Made it to Italy!!

Sue and I arrived yesterday morning in Rome after about a 24 hour travel adventure. We flew to Chicago on Alaska Airlines and then had to sit around the airport in Chicago for almost 8 hours waiting for the only flight to Rome which looked like it could accomodate our standby status.

We made it on Alitalia to Rome and were met at the airport by Kim, Bill's girlfriend. We had about a 2 hour drive to the North and East to Poggio Bistone, which is a small mountain side village in a very rural area. Our accomodations are nice but the shower is tiny!!! Made for about a 4 foot tall person I guess... We have sheep and chickens and dogs and cats and a big field right in our back yard where we can land!!

The site looks amazing for racing and many of the worlds top pilots were out today warming up. There is talk of some new technology and several prototype gliders in attendance. I feel so priviliged to be able to play with these guys and gals and am really excited about the upcoming 12 days! The weather forecast is good and things are shaping up nicely. A bit of jet lag but that should be over in a day or so. Tomorrow is the official practice day and registration....

Pictures to follow soon.

Jack

2009 US Nationals Salt Lake City, Utah Day 7

Time to take a deep breath and regroup after one of the most intense weeks of flying I've ever had.

The meet director really didn't want to fly on the last day but the comp had been adevertised as "7 possible flying days" so we all kept after them to let us go up and race. It's not everyday that we're all here in one spot and the weather is cooperating. We have to take advantage of any opportunities we might get to compete on our home turf in the USA. The weather was changing and looked like it could go either way so we finally headed up the hill to check out conditions and see if we could make the week 7 for 7.

When the first wind dummies flew conditions certainly didn't look very good. The valley floor was so hot, and was really hot up on launch so there was almost no lapse rate to help the thermals rise. Then a rep from the FAA called and told the organizers that there had just been a Temporary Flight Ristriction set with a 5 nautical mile radius right in the middle of our task which had been set earlier. This created much anxiety because the winds were strong in some areas so we were limited in which directions we could race. It was eventually decided to call a different task which kept us well to the south of the fire and TFR. The start time was set at 4pm but the race was only 55 kilometers in length so we still had time to pull it off. The finally opened the launch window at 3pm and we all immediatly started launching.

When I launched I flew right into a sink cycle and started plummeting right off launch. I was forced to just take a line out front and turn left and just ridge soar along the spines hoping to find something. The launch at Inspo is not very high above the valley floor so if you don't find a thermal pretty quickly it becomes very difficult to climb out. The comp has positioned retrieve vans down below launch at the landing field every day to bring pilots back up to re-launch and try again.

When I got out front I made the left turn and starting soaring along the various spines and canyons along the way. I didn't find anything for awhile and was starting to get concerned when I flew around a spine and and spied not one but two hawks climbing out strongly, in two different thermals no less. In short order I was climbing with a feathered friend and was soon in good start position 13,500 feet in altitude.

The race was quite fast and really fun as the thermals were some of the nicest we'd had all week. I made it to goal in pretty good position but lost the top three on the last climb coming in under them but finding the thermal no longer there.... I had to stay in the mountains and find one more good climb before I could head to the last turn point which was out on the valley floor, and then made the 12k final glide to goal.

Some pilots were so low on their final glides that they landed short, and a few made it in to the goal field with no extra altitude - just enough to clear the trees and land....

When we got back to headquarters and got out of our vehicles, we were instantly immersed in roast pig aromas from the pit where a whole pig had been buried and cooked throughout the day. The meal was quite good and I really splurged and went for it - rich chocolate cake and all!

The awards ceremony was one to remember as the time was approaching 10pm which I guess is curfew in Utah and strictly enforced. I'm sure the comp was well into the second or third keg of beer by then and I don't think this group was ready to be quiet at 10pm. They started the awards and by the time they were half way through the local police were standing 10 feet from the podium threatening to give everyone a citation. So from that point on we were prohibited from clapping, whistling, yelling, or making any other kind of noise that could put us in jeopordy. It was really funny because with each award the crowd just raised their arms and everyone just went "shhhhhhhush". When they anounced the Nationals champion everyone just busted loose in every kind yelling, clapping, etc.... What were they going to do, give citations to 200 people? Crazy.

