Chelan – the real story (part 1)

This is the first of a series of articles about Chelan Butte, site of the next Women’s, Class 2, and Class 5 Worlds. The point of the articles is to give the readers an idea of what to expect at the Worlds if they are going to go flying there. Readers who are contemplating flying in the Chelan Cross Country Classic will also find material of interest here.

First of all a few web sites:

http://www.cloudbase.org/cbcc2000/default.htm Click ‘Jul’ to get the dates for the Chelan XC Classic and the Worlds.

http://www.cloudbase.org/ChelanWorlds/ The home site for the Worlds in Chelan. You’ll find the rules, where to stay, turnpoints, maps, etc.

http://www.cloudbase.org/CBCC2000/Articles/ArticleMain.asp?id=99 How to win in Chelan (at the Classic). There are various other articles on flying in Chelan in this general area.

The FAI/CIVL calendars for the events: http://events.fai.org/hgpg/details.asp?id=1324 (Class II Worlds), http://events.fai.org/hgpg/details.asp?id=1100 (Women's Worlds), http://events.fai.org/hgpg/civl-calendar.asp

I have written a great deal about Chelan Butte and the Chelan Cross Country Classic in the past and readers can check out www.davisstraub.com/Oz/Ozv4n118.htm for example, and there are many other examples. Go to www.davisstraub.com/Oz/index00.html and click on any reference to Chelan in the Table of Contents issues 113 through 131.

Today I’m going to start off with some facts about geography. Chelan Butte is a 3835 foot (3,700’ at launch) hill at the southeast end of Chelan Lake, a 50 mile long glacier cut lake whose greatest depth is about 1,500’. The Butte rises 2,700’ above the lake and 3,100’ above the Columbia River to its east.

The Butte is just to the east of a large north south mountain range – the Cascades. It is the end of an east west spur coming off the Cascades. Chelan Lake comes out of the Cascades to the west and stops just north of the Butte just before it would have run into the Columbia River .

While the Butte is the end of a spur, it pretty much stands by itself with its flanks facing south, east and north. Bob Franklin has created a three dimensional view of the Butte and the area around it:

The red lines are hang gliding routes from the Butte across the Columbia River to the east and southeast. We will discuss these more later.

The north northwest flank of the Butte faces Chelan Lake . There is a steep launch (“Lakeside”) from this side that we do occasionally use if there is a northwest wind down the lake (rare) or there are thermals coming up this side (not as rare). While the lake is quite cold because it is glacier fed from the North Cascades, there is plenty of hill side in between the launch at the top of the Butte and the lake, so the air can heat up.

The launches that are used for competitions are on the lower south end of the Butte so we won’t be launching to the north. The east launch, known at “Ants in the Pants” is a good early launch into a southeast facing bowl. It faces the also quite cold Columbia River and early in the day the east sides of the Butte may not be warm enough to produce enough buoyant air to keep you up.

The south launch, used when the sun has heated up the southern side of the Butte , is the “Between the Rocks” launch. It’s flat so a strong constantly accelerating run is required. You need to continue flying with some speed until you get out past the two rock outcroppings and over the edge of the Butte .

There is a much unloved southwest facing launch – “the Green Monster.” The top part of it is shallow and pilots have been known to launch twice there. This launch is used when the winds are blowing strong up the Columbia River (common) and its use portents that it will be very difficult to get up and leave the Butte in a thermal.

The big picture is that the Butte is a moderately sized hill almost surrounded by water, cold water. Thermals are produced when air is warmed by the sunlit flanks of the Butte .

Our goal is to get up at the Butte and head east over to the flats east of the Columbia River . The height of the eastern rim of the Columbia is about 2,900’ or about 800’ below the launch at the Butte. The gorge of the Columbia River is quite wide and deep and we are required to get across the gorge before we can begin flying our tasks.

In order to cross the Columbia Gorge it is important that we get high enough to make it onto the flats with enough altitude to find the first thermal on the flats. Sometimes we won’t be able to do that and we will be required to find some lift on the east flanks of the gorge.

As you can imagine it is difficult to find any lift over a cold river, although sometimes it happens that there will be lift coming off the sides of the Butte that will carry you some or even much of the way across the gorge. How far do you have to fly to get across the gorge before you can get up over the flats on the eastern side? About four miles.

