The Lumby Air Force will be hosting The Second Annual Lumby Air Races June 8,9 and 10, 2007 for Hang Gliders and Paragliders. This years Race will follow the Canadian National Hang Gliding Championships and possibly another special event for Paragliders.

The format will be valley triangle racing around the town of Lumby Friday, Saturday and Sunday in conjunction with Lumby Days. $2000.00 in cash was awarded in 2006. $1500.00 has been secured so far for this year. $5000.00 is the target for 2007.
Mark Dowsett will do the scoring this year and I'm sure he will be racing as well.

Onsite camping at the Lumby Air Park with wireless Internet and cell coverage only $10.00/night or $20.00 for all 4 nights

Thanks Randy Rauck and the Lumby Air Force for a great time at the Air Races. The flying was fun, and the after hours activities worth the trip alone. I'll be going again next year, whatever the weather forecast.

But now the problem. Once again I've won money flying, and anybody who has seen me fly knows that just isn't fair. So I'm putting up $200 (my wife says she needs the rest) to be given to the first PG pilot to complete a designated challenge at the Willi. Last time we did this two years ago, Will Gadd completed the 150 km O&R task for my money on the first day he had a chance.

I need a tougher challenge - maybe a longer O&R, a triangle, or some place special to fly. If you have a suggestion, something realistic but challenging that anyone on a paraglider could take a shot at, let me know at randy@keyinc.com. I'll sort through the options suggested and let everyone know what the designated challenge is prior to the Willi.

The weather finally caught up with us, as we were rained out after going up Cooper's in the morning. Before the rain hit both Norm and Andy launched and ridge soared the north side of Lumby Ridge before landing at Randy's in the rain.

But we got 2 valid rounds in on Friday and Saturday, which means there was $2000 to hand out to the winners ($1000 from the Lumby Air Force, $1000 from the Town of Lumby)!

$500 each to the 1st place winners of the PG Open Class, PG Standard Class (DHV 1-2 and lower), HG Kingposted Class, and HG Open Class.

Winners:

PG Open: Jim Orava
PG Standard: Randy Parkin

I am sitting here in Toronto airport on my way back to Vancouver and am processing the scores for Lumby...ain't technology cool!

My 'apprentice' Tonya is scoring the Lumby event and is doing a great job. She also did the Hedley Open this year and I can tell from the info she's been sending me from the Lumby event that she is has totally caught on to the scoring system. It's nice to have others around to know how to do this sort of stuff. I've also taught Scott Gravelle remotely this year and it looks like Doug Keller is going to tackle it for the upcoming Golden HG Nationals.

Another beautiful day! Nice cu's already starting up at 9am so we went up for an early task before it OD'd. There were lots of new people around, lots of HG's and PG's heard about how good it was yesterday so showed up.

Task today was an OR Cooper's/Lumby Ridge, followed by the medium triangle (Cooper's/Lumby Ridge/Saddle) x2. Jim and I launched and scratched around for a bit, it wasn't as easily soarable as yesterday, probably since we were flying earlier in the day. There was a big cu blowing up behind launch, but it was confined to Vernon Mountain and not a problem for us for the moment, although we kept an eye on it.

Despite the less-than-stellar weather predicted for Lumby, it was a great day. Woke up to blue skies and development already happening, so we went up to Cooper's for a task before it OD'd.

Up on launch nicely blowing in, so we made a task: 3 medium triangles (Cooper's/Lumby Ridge/Saddle/Cooper's) to keep things over the town, and into goal at Randy's, for a 37 km task.

Andy launched first as a wind dummy and immediately went up, so we all followed suit as soon as the launch window opened. Pretty easy to get the first triangle done, and then it got harder as the skies started to darken with ODage. At the end of the second triangle I got stuck at Saddle in the increasing winds from the north (there was a rain cell coming from there) and I was thinking about a possible gust front, so I landed at Randy's. Jim Orava and Jon Orders were slightly higher than me at the time, and made the jump back to Cooper's for the start of the 3rd triangle, when the shade completely came in. Jim landed somewhere near Lumby Ridge, and Jon was high enough on his HG to glide around the rest of the course and make it in to goal.

Task 1. Coopers - Lumby Ridge - Saddle - Coopers (3 laps)
1-st place PG - Jimmy Orava,
1-st place HG - Jon Orders.

Conditions were perfect for the racing task despite poor weather forcast Thurday. Wind was steady from the North East 10-15 km/h with unstable conditions. The site was sorable at 10.30 and the first wind dummy went up to the cloud base at 11 am, so the competion window was open at 11.30.

In the late afternoon many fliers went to saddle Mountain to enjoy an evening flight over Lumby Days, and Jimmy landed in the Lumby Festival near the Beer Garden.

Gourmet BBQ and deserts were enjoyed by all by the bonfire under the full moon, while pilots watched moovies and talked about the stories of the fun flights which many lasted for over two hours.

The weather forecast for The Lumby Air Races could not be much better at this time.

A huge High pressure system is set up off the pacific and the local forecast according to The Weather Network are lows of 5 and highs of 25 for the next week with variable Sun and Clouds. This means great lapse rates and clear in the mornings and clouding over with cumulus in the afternoon.
PERFECT FOR CLASSIC LUMBY RACING!!!!!

The Race starts Friday morning in conjunction with Lumby Days.