US Open of Paragliding

A recap of the event in Chelan

Story and photos by Donizete Lemos

:For me, Chelan, Washington, is the best place in the world for racing paragliders. Nestled between the Cascade mountain range and the flat desert of central Washington, we can play in both, enjoying peaks and valleys, endless fields with dust devils, and beautiful landscapes. In Chelan, we get strong but smooth thermals above wheat fields and can also find amazing convergence lines allowing us just to fly straight. It is truly an amazing place and a fitting spot to host the U.S. Open! After being canceled in 2020, the 2021 U.S. Open took place the second to last week of July. Finally, after a year of comp after comp being canceled, we were able to get together as a community and compete! Chelan hosted two weeks of competitions this year, and the PG Open came on the heels of the Ozone Chelan Comp (the C-wing competition) the week before. Though the weather wasn’t classic, we still had amazing tasks and flights for the comp. Every day was blue sky, but smoke filled the air. However, I was impressed by how well the Chelan flatlands worked in those smoky conditions.

Top of the stack looking down at the Butte. A pilot searching for that save.

Day 1 / Task 1 [126.4km] The first day was tricky because the flatlands worked very well, but the Okanagan Valley had weak thermals and a low ceiling. The task committee set the start as 3km from Chelan Butte (launch), jumping us to the flats straight into the Okanagan Valley, with two control turn points to keep pilots in the valley because the wind was expected to be strong. After crossing the river at the Brewster turn point, everything changed. We went from strong and consistent thermals to weak and sparse bubbles. The lead gaggle spread out in the valley, and the pace dialed all the way back to survival mode, just drifting to goal. Only 40 pilots made it to goal that day.

Congratulations to Bianca Heinrich, who won for the women, and Evan Bouchier, the overall winner.

Day 2 / Task 2 [80.1km] We were experiencing a different weather pattern from the competition the week before, with strong southwest winds dominating the beginning of the week. Because of the wind directions, the task force set Task 2 to avoid the Okanogan Valley. Not only was there a large fire nearby in Cascades, but also the forecast indicated a windy day in the valley.

The task start was the Butte (launch) and included a 12km exit radius. Though the large radius allowed us to cross the river and get positioned in the flatlands prior to the start, it was a committing move to jump across and stay high when you were limited with how far you could venture out. We had two big gaggles waiting for the start, both in very good positions.

The first turn point kept the pilots on the flatland, and the second, a return west down the same leg, made this part of the task difficult due to a strong southwest wind. Around this time, we saw many dust devils drifting downwind—it was frightening to watch! The first gaggle got a strong thermal from those dust

Competitors and wind techs share the skies early in the day. | A dusty in the flats. A pilot searches for lift at the start of the day.

devils. Pilot after pilot worked to keep their wings open in that turbulent thermal! Many pilots landed while trying to reach this turn point. However, those who managed to tag it received a gift—the last leg was an “easy” downwinder to the ESS at 31km from Okanogan, Washington. To our surprise, there was a good convergence line and clouds to guide us to the goal. With decent lift and a tailwind, when on full speed, we sometimes flew over 90 km/h!

Only 46 pilots completed the task—it wasn’t a 1,000 points day because many pilots landed before the half-nominal distance.

Congratulations to the ladies' winner, Galen Kirkpatrick, and the overall winner of the day, Andy Macrae.

Day 3 / Task 3 [102.8km] On the third day, the weather continued to show south to southwest wind and getting stronger along the task course line throughout the day. The task force made a great task considering the conditions and the smoke coming from a bigger fire nearby. Even with the task heading far into the flats, there was abundant smoke on the task course line.

The start was the same as the day before, a 12km radius from the Butte. Once more, they gave us a big window to permit all pilots to be at the start line in good conditions. At the start, we had two big gaggles ready to start racing.

The first turn point had a large 20km radius around a point 50km to the southeast. The (current) light wind helped the majority of pilots make the point. From there to the goal was a hard task for everybody; the wind was getting strong from the south, and with goal to the northeast well past Banks Lake, many pilots drifted away from the course line. Even before reaching the lake, pilots were spread everywhere. The few that were early in passing Banks Lake formed a small gaggle. Working together, they managed to avoid the strong drift and made for a great race to goal. By the time we tagged the goal cylinder, the wind was blowing quite strong; so much so that some pilots who reached the ESS didn’t make goal.

