Full on summer flying today at Marshall on Day 2 of the SoCal League
Quite honestly, it wasn't the sort of day regular pilots go out for, but it sure made for a full on competition task flying. Smaller turn out than yesterday as the conditions weren't forecast to be quite so good.
After getting dragged across launch in a thermal cycle, I took off into turbulent air. I got a small asymmetic collapse and cravet near the top of the first thermal, got it out no problem, then moved on to Towers to look for air that wasn't quite so exciting as that over launch.
The course reversed the usual pattern of local turnpoints first, with the first turnpoint at McKinley, about 10km down range. Choppy, sinky glides, and short sharp thermals were the theme of the day. Getting down to McKinley and back was surprisingly uneventful. The ridge behind the Arrowhead resort working well in both directions but the notorious sink holes before and after claiming two of the seven pilots, who both pushed out to land safely in the river washes at the base of the mountains.
Back around Marshall the thermals were just crazy, with powerful audible rushes of air and then strong narrow cores. Get in, bank it up and hold on for the ride.
Top of lift wasn't that high at between 6500 and 7500 feet, so we were climbing a lot - over 15,000 ft of thermals in 2hrs .... In between each thermal the glides were anywhere between 4:1 and 7:1, so the air was moving down everywhere where it wasn't moving up. The strong southwest wind and several legs directly into the wind out over the valley meant you had get high to make the moves...
As the day progressed the whole valley became thermic. I ended up finishing the course 3000 ft over goal and had to fly around looking for a sinky hole to spiral down in, as full on summer flying for 2hrs 15minutes was about enough excitement for the day.
Nice to cool off in the wonderful pond with a well earned beer from Team Popper.
Quite honestly, it wasn't the sort of day regular pilots go out for, but it sure made for a full on competition task flying. Smaller turn out than yesterday as the conditions weren't forecast to be quite so good.
After getting dragged across launch in a thermal cycle, I took off into turbulent air. I got a small asymmetic collapse and cravet near the top of the first thermal, got it out no problem, then moved on to Towers to look for air that wasn't quite so exciting as that over launch.
The course reversed the usual pattern of local turnpoints first, with the first turnpoint at McKinley, about 10km down range. Choppy, sinky glides, and short sharp thermals were the theme of the day. Getting down to McKinley and back was surprisingly uneventful. The ridge behind the Arrowhead resort working well in both directions but the notorious sink holes before and after claiming two of the seven pilots, who both pushed out to land safely in the river washes at the base of the mountains.
Back around Marshall the thermals were just crazy, with powerful audible rushes of air and then strong narrow cores. Get in, bank it up and hold on for the ride.
Top of lift wasn't that high at between 6500 and 7500 feet, so we were climbing a lot - over 15,000 ft of thermals in 2hrs .... In between each thermal the glides were anywhere between 4:1 and 7:1, so the air was moving down everywhere where it wasn't moving up. The strong southwest wind and several legs directly into the wind out over the valley meant you had get high to make the moves...
As the day progressed the whole valley became thermic. I ended up finishing the course 3000 ft over goal and had to fly around looking for a sinky hole to spiral down in, as full on summer flying for 2hrs 15minutes was about enough excitement for the day.
Nice to cool off in the wonderful pond with a well earned beer from Team Popper.
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