Here is a view from overhead of the two main routes from the Butte over to the flats: one going east toward Mansfield and the other going southeast toward Lamoine.

When gliding over a river gorge for four miles you are most likely to find yourself in sinking air. You will want to get to the other side of the river as soon as possible. The other side rises from the river, but it doesn’t do so instantly. You have to fly quite a ways past the river before you get away from the river and over the thermal producing areas.

In the next Chelan article I will look more closely at getting up at the Butte and crossing the river.

Chelan – getting up at the Butte (part 2)

So there the Butte sits, pretty much by itself, pretty much surrounded by water, and it is a long ways over to the flats where the real task begins. Sailplane pilots flying out of Ephrata to the south east of the Butteuniversally recognize the Butteand the area around it as a blue hole – an area of poor lift and generally sinking area. You are going to have to really concentrate on getting up and getting high at the Butte if you stand any chance of finding lift out on the flats where the sailplanes play.

Now you can think of this as a challenge or an obstacle. This challenge occurs right at the beginning of your flight before you’ve had a chance to adjust. Your first challenge is to get above the launch altitude because you vastly increase you chances of getting up if you can gain just a few hundred feet and get yourself over the south launch area.

The Butte is shaped like pyramid. The lift is most often concentrated above the top of the Butteand could be coming up from all sides. It might be coming up from one side, but if you can get above the Butte you have the option of sampling the rising air than may be coming up from three sides.

If you climb more than a few hundred feet over the Butte than you have the option of also sampling the lift that is associated with air rising on the north side. But, since the top of the Butteis higher than the south side launches, you have to climb high enough to get over to the north side first.

In order to stay as high as possible to increase your chances of getting up you need to work the first lift that you encounter after launch even if it is weak. Do not try to fly off to some other spot to find lift if you run into some light stuff right off of launch. Any other spot is inferior to the first lift you find.

If you are launching from the “Between the Rocks” launch you have three options. Find lift right in front of launch and start turning. Find lift to the right of launch along the ridge line that heads to the west. Find lift to the left of launch in the bowl or along the ridge line to the east.

Finding lift right in front of launch is much preferred. Either a thermals is coming up right between the rocks, or you’ll find it over the two rock mounds, most likely the one of the left. If not there then over the ridge line descending to the south from the left rock pile.

Work these outcroppings and do it quickly because you will very quickly be below them if you are not in zero sink or better. Work the ridge line out in front to the left slightly if you don’t find anything right at the rocks.

No lift just out in front of launch, well things are quite a bit grimmer. You’ve got a choice, right or left. You can go right and work the close ridge line going west, trying to stay as close to the hill as possible and just above the ridge line. There will also be ridges coming off the ridge line heading south. You can work these also.

Before you launch you’ll want to make a choice of whether to go right or left after launch of you don’t find any lift right in front of launch. Most of you won’t be launching first so of course you’ll use other pilots as lift indicators. You’ll also want to keep a good lookout during setup to see how the winds and lift is varying around the south side of the hill. There are plenty of wind indicators, so keep tabs on them.

It is also possible to find lift in the bowl to the left of launch. You can work the ridge line just to the left of launch, and then dive into the bowl if you don’t find anything there hugging the hillside, and searching for anything as you head east.

If you don’t find anything in the bowl, you’ll quickly find yourself over the ridge heading east and in a good position to find lift coming off the top of the ridge. I’ve saved myself many times over in this area, but it is always nerve wracking.

In the past, if we didn’t find anything we, we would have to bail over the back to the north to get to the junkyard lz. For the past few years we have had an alternative landing zone at the Chelan Fallspark down on the Columbia River . This alternate lz gives us the opportunity to spend a few more minutes looking for lift before approaching the river.

I asked Larry Majchrzak skydog@televar.com about the park as an lz. He writes:

The Chelan flyers had the PUD remove trees between the soccer post and the sidewalk (river side) I believe the year before last. So it is a long runway like the junk yard.

Whenever you find lift at the Butte, stay in it and work your way back over the top of the Butte getting high enough to be able to then find the best lift. Work whatever lift you can when you are below the top of the hill and don’t go searching for better until you have a bit of altitude to spare.

