Back On-line

The Internet has been disconnected at the house for quite some time due to procrastination. Oops! I'm back in business now so I thought I would give a quick update to what I've been up to.

Here is a photo of Bob and I on the summit of a peak in the Purcell mountains of Canada. Not a care in the world except for the turns we were about to get. Standing there, neither one of us ever imagined that 4 months later Bob would be diagnosed with tongue cancer.

At the end of August, I headed out to Seattle to help out the family and support Bob through a few of his final radiation treatments. I spent the time visiting and doing what I could to help out my Aunt Heather. Washing some dishes, a little cooking, and some straightening up. I had a great time, but all the while I wished I could do more. It was very difficult to see my uncle in such a condition. I wished I could lend him my strength, both mental and physical, but all I had to offer was my presence. So that is what I gave.

Bob and I in Seattle.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay for his final treatment. Work was calling me back. Bob has been on the road to recovery for a few weeks now and thing are looking good. I look forward to our next trip and when this will all just be a memory.

Not much going on since Seattle. Same old story; climbing, flying, hunting, and work. Here are some recent photos:

Spiders around my uncle's house

Sunset over Lake Washington

Sunset after a hunt

Heather's flowers

Some bouldering at Kootenai

Blodget Day

It was Melissa's last day in town before returning to Detroit so we decided it would be fun to climb Shoshone. For those of you who don't know, Shoshone is a 600' granite wall an hour south of Missoula. The approach is about 3 miles and the climb consists of five pitches of 5.8. I brought my camera in order to well document the climb since it was Melissa first time on it. As expected, since I now shoot digital, I went over board and took about 200 pics. Thought you can't get that one good picture if you don't try a lot. Here is what I thought some of the better ones were:

Melissa starting the approach


Our objective; Shoshone (the middle one)

Top of pitch two.

Mel topping out on pitch four.

Top of four.

Melissa nearing the top of the route.

Final moves to the top.

Summit photo

One last photo.

Evening lighting on Nez Perce

A Good Day With an Old Friend

Jaime is in town for a few days and today she dropped Trigo off so I could spend some time with him. I took him out to Kootenai Canyon so I could go bouldering and then take him for a walk. He sure has mellowed out. While I climbed, he just found a nice spot and laid down. It was nice not to worry about him running off. I once lost him in the canyon for a few hours. When I was finished climbing we went for a walk and checked out the creek. We came across a few people, some with dogs, and he barely even turned his head. I think he was enjoying himself at his old hangout. I sure enjoyed the worry free time spent with him.

Trigo

Kootenai Creek

Playground in the sky

Yesterday Bill and I met Ron at Tarkio for an evening flight. Conditions looked good for a glass off, but thermals were still cycling up launch late in the day. Bill hooked in, launched, and went straight up. Ron and I followed. The flying was butter smooth and effortless to stay up. I had put the camera on the glider so I raced around trying to get good pics of Ron and Bill. It was like a playground up there. Racing around the mountain with friends, occasionally getting close to one another, I couldn't help but laugh. After two hours we landed. A wonderful way to end the day. Here are what I thought the best shots of the night were.

#1 Circling over Ron

#2 Alberton in the background

#3 Cruising above Bill

#4 Bill in the background

#5 Turning over the Tarkio ranch

#6 Coming in to land

First Flight

Thursday John and I went to Tarkio for John first flight on his new glider. It is a bit more demanding to fly so we thought it would be wise to wait for conditions to mellow out in the evening. After taking our sweet time to set up, we checked launch and realized the conditions weren't easing up. It wasn't strong, but it wasn't butter smooth either. John hooked in to his wing and approached launch. At this time Ron showed up with his wife Tammy. Ron was concerned about a slight South cross, but cycles were coming straight up launch. When a good lull presented itself, John launched. He flew away from the hill nice and smooth. Suddenly, with about 100' of clearance above the trees, a strong thermal nailed John. This intense blast of air caused John to stall and turn 180 degrees back toward the hill. When he realized he could not correct the stall, he went with it. Pulling the control bar in and diving to regain speed, John turned 90 degrees, avoided the trees, and flew away from the hill. After PIOing for a moment, John regained control and flew the glider nicely across the face of the mountain. When it was time to land, he had a wonderful approach and landing. Right on John. You survived your first flight in the T2.

