Quite the day.  Andrei has a big story and so does Irina.  I'll let them tell.

Beth and I both did fine.  Got up in the pre-launch gaggle and went over the back when we got over 9000'.  We were hoping to get a thermal in the valley or over the Pinnatas but the timing was not quite there.  Landed in the soccer field.  Ended up going to Valle and then making our way back out to Penon for an evening flight.  An exact repeat of the morning flight except with more cloud cover and therefore less lift.  But it was fun.

Haven't taken hardly any pictures.  I might skip the flying and do the pics instead.

Ciao

Andrei is growling "I haven't made goal once".  Beth is still in the room.  I guess I just snore too loud and she did not have a good night.  Bummer. 

Yesterday was a though day for the competitors.  Strong winds and they set the course into the wind.  No one made it.  I lost my stinger watch so I flew with only ginger pills and it was strong air.  Beth was already down in Piano and I decided to join her since it was obvious I wasn't going anywhere.  Good thing I did cause I was feeling airsick just as I landed.  Bummer, I was hoping the ginger would work by itself.  Today I'll try twice as much.

We had a really nice relaxing time after flying.  Beth and Irina wondered around town and I sat at Boga Boga (the bar at the LZ) and just watched people.  Afterward we ate at a place that had rotisserie chicken and we had avocado and papaya that I & B had bought from a market with it and a nice bottle of Chilean wine.  What a fine dinner.

Got to go.

Ciao

I really did have good intentions, honest. 

This may have to be fast.  I'm in the dinning room and breakfast is being served so I'll get to it.  My wing did appear late Monday night.  They had to wake us up.  Cloudbase was real low on Monday and Beth kept having to run to keep from being sucked up.  Irina flew for three hours and was ready to go up for the evening flight.  What a trooper.

Tuesday was another low cloudbase day.  And this time I was up there too.  The air was pretty rough but I was comfortable enough with the Sigma.  A lot more than I think I would have been with the Mustang.  Beth and I both landed in the Piano but I was happy with the day.  One of things that was not too pleasant was watching a guy go down on the Penon rock face.  Thought there was no way he would make it but miraculously he had only a scraped elbow and a possible broken finger.

Yesterday was apparently a typical Valle day.  Clear.  I had a good flight.  Found the thermal harder to follow and there was more ups and downs.  I took a chance on getting a thermal and it didn't work out.  You know the rest.  Beth however got high and hung in there with the gaggle long enough to get to about 9700' and over the back to Jovan's eating place.  Way to go Beth.  Andrei flew for fifteen minutes short of six hours.  Just missed the last turnpoint on a 70+ km task.  Irina did well too getting several turnpoints along the way.

Today is cloudy again.  We'll see what the day brings.  Seems all of our time is totally taken up that's why it's so hard to get this blog updated.  I'll see if I can get a few minutes between the morning and evening flights.

Not a very auspicious start to the vacation.  Let's see what didn't go right?  But before that let me tell you about the trip.  We left on the red-eye special to Houston with Continental Airlines.  Several people have told us that that was not a good choice, but what the hey, the flight landed at Toluca which was considerably closer to Valle than Mexico City.  Flight was nice had good seats but only got three hours of semi sleep.  I don't do well without sleep but I sucked it up and was not grouchy.  The airport is tiny at Toluca so we watched as the baggage handlers unloaded the stuff on to a very short conveyor belt.  The folks from the hotel were supposed to have a person waiting for us so while we sauntered around collecting bags Irina went looking for the driver.  He was supposed to have a sign with her name on it.  Well he wasn't there, and, neither was my wing!  Bummer.  Are you sure about that?  Yes I'm sure, and then all the stories came out about how bags get tossed because the plane is overloaded etc.  Andrei said he had had a bad feeling about Continental.  Well after talking with a pretty nice guy who could speak acceptable English, we made out the claim forms and Andrei and Irina when to see if they could figure out the phone.  Took lots of experimenting, pointing and buying phone cards but the contact was finally made with the hotel.  "The driver is out there and should be waiting for you."  But he was no where in sight.  More negotiating on the part of Irina and we found two cars willing to take us at a good price so off we went (minus my wing).  Got into downtown Toluca and it was gridlock.  This is a small place!  "No problem the driver said through his Nexus cell phone to the other driver.  We'll go around the long way cause this will take us two hours with this traffic."  So over the curb, over the median, stick our nose into oncoming traffic until someone swerved enough to let us in and we were off to Valle.  Needless to say, I had quite a lot of time to catch up on my missing sleep.  Good move Exlax.

