- When: July 14-19
- Where: Chelan, WA
This week with Matty Senior in Chelan was a fantastic and fun learning experience. Before my buddy Ross suggested I join the clinic, I wondered if it was worth the price or if it was something that I actually needed. I’m very glad that I joined the clinic because I learned so much this week that I can apply to future flying. Plus, as always, the experience was made even more fun by being part of the group. Totally worth it.
I’ll start with some key takeaways I learned in this course that I think have markedly improved my flying skills. Farther down you can read about my flight from each day! During this week I set multiple new personal records, including a 123km triangle and flight times over 7 hours! During the course we had 5 flyable days which accumulated over 29 hours of flight time and 480 km total distance!
Key Take-aways
1 Stay with the group! with a few exceptions it’s always better to stay with the gaggle. Don’t even take extra turns for more height! At 30s a turn, if someone is flying downwind at 60km an hour they are 500m away after your first turn, 1km away after 2 turns, 2km away after 4 turns! That distance adds up so fast that suddenly you lose connection with the forward information. If you are within ~500ft vertically just go for it. Staying connected with the information from others is worth the risk because as a group the odds of finding that next climb are greater. A way to accomplish this is pick a pilot you admire and STICK TO THEM. Glue yourself to their ass and follow their every move.
Exceptions are a) before a crux or b) if you’re super low (i.e. near terrain).
2 If there’s positive information ahead of you, push on. This is linked with #1 because those pilots give you positive information. If it’s in range, go for that dusty, cloud, or good looking trigger. If anyone is climbing ahead of you, go to them. Don’t wait! the longer you wait the farther detached you become and the harder it will be to connect with that climb ahead.
3 When gliding in anything but a straight tail wind, push upwind into bubbles. This gives you both height and positional advantage on the line, and might even connect you with a strong climb.
4 WANT IT!!!! if you’re low, stick with whatever you find, but also move on if that peters out. Frisbee downwind in that 0 if that’s all you have. The flight isn’t over until you touch the ground, don’t give up!
5 In the flats, when in doubt head straight downwind and eventually you’ll hit a climb. In the mountains, XAlps athlete Eduardo Garza shares “when in doubt go deeper!”
6 In the flats, don’t underestimate the texture of the terrain. There are a lot of undulations, cliffs, creek beds, and different colors/textures out there. Also, power lines make great triggers. The high tension lines are great for boating along until something kicks off.
Traits of a good XC pilot
1) Weather and route knowledge.
2) Speed to fly and switching gears. Push hard in the good parts of the day but notice ASAP if things change and you have to switch gears. It can happen quickly!
3) Scratching skills. Staying in the air gives you a longer flight, of course!
4) Tenacity. To go far you have to want it.
Daily Reports
Day 1: Goat Peak, Mazama.
- XC Distance – 53 km
- Flight Time – 4:18h
On day 1 we flew Goat Peak in Mazama WA. I left my radio in the van but luckily Matty had a spare that day. We were hoping to fly up to Washington Pass but the conditions changed with a strong NW wind picking up. TOL went from 10k down to ~8k and we ended up going down valley in some challenging wind and light lift. Plus, wind from the NW up high, but blowing up-valley from the SE down low. I got low with Owen on the small terrain near Winthrop and we scratched out together. It was cool flowing Owen and learning from that. Instead of staying in one place waiting for a boomer, we rode bubbes as they arose, but then kept pushing downwind every time we had altitude. Low save after low save! Eventually the tiny ridge turned more into the wind and the terrain started sloping upward. Owen found a strong core behind me and I dove in only a few hundred feet from the ground. Riding and drifting with that tight core, I worked my way up the terrain and together we climbed and searched in that SE valley wind until we made it up! Might have been some convergence going on too because only a little later we encountered strong winds from the NW coming down the Mazama valley. After getting high and playing around, I joined the flock landing in the corner of a large circular field. Was pretty much parked on bar coming down!
Day 2: Chelan
- XC Distance – 106 km
- Flight Time – 6:27h
This flight was our first downwind push into the flats! It was a good day for more learning on sticking together as a group. We left the butte together and all successfully made the crossing to the flats. The first several climbs were tough though, light and broken lift and a lower base than before we left. I was chasing bubbles and got a better climb than the rest of the group but that separated me. Owen recommended I get back with a group and since I couldn’t see any pilots ahead I tried to turn back. But turning back was upwind and I was flying into sink. Before I knew it, I had gotten myself low. In survival mode, I aimed downwind towards some thermal triggers in the middle of a big dusty field. I found some broken bubbles and started frisbeeing along in 0’s, maintaining altitude a few hundred feet off the ground and drifting downwind. Luckily when I got to the downwind end of that field the thermal released and became a solid climb. I took this climb from near the ground all the way up over 10,000ft! It drifted me towards the rest of the group and they joined under me. A climb or two later, I reconnected with Matty and we left together over the gorge down route 2 towards Coulee City. He was flying straight and going up, so I tried to track his line. I eventually stopped to take turns in some lift, but I should have just kept pushing to keep up with him. I fell back but soon was joined by Patrick, Subodh, Nate, and Blaine on his Zeno. We weren’t getting anything great and should have kept pushing towards the lake, but wasted some good time doodling around looking. Eventually, I got high enough to push over the SouthWest corner of the lake towards Coulee. Past the town was a huge dusty so I skipped a few med-range climbs to push towards the dusty. I connected with its lift and rode that up to cloudbase. During the climb, Matty came to me and helped me search some better cores. We left together and again he was much faster and outpaced me when I stopped to turn in some bubbles. Again, I should have stayed on bar and kept up with Matty. After diving through a ton of sink I joined Subodh and the team again in a thermal above a dusty. After topping out that climb, it was a boaty glide east to the town of Almira where we all landed to start the long drive back. 106km flight, new personal record and a very fun day!