Once you get up, you are going to climb in the lift until you get as high as possible. You would prefer to leave the Buttewith 9,000’ or 6,000’ over the flats to the east. You are unlikely to get this high, but certainly do if you can.

You may find yourself having to leave the Butteat 7,000’ or below. This will give you less than 4000’ to get across the 4 mile wide ditch and then have some altitude to find a thermal on the other side. If there was a reliable source of lift on the other side, it wouldn’t be that bad, but such is not the case.

There are some areas where you have a reasonable chance of finding lift. We will go into them and getting across the river in our next installment.

Chelan – getting across the river (part 3)

Your first task at the Butteis to get above the south launch area. Your second task is to get high. Your third task is to get across the river. Your fourth is to find a thermal out over the flats to the east of the Butte.

There have been plenty of times that I’ve been at 9,500’ over the top of Chelan Butte and heading out to the east or southeast to the flats with all the confidence in the world. The conditions were good at the Butte and they portend good conditions out on the flats.

There have been other times when I’ve left the Buttewith 5,500’ and I’m very concerned about whether I stand any chance of getting up on the flats at all. I’m just hoping that I can drive into the canyons on the east side and maybe find something coming up the face of a canyon wall.

The glide across the Columbia Gorge is about four miles until you get to the first spot up on the flats where you will have a reasonable chance of finding a good thermal. Let’s take a closer look.

The red lines are two possible routes from the top of the Butteover to the east and southeast. Here’s another view:

The route to the east is headed toward the junction of McNeel and Farnham canyons, a high point closest to the Butte . The idea is to get to the closest bit of flat lands – the point between these canyons that is furthest to the west, and also to work your way along the edge of the canyons looking for lift coming up the sides of the canyons, perhaps funneled by the canyons.

At the point there is a west face, overlooking the river, a north face overlooking McNeel canyon and stretching toward the east for a few miles, and a south face sloping less steeply into Farnham canyon.

While crossing the Columbia Gorge you have most likely lost 2,000’ although it is quite possible to loose 3,000’. If you started with 7,000’, you are now at 2,000’ over the flats. This is a pretty comfortable position to be in. That is unless you lost 3,000’, and then 1,000’ over the western edge of the flats is not so great. Often I’ve been at less than a few hundred over this point.

Often you’ll find lift at the conjunction of these canyons, but just as often you’ll have to press eastward. The preferred routes are along the southern edge of McNeel canyon hoping to find a thermal coming off the edge. Or, shifting a bit to the south and then heading east up the middle of Farnham canyon toward the first Watervilleroad (which runs north/south).

The further onto the flats the better off you are because you’re putting miles between you and that cold river gorge. But, you might not have enough altitude to get far into the flats before you have to find some lift.

In that case it is best to give yourself every chance of finding lift at the eastern rim of the gorge before going in land if you don’t have a lot of spare altitude. It is likely that the lift will be poor near the river, but if you need it, take it.

If you find yourself low at the conjunction then you’ve got your work cut out for you. You’ve got to work anything you can find. You got to use all your knowledge of air flow to figure out where the thermals might be and combine that with whatever information you can gather about the winds in the gorge. Most likely the winds will be coming up from the south – up river.

There are plenty of rocks, ridges and outcroppings to work at the point if you are desperate, and you’ve got to do everything you can to stay as high as possible at this point and hope that you can stay up long enough until something useful comes through. Your odds improve greatly if you can stay as far away from the river as possible, although going into McNeel canyon rarely works.

If you are high, you want to head east to get a few miles in on the flats and find lift in the fields just before the first Watervilleroad. There’s a small farm house there that you can use as a landmark. You will be south of McNeel canyon and you’ll find a set of northeast/southwest tending power lines. These lines give you something to head for as you search for lift.

If you’ve taken the southeastern route from the Butte, then you will be heading for the two sets of power lines up on the flats about 5 or 6 miles away from the Butte. It is possible to hit lift before you make it to the power lines, so you are definitely going to be on the look out for lift as you approach the eastern rim of the gorge.

There are quite a few black rock outcroppings on this rim, but they don’t work nearly as often as you would think they should. The problem is that this side of the river is facing away from the sun. And, of course, it is affected by the river.

