Baja Flying

Since paragliders are not certified IFR, winter flying in the Pacific NW is not always reliable. Flying in Baja Mexico, on the other hand, frequently is. Come mid winter it will be time to venture south. Having made a couple of paragliding trips down the Pacific coast, one with Motorhead Paul and Quentin, and the other with Wiebe and Quentin, we have flown LaSalina, 91clicks, the LaBufadora spine, Mt Ensenada, and San Antonio delMar.

These sites provide mixed types of flying, both ridge and thermal. During these trips we have gained some knowledge of routes, lodging, sites, and facilities. This year Jeff, Frank, Dave, and Quentin have expressed an interest in winter Baja flying. Additionally Dave’s friend Patty has indicated she may be willing to come along and retrieve.

In an effort to make this trip more easily accessible to the Oahu group it will originate from SanDiego. The drive times down the coast are relatively short. Lodging is inexpensive. And life is real easy on the Baja, we even found a Starbucks.

The trip is intended as a shared expense outing. The major expenses will be the rental of a very large 4wd, gas, and lodging. A date and duration will be set by consensus once the group is established. Six is probably the practical limit, so if you would like to join in let me know.
RVC

Slingshot

Over a dozen pilots at Kahana today! I think Scrappy had the best day: after we made it to Kualoa for his first flight there, we shot back to Kahana and kept going all the way to Pounders, again for his first time there. Great flying, Scrap! Chandler joined us for the Pounders leg, after doing his first tandem with Reaper. Thanks to Christine and Peter for the retrieves. Sorry I couldn't hang out longer afterwards - I was overdue at home.

My King Mountain report

For Labor Day weekend, I joined a few mainland flying friends for a camp/fly trip to King Mountain, Idaho. Sadly, I had already bought my airline tix before the Air Raid date was announced, so had to miss that, although I would say it was a worthy trade-off.

For anyone thinking of visiting King Mountain, Idaho, I recommend you check out the websites that offer good advice and warnings about the place and hook up with locals. It is a big mountain sitting just NE of some very large lava fields (Craters of the Moon) and collects thermals from a large area. There a tons of LZs everywhere. Some good sites to check out:

King Mountain Gliders
Fly King Mountain

Saturday, an HG pilot friend, John, and I arrived and met some of the Intermountain League pilots during the midday. Several of them said it was too strong and that they would be coming back for glassoff later. There were a couple of PGs in the air. I believe one took off for XC over the valley to escape the stronger conditions over King. I opted to wait for the glassoff.

John and I proceeded to the HG launch, from where he had a nice 40 minute flight in good, but not epic thermals. Upon returning to the PG launch around 5:30 pm, we found many pilots (~10) lounging waiting for the wind to die down. I introduced myself and pumped as much information from them as I could.

My first King glassoff flight -- SWEET!

While waiting for the strong conditions to subside, there were several periods where the winds calmed, but still the League pilots waited until about 6:30 pm when lighter cycles finally prevailed more consistently. About 7 of the pilots launched and went to the peak of King quickly. After waiting to hear reports of the conditions from those in the air, I launched. I took the flight cautiously at first, repeatedly checking my forward penetration as I benched up the face of King. The racers had taken off on XC before I reached the summit, but I was able to see the path they had taken and eventually followed. I had a nice gentle XC flight hovering over the ridge's face at about 11,000 feet down to about the middle of the Sunset Ridge, from where I left to land before the sun went down. Landing was fun with my retrieve chasing and checking out the LZs for me, enabling me to stay up as long as possible in the waning light.

My GPS log is here.

On Sunday, we were joined by two more HG pilots, and on our way to their launch in the morning, we ran into a car-ful of League pilots. Unhappy with the strong mid-afternoon conditions of the previous day, they were heading down to Big Southern Butte. I was tempted to go with them, but preferred to hang around for another shot at the glassoff and to watch the HGs fly the midday carnival.

Up at the HG launch, conditions were initially light and mellow, and I even "considered" launching, but I decided to wait and see how the hangies did. The first to launch, Liz, an H2 pilot, took a short, but sweet flight to the regular hang LZ. As the others prepared to launch, the cycles became stronger and with more cross cycles, and I knew the calm morning was over.