After waiting sometime for conditions to mellow out more, I finally launched. Thermals were small and punchy, but plentiful enough to allow me to soar for about and hour. I flew with a Red tail hawk for a moment and then landed.

The evening was exciting and I'm thrilled that John flew the glider without causing damage to himself or the glider.

Sunset over Tarkio

Red Skies above Montana

Kara, Jeff, Josh and I returned from our flying trip to an all too common smell in the valley. Smoke! It's August now and fire season is starting off as expected. After record temps for longer than I care to remember, it was inevitable that something started to burn. It's not just the poor air quality that sucks. The forest service has put restrictions on recreation. Mt Sentinel is closed from 1pm to 1am shutting down our flying and the rivers are closed to fishing after 2pm. I hope more restrictions aren't put in place for the sake of my sanity.

Blue Mtn fire 2003

Yesterday the valley filled in with smoke and I had to find a way out. It wasn't until the evening, but I escaped and went for a flight west of town. I meet up with my buddy Ron and planed on a mellow evening flight. After a week of intense, thought provoking flying, I need something more relaxing. Unfortunately our flight was short, but it was still flying and I had a great time. I soared for a short bit then practiced some steep turns. It was a fabulous way to end an otherwise cruddy day.

A smokey sunset above Tarkio

Hang-On Competition

July 19th Jeff, Kara, Josh and I headed for Medford, Oregon for the Hang-On hang gliding competition. This was a fully sanctioned points meet, so some of the best pilots in the world would be there. Needless to say I was a little intimidated. I had to remind myself that I couldn't compete with the other pilots so I needed to go with the idea that I would work on personal bests and learn as much as I could. After 14 hours in the car we finally got to Medford and crashed out as quickly as possible looking forward to tomorrows practice day.Joshy. Need I say more

Kick'n it by the fire

Jeff and Cosmo

Practice Day

Saturday morning we headed to head quarters to check in and see who of the pilots had arrived yet. After getting formalities out of the way, we headed up the hill. Woodrat Mountain is where launch is. The local club as put a lot of time in to making a nicely manicured launch area which we all enjoyed. We wind was cranking so I was a little nervous, but I thought I ought to stand on launch and check it out. My wing felt balanced so I launched. Launch went well and I was quickly soaring around the hill. Conditions were fairly easy so we all cruised around the mountain for and hour and then chose to land at a winery which provided a much better landing zone than the main one at the base of the hill.

In the LZ we saw that Jeff O'Brien and his wife Amber had arrived. We all said our hellos and headed to the nearby campground to finish our day.

The sky above camp

Checking out the route

The field

Task #1
Sunday started off with what would be our regular schedule for the entire week. Pilots meeting from 9:30 to 10:30 discussing topics that weren't necessarily relevant to the comp. Then we would head back to camp, pack our stuff up and head up the hill. When we got to launch, I saw more gliders set up than I'd ever been around. There were only about 25 pilots, a small group for a comp, but Missoula only has a total of 25 pilots and all of us never fly at the same time. This would be interesting. I set up and joined the pilot meeting. The task called was a for a 87 kilometer triangle. We had a 2k start cylinder and a 400m turn radius around each of the way points. Since there were many pilots, we would be using a single start time. Launch generally opened an hour before the start time and because I didn't want to be stuck in a launch line feeling rushed, I generally launch right after the window opened. This posed an good question; would I even be able to soar long enough to get the start? An hour flight in Missoula is a long one. Here, I would have to pull that off before I could even start the race. As it turned out, it wasn't all that difficult.

Josh contemplating his strategy

Girdy and Amber enjoying the sun

The Jeffs helping me to launch

I soared around for the hour watching other pilots and when the race started we all pointed it for the first turn point. This was wild. We were like a WWII bomber formation racing through the sky. This first leg of the coarse was difficult because it was 29k into a head wind. We needed to maintain our elevation to avoid any rotors. After 28k I had to choose landing over ticking the way point. I felt if I got the way point, it would force me to land in an LZ that was too dangerous for my experience level. I had a nice landing and was very pleased with the flight.

