Dunlap, CA - PG Nationals

[mingram]

What a tough place to fly! I miss the nice east coast, flat land,
downwind flying or the big farm valley of Colombia. Getting anywhere
here is tough. You always have to fly far into the wind to get
anywhere. I've been flying 13k, 21k, 19k, 11k, 3k, in that order! I'm
getting worse each day! But so have other people. Still the top pilots
make goal. The wind has been steadily increasing every afternoon.
Everyone tells you to ballast up over the top and use full speedbar.
I'm over the middle weight on my wing without water, but added an
extra gallon of water (already have a full 3L camelback) to get closer
to the top which has helped me keep up with other people and have less
collapses. The weather is forecasted to improve and be more classic
Dunlap this week (hopefully) - warming up to 100 Degrees this weekend
and less wind.

It's been blue every day, but
today we finally had cumulus clouds and lots of them. We boated around
at cloudbase at 5600 feet msl - 1000 ft over launch and more than half
crossed the valley. I should have followed people or terrain but got
impatient and landed at St. Nick's where it's $15/night and there's a
pool and beer! I'm clearly deciding to take it easy. This area is
beautifully California...fresh oranges, massive fields of pot (which
I've heard you can also smell those in thermals), and tons of hills
covered in white oak and dry grass stickers that get stuck in
everything - I'm definitely taking some of them home with me...too bad
I cant take home the first two.

Organization of the comp is what makes flying like this easier. ATT
doesn't work here, but retrieves have been awesome. You land, hit your
SPOT tracker with "OK" or "Retrieve", then use the radio and get
picked up in a big, white, air conditioned van with a cute girl
(hopefully) and a cooler of beer and water. I still haven't made
goal, but it's been fun. It's a very local comp- except for the
Canadians. Only 30 people - much less than Colombia or Rat Race.
Everyone knows everyone. Connie is running it and she's been hang
gliding for 20 years and her kids also fly.

...Sunday I had a bad landing. I fell out of a thermal low over a
ridge and made a stupid decision flying low lee-side instead of
running downwind into the valley. I had a big frontal, recovered, but
was in rotor with a stalled wing and crashed through a tree while
looking for the reserve handle. Luckily the tree and my extra gallon
of water ballast broke my fall and I only suffered a bruised heel and
a broken stabilo, but it sucked.

I put myself in a bad position because I wasn't able to penetrate in
front of the ridge. Maybe should have thrown my reserve, but I was low
enough that all I could think about was keeping something open over my
head - even if I was stalled. I landed on top of the mountain and
considered relaunching, but decided to cut my losses and hike out one
hour down to the orange groves in the valley. Ate 3 fresh oranges,
drank some beer, and dried out my harness. The reserve stayed dry. The
extra line from Tom, a needle, and some surgical tape to keep the
sheathing together made a decent repair for the stabilo. I later
ripped off one of the brake snaps on launch...should have brought
Velcro. Luckily I haven't had to use the ripstop that Ellis gave me.

Today our scorekeeper Bill lost control after launching - we think he
was trying to get in his harness instead of flying the wing - spun,
had a big asymmetric wingover, and fell into his wing. Luckily he
landed in a tree just below launch. I was next on launch, but we all
backed off a little shaken. People we're calling for him to throw his
reserve, but it happened really quickly. You really have to throw the
moment something that bad happens when your that low. Reserves can be
repacked and its probably time to do it anyways.

After all that the weather does seen to be turning really nice. We had
a great day drinking beer in the sun by the pool with a view of
launch.

I'm realizing I get focused on flying to a specific point and don't
try to run back to the lift that was working. Pushing stupidly into
sink hoping something else will come along. Or battling upwind instead
of cross or downwind to a windward ridge to stay up and try a
different line/strategy.

You've got to really want to stay up and go far. Today I heard that it
could be better to turn tight in lift when you're low to pressurize
your wing more and stay in the tight core. It takes balls. Some pilots
aren't afraid to land in a tree to get a little farther. XC comp.
pilots are probably the craziest out there. They also have a better
understanding of the weather, wind, and thermals than me. I'm glad to
be here, but it's a humbling experience. I'm longing for fat, flatland
thermals and flying from cloudbase to cloudbase downwind. I probably
should have gone to Florida!

[DanTuck]

Awesome, Matt. Sounds like a blast and makes me miss CA even more! Glad that landing turned out okay and good luck on the last few days!

[George]

Good Luck Matt,

[lbunner]

Great to hear you are getting some western flying. The benefit of competition is that it makes you a better pilot when you get back home. I am sure you have learned more about your wing, your abilities and your mental outlook on this trip than you have in the last year of non-comp flying. Flying with the best shows you the potential of what you have yet to learn and challenges you internally on what you need to do to get better. Focus on getting high, staying high, and don't worry about sticking with the gaggles. At this time it is not about how fast you get to goal but getting to goal. One other tidbit, you may think you are far behind everyone else but a comp race is like a yo-yo just when you think you're at the bottom and can't get back in the game, you hit a couple good thermals and find yourself up high above the pilots that left you earlier. Last week at Americus, I fell 15km behind the leaders and was down to 1200', thought I was done. I found a good thermal, got back up high, hit two more good ones and ended up passing many pilots into goal. I went from in the dirt to a 3rd place finish overall! The best learning for me was that when I was down low, I abandoned thoughts of racing and focused on just staying aloft. And voila, I end up flying into goal with some very good pilots. Never say die....

[sailin]

Matt, great write up...really enjoyed reading it! Can't wait to get a taste of that west coast flying myself. Look forward to chatting with you when you get back and hearing about some of the stuff you learned.

Jon

[jmcclave]

Matt,

I am glad you are OK. Thanks for the great reporting. I'm looking forward on hearing more of the details when you get back.

Jim