On our way back

We're traveling back to California after flying some really nice XC in the big skies of Texas. Although we had some weather days, I think most of us had a pretty good time. I had some of my best comp flying yet and managed to make goal. I'm sure we'll have plenty of stories to tell back at Kagel.

Development

On our way through New Mexico, we can see the clouds probably in Arizona with tops likely to 35,000'.

Glider wash cancels task

The skies open up and dumps on is as we are getting in the launch line. Pilots in the air run away to the south to escape the rain. Although the rain doesn't last all that long the clouds are really showing rapid development and the day is called. Now the next race starts, getting to the hangar. I'm not on a cart so I must walk my glider to the hangar. The south staging line is about 1/4 mile away so it's pretty far. Luckily I get there in pretty good time to beat the mad rush in from the staging lines to the north

Task Change

Task Change:
Big Spring to Denver (tp)
92 miles
Clouds start popping (even though they aren't supposed to) and the clouds to the North are starting to show rapid vertical development. After notifing the chase crew and setting the general stratigy, I go back to the glider to suit up. Rick Holman is right next to me and I tell him we better get going.

Day 2 Task

I started out early staging my glider early (but from the looks of things I didn't really need to). Pilot meeting was at 10 so we had spare time since we had setup the glider the night before after returning to Big Spring. The days weather, given by Davis, seemed to call for no clouds and weaker lift. The task was set for a 60 mile triangle (first leg to the west then north and finally back to the airport).

Day 1 (Off to a good start, for most)

Task:
Big Spring to Brown
76 miles

Good task for many pilots with probably over half of the field making goal. Most of the Kagel crew flew well today, I'm not one of them, this time. I had a good climb at launch but that was about it. Most of the time I was in the air I was with or around Ron Wiener. I was looking to take the 2nd start clock at 2:30 but got drilled and missed a critical climb and down I went. I heard Rick going down as well around the same place that I got drilled. Most of the pilots got up just west of where we were getting sucked to the ground. The weather is supposed to be good tomorrow as well so I'll be looking for a better performance.

Pilots at goal: (click on names to download Google Earth tracks)
Phill Bloom
Ron Wiener
Chris Smith
Shawn Zabo
YaRon
Greg Kendall
Kraig Coomber
Jonny Durand
Bill Soderquist

Pilots with tail between their legs:
Jeff Chipman
Rick Holman

Saturday (practice day)

Got up a bit late and headed over to the TA truck stop for breakfast. We met up with Ron, Yaron and Rick. After watching Ron down a "hardy" breakfast the WienerWagon and the BloomMobile headed to the WalMart and loaded up on beverages (gatorade, water and beer). That Walmart is so big you can get lost for days (or at least it seems like you could).

Arriving at the airport, after leaving WalMart, we could see the hangar was completely stuffed. It's now, we started getting an idea just how many pilots are here. I'll get a picture up later but believe me it's really packed. Pilot check-in was equally packed. The pin in line looked to be about 30 pilots waiting, registration on the other hand was simple as Jamie kept the line moving quickly.

I met up with Ben (our driver from last year) and his friend Will. Will is going to be our driver in the BloomMobile this year. Looks like Shawn will set him up with a GPS so driving duties should be pretty easy once we show him how to use it.

The hangar pilot area is airconditioned so it's not too bad, but neither is the heat (it's only about 90). Launch line is in the same place as last year so once you're setup you can either hike your glider down to the staging line or put all your stuff on a cart and push it down with ease. I chose the latter and life was easy, until I got into the launch line. Lot's of confusion and people trying to cut in or cut you off. Last year on the practice day there wasn't any launch line. When you wanted to go you just went with little wait.

I was nearly ready to get a cart when the launch was stopped due to thunderstorm activity in the area. I waited hoping the weather would improve ...... It didn't. I ended up pushing the glider back to the hangar in a light rain. We waited a bit longer and I took the opportunity to pin in and get my waypoints from the scorekeeper. After meeting some new people and pinning in the launch was started again so I hurried over and got in line. Launch was smooth and uneventful, lift was light and I think I only climbed about 300' after pinning off (how sucky). Landing, I missed the spot but landed well and promptly moved into the hangar.

