German Open Day 2

Yesterday was some strong rough air.  Today I hear that the weather stations on the high peaks upwind are reporting even more velocity.  I think the task committee likes to make tricky tasks rather then the safest tasks.  We are grabbing the same first turnpoint as yesterday but then heading up wind towards the big mountains and complicated valleys that get so crazy in a NW wind.  For a different twist the start circle is an entry of only 3k around the first turnpoint.  Start gates are again 30 minutes apart (very long) and only 2.  This turns out to be a big problem.  Before the start 2 small rain storms begin to dump upwind of the start area.  I am not in good position for the first start but in hindsight, I wasn’t in that bad a position.  With 2 storms in view it looks very tricky so I decided to grab a start, the first turnpoint, and then try to hang out on the OTHER side of the start gate.  Oleg and a few other guys follow.  We are high but hit a short period of rain and sleet.  Once we reach the other side of the start the lift is not very good.  Since we entered the radius late to begin with, fishing around in junk has the time VERY late.  I desperately want to get up and go back for another start but it just isn’t coming together fast enough.  With a group over my head I decide to check further down course under a nicer looking cloud.  My hope is that the pilots will stay and mark the thermal we were in so I could come back if I don’t find anything.  It seemed the obvious pimp move since the conditions looked so poor.  Boy did they let me down.  Fishing around I look back to see that they ALL followed me.  It is just a few minutes before the next start but now we are a few more K away.  It is clear that I am stuck with the worst start in the world.

 

Some rigids join us for a climb on a sunny finger.  It is mega turbulent and we all have a few close calls.  I am sure everyone is thinking the same thing that this air SUCKS.  Not sucks you up like a good thermal should, but sucks like sucks donkey balls.  Low, crappy air, I am a very unhappy camper.  We eventually get high enough to leave the thermal of despair and head towards the turnpoint.  A few rigids are high and fly towards the lee of the Lienz Dolimites.  I follow this line while Jorge and Oleg fly about 700m to my right more in the valley.  At first my line is better.  The rigids look like they are flying into a lee thermal.  I continue to follow, further sealing my impeding DOOM.  The rigids look like they are about to start circling.  I pull in.   They turn to the right….and run for the valley.  OH NO.  I hit the lee and plummet from the sky.  I turn 45 degrees to the right and try to angle my way out.  Its not working.  Because the shoulder of the mountain runs left to right down, the lower I get the further I have to fly to get out of the Lee.  I finally get the hint and fly straight 90 to get out of this crud.  I am too ashamed to even type how much altitude I lost in this blunder.  One of the rigids had left the last climb high and was able to just fly straight over the top of this mountain.  Bummer for me. 

 

Now on the other side of the shoulder I can’t seem to hook up with any good lift like I had hoped.  The other gliders arrived higher and have something but there is no love for Kevin or Christian the pilot flying with me.  It feels like this side of the shoulder is a bit lee also.  I charge on towards Lienz.  I have been drilled in this area before in similar strong winds and I don’t want to be here.  I carve around the bowl heading roughly towards the next turnpoint trying to get around the ridge.  I find a few thermals worth 4 or 5 turns but nothing more.  I have been here before and Christian is taking good advantage of the experience.  We are flying well together and he is very smart about grabbing the climbs I found, but also fanning out on glide.  I take the line closer to the terrain when hits something good further in the valley.  We grab another few hundred meters before it falls apart.  I head towards Lienz.

 

This town marks the confluence of 5 (I think) valleys.  Lots of complication, lots of action, lots of potential for convergence lift.  Right over town we find some light broken stuff and fight to get some comfort altitude.  I know that further below us one valley is strong tail wind even though the wind over our heads is a very strong headwind.  We are low enough to be out of that headwind so I am itching to charge ahead and catch a thermal where I am confident there is lift on the lee knob.  I glider is climbing in something tight close to the terrain so I head there as soon as I am high enough.   Just gliding there I can tell it is going to be a pissy little mother.  The wind directions are changing all over the place.  At this knob I can quickly figure out there are 2 different strong wind directions 180 degrees opposite of each other.  Great.  Lovely.  Just what every pilot dreams of. (Mom, I am being sarcastic).  At least this collision of winds should help with some convergence and the air has some pressure to go up.  Lee to the prevailing wind, hard 90 cross from the right in one valley and a hard 90 from the left in the other valley.  I was hanging on so tight that my fingers are still tired now while I type.  Flying fast, banking hard, and constantly having to switch upwind correction directions I slowly climb.  I want to seach around for better lift but with these crazy strong winds and strong sink the cost of gambling away what I have is just too great.  Thankfully with every hundred meters or so the climb improves.  There is a super fat cloud overhead and a group climbing high centered a little further from the ridge then me.  Once the air is consistently readable enough for me to explore I fish out that way and sink my teeth into the first fattie since before the start.  The cloud street is very broad and the lift is HUGE.  I rocket to base and grab the turnpoint just 2k away.  The line is on and there are other good short streets leading to the next turnpoint.  I get high and milk them for a downwind bullet ride.  The next turnpoint is something like 25 or 28k on the last ridge around the Italian border.  I get there high and I am amazed at the obvious collision of airmasses happening just along this ridge.  On my side cloudbase is around 4,000m (really stinking high) and on the other side it is maybe half that down to mountain top level.  I am high and clouds mark another good glide towards home so I just grab the turnpoint, turn away from that ridge, and keep gliding.  A large saddle between the 2 valleys is clearly working and strong lift has me at cloudbase again with 900m over best glide to goal even though I am still 12k or so from the last turnpoint.  I need to make a mental note that 900m is over 2700 ft and leave much sooner next time.  That or fly faster the whole way.  From the last turnpoint to goal I don’t think I ever flew below 65 mph.

 

The early weather goofed up many pilots.  Some opted to land, some got grounded, and no one agrees what the organization should do.  My small group got such a bad start that it hurt me in the overall but I can’t see the logic in canceling the task after we flew it.  I was openly against flying in this weather but the committees chose our task and sent us out there, and didn’t cancel while we were flying.  What a drama.

 

It strikes me as so ironic that the DHV is harassing pilots by measuring everyone’s gliders to “promote safety” but at the same time the true danger is being completely ignored.  Every day that we have flown has been questionable due to strong winds but the warnings fall on deaf ears.  In the air a pilot on the safety committee was asked his opinion if the task should go on.  He said no but they ignored his recommendation and we continued to fly.  Apparently a consensus could not be reached since the other pilot on the safety committee had already landed due to bad weather.  Hahahahahahahaha

 

Kev C