Martin <<martin_henry>>
writes:

Some of us “Hicks out in the Sticks” have had a short run of some
amazing flying up here in Washington’s Columbia basin. Strange combination of
Canadian smoke and perfect soaring conditions created the opportunity over a two
day period to fly some amazing triangles.

On July 8th, Flying my trusty ATOS “VRT-Minus” I successfully completed a 295 km
FAI Triangle. From our tow site near Mansfield I did a very deep run down to
Lind Washington, back up near Davenport and after close to 8 hours in the air
managed to scrape my way back to the tow site (smoke to the west was shutting
down the lift) :

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=646049

Happy to make it home:

The Next day, my turn to run the tow rig. I towed up my child protégée from
Spokane, Mike Bomstad (on a ATOS VR) and my lovely wife (flying her ATOS VQ).

Mike, smoked a very fast time around an even larger 311km FAI triangle back to
the tow site:

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=646196

Mia, who ran into a bit trouble on course, had to dig out a hole and settle for
176 km FAI triangle ending back at the tow site:

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=646192

Mike and Mia, happy with a cold Becks from the cooler at the end of the day,
taking down at goal:

I now think Mike's triangle is the largest triangle ever flown by a hang glider
in North America. Definitely both of our triangles were the largest triangles
ever flown in Washington State!

Cheers from the dust, dirt and smoke of central Washington!

Martin, Mia and Mike.