SNOWBIRD
X-COUNTRY COMP 2000 ARTICLE
Sept 9th
to 16th 2000
Last
year we came close to beating the Utah xc record. This year we smashed it and set new US and North American foot
launched records.
Day
1 - Task 1
Todd
Bibler went out when no one else was willing to launch in light conditions,
made a low save while setting up his landing approach over the normal landing
zone and squeaked out 15.7 miles to win the day with Bo Criss close
behind. Everyone stayed below 10,000 ft
MSL for his entire flight, and 800 ft per minute up was the max lift. We were all surprised to get a valid task
out of the light conditions.
Day
2
Blown
out. We had a fun wait. It did get lighter but too late in the day
for a task.
Day
3 - Task 2
We
had generally light lift with a few stronger pockets that required patience to
get to 11,000 ft. After a few
re-launches, almost the entire field had good distances and Todd won the day
again with 26.2 miles and Dale Covington 2nd with 20.8 miles. Max altitude, 11,500 ft and 1200 up.
Day
4 - Task 3
It
started out a bit windy at Bauldy, but we did eventually get a bit of distance
with Bill Belcourt doing 48.5 miles as he "frisbeed off into the
sunset" for first place and Todd Bibler was 2nd with 18.3. This was a fairly turbulent day with max
altitude 15,000 ft and max lift was 1200 ft/min.
Robby
Whittall showed us a fantastic slide show on this evening at the Super Fly
party. Thanks Jeff Farrell and Chris
Santacroce for hosting this event. The show gave us a small taste of the flying
adventure that Robbie, Bob Drury and Peter Brinkeby had while in Nepal. Two things impressed me; the incredibly
large adventure that it was, as well as the strength of the mountain people of
Nepal. These people lead such different
lives from our own. They have a simpler, poorer (financially) and more
labor-intensive life. Great
presentation Robby. Thanks!
Day
5 - Task 4
Two
pilots went E, NE past Park City. The
rest headed SE to Heber. Bill Belcourt
won the day again flying to Strawberry Reservoir for 28 miles. It was a very slow day and up to 3 hours on
course. Most people averaging well
under 10 mph with max altitude 16, 200 ft and 900 up.
The
chase crew pickups were great! Jason
and Tom Moorhouse were the first chase crew out on that day, therefore I sent
them to go after Bill who was at the head of the pack. By the time they got to Heber, Bill was at
Strawberry Reservoir. Off to Strawberry they went. Upon arrival, they called me again and I told them to keep
driving east on Hwy 40 looking for a glider in the air. They never did find one and stopped
alongside the road some miles later and called again. I told them to go a little bit farther, to keep looking and call
me again. Still unable to spot a glider in the air, they stopped and we were
once again on the phone discussing the next strategy. All of a sudden, out of what appeared to be "nowhere"
Bill came in a landed right next to their vehicle. Bill asked if they were chasing for the competition and Jason and
Tom said "yes, as a matter of fact, we are". Needless to say all were impressed and
surprised. The chase crews did great all week.
Day
6 Task 5
Strong
dust devils were popping off Hidden Peak all day. Once again most of the competitors chose not to fly even though
three wind technicians got way up fairly easily and
before the dusties started. This
is a site to fly early. On most days
the dusties can get too strong if you wait around too long. Then, like this day, it either gets too
strong for launching or there is such strong lift that we can't get our wings
over our heads. The entire peak is in shadow, behind the lip, with dusties off
the middle that sometimes snake up for thousands of feet. Max altitude: 16,600 MSL 1400 up.
Chad
Bastian won
the day and set a new Utah State Distance Record of
91.4 miles. Todd Bibler was second with 87.6 miles. Chad launched at 12:30
PM got back up to 16,000 ft. at 6:30 PM
and he and Todd landed at about 7 PM. Check out Chad's website for his story! www.flyaboveall.com
Day
7 Task 6
As
we looked at the weather in the morning, most pilots were quite apprehensive
about the strong winds aloft. Bill
Belcourt and I assured people that they needed high winds aloft to get good
ground speed and distance. We had good
launching conditions for about one hour and a half before the wind picked
up. As we were watching conditions, I
ribbed Chad about being out of State and that "We only allow out of
"Staters" to have the Utah x-c record for one day." We all laughed because it was setting up to
be the best day yet.
