Lumby Air Races
Last weekend I went to the Lumby Air Races for the first time ever – it’s an annual fun meet for paragliders and hang gliders and is held in Lumby, BC which is about 20 k’s outside of Vernon, BC.
I didn’t arrive until Friday late in the day, and thankfully, didn’t miss anything. The conditions weren’t great, and the task that day did not end up being valid as nobody made minimum distance. Saturday looked much more promising and around 70 paraglider and hang glider pilots headed up to Cooper’s Launch and set up their wings for what looked to be a good flight.
Conditions at launch were good, and although pilots weren’t getting very high at first, eventually people started flying on course, and I got my stuff together and launched. The thermals weren’t particularly strong, and sometimes were a bit hard to follow, so it was nice having others in the air to figure out where the best lift was.
Our course was basically two small triangles from Cooper’s Ridge to Lumby Ridge, to Saddle Mountain, and then back to Cooper’s. From there, the task was to fly to Lumby Ridge again, then onto Satellite Mountain, Camel’s Hump, Cooper's Launch, and then land at Randy’s (which is where most people were camped).
I ended up flying the course quite slow, as I could see that it was a bad day to get low, so I took my time, and didn’t jam on the speedbar more than around 40% at any given time. For the most part, climbs were easy to find, although some thermals seemed to simply dissipate at heights that were quite low and then you had to move on and find another one, which again, made things a bit slow going.
After completing the two small triangles and making my way back to Lumby Ridge for the third time, lift was getting harder and harder to find, and I ended up doing quite a bit of ridge soaring. I was with quite a few other pilots, and everyone started hitting the deck one by one. I fought really hard to find something that would take me higher so I could make my way to Sattelite Mountain, but I just couldn’t get above 1100 metres. After playing around for about half an hour, and seeing that nobody else was going anywhere, I flew towards Sattelite for a couple minutes, then turned back to Lumby Ridge to land in a field by the highway for an easier retrieve.
Total time: 3:05. Total distance: only 16 k’s!!!!
Things I did right: I tried to stay as high as possible throughout the flight, instead of racing to the next thermal which may or may not have been better. I was very observant with watching other pilots and adjusted my glide angles, and spots where I took thermal climbs, based on what others did. I didn’t take the competition horribly seriously (like I usually do!) and just had fun flying.
Things I did wrong: I launched too late – I should have been in the air half an hour before hand. I think I would have completed more of the task had I done so. Also, even though I was low at Lumby Ridge, I should have tried to fly towards Sattelite, as other pilots mentioned that there was pretty good lift there. I’m not sure I would have made it there with any height, but perhaps I would have found a climb in the valley. I didn’t want an inconvenient retrieve, which may have prevented me from tagging more waypoints.
Cooper’s Ridge is a special place for me because I had my first thermalling flight there. It was cool to be back a few years later, and fly the same site again. I had a great flight on Saturday and I really enjoyed seeing everyone again. I enjoyed the Lumby Air Races very much and hope to be back next year.
Leonardo flight link: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/340892
I didn’t arrive until Friday late in the day, and thankfully, didn’t miss anything. The conditions weren’t great, and the task that day did not end up being valid as nobody made minimum distance. Saturday looked much more promising and around 70 paraglider and hang glider pilots headed up to Cooper’s Launch and set up their wings for what looked to be a good flight.
Conditions at launch were good, and although pilots weren’t getting very high at first, eventually people started flying on course, and I got my stuff together and launched. The thermals weren’t particularly strong, and sometimes were a bit hard to follow, so it was nice having others in the air to figure out where the best lift was.
Our course was basically two small triangles from Cooper’s Ridge to Lumby Ridge, to Saddle Mountain, and then back to Cooper’s. From there, the task was to fly to Lumby Ridge again, then onto Satellite Mountain, Camel’s Hump, Cooper's Launch, and then land at Randy’s (which is where most people were camped).
I ended up flying the course quite slow, as I could see that it was a bad day to get low, so I took my time, and didn’t jam on the speedbar more than around 40% at any given time. For the most part, climbs were easy to find, although some thermals seemed to simply dissipate at heights that were quite low and then you had to move on and find another one, which again, made things a bit slow going.
After completing the two small triangles and making my way back to Lumby Ridge for the third time, lift was getting harder and harder to find, and I ended up doing quite a bit of ridge soaring. I was with quite a few other pilots, and everyone started hitting the deck one by one. I fought really hard to find something that would take me higher so I could make my way to Sattelite Mountain, but I just couldn’t get above 1100 metres. After playing around for about half an hour, and seeing that nobody else was going anywhere, I flew towards Sattelite for a couple minutes, then turned back to Lumby Ridge to land in a field by the highway for an easier retrieve.
Total time: 3:05. Total distance: only 16 k’s!!!!
Things I did right: I tried to stay as high as possible throughout the flight, instead of racing to the next thermal which may or may not have been better. I was very observant with watching other pilots and adjusted my glide angles, and spots where I took thermal climbs, based on what others did. I didn’t take the competition horribly seriously (like I usually do!) and just had fun flying.
Things I did wrong: I launched too late – I should have been in the air half an hour before hand. I think I would have completed more of the task had I done so. Also, even though I was low at Lumby Ridge, I should have tried to fly towards Sattelite, as other pilots mentioned that there was pretty good lift there. I’m not sure I would have made it there with any height, but perhaps I would have found a climb in the valley. I didn’t want an inconvenient retrieve, which may have prevented me from tagging more waypoints.
Cooper’s Ridge is a special place for me because I had my first thermalling flight there. It was cool to be back a few years later, and fly the same site again. I had a great flight on Saturday and I really enjoyed seeing everyone again. I enjoyed the Lumby Air Races very much and hope to be back next year.
Leonardo flight link: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/340892
posted by Veronica at 1:46 PM
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