The ladies’ winner for the day was Bianca Heinrich and the overall win went to Josh Cohn. Day 4 Canceled due to expected strong winds.

Day 5 / Task 4 [120.3km] This task was a challenge. When the window was open, pilots were trying to get high to cross the river, but Butte wasn’t working properly that day. The maximum altitude at the start was 7,000 feet; crossing the river that low, pilots had no guarantees they would reach the other side with sufficient altitude to climb on flatlands. Many pilots landed on the rim, and a few were able to climb out off the rim. Those who had patience and waited on Butte got an easy crossing over the river. Once across and established, the flatlands didn’t fail—it worked very well and gave us chances to recover the time spent on the rim.

After the first turn point south of the Butte, we flew west, downwind to the second turn point near Banks Lake. We were cruising! At times, I reached 85km/h with great glide. However, to go along with the interesting start, the day wasn’t going to make it easy. Before Banks Lake, a dense and low cloud of smoke made it difficult to complete the task. I remember being roughly 4,000 feet above the ground, and I couldn’t see it. We were flying like a plane flying IFR. After the lake, the thermals were weak because of the dense smoke, and the ceiling was no more than 4,000 feet. Because of that, it was a slower last leg, flying southeast toward Odessa, but 48 pilots still made goal.

The ladies’ winner was Violeta Jimenez, and the overall winner once more was Josh Cohn.

Day 6 / Task 5 [104.5km] When I saw the task board on day six, I thought, “It is impossible to make this.” The task set was a big zigzag, and the weather looked no good for flying. I was wrong (and I was right). Ninety pilots made it to goal, but I didn’t! As I said, it was a big zigzag task, first southeast, then to the northeast, and so on. The start was a small 3km exit cylinder from the Butte southeast toward the second point. In this part of the task, many pilots pushed hard and a bit lower than the big gaggle. But once again, the

flatlands worked, and we got amazing lines to tag the second turn point. As the day continued, Mansfield to Banks Lake, then north to Leahy, the ceiling was close to 10,000 feet, and the task was running very fast. The first gaggle spread wide, with many pilots searching for lift. This made it quite easy to find good thermals and excellent climbs. The whole first gaggle arrived low at this turn point, and it took a long time to climb again. In a break from the zig (or the zag), the goal was to the northeast. Despite the challenging climbs, 90 pilots made it to goal. It was an amazing task!

Day 7 Canceled due to a potential for helicopter traffic at the Butte.

:Congratulations to the winners of day six: for the women, Galen Kirkpatrick and overall winner Zion Susanno (10 feet inside of 400 meters cylinder).

One more time, congratulations and thank you to the task committee: Galen Kirkpatrick, Brian Fletcher, Evan Bouchier, and Owen Shoemaker. They worked hard to pick the right task for each day's conditions. Reavis Sutphin-Gray did a great job with the weather and as DJ at the party!

In all, the 2021 U.S. Open of Paragliding competition was an amazing event. With fun tasks, interesting conditions, and great camaraderie, it was certainly a fun time. We owe a big thanks to all of the volunteers who made the competition happen. They were amazing, very friendly, and ready to help us all the time. THANK YOU!

And, of course, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Matt Senior for his tireless efforts to bring the U.S. Championship to Chelan. When it comes to planning and hosting an event, this guy knows what he’s doing. And lastly, thanks to all of my pilot friends, who warmly include me, and all the other international pilots, as a member of the U.S. paragliding family!

OVERALL Josh Cohn Matthew Henzi Brad Gunnuscio US OPEN OF PARAGLIDING RESULTS

OVERALL WOMEN Galen Kirkpatrick Bianca Heinrich Violeta Jimenez EN-C Colin Rathbun Mark Simpson Mike Lester MASTERS (M50) Mike Steed Bill Belcourt Stefan Mitrovich REYNOLDS Mark Simpson Mike Lester Bianca Heinrich