Flying at Mussel Rock and P3

I finally got my P3.  For me the breakthrough was figuring out that I couldn't wait until conditions were perfect(9 MPH and West) to launch at Walker.  Walker is the easiest launch, but at least recently conditions are hard to soar from Walker.

Also I created my own weather dashboard to maximize my opportunities to fly. It's available at mr.robertmparker.com, and I just open-sourced it today. Not to toot my own horn, but it is way better than anything else that I've seen.

Looking back at my logbook, I wrote a little SQL(I'm a nerd) to do some analysis of my flights at Mussel Rock.  I flew most of my time launching from Coyote, and less than a quarter of my flight time was from Walker.  Also most of those flights from Walker were early on in my logbook, and of the recent flights it's pretty rare that I launched from Walker.

Launch	Total flying minutes
Coyote	703
Walker	256
Jungle	170
Cheetah	138

It's pretty cool when planes fly overhead.

This is one of my coworkers!

Mountain Biking at China Camp

China Camp opened up again about a month ago, and since it was too windy to paraglide I went back for the first time today(on a Sunday).

I did 2 loops.  It was a bit tiring, but it felt good.  There were a lot of cars parked on the road, but the trails weren't too crowded.  More hikers than usual, but people were generally social distancing well.  I would be fine going back again on a weekend.

Wildlife sightings: a young stag, turkey vulture, acorn woodpecker, and some lizards.

Also I did fly the paraglider on Friday for ~30 minutes at MR.  I launched from Jungle, which I've only done once before.  It was a weird flight, because the fog level was pretty low.  So trying to stay under the fog, but trying to keep enough altitude to stay up.  I decided to come down when the fog felt like it was getting to low and beginning to hinder visibility.

Hiking up/down the Green Monster

So yesterday, I went to MR again.  I launched from Coyote, but it was too light to stay up.  Did a sledder to the main rectangle LZ.

So I decided to hike up the Green Monster for the first time.  I was using my EZ bag, which was a mistake.  I should have packed the wing for a hike and fly.  Paraglider pilots complain a lot about hikes.  It turns out that it is only a 15 minute hike to the top of Green Monster.  It's just super steep, and the trail was very exposed and crumbly in places.  On the way up, the wind didn't feel strong, but right at the lip it was blowing 16+ mph and gusting even higher.  That's too strong for me, and I'd never launched here.  So I made the decision to hike back down. It's a bit harder hiking down, but it's still not that bad.  The worst section is a really narrow crumbly part close to the top.

Anyway after I hiked down, I noticed that the wind had picked up since my first launch.  I should have just waited at launch, but it was good exercise and I got to explore.  So I walked over to Coyote, and launched.  No one was around, and I cruised back and forth on the tiny ridge for 30+ minutes.  Some people must have seen me staying up, because I could see ~6 pilots hiking up to launch.  Just as they were ready to launch, the wind died down a few mph.  None of them were able to get up, and I sank out after their 2nd pilot launched.

When I landed, I found that I had accidentally recorded all the hiking/flying on Strava.  I meant to turn it off after the hike.

I swear this was an accident, but it looks cool.

Then I hiked back up to do another sledder just for fun.  I'm slowly getting closer to the hours requirement for my P3 rating.

Longest flight to date - 2.25 hours

I went to MR yesterday, and the conditions were a bit light and South.  It was really crowded at first, because I guess everyone was expecting good conditions and it was a Sunday.  I did a three flights from Coyote Launch.  And I sank out immediately on all of them.  By this point the crowds had mostly left launch, and some people were just hanging out in the LZ.  I figured what the hell, I'll hike up for another sledder.  This was my first day launching from Coyote, and it would at least be some good practice.  But the wind picked up just enough that I was able to soar the cliff in front of Coyote a few times, and then I turned South and was able to make it around the corner.  I made it up the cliffs over the beach.  I ended up flying for 2.25 hours.  I would have landed sooner, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to get up again.  And I need those hours to get to P3.  I'm getting closer.  This one flight was >10% of the total hours that I need to make it to P3.

Oh and I named my glider.  The colors of the glider are lime green and yellow.  And recently I created a summer cocktail that we named a 'Gatorade Spritz'.  It kinda tastes like a lemon-lime Gatorade, and it's pretty refreshing.  The name is kinda a joke, because it sounds pretty nasty.  But the drink is actually really good.

This is NOT me.  I found this picture on Ozone's facebook page, but this is the same color scheme as my wing.

Gatorade Spritz:

In cocktail shaker:

1.5 oz vodka

1 oz lemon juice

0.75 oz simple syrup

Ice cubes

Shake that up, strain in a pint glass filled with ice.  Add in a healthy splash of lime flavored Le Croix, and stir.

Ridge Soaring MR Cheetah

I ridge soared at Cheetah last night for the first time.  I was up for 45 minutes before I decided to land due to low fog.  I need to get those hours in before I can get my P3 rating.  I was scared of Cheetah, because I had heard that there were some serious dangers there.  But if you don't top land, stay away from rotor and the death bowl then it's fine.

Part of the hike back up after landing on the beach.

I took this picture at Cheetah a few weeks ago.  It was pretty foggy last night.

Update:

I did it again tonight!  One flight that lasted 70 minutes.  If I can keep this up, I'll have my hours for P3 pretty quickly.

Sledders at MR Cheetah

After spending a long time on Saturday parawaiting, I decided I was more than willing to hike for some flying.  I like hiking, so why not.  I had been looking into doing some sledders from Cheetah launch, and I finally tried it for the first time last night.  I decided that I certainly wasn't ready to top land at Cheetah, but a sledder and landing on the beach should be totally fine.

The main challenge was that the wind was very light, which requires more forward movement to bring the wing up.  And since cheetah is on top of a bluff, it means you kinda need to run towards the edge.  But there is enough time to abort if necessary, it's just an unnatural feeling.  The wind picked up a touch after the first flight, and that made the next two much easier.

View from the top

 

View from the bottom

The sun was setting as I climbed up the hill for the last time.

Parawaiting...

I spent a lot of Saturday waiting to fly at Mussel Rock, and it just never happened.  If I was smart, I would have hiked up the Green Monster and launched from there.  Instead I sat around in my lawn chair at Walker launch, and read Slash's autobiography.  But the weather/views were nice, and the book was interesting.

Not a bad spot to read a book for a few hours.

A bummer to hike out instead of flying, but that's the way it goes.