The Vegas High Roller Comp went on Sept 23, 24, 25.
About 40 pilots showed up from all over the Western U.S. for this years High Roller Comp held outside of Las Vegas, NV. Another spectacular competition put on by the amazing duo of Kevin and Kristen Biernacki.
I arrived into Vegas from Salt Lake City on Wednesday to a great evening of flying at the Jean Ridge. Jean, NV is located 28 miles south of Vegas on I-15. The site is a nice South West facing ridge that is about 500' tall. I arrived there a little early and was able to watch a few dusties go by. The wind mellowed out as some of the locals showed up to fly and teach. You walk up the hill 50'-100' depending on the wind strength and launch from the side hill. I had to scratch around a little, but soon enough was easily 1000' AGL and it was time to have some fun. Wingovers on that Trango II are just about one of my favorite things to do in flying - and that ridge provided the perfect wind to refill over and over again. As the evening went on, a few of the boys from Sun Valley showed up and joined me in the sky. We took turns trying to kick the windsock, which was much harder than it should have been! The black lava rocks are all over the place there, and it was a fun challenge to top land and try to never touch the ground, but just hop from rock to rock. I didn't land until so late I could hardly see. A good introduction to the flying scene around Vegas.
Registration and the first pilots meeting was on Friday. Tony provided us all with a huge laugh as he handed out our mandatory drug tests. We even got samples to identify and show our skills. Although the conditions didn't look promising, we loaded up and drove to the Good Springs launch around 10:00 a.m. We arrived at launch after about a 30 minute drive to find the conditions blown out. We loaded back into the cars and made plans to go have fun in Vegas for the day. I went to the Luxor with Brad, Tina, Rob and Alex for a little bit of Hold'Em. On the way to the tables we played some slot machings - Wheel of Fortune - of course. I managed to win $20 bucks there and had a little more to play poker with.
Rob and I sat at a small limit table and got playing. There were a lot of good hands being dealt for both Rob and I - and no need to mention the free drinks! We had a great time, and Rob quickly got comfortable playing on the money tables. I ended the day up $1.50 from where I started. It took us a while to peel Brad away from his higher limit table, but we knew it was time to go to the BBQ back in Jean. We finally got back to Jean and enjoyed a great meal prepared by a top chef from the Bellagio. A good time was had by all - it is always a pleasure to hang out with that crew of people. That night was a good one to go to the hotel and sleep - bedtime came early - the whole time knowing I needed to prepare for flying and the BIG party on Saturday.
Saturday started with another blown out day and no hopes for improvement. Plans for the day began to emerge again - varying from hiking in the Red Rocks, going to Hoover Dam, more Hold'Em and a trip to FlyAway - the indoor skydiving experience. Naturally, I was thrilled to be invited to FlyAway. Everyone met there around noon, with some time to waste before our wind tunnell session we went to the Peppermill to grab some lunch. The place was packed so we skipped food - but they had this great lounge with red couches, a pool with a fire in the middle and some real fancy drinks. We hung out in the lounge and had a few cocktails before our skydiving experience (don't tell our instructor!). Everyone met back at FlyAway and it was time for class to start. There were 16 of us there to go in the wind tunnel, I don't remember who all was there... We did some ground school and signed our lives away with the waivers. Then it was time to suit up. Everyone looked gorgeous in their suits as we practiced the correct body positioning. I was in the first group - and with some skydiving experience already I felt it couldn't be too bad. We got our goggles and helmets on (with a little help from the instructor - am I blushing?).