Day 3: Saddle attempt, but blown out.
We worked on improving the launch while we waited for the wind to die down but eventually bailed. Spent the hot part of the day hanging out in the shade by a lake for some ground school. There we talked through the traits of a good XC pilot and about having goals. It’s hard to do big flights without planning and familiarity with the route and options. Owen shared his goals of connecting a flight from Tiger Mountain (near Seattle) all the way to the flats. To do this, he is practicing lines connecting various flying sites along the way. This talk was definitely inspiring for me, I’ll be doing much more flight planning in the future.
Day 4: Chelan: Huge triangle on Delta 3!
- XC Distance – 123 km FAI triangle, 156 km free distance
- Flight Time – 7:46h
Man this wing was fun to fly in a totally different way than the Punk is fun: the Delta is fast, feels solid, and is easy to thermal. It was super cool of Matty to let me borrow it. I had one maybe 40% collapse early on but then I knew how to handle it. The clouds were so inviting that I set off alone while the rest of the group was doodling on launch because I knew the day would turn around and we could reconnect when I turned around with the wind later. I wish I had communicated better with Ross so he could join me early on, I thought he was only a little behind me but then we never connected. I was pushing past Stormy Mountain up the Devil’s Backbone staying high with the clouds when I finally heard on the radio where the rest of the team was joining up at Slide Peak back down the ridge from me towards the lake. There I joined a climb with Owen and once we topped out with Scott and Jessie we took off back towards the butte. Topping up over the butte, we continued onto the flats. A few climbs into the flats, Owen spotted a sweet cloud street which would give us a lifty line to make a big triangle. We tracked North up this cloudstreet on FULL BAR for a long time. We only stopped for a few climbs and otherwise we were pushing at full speed under the thermic windward edge of the clouds. It was smooth sailing all the way up to the point near Pateros. I thought I was high enough so I turned and continued the push towards Goat Mountain. I should have topped all the way up to the clouds because I got into Goat too low! I came in below the ridge on the shady lee east side and couldn’t get up. I scrubbed off the back and ran downwind getting low until I got to the next little mountain down the valley. I dove into the rocky, sunny, and windward face of the hill and managed to start some weak climbs. Working my way up and back, I pushed deeper back into the high terrain until I found some strong climbs and boosted up to the Squaw Creek Ridge. From there it was a headwind push and I got low and stuck in the pocket above Azwell. I could stay up but couldn’t go forward! Ross came and got me and I was still in the air trying to get down when he arrived.
Day 5: Chelan: Back on Ross’s Punk, low save and then flew up to Omak.
- XC Distance – 90 km
- Flight Time – 5:09h
It was another windy day and I messed up my transition from the butte over the lake to the north side of Chelan. I missed the bottom of the climb that the group found, and was left low on the foothills. I struggled for a while but managed to stay up and be patient until I clawed my way up and out. Eventually got up to Goat Mountain and it was very turbulent! Finally left there at around 9000ft flying towards Brewster hoping to reconnect with the group. I saw a few gliders but wasn’t able to join them. Low again near Brewster, I eked out some broken climbs and made it to the Okanogan valley. Working my way up the western side, I skipped along the peaks until north of Omak. My goal to was to land where the others hand landed but I went the wrong way! Was still only a 10 minute drive so they collected me quickly and we had a fun ride back sharing out flights of the day.
Day 6: Chelan: Group triangle! With another low save.
- XC Distance – 75 km
- Flight Time – 5:24h
This was the last day of the clinic and it was awesome to see how we had all progressed in one week. Everyone was team flying like pros, climbing together, making solid search patterns on glide, and staying together well as a group! I was doing well gliding out front at first, but had a tough section in the middle when I got low after we left Forest Mountain. I even took a HUGE collapse along the way, it was exciting. I managed to keep up and occasionally would climb up to meet the group, but gliding up-wind with the punk was a real challenge. I fell out the bottom of the group while we were waiting at the foot of the Entiat ridge and I missed the transition across the river. Hanging around looking for a climb, the mountains started to shade and being in the lee wasn’t working at all! I got flushed out and had to cross the valley to find lift on the sunny west-facing hills. There I soared up the faces until I was high enough to snag a sweet climb and then cross the river. Once I connected with the flats, I tagged Waterville and cruised up the high-tension power lines all the way back to Chelan Falls. It was very rewarding to have managed the same flight as the rest of the group after getting so low and separated.
So interesting to read your daily account of your experience in Washington. Thanks for sharing.
Wow what an amazing week, very impressive flights!