More beautiful weather on Day 2, this time at our usual location at Marshall.
League organizer Aaron Price set a task with a leg to Pine, then 35km down the valley to Allen Peak, then back into wind to land at Hanger 24.
Conditions were easy at the start with plenty of thermals. Once over at the first turnpoint, I made a mistake not following Tavis Gustafason over to the Crestline Ridge where he got pinged up to maybe 7000ft. He's a much better pilot than me and knows Marshall like the back of his hand. Follow the pros!
The top pilots today were flying fast and tight, many of them having had several hundred kilometers of epic cross country flying this year all ready. With a busy year of family commitments already behind me I haven't tuned in my flying for 2016, so couldn't keep up and was well behind after arriving at Arrow Peak. Arrow is usually where we climb as high as possible before the glide towards McKinley Mountain.
After Arrow Peak I found myself on my own on the dreaded crossing towards McKinley. This is a complex area of low ridges where there are usually quite a few thermals working. Today I didn't slow myself down enough to find anything and there was only one other pilot around searching.
I pushed on to get around McKinely Mountain to avoid landing in the Indian tribal land, but still couldn't find a single thermal to climb out in. As I got lower there were all sorts of little pops of hot air, but nothing was organized enough low down to climb out in.
I landed on top of the first range of hills close in Small Canyon close to Jai Pal, who had also not found anything on the entire glide across from Arrow Peak.
Some great flying from the leaders had a bunch of people in goal at Hanger 24 after a big circle around Allen Peak further south.
All smiles on launch
from left to right: Reavis Sutphin-Gray, Gavin Fridland and Jai Pal Khalsa
Classic SoCal conditions with blue thermals, haze and inversion in the valley and a bit of high cloud
Aaron Price planning task while retrieve driver Nicole Popper writes up the task board.
Waiting for race start above Marshall Peak, San Bernadino
Photo: Gavin Fridland
The top pilots today were flying fast and tight, many of them having had several hundred kilometers of epic cross country flying this year all ready. With a busy year of family commitments already behind me I haven't tuned in my flying for 2016, so couldn't keep up and was well behind after arriving at Arrow Peak. Arrow is usually where we climb as high as possible before the glide towards McKinley Mountain.
After Arrow Peak I found myself on my own on the dreaded crossing towards McKinley. This is a complex area of low ridges where there are usually quite a few thermals working. Today I didn't slow myself down enough to find anything and there was only one other pilot around searching.
I pushed on to get around McKinely Mountain to avoid landing in the Indian tribal land, but still couldn't find a single thermal to climb out in. As I got lower there were all sorts of little pops of hot air, but nothing was organized enough low down to climb out in.
I landed on top of the first range of hills close in Small Canyon close to Jai Pal, who had also not found anything on the entire glide across from Arrow Peak.
Some great flying from the leaders had a bunch of people in goal at Hanger 24 after a big circle around Allen Peak further south.