So I signed up for Pal Takats' SIV course in Revelstoke, together with 10 or 12 other flyers, half of them friends from the Lower Mainland. I had my first flights in Revelstoke just a couple of months ago on skis, now with the snow gone everything looked different. We were also using a different LZ on the lake shore and since the lake was still very high landing was a little tricky.
On the first flight I put my Artik 2 through various collapses. The fully accelerated assymmatricals went rather dynamic, but nothing too exciting. Since I had never tried full stalls I thought it would be best to start on my trusted Sport 4. Pal's advice was to stall relatively fast, then evenly release the brakes to a point where the wing partially re-inflates and stops thrashing around. That's the sweet spot. Once the wing is (relatively) stable overhead it can be fully released. If it surges too much it needs to be stopped, but it must be allowed to start flying again and must not be braked too long as another stall will result. The first round of stalls was rather exciting! Did 2 stalls but just couldn't release the brakes evenly which resulted in some serious thrashing around. Back on the ground, Pal's buddy recommended to slide my hands up along the harness straps or even grab something for even release. With this method the next set of 3 stalls went much smoother. On the third day I gave the Artik2 a try, with similarly 'smooth' results. But I definitely need to be more gentle (or less controlling? ;-) on the brakes when checking the surges. I stalled the wing again on 2 of 7 stalls. Nothing dramatic happened as I was watching my wing, immediately realized what I had done and went back to the sweet spot. Video of stalls will be put up shortly.
Great SIV. Excellent instruction before and during the maneuvers and thorough video debrief in the evening.
As I had already driven so far, I added two days in Golden to my trip. The place is know for great XC flying, but also for scary conditions with thunderstorms and far reaching gust fronts. Had a couple of sled rides from Mt Seven, hiked up Swansee twice, the second time with a group of Oregonians. After one of them flew and had an exciting flight, and one tried to launch and had an exciting abort we walked down again. Also met a couple of old friends and got to see the famous Golden overdevelopment, complete with thunder and lightening and a couple gust front, from the ground. Apparently for the good XC flights one needs either luck with the weather or some serious time put in at this place. But how nice to visit Golden, Radium Hotsprings and Invermere again. Must have been 10 years or so since we were last here. Great memories of climbing in the Bugaboos (Bugaboo and Pigeon Spires) and paddling the Kickinghorse, White, Elk, Bull, and Skookumchuck Creek. Have to do a Rockies trip again!
