plenty of light ridge lift and mellow thermals. Had my best HDH flight yet! (of only 3) Flying the length of that huge ridge is awesome!

-Jeff