NorCal XC League, Whaleback, August 2011

Whaleback located near Mt. Shasta and its 10 hours drive to get there from LA. Well, scenery and flying conditions was excellent both days, so no regret, but next time I will add another day to avoid coming back home at 6:00 am and going to work at 8:00 am. We camped in Deer Mountain Snowpark (41.5707, -122.1307) for free. Can you believe in free camping sites? I was surprised too.

Launch (41.5353, -122.1526) just of unpaved road. Local club RVHPA did a good job to expand the launch, add setup area, expand parking and a vehicle turnaround as well as clear LZ from brush.

Sturday's task was LAUNCH-HEBRON(5km)-ASPEN. 90 km total. Nobody made goal with best result from Anderson Jared 75 km. He flew on the left side of the valley while most of other pilots including me chose right side with clouds (at least in the beginning). We all stuck in the large blue hole, but those how maximize glide instead of searching for thermals (like me) flew further.
My Saturday's GPS track
Saturday's Results

Sunday's task supposed to be shorter, so we chose Dorris, which most of pilots made yesterday as a goal. 50 km total. I was leading from the middle of the task, but was 1.07 km short of goal with my 8:1 glide was not enough to make it through strong sink. Darren Payne won a day with 8 pilots in goal.
My Sunday's GPS track
Sunday's Results

Here is video from the first day. Make sure to watch on full screen in 720p HD.


Site description
rvhpa.org/site-guide/whaleback/