Your best bet is to get up onto the flats at least as far as the tops of the small canyons that run back down into the gorge. Sometimes these small cantons collect thermals. If you don’t find anything right there, and assuming that you are high enough, head out onto the cultivated fields to the south and southeast after you get over the flats.

Now before you headed off in this direction you presumably looked out from your perch high above the Butteand looked to see if there were dust devils out in this area. Dust devils are a very common sight in Chelan on the flats, but you’ll see a lot more of them in this area than you will in the area between McNeel and Farnham canyons. Often this has to do with cropping.

If you see plenty of dust devils off to the southeast, and you’ve been watching their cycles and life times, as well as locations, then by all means use them as a guide to flying toward this area. Keep watching as you glide cross the gorge and see where new dust devils are forming. You’ll want to go to get over a dust devil as soon as you can. Although I suggest coming in over them at 1,000’ (depends a lot on dust devil size and your needs).

The power lines are a big visual lift indicator on the flats to the southeast. It doesn’t mean that there is more lift by the power lines; it is just something that stands out in our visual field and distinguishes one area from another. Otherwise it was all just be flat fields, some cultivate, some plowed under and dusty, some in wheat.

What you want to do is find that first good thermal out over the flats and get up high. Once you’ve done that your four stage ordeal with the Butteis pretty much over with. Even if you have to come back to Chelan to complete a task, you’ll be coming off the flats. It is the flats that will dominate your flight from now on.

Wind direction is an issue when choosing which direction to head when you are at the Butte. You’ll also want to head in the direction of the declared task, although your first task is to get up on the flats, so go to the spot where that is most likely to happen first.

Be sure to check which way the wind is blowing the dust devils out on the flats before you head across the gorge. The wind could greatly increase the time it takes you to get across the gorge and consequently how much altitude you will lose gliding to the eastern flats. Sometimes the wind is in your favor, but often it is not. The gorge creates its own wind direction.

Flying from Chelan Butte can often be characterized in the same terms that Thomas Hobbs characterized life, “Nasty, brutish, and short.” The biggest obstacles to the success of your flight are the ones you experience right after you launch. You’ve got to climb the highest mountain before you can get on with the business of competing in a hang gliding competition.

Therefore, you need to focus on getting it right early on, so that you’ll have the opportunity to continue. Don’t let the fickle nature of the Butteand the gorge do you in before you have a chance to really fly.

I’ll write more about flying in Chelan in future issues.

Green Monster in Chelan

Jeff Huey hueyjl@bp.com writes:

Speaking of flat launches at Chelan (Re: Volume 6, Number 64 the Joe Ulman 'Between the Rocks' Launch photo), I offer this photo that shows the upper portion of the Green Monster launch at the Butte.

(editor’s note: In the background to the west you’ll see the eastern edges of the Cascades going from left to right, south to north. The east west ridge on the south side of Lake Chelan is clearly seen west of the Cascades. The lake itself is also shown on the right side of the photo.

The upper part of the ‘Green Monster’ launch is quite shallow, but hang gliders normally launch further down where it is a bit steeper. Even further down it is quite steep.

The launch is only used if the wind is blowing up the Columbia River from the southwest. Even if a northwest wind is forecast it was likely come from the southwest, guided by a slot in the Cascades to the south and by the gorge.)

Chelan in Pictures

I hope that my readers that aren’t going to the Worlds in Chelan don’t mind all this material on the Butte. I guess you can always skip to the next article.

Nothing helps like a photograph of the actual site. You’ll find some nice ones from Kevin Cosley here: http://www.geocities.com/kpcos/Chelan.htm

Here’s one of Kevin’s looking east from the Buttetoward the flats (with some doctoring by me):

A – The conjunction of McNeel and Farhnam canyons. The closest part of the flats to the Butte , and the likely first thermal site east of the Butte.

B – The southern edge of McNeel canyon. Follow this edge as it proceeds to the east toward the top of McNeel canyon.

C – Mc Neel canyon

D - The top of McNeel canyon.

E – The Columbia River gorge to the north of the Butte

F – Farhnam canyon – quite shallow near as it approaches the flats.

G – The flats.

Also Eric Troili has quite a few shots of Chelan up on his site, for example: http://www.cmsstudios.com/fly2k/2k01log.htm

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