I took first place in my class and 4th or 5th overall - don't know the actual results at this time because they didn't announce the top 10 - only the top 3....

2009 US Nationals Salt Lake City, Utah Day 6

Oh my what a week it's been. I think this is the most I've flown in a week at a US comp, or the most I've flown in a week in a paraglider ever. I think I'm well over 25hours of flight time and I don't know how many kilometers I've flown but it's a bunch. Today we knocked out another 116k with excellent racing conditions. There were around 30 pilots in goal and many pilots had nice long flights.

Tomorrow is the last day and supposedly we were planned to have 7 possible flying days. I'm hearing some nasty rumors that we may not fly tomorrow because the meet director wants to take the day off to give his tired staff a break. The weather is looking pretty good so I say "LETS FLY!!" It will be interesting to see what happens. They didn't post the overall results this evening because if they did, and we don't fly tomorrow, it would kind of deflate the prize giving ceremony cause everyone would already know all of the results.

Had climbs to 14,500 today and I seem to be doing just fine without supplemental oxygen. I've always preached that you should have it to optimize your performance, and you should, but I didn't pack mine this trip and seem to be making do without ok. I've been staying very well fed and hydrated. I drank too full bottles of water today while waiting for the launch window to open, and then I drained most of my boda bag during the flight. I tell myself all the time to relax and breath when things get strong and difficult. This is especially important when a pilot is flying at higher altitudes....

Whether or not if we fly tomorrow, it has been an amazing week of flying and I've learned a ton and had lots of invaluable training in decision making, and accelerating my glider in turbulent conditions. It will really be nice heading to the world cup superfinal with this great warm up under my belt....

Day 5 pics

A US Paragliding Nationals replacement retrieve van driver to take over after we lost a driver yesterday...
Friends deep in the mountains crossing Lone Peak
A perfect landing field!
The view from launch.

2009 US Nationals Salt Lake City, Utah Day 5

Not much energy to post tonight.... too tired. About 100k for me today with the last 20k ridge soaring high in the mountains. I was short of goal and landed at 7:30pm in the outskirts of the city in a huge beautiful green grassy field. Spectacular scenery and really fun racing deep in the mountains with light winds - a rarity in these parts. There were only 3 pilots in goal, with several others just short. I was about 10k short. The flight today was a new out and return distance record for the state of Utah... 111 kilometers.

I flew quite well I thought but made one costly decision late in the race which took me out of the running. I made a choice to go in deeper into the peaks to try and get high and pass several other pilots but it didn't pay off as it just wasn't working at the time I was there.... and it was working farther out front where everyone else decided to go!! I spent the rest of the race flying alone and enjoying the scenery. Saw tons of raptors and enjoyed the smooth conditions.

I moved from 6th to 7th place overall today which is ok considering I didn't make goal or land just short as about 10 others did. This week has been the most flyable US Nationals I can remember. We're 5 for 5 and tomorrow looks really good again, although it's gonna be 100 degrees in the valley. Saturday I think the weather is going to be too cloudy to fly but we'll see.....

Day 4 pics

My good friend Pete Schaefer who's hosting me this week after landing in Goal today. About a dozen pilots in goal I think....
Our US Nationals retrieval vehicle being assisted by a local farmers tractor!
Mount Nebo in the distance looking from goal. Our course took us right over the top.

2009 US Nationals Salt Lake City, Utah Day 4

Wow 4 for 4 with another challenging day again with plenty of wind to deal with... Really a fun comp so far with the weather forecast looking even better for the next few days... Tomorrow calling for light and variable winds at 12,000 feet!

Today was a 89k race to goal with 2 turn points along the way. Some top pilots sunk out and had to relaunch when the start window opened and the day didn't start out all that well. Boy was I glad to have launch priority and not have to wait in the launch que.... We went south and fortunately, the TFR which had been keeping us from going in that direction was reduced to only 1 nautical mile around so we were able to call a task and avoid the restricted area.

