Home Again

I'm all safe and sound back in Grants Pass now. It's been a long and eventful week, and although I had a great time and learned a lot, I have to say it's good to be home.

Like at last year's Hang On, the pilots, drivers, volunteers, and hosts were about as friendly a bunch as a person could hope to meet. And of course, Mike & Gail outdid themselves once again in the organization and hospitality department.

Also similar to last year, the final task was kept local so that all the pilots and drivers could make it back in time for the awards ceremony, dinner, and of course the final blowout party. With launch from Sugar once again, the first turnpoint was north of Lakeview at Tague's Butte, the second was upwind at Black Cap overlooking the town of Lakeview, and goal was meet headquarters at Hunter's Hot Spring. The forecast called for light winds and a decent lapse rate. When we arrived, light cycles were rolling up the face of launch. Several pilots launched and struggled to climb out in the light and elusive lift, and several pilots sunk out in the bailout to the west. I decided to wait it out until conditions improved. It looked like getting away from the mountain would take a lot of patience, persistence, and stamina from the way people were struggling.

I launched next-to-last, and it was well worth the wait. I made one pass in front of the face and quickly hooked into a strong thermal that took me to 10,500 ft. before weakening at an inversion level. I was surprised that no one joined me in the climb and kept working the light lift out on the far west end. I headed out across the Fandango Valley in zero sink and, about 3/4 of the way across, I found some light lift which I patiently worked up to 13,000 ft. before finishing my crossing. From there, I could easily reach the deepest part of the ridge with plenty of altitude to spare. Dave, who had launched just before me, joined me on the ridge and together we cruised along spotting thermals for each other. We passed several gliders along the way, occasionally stopping to work lift with them before continuing on. It was a neat feeling working in tandem with another pilot while keeping in touch by radio. Mark was ever present down below in my pickup reporting his location and requesting ours.

Just after crossing the Oregon border, it became evident that I would have to sneak my way toward the valley and work the faces out front. Dave, with his more efficient wing, could continue working deep with less concern for gliding out front. I made it over the ridge above the valley and tried to work some ratty lift there before continuing up the range to a canyon crossing. Another high-performance wing was ahead and above me, so I followed him, watching to see if he found anything on the other side of the crossing. Sure enough he did, so I came in underneath and climbed up with him, hugging the core and almost outclimbing him at one point. Before this climbout, I was preparing to land in the valley, but this boost took me back up to 8,000 ft. As I ascended, my vantage point changed until, as I rose above the ridge I could see the town of Lakeview on the other side and an easy glide from my current altitude. I continued to try working what I could find to maybe gain enough to continue past town, but nothing would come together for me. I made a sweeping pass over town and landed in a field at the south end. Dave continued on, eventually tagging the first turnpoint, but missing the second by a very small distance before landing at goal.

This was my second flight to Lakeview and my third best cross country flight. It was enough to earn second place for the day in Sport Class, and moved me up to fifth place among the other 13 in that class for the meet. There were trophies for the first three places in each class, so I just missed out. However the competition was very tough and most of the competitors had much more experience than I.

Gail had put together a fantastic dinner of lasagna, pasta, and salad at headquarters. After chowing dinner down and imbibing a couple (maybe a few) of her deadly margueritas, we had the awards ceremony, exchanged war stories, and had a great time visiting. I'm very much looking forward to next year, when I hope to improve my flying by the same factor I did this year, but like I said before, for now it's good to be home...