Our welcome dinner was really good this year and we had a bit of south western Texas entertainment. After the show and some annoncements we got to see how well represented the comp was. Pilots representing countries all over the world came up to the microphone and introduced themselves and which country they were representing. It was pretty impressive to hear all the countries that have pilots here in Texas.

The Big Spring folks are really happy we're here and it really showed today.

Listen to the audio post, kind of sums it up.

Texas Bound

Meeting at the LZ wasn’t too hard at 5:30, seems like after 4:30 I couldn’t sleep any longer anyway. Arriving at the LZ Greg, Phil and Shawn were already loading up. We were on the road by 6:30. Overall the trip went pretty well. It took 17 hours pretty much on the dot. We kept our stops short when we gassed up.

Along the way we had marine layer until we got to the banning pass, sunshine until Arizona, cloudy and isolated thunderstorms from East Arizona to Midland Texas. Nearly all of southern New Mexico looked like a lake. There was standing water everywhere. Some of the places where there would normally be dry lakes looked like they were about 5 feet in water.

As we approached Las Cuches New Mexico the sky was really dark with towering cu-nimbs. Chris Smith called and said we may want to consider detouring around El Paso because the authorities were considering closing the 10 freeway due to a possibility that a local dam may break because of all the recent rain they accumulated since late July. I jumped on the internet with the Palm and got the information and the phone number to DOT Texas road conditions and determined we could continue on for now since the rain was letting up for now and the El Paso city officials just had recently given the all clear for those people that had been evacuated.


The rest of the trip was a bit rainy but no downpours. We pulled into the Super8 (now the Whitten Inn) right at 11:30 California time). Chris and Jonny were still up (of course). They came over and greeted us before we settled in for the night.

Texas Skies

After staying up with Jonny til nearly 6AM this morning and having a short sleep, I woke up to really nice skies in Big Spring.
Cumulus clouds and cloud streets everywhere, winds out of the south at around 10-12 mph, big dust devils, etc. This afternoon it over-developed in a few spots and spawned a few showers in the distant but nothing that couldn't be flown around. Cloudbase was around 7k AGL. If this weather holds we could be in for some great flying and a great comp.

No flying today as we don't have clearance from the airport to tow until Friday but maybe we will get to fly tomorrow.

Leaving LA

This is where I work in Los Angeles. The Getty Museum I really enjoy the work, atmosphere and environment, but trust me the traffic is a nightmare. I should know.........I must transition the "worst" highway congestion in the country everyday (the 101 & 405 merge). So flying in gaggles shouldn't be a problem.

The Trek Begins

The Sweet Tea Express was scheduled to leave today for Big Spring. Onboard will be Chris, Jonny, and Atilla (he was scheduled to arrive in LA today I believe). Having Chris there will help solidify the driver situation but from the sounds of it, there isn't really a situation other than who is getting who as a driver.

The WienerWagon is scheduled to depart on Thursday and the BloomMobile will follow on Friday morning. Most of the crew will be flying on Saturday for pratice and some impromptu tasks. Apparently there's some other activities going on Saturday for the Big Spring public that shows up. Here's some information posted in the online version of the local news rag in Big Spring.

I met Ron Wieners friend and fellow Israel team member today after work in the LZ. They picked up his new T2 yesterday and flew today at Sylmar. Looks like he has some tuning to do and will likely take care of that at El Mirage tomorrow (too much pitch pressure at full VG). I had the same issue and ended up going down on the sprogs (inboard and outboard). I still have positive pitch pressure throughout the entire speed range but not nearly as much as I did prior to the adjustment. I'm sure we'll do some comparisons while in Texas. Hungary Joe is having a special tow clinic for him tomorrow (what a guy).

Another overcast day at Sylmar

Like yesterday it looks like we'll have overcast skies and low cloudbase (maybe a bit lower than yesterday). Looks like there will be a full crew of pilots (Jonny's here with Chris and I think they are both in) but I'll miss the day while I play with my boys, golfing and whatever else they want to do, as long as it's outside. It's likely going to be a day of full racing once the gang gets off the mountain.

I'll probably take a radio so I can monitor the action, since we live in Sylmar.

Yesterday my GPS died (weak batteries), so I replaced all my batteries today in all the instruments.

I'll report in later with the days outcome. Jonny and Chris will likely post to their Blogs as well.