Flight Report 06-06-09
Scot "The Driver", Scot "The Pilot", Kurt, John D, Andy and Greg all piled into Kurt's rig and headed for Elk. We picked up Jon James at the LZ and headed up the hill.
High overcast was shading the area when we got to Elk but it looked like we had some blue holes coming our way. It was coming up the NW launch so we set up there. There were cumis forming all around and it looked pretty good. We waited until about 1:30 at which point the cycles were coming in pretty nicely so Jon stepped up and launched. After a few 360s off to the left over the spine, he began to climb out.
Greg was next, then John D. Greg disappeared out of my field of vision somewhere overhead but I was able to watch John working the lift off to the left. He was doing well and climbing out but then hit a big sink cycle which put him a ways below launch.
I waited to see him start to climb again but then just decided to get off the hill so I launched into a cycle. After a bit of digging, I finally caught some lift to the right of launch and worked my way up to Greg. Jon had since climbed out and headed for Pitney.
The air turned out to be quite ratty. Greg and I were only getting to about 4500 and with Jon now high over Pitney I was just about to suggest to Greg that we leave when Greg called me and said we should go. So we bailed.
We worked a bit of lift on the north end of Pitney with John D. but it wasn't doing much. There was a nice cloud a bit further to the south over Pitney so I said to Greg that we should continue to the next bowl. Sure enough, as soon as we crossed over the ridge line into the next bowl we hit good lift that took us to 5,500.
The lift was still ratty so we just kept heading south along the Pitney ridge towards Clover Valley. The flats to the southwest looked great with evenly spaced clouds but over the back towards High Glade and in the direction of Long Valley it was completely shaded in with a deck of cus.
We got down to about 3,900 to the northeast of Clover Valley then hit good lift over a knob overlooking Clover Valley. We were both climbing together with Greg higher but I found the core and started climbing a bit faster.
Greg said he seemed to have lost it but I called him back a bit more to the NE at which point he found more lift and started climbing well again. Having watched how Rich and Vince wait for each other, I orbited the top of the lift and waited for Greg for a few minutes.
In no time Greg and I were back together at 5,700 and talking about where we should go. I suggested we fly out to the southwest into the sun and try to fly around the west side of Clear Lake but I had no idea where any of the usable Lzs were so I wasn't sure about that plan.
Greg decided to glide on over towards the high ground near Bartlett and Pinnacle so I followed him into the shade. Turns out there was buoyant air and lift so we just kept heading for Pinnacle.
On the way I did one 360 and gained another 200 feet so I was at Greg's altitude. We kept going east and ended up just squeaking over Pinnacle and into Long Valley.
From there it was pretty much a long, buoyant air final glide in the shade to a landing in Long Valley, 22 miles from Elk according to Greg. Greg picked a nice big field and had a great landing in totally calm conditions.
I had a nice approach and was skimming along the ground but flared late, with my hands not high enough and pushed out instead of up, ran a bit then dropped the nose.
I'm thinking it's pretty much an attitude issue with regard to my landings in light winds in the Atos because I'm used to great landings in my flex wing in even totally dead conditions but I haven't figured out the flare timing on the Atos yet.
Greg and later Kurt were helpful in suggesting flare timing so we'll see what happens next time. Was great to fly together with Greg. We seem to be pretty evenly matched in glide so our team flying should work out well.
Andy's IGC
Greg's IGC
- Andy
Scot "The Driver", Scot "The Pilot", Kurt, John D, Andy and Greg all piled into Kurt's rig and headed for Elk. We picked up Jon James at the LZ and headed up the hill.
High overcast was shading the area when we got to Elk but it looked like we had some blue holes coming our way. It was coming up the NW launch so we set up there. There were cumis forming all around and it looked pretty good. We waited until about 1:30 at which point the cycles were coming in pretty nicely so Jon stepped up and launched. After a few 360s off to the left over the spine, he began to climb out.
Greg was next, then John D. Greg disappeared out of my field of vision somewhere overhead but I was able to watch John working the lift off to the left. He was doing well and climbing out but then hit a big sink cycle which put him a ways below launch.
I waited to see him start to climb again but then just decided to get off the hill so I launched into a cycle. After a bit of digging, I finally caught some lift to the right of launch and worked my way up to Greg. Jon had since climbed out and headed for Pitney.
The air turned out to be quite ratty. Greg and I were only getting to about 4500 and with Jon now high over Pitney I was just about to suggest to Greg that we leave when Greg called me and said we should go. So we bailed.
We worked a bit of lift on the north end of Pitney with John D. but it wasn't doing much. There was a nice cloud a bit further to the south over Pitney so I said to Greg that we should continue to the next bowl. Sure enough, as soon as we crossed over the ridge line into the next bowl we hit good lift that took us to 5,500.
The lift was still ratty so we just kept heading south along the Pitney ridge towards Clover Valley. The flats to the southwest looked great with evenly spaced clouds but over the back towards High Glade and in the direction of Long Valley it was completely shaded in with a deck of cus.
We got down to about 3,900 to the northeast of Clover Valley then hit good lift over a knob overlooking Clover Valley. We were both climbing together with Greg higher but I found the core and started climbing a bit faster.
Greg said he seemed to have lost it but I called him back a bit more to the NE at which point he found more lift and started climbing well again. Having watched how Rich and Vince wait for each other, I orbited the top of the lift and waited for Greg for a few minutes.
In no time Greg and I were back together at 5,700 and talking about where we should go. I suggested we fly out to the southwest into the sun and try to fly around the west side of Clear Lake but I had no idea where any of the usable Lzs were so I wasn't sure about that plan.
Greg decided to glide on over towards the high ground near Bartlett and Pinnacle so I followed him into the shade. Turns out there was buoyant air and lift so we just kept heading for Pinnacle.
On the way I did one 360 and gained another 200 feet so I was at Greg's altitude. We kept going east and ended up just squeaking over Pinnacle and into Long Valley.
From there it was pretty much a long, buoyant air final glide in the shade to a landing in Long Valley, 22 miles from Elk according to Greg. Greg picked a nice big field and had a great landing in totally calm conditions.
I had a nice approach and was skimming along the ground but flared late, with my hands not high enough and pushed out instead of up, ran a bit then dropped the nose.
I'm thinking it's pretty much an attitude issue with regard to my landings in light winds in the Atos because I'm used to great landings in my flex wing in even totally dead conditions but I haven't figured out the flare timing on the Atos yet.
Greg and later Kurt were helpful in suggesting flare timing so we'll see what happens next time. Was great to fly together with Greg. We seem to be pretty evenly matched in glide so our team flying should work out well.
Andy's IGC
Greg's IGC
- Andy