The other two HGs (John and Sam) were soon coring thermals all over the place. On the way down the hill, I checked out the PG launch, and though the air seemed launchable (14-18 mph) I figured it would mean the the lift would be strong, and that the LZ's would be hot and dangerous. Sure enough, later when the last HG came in to land, the winds in the hang LZ were averaging about 10, but with long gusting cycles over 20 mph.

Around 5:45, we returned up the hill to look for the lighter conditions of what we hoped would be a nice glassoff. This day, there was alot more moisture in the areas north and south of the valley. I wondered if this day might have been a stronger day than Saturday, and or that there was perhaps different weather in the air.

I found four pilots at the PG launch. Mike and Kathy were P2s who had been taking sled rides in morning conditions, but were wisely cautious in the afternoon. P4s Damion and Neil clearly were more experienced and well-versed in inland-mountain flying (though admittedly new to King). The air on launch was still about as strong as it had been when I last saw it in the early afternoon. While we waited, Damion wowed us and Neil's video camera with excellent "acro-kiting". He made the strong winds look gentle with much hovering and swooping around the launch area. He finally let himself be lifted and was soon high above. From the ground it appeared that he moved forward comfortably. Meanwhile, I grilled Neil on his assessment and concerns about the conditions. We had experienced at least a few periods of comfortable air (10-14 mph) lasting about five minutes each. And after each one ended, and the air returned to the stronger conditions (14-18 mph) someone would joke "That was our window, we should have launched!" We were hoping for some magical time when the wind conditions would "switch" down to the lighter glass-off like we had experienced the previous evening, but we were cognizant, at least so far, that we hadn't yet reached that time.

I quizzed Neil about the possibility of the conditions never waning, and he assured me that that could be quite possible with the vast Snake River plain cooking enough heat to feed the thermal motor of King all night. Neil seemed very wary of the conditions. I was eager to fly, certain in my hope/belief that the conditions would mellow. I fear now that my unbounded enthusiasm to fly may have been contagious and influenced Neil to step out of his bounds. Up in the air, the HGs were reporting smooth gentle conditions and were encouraging the H2 to launch.

During the next light period Neil setup to launch, and I followed.

My 2nd King flight and another pilot's misfortune

Initially, I found little lift, and had to work light lift close to the hill over the spine to the right (north) of launch. I did not see Neil launch, or where he got his lift, but he was soon well above and to the SE of me, closer to the main mountain. After scratching hard over the spine to the right of launch, I decided that I was high enough and that I ought move away from the spine where I felt vulnerable to the SW winds pushing me over the top and that I should explore the air back in front of launch. As I reached the area in front of launch, my ground speed dropped to 2-3 mph. I pushed speedbar to increase it to 6-7 mph. Soon, I saw Neil coming down with big ears (and I will presume speed bar). I decided I should heed his warning and soon followed suit. He descended more rapidly than me and within a few minutes was below and ahead of me. At some point he let out the ears and appeared to be flying smoothly with good penetration. He appeared to be pushing out to the LZ (over a mile away) flying over the gully to the LZ but drifting to the right toward the spine. I maintained my big ears/speed bar for awhile and at one point as I followed Neil I experienced massive sink, getting 800+ fpm down with some turbulance. I rode this out then released the bar and ears.

Neil was at about 600 ft AGL when his glider suffered a deflation. I saw a collapse, and then about two turns of an ugly spiral dive. The glider stopped spiralling, but just continued to go through a series of deformations with the pilot's body swinging out to all various sides.

As I and my glider soon came just over and slightly downwind of Neil, I took a collapse and small surge. My wing recovered from these and I was able to keep the wing open and overhead through the remaining few seconds while I was battered around. Meanwhile, Neil and his glider continued to descend with disorganized activity. I kept watching to see the glider recover, or to see the parachute come out. I did not. I would estimate that he kept falling for at least 10 seconds, maybe more. I stuck around long enough to report as much as I could to the ground crew then skirted out over the low front of the spine.