Spent lots of time close to the terrain today.... several of my valley crossings had me low so that I had to ridge soar my way back up to where the thermals were organized and large enough to turn in. The field was very widely scattered and I flew with many different pilots at one time or another through the day. I was in the air for 5 hours and 25 minutes and we were all quite exhausted when we finally loaded up for the ride back from goal. Our vehicle which was remaining to retrieve us broke down so we had to wait awhile for another van to come get the 5 of us still in goal. I landed at 7:10pm and had to look around for sink to get down...

On my final glide things didn't seem like they were going to come together enough to make it the final 8k. I was over the valley floor and not looking good, so I made the last minute decision to pull a 90 degree left turn and head into the front of some small hills on the edge of the valley. I had enough altitude to just head into the terrain and just make a wide "C" and then land. I'd finished most of my "C", had my landing area picked out and just below and in front of me what do I see? A large hawk getting centered into a ripping thermal. He was flapping his wings rather aggressively to keep him self stable so I prepared myself for a wild ride and thats what happened a few seconds later! I was less than a 100 feet off the ground so the thermal was completely unorganized and amazingly strong for 7 in the evening and the sun angle quite low. I hung on and spiraled up until I had an 8 to 1 glide to goal and headed out to finish the race. As it turned out, once again most of the air was going up and I climbed most of the way to goal! Crazy!

We stopped for fast food on the way back to HQ and after getting our instruments downloaded we arrived back at Pete's house at 11:30pm.

My 6030 Flytec totally bit the dust today so I flew with a helmet chirper and my old Garmin. I must admit I enjoyed not having to monitor lots of stuff and focused more on my flying which was good. It was interesting flying such a long flight and never even seeing an altitude or a vario readout....

Gotta reset for another big day tomorrow....

2009 US Nationals Salt Lake City, Utah Day 3

Today was another exhilarating ride in the sky over some inspiring terrain in the Wasatch mountains. Conditions were again challenging with many pilots falling prey to the strong winds and valley flows. There were some long crossings of very big and deep canyons with fairly strong winds up these canyons. Many pilots, including myself, were on the edge of our seats and rather tense through some parts. I heard a few pilots landed up on some very high terrain with very difficult retrieval. Another landed very high in the mountains and was able to hike to another position and re-launch.

The race started out as a 68k race to the north but was changed last minute to a shorter task due to safety concerns. There were many lightening strikes in the mountains a couple of days before the comp started, and some fires have resulted. Wild fires sometimes pose major obstacles to paragliding comps as the TFRs (temporary flight restrictions) which are put in place to protect the airspace for the fire-fighting aircraft can prevent us from flying in certain directions, and in some cases can stop our flying activities completely. During yesterdays task to the south a very large fire started high in the mountains behind us and to the Northeast which was billowing huge amounts of smoke and was spreading rapidly. Today we were restricted from flying south so we raced to the north instead with goal back at the North side of the Point of the Mountain Flight Park.

Today I made a real rookie mistake and didn't cancel and reactivate my route on my GPS. I made the last minute change to the turnpoint but neglected to finish the job. As a result of my inattention I somehow managed to fly about 4 kilometers past the far turnpoint. My mistake cost me time and points and a chance to race in to goal with the leaders, of which I had been one throughout the entire race. I still managed 5th place so I'm quite happy with my results but a bit frustrated at my lack of concentration with my flight instrument.

I flew well over 13,000 feet today and felt well throughout the entire flight... I'm working hard at staying well fed and hydrated both before and after, and during flight itself. We're 3 for 3 so far with a good forecast for the rest of the week. Many pilots are flying quite well and for the most part pilots are keeping themselves out of trouble. Those who aren't all that experienced seem to be exhibiting good survival skills by avoiding the terrain and conditions which are beyond their ability. Many of the top pilots are also progressing in skill and flying faster gliders so it's very challenging to gain on them on an overall basis because as I improve, so do they..... It's a formidable challenge and an amazing game we get to play....

The goal today was the Point of the Mountain Flight Park, which is one of the nicest free flight facilities / locations in North America. They've installed a huge network of sprinklers and planted grass over the entire North side with nice public facilities as well.

Incredible scenery, going on glide from the top of Lone Peak, Tim O'Neil and Nate Scales on the opening glide....

