For pictures of Pine Mountain, view my 2006 Sky Safari album.

I've been hearing about Pine Mountain outside of Bend, Oregon for years. Pine is known for it's kick thermals and XC potential—it sits on the edge of sage desert—and for its stellar evening glass-off.

Having arrived mid-week I was warned that there wouldn't be anyone to fly with during the day. I had assumed these Oregon folks would be slackers, but it appears they have actual day-jobs.

Without a ride to retrieve a vehicle, flying off the peak mid-day is pretty much a no-go.

After talking with local experts Jeff Huey and Billy Burke, I headed out around 3pm to the 'training hill'. This NW face of the mountain does look like an excellent training hill, but with winds and thermals off the desert it is also a rocking site.

The nice thing about the training hill is that it's pretty easy to bench up from low down. In fact, locals like to kite a bit up the hill right from the LZ parking lot and launch off low, benching up to over the peak.

I hiked up to the main cleared launch and waited for winds to come down a bit. Launching around 3:30pm I was snatched right up into some rocking thermals.

I'd been warned by the local clubs excellent web site (www.desertairriders.org) to watch out for blow-back. I was also warned by signs in the LZ. So I was particularily wary of penetration.

I had no trouble climbing to almost peak height (around 6000msl) but with forward penetration of <10km/h I decided to push out and land.

Landing was more exciting than I expected. The hillside and open flats were very lifty. It took several s-passes with deep turns and a few gentle wing-overs to set up my approach. And then when I was about 10ft off the deck and preparing to flare, I was picked up to about 50ft.

Not wanting to mess around in such thermic air with any aggressive tricks to get down, I just cruised down the direct road to the LZ and landed about 1/4 mile away (thanks to the gentle downslope and a few more pops).

After walking back to the car, I bundled up and hiked back up the LZ. I waited for the winds to come down a bit and re-launched at 5:30pm.

Around 6:30pm the locals started arriving and as I watched the cars fill up the lot I realized I'd parked my car in an awkward spot, blocking the best landing approach. So I decided to land and move it.

Landing wasn't as exciting this time around, but everything was lifting and it took at good 15 minutes (and a few aborted passes) to get below the lift and into the LZ.

Next, following the lead of the locals, I kited my glider from the LZ about 3/4s of the way back to the launch clearing. It was good fun and I could have launched anytime along the way, but decided to walk to launch to chat with the folks already there. I walked the last 1/4 to avoid catching my glider on the sage, and to keep the launch path clear.

With the locals showing me where to go, I benched up over the peak and enjoyed a spectacular moonrise followed by sunset. Everyone started landing around 8:45.

We packed up and headed back to town a little after 9pm.

I've added an album of road trip photos.
Check it out: 2006 Sky Safari

Heading out of Ruch toward Bend I decided to stop in Medford for some poison oak lotion. The helpful folks at the pharmacy took one look at my Yushchenko face and refered me to a local walk-in clinic. The clinic gave me a steroid shot-in-the-ass, told me some funny stories of the not-so-funny places they've seen bad oak rashes and sent me on my way.

Hopefully it clears up the oak AND makes me huge...

Next stop was Crater Lake National Park.

I've seen Crater Lake from airplanes flying SFO->PDX, but never in person.

There is still a lot of snow so most of the park is closed to cars—perfect. I parked by the visitors center, took out my bike and road down the closed off roadway (yet clear of snow...) to Discovery Point for amazing views of the lake.

I'd love to return in the fall when snow has melted off the main trails and one can hike down the rim to the lake or up the various peaks for even more spectacular views.

If you haven't been, add it to your list!

RatRace Final Results

Results are in. The first place winner in serial class (DHV2 and "milder") is Jugdeep Aggarwal!

Congrats Jug, awesome flying.

In the masters category Tom Moock took second place. Way to go Tom! Now please explain what traits make a master? :-)

Great flying with you both. Canadian Nationals anyone??

Day 5 Results
My Day 5 Flight
RatRace Final Results

So what better way to follow-up my best finish since I started competing with my worst!

I have all sorts of great excuses for my 82nd place finish—itchy oak, swollen shut eye, gusty winds that freaked me out, the guy who launched through my glider, the other guy who turned so close I could have reached out and grabbed his tip. In other words, it wasn't my day.

But the truth is, I don't need any excuses, I know exactly what went wrong and it was all me.

I wasn't very focused and did let the wind and the close call freak me out, so I made what I think was a good decision and left the gaggle over launch.

After the near-hit, I boated around and got my nerves back together, but as I was ready to rejoin I saw that I had lost perhaps 1000ft and was just minutes away from start.

At that moment I realized I'd blown the start. I should have accepted this—it's not big a deal, but I wanted to hit the start. So I found a thermal and climbed to the middle of the pack.

I should have stayed, accepted a bad start, and climbed to the top of the pack. But I wanted the start and so I headed out, tagged the start, and pushed on across the valley for the first turn-point.

I reached the turn-point, but low. The next turn-point was back across the valley, back over launch.

I now had another decision to make—did I stay on the north side of the valley and work the ridges until I got high enough to make the south crossing (there was a south wind at altitude so I could expect a head-wind), or did I push back low?

If I went deeper north I'd be further and further back in the field.

If I pushed south, I could make up some time, but if I didn't make it, I'd be down early.

Can anyone guess what itchy impatient me did?

I really didn't want to go off course and I'd had good luck working the ridge off of launch in the past.

I pushed forward, aimed for a couple of gliders in a light thermal, and made the crossing relatively well.

But when I arrived, nothing was doing. I spent about 10 minutes surfing the ridge low, kicking the tops of trees, waiting for something to gather.

It didn't, and I landed in the LZ, followed quickly by the other gliders who had been working the same poor lift.

So bottom line, my first mistake was not accepting the bad start. Even with a bad start, I could have made up time later in the course.

My second mistake was chancing the whole day on an attempt to make up time on a risky valley crossing.

Ok, maybe the first mistake was wrestling with Cook the poison oak covered dog, but I'm already paying for that one!

In the end my disappointment was soothed by the good company of excellent pilots including Keith MacCullough, Eric Broyhill, Jeff Farrel, and Eric Broyhill—all of whom dirted on a daring starting maneuver that failed.

I ended the 2 task competition in 36th place.

Next stop Bend to try out Pine Mt!