Saturday took me on a great XC voyage over Peñon again, then I touched the G spot and made my big break for the next ridge and the Three Kings!! I had seen photos in the USHPA magazine of comp pilots flying to this ridge during the pre worlds competitions that are held here often. But I made a fatal flaw of forgetting that I am flying a wing with a top speed of, oh, maybe 12mph and a glide ration of 1:1 when I'm heading directly into the wind. My second error was to turn with the wind (right) and arrive on the lee side of a prominence on this ridge. I thought I could still find some good thermals since a long valley ended near where I was headed. I scratched and scratched to no avail. But where I landed was probably the cleanest most pristine place I have ever seen in Mexico. It was at the top of this valley, surrounded on all sides by long sloping treed ridges that turned into gigantic rock cliffs as they intruded into the larger valley below. And there was a spring of water coming out from the ground near where I landed. What's amazing is that although you could definitely drink the water (I didn't though because I still had plenty in my water bladder) it was coming out of the ground at a very comfortable temperature. Most spring water I've felt before was ice cold - I'd say this came out of the ground at about 65 degrees!
So I sat and enjoyed a nice lunch all by myself in this meadow next to the spring. I knew I had a very long walk out (5+ miles) but I was happy and just enjoying the experience I was having. After I ate and packed my wing up I walked to the nearby dirt road and in about 2 minutes a old blue Nissan Truck that was barely running pulls up and with nary a word exchanged I hop in the back, how cool! There was a family inside and the little girl kept looking back at me and shying away when I smiled and waved.
I learned a lot on this day. Like where to aim when you're on glide for the next (hopefully) thermic spot. I also got some great photos of the convergence line and the pulse thermals that were popping off the ridge back near the G spot.
The truck took me to the town at the base of this smaller valley and I waited for a taxi for a bit. Then some guys who were kind of watching me suggested that they would take me to Valle for $200 pesos, I politely declined. Then the suggested that I sack up and climb back up the slope at the base of the ridge which came out from the G spot and pointed directly at where I sat. I considered it for a bit and then thought that this would be the awesomest day ever if I relaunched and then flew back to the lake instead of spending money and gas! I began walking upslope, crossing a barbed wire fence and steering clear of some mean looking bulls that were grazing. Then this little kid, maybe 7 years old, comes running up after me and he's yelling at me. I didn't know what he wanted exactly as it was very hard to communicate with him at all. He knew not a word of English and didn't understand how to play charrades so I pretty much just kept asking him "Que?" and he would rapidly repeat what he had just blurted out. At one point I thought I caught the word "Toro" so I asked if there were "Toros" up the hill where I was headed and he shook his head "No".
So I was really confused and although I thought that maybe he just wanted money or something I began looking around and decided that the landings were not very optimal even if I made it to the top of this slope without being gored and managed to launch successfully. The chances of me making an immediate 'save' at only 200-300AGL were slim. So I followed him back down the hill and this time we walked right by those bulls I saw earlier. I frantically made bull horns with my hands and pretended to gore myself while making gurgling sounds but the little kid said that they were "no bravo" which I was really hoping meant not brave enough to notice the ginormous bright red pack on my back.
I paid a taxi an exorbenant amount of money ($100 pesos) to get me back to El Peñon and when I arrived alone I was not exactly looking forward to yet another solo launch in mid-day conditions. Even though all previous had gone well, I doubted this guy knew much about rescue or first aid or even what to do if I ended up in a tree. So I made a call to Gui who I had seen on the drive up at nearly cloudbase doing endless circles. Instead, I heard Fiona reply, "Gui just threw his reserve. He's alright, but the thermal edges are really bad."
"O.k., Vamanos!" I say to the taxi and motion for us to leave. "Yo no neccicito muerder hoy!"
I thank Fiona for the info and head home which costs me another $50 pesos. :(
As I neared town I called Rulo and he said that he was taking a group of tourists up to fly tandems off of Torre and that I could join them. I did and it was a great and easy glassoff off of Torre. I threw some nice big wingovers and circled back to the launch several times to repeat the acro. Then again over the lake where I briefly considered trying a full stall, but instead did some 'spin appreciation turns'. These are where you just bury one brake and that side of your wing goes negative (stalls, and flies backwards) and your wing does a fast 180. At this point your wing is way out in front of you and you get a big swing down and out going the exact opposite direction from when you started. It's a great maneuver to know if you suddenly find yourself headed toward something bad, like power lines you couldn't see until the last second, and I'm glad I got to practice them.
As I neared the lake landing I notice that it was almost completely covered by wings, kids, people playing frisbee and families sitting down and eating. WTF!? The thing is already small enough and surrounded by things you don't want to hit on all sides, now I've got to spot land a Chihuahua? As I set up for final approach I felt like I was in a good position to land mid-field next to some gliders that were being folded and I assumed the frisbee game would stop long enough for me to land. But as I got about 20' over the near edge of the landing field I hit some warm, bubbly, up air and people started chanting 'La Luca! La Luca!'. Apparently it's funny when some dumb píloto overshoots landing and goes for a swim. So I'm careening towards these two groups of people SITTING on the far edge of the LZ. One group starts screaming and getting up like they want to run but I turn left a bit - my body swings toward the second group, and I glance at Rulo who's got his hands out like he's holding onto brake toggles and he's got his burried by his knees! So I do a couple of big brake flaps right as my body swings away from the second group and I land gently next to them. Everybody is cracking up and talking in Spanish but I managed to spin around and grab my A's and keep the wing up and kite it so that it doesn't land on the first group who's hurriedly picking up their kids and dogs and picinic materials so I can set my wing down. Rulo looks very relieved that I didn't hurt any of his potential customers and I pack up, grab dos Coronas for mi y mi amigo Vladamir and watch the rest of the pilot carnage from under an umbrella. One of the local pilots stalls or something when he is behind the LZ and comes down hard on this 'bridge lawn' and impacts a metal railing hard. People run over and carry him off the field on their shoulders (nobody is celebrating here...) and some kids pack up his wing. I get the feeling that this sort of thing happens often here and isn't really a big deal to the locals!
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