Well got to the hotel.  They apologized profusely.  They still had not heard from the driver. 

The place is really nice.  I'll send pics tomorrow.  Alex has very excellent people working for him.

After a late lunch or early dinner, Beth, Irina and myself hired a taxi to take us up to the ridge above town for an evening sledder.  Both Beth and Irina did an excellent job of launching from what first looked like an intimidating launch.  All concrete, originally designed for hangs (ie steep is not the word for it) with a flat top.  The two pictures are of both Beth and Irina (new Sigma 6).

Ciao.

Wow, what a trip! Flew as much as our bodies could handle.

We were surprised that Chile is roughly as expensive as the US. Not nearly as cheap as Brazil was in 2003. I'm told that Argentina is a bargain as well. Anyway, the people were very friendly. We sure were blessed to have Larry & Nicki Gault (Chilean resident missionaries) guiding us along. We would have been sunk in many situations without them. One truly pleasant happening that Larry arranged was our driver in the Santiago area. He was the most professional, courteous, pleasant person you could imagine for the post. A real find.

Santiago is a bustling city of approximately 6 million people. We chose to stay in a place out in the rural area between Santiago and the coast called Olmue. Very nice although the driving to flying sites becomes trying at times. Larry pioneered a site close by called Condor. Hats off to Tom Allen. He was the only Tiger pilot willing to venture out in the obviously active air, at least at the beginning. The rest ventured out after it was apparent that it cooled down to rough Tiger conditions. We could have handled it earlier but we didn't did we (except for Tom)? That was probably the site with the most potential. Be nice if there was a road up.  The horses are fine the first time but it would become old if you did it all the time. The hike up was not something that I would be able to handle with my wing, especially in the heat.

One of the things we tried to find out before we went is whether February was a bad time to go. Everyone we talked to before we left assured us that it was fine. After we were there we found out that it is the worst month to go. For being the worst month, we sure got a lot of really good flying. I'd love to see what the good months have to offer.

The second half of the trip took us north to Iquique where we were guided by a wonderful guy named Hernan. We were warned by 'others' that his nickname was "Dr Danger' or similar names so we were somewhat apprehensive. Turns out there is a smidgeon of truth to that but that's only if you are exclusively a follower and don't know your own abilities and limitations. As a guide he was a very likeable, funny and happy person who truly wanted our trip to be fun and enjoyable. We had a ton of fun, learned how to empty the sand out of wings on one of the only strips of grass in Iquique, right next to a busy road, and how to fly in rotor and how to laugh at ourselves for following 'a local' into the ground (downwind no less) at cemetery 1, without the slightest hesitation. Hernan knew exactly what he was doing but we didn't. It was contrary to our training but we followed none the less, just like dive-bombers in some Daffy Duck cartoon. It was the funniest event of our whole trip. Turned out fine for most of us but a couple of us had to walk out to the road.

Chile was one of the places on the short list that Beth and I have and it didn't disappoint. Too bad that when you get home and look back at some of the things you wimped out on, you can't go back the next day and do them.

I finally did it!  I've wanted to fly to Bellingham from Blanchard Hill forever and Sunday I finally did it.  Well, not quite but close enough.

The day was one of those that make you absolutely not want to fly.  The sky, looking out the window of our home, was that dreary dark gray and rain streaked the glass so we thought "uggh, another weekend shot".  Steve, Tom and Gordon were heading east to Baldy and we were sure they were going to be blown out.  A bunch of the party folks were headed south for the annual 'Fly at Oceanside in the rain' flyin, and we were sitting like old grumps in the sofa.

Enter Roger Robison.  "Hi Ernie, you decided where to go yet?"  (You've got to imagine that hi energy excitement in his voice). 

"Nope.  Nothing looks good to me.  We were hoping Blanchard would work but it looks pretty dreary and there's a bunch of east in the MM5 forecast"  (You've got to imagine the high energy excitement in his voice). 

"Well I'm going anyhow.  Murdoch and Jan have left already and Chris said he might be there."

