US Paragliding Open, Chelan 2023

Another paragliding competition in Chelan this year. We rented a big house right next to the lake, so accommodations was excellent. No complains about weather either, only last day was way too windy and we have few tasks stopped due to rain/wind gusts, but overall I enjoyed the flying spending in the air close to 25 hours. Most of the gliders were 2-liners, including recently released Ozone Photon (EN-C), so racing was tough.

Lake Chelan from launch

Pilot's meeting at LZ

Alex B. on LZ

Stop task somewhere on flats

Looking at approaching rain from the bus

Lake Chelan

Launching my M7

Launch from the air

Start gaggle

Lake from the air

On glider across the river

Power lines

Following the cloud street

Thermaling over the flats

Results:

https://airtribune.com/us-open-paragliding-2023/results

US Paragliding Nationals, Chelan 2019

Not much flying for me last 2 years, so my goal was to get out and flew as much as I can and competitions, especially Chelan is perfect for this. I stopped and flew Herd Peak near Shasta Mt. on my way there.

Herd Peak

We had 5 tasks out of 7 days, 124 pilots participated, overall I took 76th place. Results are here. I made goal twice in the first and last tasks, not great for the score, but overall I was satisfied with ~25 hours of airtime. Competition level was definitely higher than last time I flew in Chelan, more pilots was making goal and faster too. In the Sport class 12 pilots had better results than me on the D wing.

Russian team

Chelan launch

Start

Chelan lake

Crossing river

Over the launch

LZ

US Paragliding Nationals, Chelan 2014

Since we left Jackson Hole early we opted not to stay in Missoula as planned and keep going as far as we can. Finally stopped at Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State park only 60 miles from Chelan, but in the morning our GPS navigator (Tom Tom) decided to challenge us providing a route via unpaved roads and wheat fields. I made it all the way to the river bank where "road" descends 2000+ ft. At that point I realized that if I get stuck further for whatever reason there is no way I can turn around and come back, so I turn around, shut off GPS and found right paved road just by memory, since I competed here in 2012. It was great to see many friends, who competed in 2014 US Nationals and fly 2 tasks with them. Unfortunately there was a fire south of us, which affected air quality significantly.

On Tuesday I opted not to tag last waypoint, which was deep in the smoke and by the time I arrived to goal task was stopped by this exact reason.

Climbing in smoky thermal

Wednesday task to Coulee City also was crossing large section of smoke, but we managed to climb above it and dropped into it only for few miles.

Flying above the smoke

Final glide to goal over Banks Lake

I made goal in decent time, but still slower than Dmitry, who become our National Champion in Sport Class (EN C wings and below), congrats!

Dmitry at goal