The pilot impacted the shallow slope almost simultaneous with his glider and reserve. I did not see the reserve prior to impact. After impact, it lay on the ground about 8 feet away. I felt no more turbulance as I moved away from the canyon and landed in the flats in 20 mph winds.

It took awhile to recover the downed pilot from the remote location and get him airlifted to good medical attention in Utah. At last report, Neil's had some surgery to tie together some broken bones and is hoping to be flying Valle de Bravo in January.

Some discussion and post-flight analysis

In post-flight discussions with the hang glider pilots, it seems that about the time Neil and I were starting to descend with big ears/bar, one pilot was in 200 fpm lift, while two other pilots were in two distinct thermals with 1800-2400 fpm lift. Two HG pilots remaining on launch reported development of strong winds 90 degree cross, which made breaking down difficult as they chose not to fly.

It seems clear to me that conditions had changed, and far beyond the milder periodic increases we were experiencing on the PG launch. I think in the stronger winds, the hill in front of King became a more significant factor contributing rotor to the mix of thermals and wind.

Chad Bastian wrote a great web report about the 1997 Nationals. It mentioned one guy trying to use B-line to go down in windy conditions, and paying for it by going backwards. I remembered that as I chose the big ears/speed bar option to come down.

King Mountain is a big, beautiful place to fly. But it demands your respect. If you're thinking of going there or anywhere with such big air, please do your best to get local site guidance. It's not a guarantee of a safe flight, but locals know the weather patterns that we island pilots don't see much. Or better yet, go when there's a well organized comp going on.

Bittersweet

Between squalls today, I enjoyed a flight from Kahana to Kualoa and back, and I took a few pictures to capture the brightly lit landscape and the high clouds. But I was very sad to leave Don behind, his wing drenched by a squall and sent to the LZ when the wind momentarily dropped off in the squall's wake. The pure pleasure of a great flight is somewhat diluted when you have to leave your buddies behind on the way. Pretty pictures are less interesting when there are no gliders in them.

Good Company

I met the Earls (Jim and Jeff) at Kahana on Wednesday, only to find the wind had slackened and veered into impossibly east and light conditions. We hiked anyway, and on the way up, Jeff joked that if anyone were to get up over the ridge today, it would be worth an article. Of course, I think every flying day is worth an article, and even some non-flying ones. So here's another report for our files.

For the sake of my long-neglected work, I had tried to resist going out there, which was easy for most of the day, since it was completely overcast and no one was flying there. But later in the afternoon, Jeff and Jim came out to fly, and the sky cleared to a perfect sunny blue. The work would have to wait -- I couldn't withstand that kind of pressure.

But when I arrived, I could see it was way too east and too light. The Earls could see it too, but they hiked up anyway because they had come so far, while I waited a good long time to see if they'd launch, or if the conditions would improve. Finally, I hiked up slowly, meeting them at the upper launch.

By the time we got to top launch, there was just enough wind remaining for light reverse inflations, so we set up for what we assumed would be sled rides. I went first, and out of sheer luck I managed to launch into the day's very last dying breath of soarable lift. Despite the impossibly light winds on launch, I was amazed to find myself buoyed up in widespread smooth lifting air, which took me above launch with very little effort, and I happily scratched my way slowly above the ridgeline. From there I could hear someone at Makapuu on the radio.

At the ridge level, the lift seemed to consist of smooth light thermic bubbles, and I found they drifted in a variety of directions, with some of them taking me slightly offshore. If I had had company I bet we could have spread out to find the best columns to get high enough to go somewhere.

The poor Earls got ready to follow me shortly after I launched, but they were hoping for more wind than they were feeling, and they ended up waiting on launch in air that was growing more still every minute. I still hoped they'd find a way to join me, but apparently I must have sucked the very last of the good cycles up into the air with me.

After saying goodbye to a group of five 'Iwas, I finally drifted down for a top-landing to see what was happening. By this time the Earls were just waiting for enough of a cycle to inflate their wings and burn for the LZ. I hucked off again in a decent enough cycle, and made a very lazy attempt to stay up, but finally sank out to the LZ. Jeff followed soon after, and Jim hiked down after having expended too much energy taming his uncooperative wing during the long wait.

