Peterson Butte Flight Report (B)

[mac...@mac.com]

       Bill Briskey has written a great flight report from yesterday at PB , thanks Bill! I appreciate your sharing knowledge and your thoughtfullness on matters of free flight!

       Late getting this report in as I’ve been doing some needed water repairs - all fixed. There is just one bit about my approach and landing at the base lz that day - let me tell you….

     Taking off from the top wind was about 8-10 but the spinner 40’ higher was going quite a bit more. I’d had my wing played out and had been watching the socks at base and mid launch, both had gotten firm right angled to the poles. Base was S and mid was S,SE from my viewpoint. The ridge of lift as I’ve observed when the wind is from the S is out front and to the S or left from top launch. More W the inward flow is, the more the ridge lift is in towards the main hills and straight out and to the right as well. I haven’t flown here enough to see much of W winds here, 4 flights to be exact.

     I waited for a nice smooth buildup and launched smoothly, heading straight out as I knew the winds were stronger to the immediate left and did not want to get into the bowl between the ridges between me and further S or left, but hopefully, would find some lift further out, then decide if it was worth the try to the East. I never got above launch but was able to catch a couple moments and few 360’s of up which brought me closer towards the hill. I played around for about 5-10 minutes in front of the ridge. I was comfortably 200’ agl. On a turn into what I felt as lift away from the hill, I immediately lost 150’ of altitude in about 5 seconds. woosh. I immediately got into landing state of mind and had the height and distance to make the base lz in front of me. So far, so good.

     As I got closer to the lz which is also more lee to the oncoming S wind, my ground speed and airspeed dramatically increased, much more than I thought it would.  Before I knew it I was making a tight turn towards the lz away from the hill against some very compressed air that won out and dumped me onto of a buoyant yet prickly blackberry bush, just at the start of the downslope to the back of base lz - unscratched, un hurt, un bruised I landed on my feet but was pulled to my butt by the wing which thankfully just laid right down directly behind me, not a hole, rip, tear or blemish on it, amazingly. A huge thanks to Josh for his quick help in unsticking the wing before the rain started, about an hours worth of intricate unthreading lines.

     What went wrong? I’ve felt very comfortable flying at PB, it’s my favorite Oregon spot so far of the 6 I’ve flown at. There is an alternative lz, in fact there are a few at PB. There is one a little lower than the base lz. I didn’t feel I would make that area with my height and the headwind I thought I would encounter getting over there. There is the ridge in front of the base lz and this should have been my choice to fly in front of, but it was also a close call to make that - it would have given me more space to develop a more controlled approach and landing I think ( a full C pull down landing albeit ? ) if I had been able to make that choice, if I had chose that. The unexpected drop in altitude earlier startled me a little. I still think it was ok to launch when I did. I think I should have considered about how erratic the wind had been earlier that day and not taking that into account pre-flight enough, did not give myself the added height for something even unexpected as the circumstances I encountered with a down elevator pre my landing. But there is no fault to nature, my judgement got me in the air and landed me where I did. 

     I have a new program for myself and that is becoming more familiar with the landscape at PB, doing more ground handling at base, soaring the bottom most ridge from base, trying out the mid launch as I’ve not yet used it, and being more thoughtful about a S,Se condition. Felt I should share this, thanks for reading

Matt Yodis