Taken from Muller Windsport's Endless Summer

Let's Fly!! After being the first off yesterday and getting the longest flight I was keen to get going early today. Every one else seems to be catching on that in an open distance comp you want to go early. I got ready quick but I still wasn't first off. I was second to tow up at 12:30pm and I saw two others towing right behind me. I got a nice slow climb at about 100' per min up to 8000'. I drifted over the other tow road 2 miles away and one pilot was already in the air from there too. Some of the pilots over there saw me high and every one was keen to get going. I was being cautious to make sure I didn't sink out.

Taken from Muller Windsport's Endless Summer

Windy! Today (Wednesday) the wind was strong out of the SW.

I was the first to tow up at 1:05. I pinned off in a good climb at 1200'. We are split up into two groups on roads about two miles apart. I drifted straight over the other tow road and inspired them to get going over there too. The lift was week and broken and I spent the first hour turning. With the wind I was still putting on some distance. The lift started getting better and I started pushing harder down wind.

Taken from Muller Windsport's Endless Summer

Our flight was a 7:30pm so Scott and I had a lazy day getting ready to leave. We said our good byes to every one and started to short pack our gliders. Dust devils were popping every where and I was disappointed to be packing and not flying. The few of us that were left had lunch and then we hit the road.

Scott dropped me with the gear and took the rental back. We went to check in and the air port was packed. After we maneuvered our way to the check in we had about a 30min wait in line. When we told the agent we were checking two hang gliders he looked confused and stressed. Scott asked him to check his reservation and there should be a note that we are traveling with hang gliders. He says ya it's been cleared. He made a couple calls to see where he needed to send them and then six people show up to get our gliders. I think he was so shocked that he didn't even think to charge us any thing. The flight was uneventful and all our stuff showed up in perfect shape. We got into Calgary at midnight.

The 2007 Western Canadian Hang gliding Championship will be held in Vulcan Alberta. I'm looking forward to tring out a new site and the town is enthusiastic about having the event in town.

This years event will run from Sunday May 13th until Sunday May 20th. This is the week before the May long weekend. I have shortend the comp. by one day to allow the Saturday for those traveling from out of province and holiday Monday to travel home.

This will be a truck towing event. The format will be the same as last year. It will be primarilly open distance, using race to score each day. Some type of task will be called the last day to get people back in time for dinner. I would also like to have a task one other day as it is a good chance for people to practice navigating using their gps.

We have 17 pilots entered in the meet. The pilot meeting was at 9am at Ian's. Ralph had the turn points down loaded for me so I could sleep in (I had a long day yesterday) We were able to drive up to the chair lift to unload our gliders. Not many of us had done this before so we all stood around for a bit woundering what to do. We loaded two gliders on the chair lift and two pilot's road up with there gliders. It was very cool riding up the chair lifts with your glider. Very relaxing, fun ride up the mountain.

Once at the top we wandered around and checked out the launch area's. Once we were all set up we sat around as conditions wern't looking great. Scott wanted a 50km out and return but Brett felt the wind would be too much for what we thought would be weak lift. We deceided on a 54km down wind task to Dunn lake. Ralph got things started by launching first at about 2:15 after we pushed the launch window back. Christine and Dave Wagner joined him while the rest of the feild watched them scratch around for a bit. Once they started to climb the rest of the feild followed. We were able to climb up to 9000' over launch. I was a little over 8000' when I headed out on course. There was plenty of lift around, some strong some week but plenty to stay in the air. I had a hard time getting through 5000' and when I did was not able to get back over 6000'. At 40km out I was down to 3000' and found some 0 just waiting for something to come through to gain enough height to make goal. When another pilot joined me I lost my focus and we both landed.