Tuesday, 11/3/2020 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Mitch] [Sundowner] [Chelsea] [Austin]

Chelsea McKenzie
11/3/2020
Pine OTB Rotor Reserve Deploy

Article Submitted by Chelsea via Telegram

Right off launch (Pine 5650 NS launch) I found a thermal and started climbing up.  The drift of the thermal took me right up above the ridgeline.  I must not have realized how far back I was getting, though, because when I fell out of the thermal I was well above the ridge but kind of on the backside.  There was a super strong headwind as I tried to make my way forward on bar.  I sunk fast and then at ridge height got totally spanked.  It was clear at that point that I wasn’t going to make it back over the ridge, so I turned around and tried to run away from the rotor by gliding out.  That didn’t work because the rotor was really bad and I took a bunch of collapses.  Then my glider full stalled and I spun around back towards the mountain.  Once that happened I threw my reserve.  I was only maybe a couple hundred feet above the ground when I threw.  Once it deployed, I landed within what felt like a second.  My glider and reserve were in trees but I was on the ground without a scratch.  I unhooked and called the other pilots on the radio.  Fortunately, my gear was totally fine as well.  We were able to get it out with the use of Tom's chainsaw!  So thanks for bringing that along!

I was impressed by how easy it was to pull the reserve out and how quickly it deployed.  Thankful that I had it!  I should have paid more attention to what was happening as I was climbing. Clearly the climb was NOT worth the drift.  I didn’t expect there to be such a strong north headwind since it was pretty light on launch.

Ultimately, I needed to be paying closer attention to wind conditions because it was that headwind that really caught me by surprise.  Had I been paying more attention, though, to how much the thermal was drifting, I would have realized it.  Lesson learned.  I also think I needed to recognize that I’m not as current as I would like to think I am.  I spent my summer in Alaska where it rained a ton and I flew very little.  Last time I was in SB it was after 4 months of flying almost everyday in New Zealand.  I think I’ve just been overly excited, perhaps against better judgment.

Anyways, thanks so much for everything and I’m really excited to fly more and learn from all of you local legends!  Planning to be around until end of January, and to fly as much as possible!

:)

Editor's note: this was Chelsea's first flight at Pine Mountain

See Also, [Sundowner's comments regarding Chelsea's rotor ride]

not sure if Chelsea has an IGC file from a GPS instrument, but we captured the images below from her inReach Satellite Tracker
and included her [inReach points in a Google Earth KMZ file]

Click images below ↓ for full size / scroll down for more images

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