Each person got three rounds in the tunnel and it was freakin' cool! The first time in you lay on your belly over the fan, they begin to crank up the speed of the fan and you slowly get lifted off of the ground. The instructor is right there helping you stabilize and work on your form. It was interesting to start playing with the body position and noticing it's effect on your movement. You notice the effects a lot more inside than you do in true freefall - I learned a lot that day. After your first round you get to 'dive' into the wind - a little tricky at first! Some people nailed that and made it look really easy and others did a real good job screwing it up. After about 10 minutes in the tunnel we were all over heated and it was time for the next group. We scrambled out of our gear and hurried around to watch the next two groups through the windows. It was hilarious to watch everyone! I then knew why everyone was laughing so hard that I could see through the windows! By the time we were done at FlyAway we had a few hours to kill before the big party started. I went with a few of the guys to have a look at some of the casinos. We spent several hours touring thr strip. We got to the party, put on by Tony Lang and Landcor at the Italian-American Club on Sahara Blvd. Dinner was a fabulous buffett and we were threatened that there was an open bar and we had better ding Tony's wallet. So we did!! After dinner we got entertainment by a great comedian (oy, his name slips my mind!) and then the band - Dread Zeppelin. The drinks poured heavy and the dancing began...we stayed there and got crazy until the club workers made us leave.
I followed this party by a trip to The Beach with Ivo, Heather, Alex, Bo, Mike and Dean. Mike hooked us all up by having a VIP pass...we got in free and got to bypass the line. We all danced our little hearts out until 4:00 in the morning.
Arriving back at the hotel by 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning was rather painful, especially knowing the flying was shaping up to be good for the day. It was comforting knowing that a majority of the group also arrived back around that time, so it put us all on even ground. We loaded up the trucks and headed up to launch. I wasn't the only one sleeping most of the way up the hill. We got to launch and it was still a little windy for most people to be comfortable. We watched Macklow take a test flight while waiting for the task to be called. Task was called to the retention basin and everyone started to get ready. I launched about 15th in the group, being a Point pilot made me comfortable launching in the high winds. The air was pretty good, but the thermals were small and drifting hard. Whenever I started to get some decent altitude I was well behind launch, I knew I couldn't go back any further with out risking not being able to make it back in front of launch again. We all yo-yo'd around, trying to get some decent altitude before the exit cynlinder opened. When finally that time came I was high enough to make it to the cylinder, but knew I would be coming back very low. The ridge had been working right below launch, so I decided to get it done. I tagged into the cylinder and headed back towards launch. I didn't even make to under launch before I knew I was in trouble. I was only 150' feet of the deck and there just wasn't any lift. Kuenster and I were grovelling big time, I thought I was going to be on the ground in no time. After a strange incident that felt like rotor that both Tim and I experience, I manged to hook a thermal at 50' off the deck. It was the strongest thermal I had found all day and I managed to get up above launch in it. I stayed there for a while doing the yo-yo trying to get as much altitude as possible while watching some of the others that had started heading towards the next turn point. They weren't doing any better or worse than I was, so I went on glide. I was constantly watching everyone to see if it was working anywhere.
It just wasn't. The wind had finally died off, but the thermals went with it and we were now scratching in the lee side of these hills. I managed to stay up on a little hill for a while with Abe - I found a little thermal that people were able to connect with above me and get out. Abe got a little higher than I did and pushed across the next ridge. I conceded adout 25' up from the ground so that I could glide a little and land on the road. My landing was good and in the road - no cactus incidents. There was another guy up ahead of me on the road, so I packed up and headed his way. I was soon joined by Macklow and one other all in the same area. We walked for about 15 minutes while our retrieve was searching for us. We finally got back to the Jean Airport to find most pilots were already there.
Five (or six - I have had mixed reports) made it into goal that day. Those guys truly are incredible pilots, it will be a great day that I can keep up with them. That flight was one of the most tiring flights I have ever had. There was never a moment that you could just relax a little. Abe, Tom and I went on a Burger King mission to the hotel to purchase $100 worth of BK for the pilots as we waited for everyone to get retrieved from goal. The BK guys kind of flipped out, but they managed to get us taken care of. Awards were given (results can be found on the High Roller website - click the title to link to it). Finally started heading back to SLC around 8:30 p.m.
Vegas was another great comp experience and I can't wait to go next year. We always hope for fantastic flying every day of a comp, but that can just never be guarunteed. The Biernacki's are the best comp organizers whether we are flying or not. I had a spectacular time - Thanks to everyone and it was great to see you all again!