I was happy to have got up today, but I felt bad that I couldn't share it properly with the Earls, and obviously they weren't too happy about it either -- they both blazed out of there as soon as they got down. To their credit, both of them have made great strides in recent months, stepping their flying up and doing some thermalling and XC flights. I am very lucky to have such great flying buddies who enjoy my most frequent flying site as much as I do, and who share my interest in exploring the lighter side of the windspeed envelope. Good flights are always better with good company. See you guys out there!

2007 HPA Air Raid Round-Up

[This is an addition to Alex's article, as I didn't see his at the time of my posting -- consider it a different perspective of the same day. Enjoy.]

The 2007 Air Raid took place yesterday at Kahana Bay. It was definitely a laid back affair and any attempts at organization were quickly dismissed by the group. Lots of the now familiar faces were missing yesterday and there were definitely some suprises: Mark "Nalu" Hill (local legend), Kenny Boyd (HG pilot and future PG pilot), Steve Stackable (from Torrey), among others.

The weather looked great for calling a serious XC task. The only problem was that other than Alex and I, no one really cared to do it. Brazilian Ray was flying tandem, Nalu decided to take Kenny tandem for the task, and everyone else forgot their GPS/Radio/motivation. It turned into a fun flying day with awards for distance, altitude, and spotlanding.

The conditions turned out to be light with many a pilot sinking out to the beach throughout the day and most of the launching done from upper launch. Once you patiently climbed out you could really put on some altitude over Puu Piei. Peter and Hilery took the tandem to just under 2500'.

Alex and Berndt flew to Pounders beach in less than ideal conditions for the distance win. It was a great flight considering the lack of the normal quality lift, and might have been a first for Berndt.

There were quite a few attempts to cross the bay, but Steve and Alex's late day runs were the two sucessful trips. The peanut gallery on launch were claiming that Steve was flying to Makapuu, but moments later he zips by on the back of a motorcycle.

The Bomb Drop was dropped itself this year because a few thought it was dangerous to drop baggies of sand over the beach, but I think compared to the guy on the quad ripping up the beach at 40+ mph, it would have been relatively benign. Many pilots asked for it since it is a real crowd pleaser. Makapuu next year, with a beer bottle drop (empty of course). Just kidding about that.

Which brings us to the spot landing. The spot landing is great because anyone can do it, and it all happened right in front of the peanut gallery. The day starts off with pilots being slow and cautious trying to concentrate on getting in close. As the day wears on everyone gets a bit looser with pilots spinning, sliding and plowing their way into the spot. The entertainment value for spectators is huge with the cheering from the sidelines adding to the mayhem. Next year the bomb drop is on the spectators.

The peanut gallery setup is amazing with everyone set up in the shade under the ironwood trees with a clear view of the action. There is a grassy folding area and picnic tables. It is just on the Kaaawa side of the venturi, and we might consider using it on a day to day basis.

There was a "Where's Frank?" contest, where like the fabled Big Foot, people claimed sightings, but he never actually materialized.

Millilani Eric took a downwind spin around the back of the ridge, I guess to explore the lift on that side. After an amazingly long and low glide back around the front, he emerged up high in front again.

We missed Don Ikenberry, who we thought had the resume for a perfect retrieve driver. But I guess since he doesn't drink and can't fly for a while, there was nothing that interested him.

Wives, girlfriends and pets all came out and supported (read: endured) and made the day special. Special thanks goes out to Ray from Sol and Jorge from Ozone for donating the prizes.

As far as future events go, I think we have enough tandem pilots to have a club family and friends fly day, where we take all comers tandem. We could do a club XC comp day for the (few) interested pilots without the restraints of a Fly-In. Maybe we could move the party up to launch next time and everyone could topland and watch the mayhem unfold from the front row.

I failed to bring my camera, so I hope some of you will share some photos with us.

Results: Open / Serial

Altitude: Peter & Hillery / Jim

Distance: Alex /Berendt

Spot Landing: Scrappy / Jim

Air Raid Recap: Mission Accomplished!

