Hot stable weather and a strong inversion greeted pilots at Day 2 of the SoCal XC League August event.
The inversion create a top of lift at only 4500ft and thermals were very disorganized. The first took us north to the DeVore turnpoint where most of us arrived lower than we would ever normally fly over there. High concentration levels in the ratty, disorganized lift were required.
Raw video: Thermalling up on Pine
The next turnpoint was a 15km leg to a large radius circle around MacKinley so gave pilots the option to go along the front and tag the circle from the front, or go deep along the ridge near Arrowhead springs and tag the turnpoint from ridge.
I decided to stay out the front, as when it is really hot, the wind coming off the flats usually triggers off the first range of hills. I didn't want to get stuck on the back of the ridge around from the Arrowhead resort without getting high. I had the biggest collapse of my entire flying career in there and so now am a little wary...
The front worked pretty well and I got all the way to the Indian reservation picking off thermals along the way.
Getting back I had landing areas in mind pretty much the whole way as the climbs were really slow and ratty with a 1m/s being typical. The only decent climb was coming off the big wash, which is a well known thermal trigger when flying XC from Marshall.
Eventually I wasn't patient enough to climb out from low near the bend in the highway well below the height of the Towers, so I missed the last two turnpoints as they required going back over launch to get high enough to get in and out of the valley behind launch safely.
I tried to sneak low along the foothills back to the landing area to avoid needing retrieve as I've successfully done this before in similar conditions, but came up a bit short. Lifty air and the downhill slope meant a crazy approach where I flew 30ft above a gravel road for several hundred yards without coming getting any lower. Eventually landed in a fragrant sage bush after last minute bubble popped me off the road.
The task was won by Russ Detweiler narrowly ahead of Jeff Williams, Ross Hardesty and Dustin Pachura.
The inversion create a top of lift at only 4500ft and thermals were very disorganized. The first took us north to the DeVore turnpoint where most of us arrived lower than we would ever normally fly over there. High concentration levels in the ratty, disorganized lift were required.
Raw video: Thermalling up on Pine
The next turnpoint was a 15km leg to a large radius circle around MacKinley so gave pilots the option to go along the front and tag the circle from the front, or go deep along the ridge near Arrowhead springs and tag the turnpoint from ridge.
I decided to stay out the front, as when it is really hot, the wind coming off the flats usually triggers off the first range of hills. I didn't want to get stuck on the back of the ridge around from the Arrowhead resort without getting high. I had the biggest collapse of my entire flying career in there and so now am a little wary...
The front worked pretty well and I got all the way to the Indian reservation picking off thermals along the way.
Getting back I had landing areas in mind pretty much the whole way as the climbs were really slow and ratty with a 1m/s being typical. The only decent climb was coming off the big wash, which is a well known thermal trigger when flying XC from Marshall.
Eventually I wasn't patient enough to climb out from low near the bend in the highway well below the height of the Towers, so I missed the last two turnpoints as they required going back over launch to get high enough to get in and out of the valley behind launch safely.
I tried to sneak low along the foothills back to the landing area to avoid needing retrieve as I've successfully done this before in similar conditions, but came up a bit short. Lifty air and the downhill slope meant a crazy approach where I flew 30ft above a gravel road for several hundred yards without coming getting any lower. Eventually landed in a fragrant sage bush after last minute bubble popped me off the road.
The task was won by Russ Detweiler narrowly ahead of Jeff Williams, Ross Hardesty and Dustin Pachura.