Kara and Amber picked me up and we headed for the Jeffs and Josh. Back at HQ we downloaded our GPS's and partied. A good end to the first day.

Jeff and Dustin assessing the sky

Jeff and Johnny in the launch line

Jeff and Kara

Task #2
Monday we got to launch and the sky looked epic. There were cumulus clouds everywhere. The task called was for 72k. Again I launched before everyone and this time beamed out. Soon everyone joined me in the air and we headed to the start cylinder. As we waited for the race to start we found ourselves climbing to 9000ft into the clouds. It was an amazing experience. Being surrounded by 25 pilots punching in and out of the cloud. When it was time, we punched it heading for the next way point. The clouds were great. We raced from cloud to cloud punching through them as we passed. As we reached the way point, I found myself getting low. I ticked the point and turned down wind looking for lift to jump the mountain range. Unfortunately it never happened. I found myself racing back to the winery to land. I was scored to 38k but probably flew around 45-50k. The way back was off coarse! I spent the next two hours tasting whine waiting for my ride. Not a bad way to kill time!

On the chase

Jeff joining the gaggle

Josh, Cosmo, and I on the chase

Task #3, Task #4
Tuesday and Wednesday proved to be very difficult for me. There was a high pressure system sitting on us suppressing all but the strongest lift. Even thought people managed to make goal each day, I was only able to stay in the air long enough to tick the start cylinders and land in the main LZ. Oh well. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Girdy helping her man

Waiting to launch

Task #5

The high pressure was leaving so we were expecting conditions to slowly get better for the rest of the comp. The task was for 61k this day. The conditions were still difficult, but I managed to fly 18k into the head wind again falling 2k short of the way point. Back to HQ for margaritas! See how it always turns out to be a win, win situation.

$25,000 shade structure

Party time

Task#6

96k task. Conditions were getting better, but we were stuck with a strong head for the first leg. After fighting the head wind and rotors over every ridge we jumped, I found myself getting force low. LZ's were off to my left, but I thought I should be patient and work the small lift. I ended up loosing more ground that I was gaining. I front of me I saw Shapiro and Zippy very low in the canyon. From my point of view, they looked like they were scratching the tree-tops. I had about 600ft on them and I though t I was low! The lift sucked where I was so the hell with it. I was going for the ridge in front of me. As I approached Jeff and Zippy, I got hammered by the rotor they were fighting. Time to land. I headed for the main valley crossing over a recent burn. BAM! I got hit with strong lift coming off the burn and figured this was my ticket out of here. Unfortunately the rotor was cutting off the lift and forced me to eventually land. 28k out I landed in a nice field, but a rotor made it difficult.

Jeff, Amber, Josh, and Johnny

Task #7 Final Day
64k task. The conditions were better for lift, but we were facing an even stronger head wind. The beginning of the race was very similar for me compared to the day before. Once again I found myself getting low at the burn and figure I gave it my best, but it's time to land. On my way out to the LZ, I thought I ought to check out the windward side of a ridge. Sure enough there was lift! I worked it the best I could and before I knew it, I was back up to 6200ft. The lift petered out. "It's now or never." I pulled full rope and pointed it for the ridge blocking my way to the next way point. As I glided towards the ridge I watched it move up and down, but more often it was moving down in my view. I was going to make it, but it would be close. I passed over the tree with about 100ft. YES! Oh shit, I need to find an LZ. I worked to ridge lift as I headed to the main valley. In front of me was a LZ I used a few days ago. That was my goal. I made it there with enough altitude to set up a mock approach and then landed. I was thrilled that I stuck with it long enough to clear the final ridge. Unfortunately I landed right below the turn point after 23k.

Zippy #3, Jeff #2, and Johnny #1

Kara, Amber, and Josh picked us all up and we headed for HQ to party and for the award ceremony. After it was all done, I can say that I had an excellent time. I set a bunch of personal best and learned more than I thought I could. I feel this competition doubled my experience. I'm looking forward to the next one!