Twenty local pilots (and another dozen family members, friends and visiting pilots) took time from their busy holiday schedules to fly together and celebrate our shared passion at Kahana yesterday. And though the turnout may have been a bit lower than in past years, and the events a bit more haphazard, the good spirits and camaraderie made our fourth annual fly-in event a great success.

We must have kept this event secret enough to avoid the attention of the weather gods this time around, because we were very lucky to have flyable conditions for the entire day. The sunny sky was interrupted only once by a tiny squall passing outside the bay, and we enjoyed light tradewinds sparsely peppered with high pressure thermals. The conditions of the day rewarded hard work and patience, not to mention light wing-loading.

Many pilots struggled heroically just to rise above launch, and lots of folks got an earlier chance at the spot-landing event than they had intended. The spot landing safety cone was a big hit, and a variety of highly entertaining approach patterns were demonstrated throughout the day. Near the end of the flying circus, one clown in particular missed the spot and landed on his keister, after an unorthodox and desperate series of last minute oscillations -- but then he proceeded to bulldoze the cone as his wing dragged him across it. Um, okay, that was me. My worst spot landing approach ever, but hopefully it was worth a laugh.

Despite the light conditions, more than half of us managed to soar for many cumulative hours over the course of the day, and a handful of us got high enough to strike out and seek our fortunes up and down the range. Some flights were more epic than others. In an early misstep, Eric fell prey to the venturi that often sucks unwary low pilots around into Punaluu on easterly days, but in a display of fierce determination, he patiently milked the tiny turbulent bubbles of lift in the strong sideways airflow, and slowly battled his way back around front and up again. Dave tried the first bay crossing, and sacrificed his first flight to show us that it wasn't really working, squeaking out an impossibly low save at the Crouching Lion and burning straight back to the LZ.

Four of us left Kahana to try our luck downrange, and we found the thermals to be rough and punchy. They were workable, but too narrow and fast for us to make many full turns. I puckered up and toughed out a flight to Pounders with Berndt for his first time landing there - he was thrilled to have gone that far. Scot got off the snot rocket express one stop earlier, in Hauula, and Russell brought up the caboose and rode it all the way to a dizzying 1,800 feet over the Punaluu ridge, before heading in for a landing at the beach there. It turns out he believed he needed two grand before he could leave that ridge to follow us, not realizing the rest of us had left with only about 1,500 feet. As Dave reminded us, flying downrange from Kahana is like sliding downstream, with progressively less height needed to make each transition. (Minimum departure heights on most days are 1,800 feet at Kahana, 1,400 feet at Punaluu, the same again at Sacred Falls, and finally about a grand at Hauula to make Pounders.)

Many tandem pilots gave their time and energy to share the air with family and friends, but the conditions were generally too light and challenging for them to stay up under those sluggish ships. Peter and Hillary proved that it was possible though, and eventually reported the highest altitude of the day above Kahana, reaching 2,450 feet and the thin air at cloudbase. One of the tandem pilots was Nalu, who had shown up out of the blue to see some old friends, and he kindly gave Kenny a brief tandem flight on Dave's small tandem wing. For the rest of the day, Kenny worked on learning to ground handle from the guru himself, Suicide Pete, with help from Brazilian Ray and others. Kenny quickly mastered the basics of kiting and was making it look easy by the end of the day.

Visitor Steve Stackable from Torrey Pines showed up to demonstrate his laid back prowess once again, showing us that it was possible to cross the bay by making it over on his first attempt, and he soon disappeared around the corner above Kaaawa. A bit later on, I managed to follow him over there, but I couldn't find him anywhere, so I assumed he'd flown uprange towards Makapuu. I think it would definitely have been a good day to make the big trip, but as usual I wasn't willing to fly off alone on that scary mission, and instead I consoled myself with an easy tour to Kualoa and back in the last light of the day. Turns out Steve had bombed out at Kaaawa school!

Thanks to everyone who came out to fly and party with us. Thanks to Rich for the tent, Ray and Peter (and others?) for the barbecues, and everyone for bringing food and beverages to share. I was so buzzed on ginger beer by the end of the day I don't know how I got home.

I know some folks shot some great pictures and video -- please share them online or e-mail them if you can, and I'll be happy to link them into this report.