Mt Emu

Today was the first day of the Bogong Cup. I enjoy mountain flying, but I have never flown a competition in the mountains. The added logistics and pressure of having 90 pilots launching one launch in variable conditions under competition pressure certainly cranks up the adrenalin a notch or two.

I discovered that in this competition the launch order is again determined by WPRS rankings, and since I don’t have a ranking, I didn’t even show up on the launch order. I asked about this, and was told I would launch last. Several others were in this position – we couldn’t all launch last could we? I definitely felt a little miffed at this, but I guess somebody has to launch last. Then I learned that there is something called “alternate launch” where you can sign up to launch before the main competitors. A certain number of slots are available, and whether you get in and your order is determined by lottery. This definitely sounded better than last, so I signed up. I ended up 16 out of 18 in the alternate list. There is only 30 minutes allowed for alternate launch. Any alternate still on launch when the time is up goes back into their original position. We were sent to launch, but told not to set up until the task and safety committees had had a chance to evaluate conditions.

When we arrived on launch the smoke was thick and the wind was light. Most of the fires from late last year were out, but some new ones had started to the southwest, and a southwest wind was bringing smoke over the back of the mountain. The back of the mountain was completely obscured, and the valley was barely visible. We could not see the mountains on the other side of the valley. Slowly things appeared to clear, a task was called, and launch open approached. No one seemed too anxious to launch, but I really wanted to get off in the alternate window. It would be close with only 30 minutes and 15 pilots in front of me. Fortunately someone ahead of me called a push, and that got things started. Things weren’t going fast, though and the clock was ticking. Davis got 11 in the alternate and when he got on launch it started to tail lightly. Damn! He was there for a god 10 minutes. When he finally launched there was only 4 minutes left and 4 pilots ahead of me. They all went in pretty short order and I got up with a minute left. It was coming up ever so slightly, so I did my best power launch and sailed off the hill. Those who had launched before were struggling to the right, so I went left following a spine out from the hill. About 200 yards down the spine I hit a light climb and was soon turning and above those who had launched just before me. They joined me and we took the snaky climb to 8000 feet above and behind launch. We were just at the top of the smoke – you could still see the valley, but everything to the west and south was obscured. I decided to work my way north along the front of the range on the edge of the smoke. It was an eerie feeling never having flown here before, and not being able to see the countryside to orient myself. I just followed the course line towards the first turnpoint. Just inside the start circle I noticed the smoke getting noticeably thicker. Now I couldn’t see anything to the north on course. About then I noticed a couple of pilots coming back. That was a bit suspicious. I contacted our driver on the radio and she confirmed that the task had been canceled. I let her know that I would fly back to the airport to land to make the retrieve easy – most others would do the same. Flying back was odd, just following my GPS. I could see a couple of towns but had no idea which was Mt. Beauty or where the airport was. I was happy for that little arrow on the flight computer!

At the airport there were already a few pilots on the ground. The wind on the ground appeared to be light north even though it was south aloft. I came in with lots of speed and saw the windsock hanging limp. My last couple of landings I was just a touch slow, and if it was no wind or slight tail I couldn’t afford to do that now. I jammed the bar and the glider rotated with a snap, popped up a bit and then dropped with a jarring “thunk!” on the keel. Not real graceful, but it worked. I got to see many more landings, some very “interesting”, as the other pilots came back to the airport.

It was too bad that we didn’t get a task in, but it was nice to fly and get a little orientation, and get some of the intricacies of mountain competition sorted out.