Five laps around the valley is the task and only Brett succeeds. Most are down before one lap Rich included!
8 June 2007
Day 6 - Task 1 - Canadian Nationals / Day 1 - Lumby Air Race
Now the Lumby Air Race starts and task 1 of the Canadian Nationals is called in conjunction with the Air Race.
Five laps around the valley is the task and only Brett succeeds. Most are down before one lap Rich included!
Five laps around the valley is the task and only Brett succeeds. Most are down before one lap Rich included!
7 June 2007
Day 5 - Canadian Nationals - top to bottom comp!
With hope of better weather today we headed off up the mountain, hitching a lift with Stuntman Steve and Kiwi Jon.
In the end the weather was not ‘taskable’ for the Nationals but as Randy had organised a morning of interviews and filming with the local TV station the lure of ‘being on tv’ was too great and made all the more so with $300 on the spot.
2 top to bottoms later the winner was Mark Dowsett (again - he's getting pretty good at it).
Henry thought it would be amusing to 'decorate' Kiwi Jon's car.....and leave him a poem
In the end the weather was not ‘taskable’ for the Nationals but as Randy had organised a morning of interviews and filming with the local TV station the lure of ‘being on tv’ was too great and made all the more so with $300 on the spot.
2 top to bottoms later the winner was Mark Dowsett (again - he's getting pretty good at it).
Henry thought it would be amusing to 'decorate' Kiwi Jon's car.....and leave him a poem
6 June 2007
Day 4 - Canadian Nationals
So, we woke up to more rain this morning, surprise!
Over a long Breakfast at Hubert’s ...
... the decision was made to drive 3 hours east to visit the hot springs – Randy recommended Coyote Hot Springs so that’s where we headed via a long drive and the Needles ferry across the Arrows Lake.
It was amazing to see all the lumber tipped off the side of lorries to make into massive rafts that they drag to far away places, maybe Vancouver? You only see a few logs above the surface but there are at least 20-30 deep below!! The journey was eventful as we had to watch out for livestock on the roads – we saw rabbits, Coyote, Deer and Ostrich (or at least an ostrich farm) along with Osprey nests on the power lines along the roadside – Johnny Carr would be in his element!
The hot springs were great: we were the only 2 people there so clothes were optional;-) and we stayed and enjoyed the springs and view for 3 hours overlooking the lake sitting in the very hot pool and then reverting to the cooler bath tubs that were filled with creek water and gassy egg smelling very hot water – until we were wrinkly!
Over a long Breakfast at Hubert’s ...
... the decision was made to drive 3 hours east to visit the hot springs – Randy recommended Coyote Hot Springs so that’s where we headed via a long drive and the Needles ferry across the Arrows Lake. 
It was amazing to see all the lumber tipped off the side of lorries to make into massive rafts that they drag to far away places, maybe Vancouver? You only see a few logs above the surface but there are at least 20-30 deep below!! The journey was eventful as we had to watch out for livestock on the roads – we saw rabbits, Coyote, Deer and Ostrich (or at least an ostrich farm) along with Osprey nests on the power lines along the roadside – Johnny Carr would be in his element!
The hot springs were great: we were the only 2 people there so clothes were optional;-) and we stayed and enjoyed the springs and view for 3 hours overlooking the lake sitting in the very hot pool and then reverting to the cooler bath tubs that were filled with creek water and gassy egg smelling very hot water – until we were wrinkly!
5 June 2007
Day 3 - Canadian Nationals
Aliens spotted in Lumby – at least ‘something’ is flying today :-(
It seemed to rain all evening and we woke up to a very wet and damp tent this morning. The task briefing took place at 9am at Sisters cafe, we then went off to do the laundry and then in search of Magnetic Hill in Vernon, which we somehow didn’t manage to find as the compass kept going funny da da da da doh! So we had a 2 hour coffee at Starbucks and chatted the afternoon away followed by an early ‘tea’ at Earls.
Back in the Blue Ox Pub now sheltering from the rain and putting off getting back into the tent!
The forecast for the next 2 days isn’t looking too good either so we will probably head off to the hot springs tomorrow.
It seemed to rain all evening and we woke up to a very wet and damp tent this morning. The task briefing took place at 9am at Sisters cafe, we then went off to do the laundry and then in search of Magnetic Hill in Vernon, which we somehow didn’t manage to find as the compass kept going funny da da da da doh! So we had a 2 hour coffee at Starbucks and chatted the afternoon away followed by an early ‘tea’ at Earls.
Back in the Blue Ox Pub now sheltering from the rain and putting off getting back into the tent!
The forecast for the next 2 days isn’t looking too good either so we will probably head off to the hot springs tomorrow.