Once
again the people who chose to launch early found it easier to launch. The
longer the pilots waited, the more difficult and dangerous the launch
conditions got. The wind socks and streamers
were often blowing up, and I
mean up not in, on all sides of the peak at the same time. It was pretty easy for people to get up if
they could just get launched. Bill
Belcourt launched earliest and had the easiest launch and climb out
sequence. Bo Criss launched later with
only one half of a wing, into exceptionally strong conditions and pulled it off
beautifully. Getting up and out of the
canyon was not easy for those who launched later. And was impossible for those who waited too long.
At
3:30 PM Todd Bibler radioed that he
was near Kemmerer at 11000 ft passing 91 miles. That is averaging 30 miles per hour for 3 hours. SMOKIN' for a paraglider. Bill reported a ground
speed of 60 miles per hour at 17,900 ft.. For most of the flight their downwind
averaged 30 to 38 miles per hour. The
max altitude reached was 17,999.99 ft. with 1400 ft per min up.
Chad
got to have the Utah record for 22.5 hours as Dale Covington landed at 5:30 PM
near Kemmerer, WY with 100 miles. Dale
held the Utah record for 20 minutes.
When Todd Bibler landed at 5:50PM past Fontenelle Reservoir, WY with 150
miles for the newer Utah and US foot-launched distance record for 15 min. Then Bill Belcourt landed at 6:05 PM with
154.1 miles in Eden WY for the newest Utah, US and North American foot-launched
x-country record!. It thrills my heart
to be around a group of pilots who know how to share. These guys obviously not
only attended kindergarden, but passed with flying colors. CONGRATULATIONS to
Chad, Dale, Todd and Bill.
Rick
Burnett was right there to pick up Bill (who in gratitude, donated his second
place prize of Crispi Airborne Boots to Rick), but finding Todd who landed out
in cougar country, was an ordeal. Even
with his GPS coordinates they weren't able to locate him until after 9 PM. The dirt roads and trails were unmarked and
quite random in their directions.
Most
of the other competitors deserve congratulations also on achieving personal
bests with distance and altitude. For more details on the comp. visit our web
site at www.twocanfly.com .
Day
8
After
9 pilots racking a lot of mileage through 6 tasks and 7 of the pilots putting
in personal bests (6 distance) (7 altitude), this day started with most pilots
not wanting another task because they had had enough flying and they were
tired.
Wouldn't
that be great if we could get too much flying in at every comp? It was too strong in wind and turbulence at
Hidden Peak so we went to Inspiration Point and found that too strong also, so
those pilots got their wish. Everyone
was pretty tired and I was actually pleased to call the competition
complete. It was a great and long week
of flying. The awards gathering that
evening at Woodie Beardsley's (thanks) was a lot of fun even though Todd Bibler
could not attend. Bill Belcourt did a
very funny rendition of Todd accepting his first place trophy. Bill then took
us all to school for an hour or so talking about his 154 mile flight and
competing strategies and how the route they took works and doesn't work. We were all glued to his account as he
pointed out aspects of their flight on the large raised topo map. Another record flight and personal best was
described by Dale Covington, after he accepted his 3rd place trophy
(an engraved wooden bowl made by myself, the 1st and 2nd
place engraved bowls were made by Dale).
We
have much to be grateful for. The weather was great for us obviously.
The
chase crews were absolutely fantastic!
The pilots flew well and stayed safe even through some very big
conditions, and as great as the record setting was, the flying safely is the
best. Thanks to Kathy McKay and Mark
Gaskill for their organizing skills and my wife Janet for her huge amount of hours
and effort at making this whole thing work.
And a long list of others - you know who you are. Thanks
I
am in agreement with many other pilots who believe that foot and tow launched
and motor launched records should be separated therefore: I believe Bill
Belcourt's flight is now the US and North American foot launched x-c
record. 248 K (154.1 mi). So that would
mean 4 new Utah records,one North American record broken and the US record
broken twice. Can it get any better
than this? We'll see next year.