"OK, well have a good one"

Twenty minutes later there was a break in the clouds and our moods changed.  "What the hey, let's go.  It's better than sitting here."

Quick phone call to Roger to confirm that he was actually going. (Not that there would be any doubt) and we were on the way.

We headed straight up without the usual stop at the LZ.  Jan was set up to go and all indication were that we had timed it just right.  Jan's launch was very nice and she promptly went straight up until Murdoch instructed her to turn away from the hill to avoid being sucked up to the big dark cummy overhead.  She was in the air forever!

Beth launched just before Delvin showed up.  His comment had something to do with Beth being the wind technician.  I told him I wouldn't fly until she told me it was safe.  Anyhow, she was up at 2500' within three minutes and I told everyone that she was going to be the first woman pilot to fly to Bellingham.  I really thought so but I guess the wind had not settled down to a steady pattern yet and she and Chris were soon down over the LZ.

The rest of us kind of lolly-gagged off and got some good lift in front of the south face.  Fun soaring!  The air was a little lumpy at first but soon settled down to nice smooth lift.  The wind gradually shifted to the west and when I saw Murdoch, Delvin and Doug heading for Chuckanut mountain I was not far behind.

We were almost there and I saw Murdoch peel off first, heading back to momma, then Delvin.  "What the hey?  We were almost there and I didn't care at that point if I landed in the mud flats I was going for it!"

I didn't get any lift until I snuggled up close to the slope next to those huge houses being built up there and then I knew that I'd get around the corner at the very least.  Doug had arrived ahead of me but quite a bit lower but worked his way up and we were both traveling parallel paths.  He was over the inside ridge and I was closer to the road on the outside ridge.

Turns out at the end that he made the better choice even though he got worked a bit by the rotor coming over the back (the wind at this point had shifted from the south).  I lost options and altitude and ended up on the beach halfway down Chuckanut Bay  5.7 miles from launch.  Not epic by most standards but way cool by me.

(Pictures are in the Blanchard XC photo album)

After all that work on Saturday I was ready for a great day of flying.  The sun was out, the sky was so blue and I could just taste that magic moment of lift-off.  Saddle had looked really good the night before, but MM5 changed its prediction on Sunday morning to high winds.  I made a couple of inquiries about flying the northern bluff of Port Townsend but did not come up with anything useful.  Seems the pilots there are very protective of their sites, probably with good reason.

Anyhow, based on Andrei's 'good feeling' about Saddle, Roger and Beth and I got on the road at about 9:30 hoping for a good day.  Andrei, Irina and Chris were about half and hour in front of us and kept us informed on conditions, including a speed trap 9 miles before Ellensburg.  The air was so calm and smoke was going straight up and there were such nice cummies in the sky that we were very surprised when Dan Nelson phoned and said that the winds at the top to Saddle were 43 mph with gusts of 54 mph.

Change of plan.  We exited at Ellensburg and headed for Baldy.  Fortunately, Steve W and Dan Heath were in front of us and headed there too.  The report came back that winds there were in the mid thirty mph range so we were out of luck.  Someone suggested the Uptatum Bowl that Mike Eberle used for his training classes so we headed ther after a nice Mexican lunch in Ellensburg.  When we got there the wind was over the back but we decided to hike up anyhow just to work off all of that Mexican lunch.  It was an absolutely wonderful hike.  The bowl is much bigger than it looks and took the group more than an hour to hike around.  I got my signals mixed up and hiked down a ways before I realized that the rest of the people were going all the way around the top.  Oh well.  I hiked down to the watering hole and just lay on the grass enjoying the quitetness.  Mad a little stone figure while I was waiting.

OK, so I haven't been writing here much.  One of the guys at work has been blogging every day now for at least a week and has inspired me to do more.  I can't say that I'll match him but anything is better than nothing (really?).

Saturday was blown out again at Saddle Mountain so Beth and I took the opportunity to do some yard work.  We have a beautiful split-leaf maple in the front, next to the house, that seems to be in the wrong place.  We got the brillliant idea to transplant it to the center circle in the front sidewalk.  That turned out to be a pretty major job but thanks to a little ingenuity we got it planted without major injury (to ourselves).  Hopefully we did not injure the tree so much that it won't survive.