4 June 2007
Day 2 - Canadian Nationals
Woke up to an overcast sky and the weather brief confirmed it was a very unstable day. A lethargic decision was made to meet up at Coopers Launch at 11am. Time was spent clearing the brash on take off before a decision was made to have a spot landing competition with money on the spot for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Rich decided it would be more fun to watch the carnage down in the landing zone – nil wind and spot landings tend not to be kind to aluminium or his wallet being a Yorkshireman! Mark Dowsett got 1st place.
The gust front arrived at around 3pm and we discovered that the inflatable roof bars provide an ideal route for the rain to get inside the car!
3 June 2007
Day 1 - Canadian Nationals
First day of the comp and all looks promising. A height ceiling had been arranged at 12,500ft and there was talk of an epic day………………… oh dear what went wrong? The cloud came in and there was rain in the distant. The 95k task was put back by an hour to wait and see what happened.
In the end with 3 minutes of launch time left there was a mad rush to take off but conditions were not good. A few dodgy take off's later and they were in the air for a prolonged top to bottom.
In the end with 3 minutes of launch time left there was a mad rush to take off but conditions were not good. A few dodgy take off's later and they were in the air for a prolonged top to bottom.
2 June 2007
It's 33 Degreessssssss - practice day
The track to take-off is dirty!
The landings were interesting as both Rich and kiwi Jon were unaware that the 'goal' field was way back down the road. Rich picked a nice big 'green' field whilst Kiwi Jon decided that landing on the wrong side of the river would be a better spot (he will tell you that he was committed to that field). So Jon got a lift back to the campsite to collect his VW Golf and drive back up the mountain to collect the truck that would retrieve across country to find his glider. On the way up the track there is now a rock called 'Kiwi Jon's crack rock - sump crack'! Is this the start of a memorable trip for him?
Practice day 2 and its 33 degrees! Wow that’s really hot – why did we pack our thermal long johns and woolly hats??????
The practice day task is set over breakfast at Hubert’s decided by the fact that Cherryville had a local fate type event happening. The blokes decided that they would fly in for tea and cakes or beer and nuts!!!!!!
Cherryville didn’t turn out to be quite such a good idea as the fate had run out of beer so we headed off in search of ice cool beers which we found at the local garage.
The practice day task is set over breakfast at Hubert’s decided by the fact that Cherryville had a local fate type event happening. The blokes decided that they would fly in for tea and cakes or beer and nuts!!!!!!
Cherryville didn’t turn out to be quite such a good idea as the fate had run out of beer so we headed off in search of ice cool beers which we found at the local garage.
The landings were interesting as both Rich and kiwi Jon were unaware that the 'goal' field was way back down the road. Rich picked a nice big 'green' field whilst Kiwi Jon decided that landing on the wrong side of the river would be a better spot (he will tell you that he was committed to that field). So Jon got a lift back to the campsite to collect his VW Golf and drive back up the mountain to collect the truck that would retrieve across country to find his glider. On the way up the track there is now a rock called 'Kiwi Jon's crack rock - sump crack'! Is this the start of a memorable trip for him?
1 June 2007
Glider Re-build
Richard was up early to build his Glider ready to meet at Randy’s LZee (Landing Zone) for a 10.30 drive up to Coopers Launch. It was apparently a weird day of flying and Richard was almost convinced that there was something wrong with his glider. My first loan mission with TomTom using lat and long coordinates to find him went well – I’m a lot more confident now!
31 May 2007
Great Breakfast
We were up early and headed off towards Lumby – taking most of the day to arrive as we stop start along the way mainly in search of glue to repair the puncture in the blow up roof bar!
First we stop for a great breakfast at a roadside cafe, we seem to stay there for ever it was so lovely.
Nothing much exciting happened today - although we did pass carnage. The pics show what happens when you go around a corner too fast with your trailer.....!
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30 May 2007
Land in Vancouver
We land at Vancouver at around 12noon to a great Canadian Welcome at the Airport from staff at passport control and baggage handlers who make carrying my glider out of the building really easy. Caroline didn’t have such an easy time pushing the loaded up trolley with the 3 large bags and 2meter spares bag.
The hire company would have had kittens if they had seen what was about to go on the roof of the brand new (3k on the clock) PT Chrysler Cruiser!!!!! Blow up roof bars come out of the bag along with glider rider and we head towards Lumby.
We stopped off in Chilliwack for the night at and RV site where our vary small 2 man tent looked somewhat out of place surrounded by the monster RV’s!
The hire company would have had kittens if they had seen what was about to go on the roof of the brand new (3k on the clock) PT Chrysler Cruiser!!!!! Blow up roof bars come out of the bag along with glider rider and we head towards Lumby.
We stopped off in Chilliwack for the night at and RV site where our vary small 2 man tent looked somewhat out of place surrounded by the monster RV’s!
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