Flying meets in the summer

Spring and beginning of the summer was not the best for flying. We had a lot of wind or it overdeveloped very fast.
July 17th (start of the "Willi") was the first opportunity to get a bigger flight in, I called Stewart Midwinter and Ron Ford and sure enough we got a flight from Golden to Invermere (110km). It must have been at least 5 years back that I flew with Ron this flight the last time. Steward landed at the Invermere airport and got a ride back to Golden to retrieve his car. I was not able to participate in the remaining week of the Willi due work.

The following Friday evening I watched Eric Oddy from Brisco when he did his kind of training and warm up for the Rocky Mountain thermals. Check out the video, he was not able to fly the day after as planned, but he flew in the Canadian Nationals.



On the last day of the "Willi" I tried to fly from Invermere to Golden for the big dinner party, but got washed down at Edgewater (40 km from Invermere) by strong north winds. Later this evening we (the family, Frank, Dominic and Jeff) drove to Golden for the dinner. What a blast we had to meet all the old friends and the many of the new pilots. Most pilots did not fly this day as the conditions where very strong and rough. Later this evening the pilots go further challenged with Katia's hula-hoop competitions. Just great to see that kids can have a lot of fun at events like this as well.

The next day (Sunday) we got in a morning flight with Penny and a tandem with Erik. I headed up again and got another great flight from Golden to Invermere (112 km)

Monday morning Stewart and I drove up to Golden for the pilots meet. I am not really a comp kind of guy as I like more x-country flying without watching how some people act and let things get into their heads due a competition. Yes, a comp is something to take serious, but you still can have fun with it to. I had a blast at the Canadian Nationals and really enjoyed to fly with over 40 people the whole week long. The best flights/tasks where the first 2 days, one was going down to Invermere (108 km task) and the 2nd was going north to Donald Station, back to Mobily and then land at Chris Mullers old place at the Blaeberry (I think 50 km plus). The other days where some times windy or the forest fires in the province shut down the thermals. Thanks to Bruce and all his volunteers to make this such a great meet. If you like to get more details, follow this link to Nicole's blog where she posted all the results.
Another thing what stood out was the new Ozone R 10.2 glider. Man, that things is very impressive and I have to say it certainly sets a new standard in performance. Even when it got windy and more tricky to fly, these guys where still finishing tasks when most of us where not able to finish the task.
These guys certainly made me think about to get one. At the same time I wonder when this knowledge can be used in the serial wings. Right now we have great wings to thermal but as soon we need some speed, we are done. Although, it is already impressive where we are today when I think back to my first flight in 1987.

The last week I was back at work and we are just getting ready for the 34th www.LakesideEvent.com.

Hope to see many of you there.