We arrived to high winds, cloudy skies, and torrential rain.  Not a good omen!  Beth and I picked up a van at the airport and drove to the Ala Moena shopping center to meet the group at one of the bars.  Conditions were not promising but Randy and Abe decided to go for a hike at a site close to Hanauma Bay.  We followed for some fun kiting in the LZ.  Felt good to be in the warm air despite the cloudy sky.

New Year's day was a total loss as far as flying was concerned.  It poured rain all day.  Abe and his friend Beth tried kite surfing but the winds died just as they were hooked up and ready to go.  We made our way back to the house for a soak in the hot tub.  Hope was high for good skies on Sunday.

Sure enough.  NW @ 10-20 was what the internet phone said.  Abe and Steve had gone early to return some diving equipment and to scout the coast near Sunset Beach.  By the time we got there Steve had flown to Waimea Bay and was on his way back.  Ultimately, he was in the air for 2.5 hours.  The road up to launch was shared by a bunch of dirt bikers and the dirt was gumbo red clay.  Our hike up was made considerably harder by the five pounds of clay stuck in huge clumps to our boots.

Launch was something else.  Velcro launch if you've ever seen one.  Line-grabbing, sticky vines, 45 degree slope, slightly cross, two steps back was a 60 degree slope.  Abe and Steve were already in the air and Beth was next.  With some help she had a really good launch.  Gordon was next in line with a tandem.  Abe was advising against it but you know Gordon.  I had spread my wing out over the vines when Beth went, so Gordo figured he had a good shot.  Turned out OK but he said it was the weirdest tandem launch he's ever done.  I was next and ended up hooking up cross.  Not good.  Could have been bad but turned out fine.  One tree sacrificed it's life for me.

I'll finish up nex time.  Everyone is anxious to get back.

Quote This is a test of the 'Blog It' link

A Review of Sideways

Sideways: ***** (of 5)

 

Rated R mainly for language.  There is some sex and nudity, but it isn’t of a pleasant kind (think Kathy Bates in About Schmidt).

 

Independent films don’t have the budget to wow us with special effects or exotic locations.  They live or die by their characters.  Sideways is no different; and not only does it live, it thrives.  Again, trying not to give away plot or story, the movie centers on two friends.  Miles (Paul Giamatti of American Splendour), the main character, is a down-on-his-luck wine buff who wants to show his friend Jack (Thomas Hayden Church whom we all knew as Lowel, the goofy mechanic from Wings) a good time before Jack’s wedding.  The bachelor party is to consist of a week of driving around California wine country sampling the fare and enjoy each other’s company.  This, of course, is not what Jack has in mind who is thinking more with his, a-hem, peripheral brain.

 

The movie, however, is not really about plot.  Our enjoyment is more in seeing the characters, especially Miles, develop as things unfold.  Events and mishaps are used as sonar to reveal our character’s qualities and complexities.  Even Jack is meant to provide a photographic negative of Miles.  He is yang to Miles’ yin.  Although Miles doesn’t necessarily seem like someone you would want to hang around with, you cannot help but love him as he tries to cope with his friend’s external downward spiral while at the same time dealing with his own internal angst.

 

Lest you think that the movie is too slow and boring, there is genuine comedy in ample portions.  I recall the audience, and myself, laughing out loud on more than a few occasions.  Jack, again, provides comic relief to Miles’ turmoil.  The comedy is true to life; not of the typical Something About Mary flavor; and well timed.

 

Just sit back and enjoy the film.  This is sure to show up on my Top 10 List for the year as 2004 was sorta lightweight (although it qualifies on its own merits).  As in most character studies, look for a central scene where our character is described in analogy or allegory.  You shouldn’t have a hard time spotting it and it is a powerful and moving monologue.

Now that I can write, what do I write about?  Well... wea re planning to go to Hawaii in January so maybe I'll write about that.  Maybe I throw in a few comments about Xmas first but we'll see.

This is really part of the smoke testing for the first QFE.

Maybe I can see how much I can improve the attached photo using Photoshop 7.   I'll post the 'new and improved' in another post

Woo-hoo, I thought I had lost my name forever.  I created this Space when we first launched and got hung up and couldn't access it.  Thought I'd have to delete it, then take the chance on getting the name back again after 60 days but the problem got fixed.  Way to go Spaces team!