On the road again
We left Wallaby on Saturday morning to have enough time to get to Tennessee Treetoppers (Henson Gap) before dark. The trip was uneventful with an exception of some traffic due to accidents. We had plenty of daylight time to setup our tent, and enjoy dinner from World Food Tribe truck.
Food Tribe
Meeting old friends was also a treat. Rich Elder, my teammate from 2015 was there, but he switched to paragliding for this event - so no teaming up with him now :-)
Dana Harris was already here. We could form a partial New England team :-)
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Day 1
Sunday started as a blue day. Not a cloud in sight. That was a huge difference from Saturday. Every pilot that flew on Saturday was raving how epic it was. Well, I got to Tennessee - no epic weather is allowed. Third year in a row, no matter the season, I get the lightest and most challenging conditions. I guess, I have no choice but get good flying in those conditions, right?
The morning started with forming the teams. We already had 2 people on our team, Dana and I. Dana as a B-pilot, and I as a C-pilot. Then we got assigned to an A-pilot - Steve Pearson. How cools is that? Well, Steve wasn't here for the day 1, he was still driving from Wallaby. But if anything, being on the same team with the master was worth the trip :-)
Our fourth teammate was also a B-pilot, Paul Edwards. Dana and Paul were flying U2, Steve would probably pick T2c, and I was the only one on a Sport. Should be fun.
Paul
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SE wind - Whitwell day. This year there was a pretty good turnout - 7 hang gliding teams were formed. Our team had number 7 on launch for the day 1, and we got an option to launch from the paraglider's site. This looked like a much nicer launch option. The cliff launch at the hang gliding side of things is smaller and more crowded.
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On their way home, Dave and Jennifer Park drove from Wallaby to Lookout Mountain. It wasn't flyable at Lookout that day, so Dave joined us at Whitwell as a non-competitor, a free flyer.
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Paraglider pilots launched early. Some of them were climbing out. Then a couple of topless hang gliders launched. They worked hard to find a good climb, but managed to gain a couple of thousand feet above the ridge. Not enough to go for the A task, but better than sitting on the ground. I was trying to convince myself and my team to launch, but everyone was still thinking of yesterday - it was better later in the day.
Eventually, I got too bored and too frustrated. Why not to launch when you have a few markers in the air? It was not guaranteed that I could get into the same thermal, of course, but one gotta try.
Dave assisted me on launch, and off I went
Ready to fly
Take off
I launched and went on a glide toward the spot where most paragliders were able to climb up.
I got where I thought the lift should have been with only 700' AGL to spare. Some bubbles were there, very weak and small. After a few circles, I was sinking out, and I continued toward the LZ.
Soon, the LZ was 500 feet below me. That was it for the day, I thought. At that point, I was in the landing mode - harness unzipped, checking for wind direction on the ground.
Over LZ
Then I felt very faint bumps again. Slow turns, patience. I was over the LZ - it was safe enough to play for a minute or two.
I started coming up very slowly. 30 feet per minute, 50, 100... The thermal was getting more organized, speeding up the assent. 200' - life was good again!
After a few minutes of patiently circling, I was 300' above the launch.
above the launch
Other hang gliders started launching, and some of them were circling above the ridge.
I thought I was topping out my thermal. It wasn't taking me higher, and I was starting losing altitude. I think, with all the excitement of a low save, I simply lost my patience.
I set on a glide toward the ridge. My vario started wailing - big sink! I hesitated, panicked, and tried to retreat back to the thermal I had. That proved to be a disaster. Even bigger sink! My decision making process malfunctioned. Later, after analyzing the tracklog, I could clearly see that I was taking the worst line possible. I missed the thermal I was looking for, circling in big sink. I should have glided through the sink toward the ridge, or maybe, should have searched for that lost thermal why my sink rate was not dramatic... Easy to be smart while typing...
Anyway, coring sink - I landed just a few minutes later. I was proud of my low save, but frustrated with my decision making later on. Oh well, at least my New England thermalling experience was starting paying off. It was my best thermalling day in Sequatchie Valley in the last 3 years.
Here is the visualization of that flight: http://doarama.com/view/714981
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