Rest Day - Getting Caught Up

So, July 6th is a rest day, and Dad and I are planning to go to the Lava Tubes national monument.

Before we head out, I though I'd start writing about the last three days since I've once again fallen beind.

Day 3 was challenging. The smoke was especially bad, and the contest director called a 3 hr MAT task, with the first turn at China. I wasn't especially nervous since I've been doing my best to stay relaxed. At Craggy, I was able to climb up easily and headed out into the start cylinder. I had been first to lanch, so I had about an hour and ten minutes to wait before I could head out on course. In the start area, the smoke was expecially bad, and at one point I lost my orientation and coudln't tell which direction I was flying. I finally got it figured out an headed back out to where the smoke wasn't so bad. In the meantime, I was getting lower and lower. Once I got back to Craggy, I found it especially hard to connect with lift, and I just wasn't able to get high enough to get back into the start gate. I would get high enough to push back into the mountains, and I'd go and go and go without finding another thermal. I'd go until I didn't have glide back into Siskiyou airport, only to Montague (which is about 5 miles west of Siskiyou) and then turn back into the valley. I think I did this 4 times, with my frustration level steadily increasing. The smoke wasn't helping anything either. Before we took off I had decided that I'd fly to the east because the smoke in the west was so bad, but the prevailing wisdom was to stay to the west since the conditions should be better. But the smoke was so bad - in the area that I flew I had about 3 miles visibility. By the time I finally got started, I was so frustrated by the start, and miserable flying in the smoke, that I wasn't having any fun. I decided to get the first turnpoint, and head home - calling it a day early.

I ended up being about 1.5 hrs early, but I was happy to be on the ground. Most of the pilots reported flying in instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions -- conditions where the visibility is so bad, that in order to fly safely the aircraft must carry additional instruments to prevent loss of control of the aircraft. In fact, one pilot said that he had to take his hands off of the controls for 2-3 minutes, because he was unable to keep a steady heading. I heard lots of pilots saying "gosh I'm sorry that I almost hit you! That was a close call" etc, on the ground during the after flying social hour.

I was definitely glad to have come home early given all of that, but it started to shake me up for the rest of the contest. What if the smoke remains that bad for the duration of the contest? Am I going to have to come home early, or should I sit the day out because I don't feel safe? Also, one of the pilots mentioned that he thought that the 4th would be a rest day, so I was well on my way to talking myself out of flying.

As the day ended, I found myself thinking, if the smoke doesn't get better after this front passes - then I'm packing it up and heading home. There's no reason to stay here and fly in unsafe conditions. There's nothing on the line for me - even the winners just get a trophy or a medal and a handshake.

Soaring is a really difficult sport in this sense. It's so important to remain calm and think clearly, but at the same time it's really important to listen to your gut instincts and fear. That's the stuff that keeps you safe -- it's a balancing act, one that I'm still trying to master.

Day 4 - July 4th

I was pretty discouraged on the morning of the 4th - after having been shaken up by the smoke and the frustrating start. I didn't really want to fly, but the smoke definitely looked better. I had talked myself into a discouraged corner, and it was going to take some convincing to work that out. The task was a turn area task, where a large radius is put over a turnpoint (maybe 20 miles or so) and it's up to the pilot to decide where to go within that radius. So, the fast pilots will go to the far edges of each circle, and the slower pilots can catch the inside corners, and all pilots can finish the task. It's still a speed thing, so those who go faster (and cover more distance) get more points.

The task was south to China, east to a 20 mile cirlce at Dry Lake, a 10 mile circle at Radar Facility, and then 10 miles to the north west at Restaurant. Initially I had trouble at the start, but was able to make it up the second time, and I had a good start. The run down to China has gotten easy by now, and I was in good position to cross the Shasta Valley. On the other side, I throttled back slightly as I wasn't able to get over about 8500 ft, and many of the thermals were ragged and difficult to climb in. Heading west, a very clear convergence line between the cooler moist air (does anyone hate the word moist?) from the Tule Valley and the dry air from the volcanic mountains to the south set up, and it was an easy glide into the Dry Lake turnpoint. By this time, I was really glad that I had decided to fly. I was definitely having fun. I turned and headed back up the convergence that I had just flown. As I headed to the Radar turn, I noticed that the clouds stopped. In fact everything to the north was completely blue. This was a bad sign, as I wasn't able to get another climb. Just south of the Radar turnpoint, I decided not to continue into unlandable areas, and I turned back to land at the Butte Valley airport. I landed immediately after Ray Gimmey (several time world team member) and soon after 5 other gliders landed at Butte. The day had just quit. I think 12 people landed out that day -- those who got an early start, or were fast enough to get a climb at Radar before it quit generally made it home.

I got an aero tow from the airport back to Siskiyou county, and I realized that I had forgotten to turn off my battery - which was now completely dead. (I just realized that I forgot to tell you about the temporary FAA tower which is now at the field - because there are 4 forest service aircraft based here - including 2 P-2 fire bombers, a temporary tower has been installed at the field. These guys are from Las Vegas and have never controlled gliders and were drinking from a firehose the first day. One guy couldn't remember what airport he was at and kept saying vegas tower, and another guy said, "whatever you do I don't care, just don't surprise me." They were in over their heads as approximately 30 gliders landed in about 15 minutes. Also, the glider guys - myself included, aren't all that good at radio work. We're used to flying at airports without control towers.) Anyways, so I wanted to let the tower know that I was coming in, so I called my dad on my cell phone, and had him radio my intentions to the tower. Apparently it worked and they were fine with my approach. I was definitely a unique way of communicating with the tower. I guess they said, "if you can hear us, nod your head." but, I heard nothing. (They had binoculars on me and with the bubble canopy on the Libelle, I have no doubt that they could see me clearly.)

Day 5

Still nervous at times, but doing much better overall. The CD announced that the 6th would be a rest day. The task was called to the south at China, the west to Callahan, north to Quartz, north to Restaurant, back to China and home - or something like that. I'd never been that far west before and I was nervous as a wall of either cirrus or smoke had started to move in from the west. As we started the launch, the cirrus (definitely not smoke - thankfully) was over the western mountains, and the CD changed the task to a MAT with the first turn at China. Just as the nationals launch finished, the cirrus rolled over the airport, and over half of the regionals pilots weren't able to get out of the valley to the start. This made me feel better about my bad start the other day, as I realized that sometimes it's just hard to get out of the Siskiyou airport.

Anyways, I had fun yesterday - I went past China to the Siskiyou lake dam, just to see if I could get back without landing out. I realized that it wasn't the fastest thing to do, but I wanted to see if I could do it - and I did. I stayed over the mountains just to the west of Shasta Valley and made some triangles between the turn points. I decided to go north to Restaurant to kill my last 45 minutes. As I was headed north, I realized that the clouds quit, and I probably wasn't going to make the last turn. I did my best to kill time and get out there, but I ended up coming home early. I should have picked up another turn point, and headed south again, but I had already gone too far when I realized my mistake. Live and learn - do better another day, always trying to improve.

Rest Day!

Dad and I spend the day at the Lava Beds national monument. Turns out I flew over this on day 4, and saw the lava flows, which are impressive both from air and by foot. We spelunked through lava tubes and walked on a lava flow. Really impressive stuff.

Well, I'm off to bed. 4 days left!