2009 US Nationals Salt Lake City, Utah Day 2

Whoo Eeee!! Is about all I can say after today's race.... What a fun, exhilarating workout in the sky with my friends!! 5 hours and 15 minutes in the air today. The race was only 66k in distance, but the forecast winds from our weather guru didn't pan out and we ended up flying into the wind for the entire race. You definitely knew you were on a paraglider today as they just don't go very fast into a head wind.

The scenery was beautiful and the course took us along Mt Nebo which is a beautiful mountain about 25 miles south of Provo in the Wasatch mountain range. The racing was very physical and the adrenalin was pumping in many places. I climbed a total of over 40 thousand feet over the course of my flight which is a good day of flying! Usually that much climbing would take me twice the distance!! Conditions were strong but enjoyable for the most part. Spent a little more time closer to the terrain than I would have liked but things were pretty predictable with all the wind we had so conditions were manageable throughout.

Mads Syndergard, a visiting pilot from Denmark, is flat out kicking our butts so far after the first 2 days. He is a long time world cup pilot and is a test pilot for UP paragliders.

My mentor, Bill Belcourt took a big whack just below me - first an asymmetric collapse, than a full frontal which ended up in a horseshoe, and then a pretty big cravat on the right side. He wasn't all that high off the terrain but he was very cool and worked things out before he got so low that he had to throw his reserve... He lost a fair bit of altitude through this maneuver but still managed to beat me into the goal!! I looked around when I was on my final glide to see if anyone was trying to catch me. The only other pilot I saw was my host Pete Schaeffer. Bill had tucked in right behind me and much lower so I couldn't see him without turning or really turning bending my head around.

I made it into goal in the top 10 or so.... Mads had already been in goal for over half an hour ahead of the 2nd place finisher!! When I reached goal I had a new experience in a paraglider. I couldn't find any sinking air... literally, it was all going up and getting stronger and stronger. All I wanted to do was come down and land. It seemed like the farther I flew, the stronger the lift got. I climbed over 7000 feet AFTER I made goal and was about to give up and just start flying back up to the north from where I'd come and just land whenever it would let me down. I flew 4 kilometers into the wind across the valley where goal was located, and then eventually flew back downwind back the way I'd come until finally finding some sink. Never seen anything close to that through the years of flying paragliders. Some said that the entire valley was "glassing off", but I think it was some kind of wave or something. Took me over 45 minutes to make my way down....

The conditions, although already good, are getting better each day. Tomorrow is calling for lighter winds and climbs up to 15 thousand or so....

Today I energized myself out on course with some kind of gooey energy booster .... kind of like eating honey only different flavors. I think it really helped my concentration through the race and I'll defiantly continue to do this in the future. We have several pilots here who are flying quite well now.... A few of them flew comp gliders in the past, and then flew serial class gliders for some years, and now they are back on the newest generation of competition glider. They are quite fast, 2 of them in particular who have both flown in the world cup in past years. I kept up pretty well today but still need to push more speed bar... I also need to work more on being the pilot in front who finds the next thermal, and less on being behind a bit and using the gliders in front of me.... this can be a good strategy to a point but pilots and gliders are getting too fast so if you aren't right there with them they many times will pull away....

At this pace I should be good and "warmed up" for the Superfinal in Italy!!

2009 US Nationals Salt Lake City, Utah

Well the US Nationals are off to a good start with a 56k race today with about a dozen pilots in goal. Conditions were difficult with lots of wind and turbulence.

My day was challenging as I wasn't rested and lost focus once again at the end of the race, landing short of goal by 1.5k. This is a challange that I've been working on for awhile now - that being my focus and concentration in the last part of the race. In talking with other top pilots this evening, I did have a bit of a revelation when I discovered that they each had something to eat about every hour or so of flight. This is something which I've never considered and I'm now seriously wondering if low blood sugar may have something to do with my lack of concentration and poor decision making at or near the end of the race.

I'm going to try and get more than a couple of hours of sleep now and hopefully will have more energy to post tomorrow. The weather is looking good and tomorrow's forecast is for much lighter winds and climbs to 16 thousand feet. Time for the hand warmers!! Probably should have brought the O2 but oh well....

Pics are of a large valley crossing with a row of giant wind turbines and looking out on final glide to goal which I didn't quite make.....

results are here:
http://flyxc.org/Inspo.html