Hey just wondering if (more likely who) had or continues to compete in adventure races?

I just ran my first this past weekend in Turtle River State park North Dakota and had a complete and total blast. 6 hour race, bikes, runs, and a little water too.

The fall holds a 10 hour race, rated hardest in north dakota.

Any good stories from anyone? Good challenge ideas I can pass on to the race designer?

They run two very close to where I am at. One is a "spread your wings" 6hr and the other a 24hr qualification race for some type of national competition. I have not done one yet but have heard they are very fun if you like the bike/kayak/orienteer thing. Check out http://www.campeagle.org/ Awesome facility with rock climbing, mountain biking, spelunking, ziplines, fishing......you name it.

They have a yearly mountain bike race that is epic.....thousands of riders and insane terrain!

Wowzer that does sounds like fun (and insanity). Type 3 fun for sure...

O and the types of fun...

Type 1 fun: Spending a day outside taking a bike ride over to a park and back
Type 2 fun: Spending a day outside taking a bike ride over to a park and getting caught a hail storm on the way back
Type 3 fun: Intentional spending a day outside taking a bike ride knowing the hail storm is there, and knowing your going to suffer ahead of time.

Credit goes to Andy magness for those lines of wisdome:P

I've done a couple. First one was a three person team with a forth "team member" picked up near the start. The new team member was a 10 pound brick that had to be carried for the remainder of the event (8 hours). Three of us and a brick on the run, canoe, canoe carry & run, bike, and orienteering. Def takes a "type 3 fun" kinda personality.

Would love to do the 10 hour with you but the distance from here to there presents a slight problem.

Aside, how is school?

Ditto mgatc - it was a 3 person coed team and I was asked to be the token guy with a couple friends. It was a race series put on by Subaru (races all across Canada)......Adventure Racing Canada or Canada Adventure Racing or something like that. I think they're still running races but they do't come out west anymore it seems. Everything is in Ontario. Too bad too, the format was great and it was hella fun. Was going to look into the Sea to Summit series but never did........wonder why I never did? I really enjoyed the race - and the training for the race......

Anywho, our race was canoe, mountain bike, hike/run up a mountain then mountain bike again all the while orienteering your way. Quite a challenge. The highlight was twofold......A) I got sponsored by a local shop and was riding this mac daddy Trek race bike (the thing weighed so little it made me lighter when I got on it) and B) I got to take this mac daddy bike down a STRAIGHT AS AN ARROW downhill section that literally went from the summit to the road about 2000 feet below. Roughly a 45 degree slope the entire way. Crazy good lesson in how efficient disc brakes are!

I think our time was 7 1/2 hours all said. I'll never forget the Joe Jockular team that blew past us in the canoes. They token girl was sitting in the middle of the canoe doing her nails while the two olympians pulled that boat to planing speed

We on the otherhand took the scenic route ; )

Nice I will try to get some sponsorship I think for the fall race. that would be pretty sweet to score a deal with slingshot or someone (they already support the club with discounts). I really really like that brick race, that's an awesome idea (although I'm hesitant to bring it up for my own sake haha).

And mg, school is going great, finishing up just about to finish cfi training. And I got a scholarship from the school to get type rated in a citation over the summer so im seriously stoked for that! Hows atc life? any good stories?

Congrats on the scholarship! Sounds like a summer school that I would like to attend.

Life here is a bit hectic. I've got 11 Controllers and 9 students. Training all day every day. Nothing BUT crazy stories. Should'a started a journal with daily entries. It would prolly be a best seller.

Had a Conquest drop in on us last week with complete electrical failure and one engine out. The pilot notified the center of a rough running engine and then lost all electrical. No radio, Nav, flaps, nothing. Center alerted us to watch the primary target about the same time the pilot called us on a hand-held VHF back-up. Bet he thought he'd never have to use that!

We had to point him at the airport. He had no idea where he was or where we were. After he hand cranked the gear down, we managed to get him lined up to Rwy27 with the the wind thankfully, right down the runway. Pilot did a great job getting it on the ground with one engine and no flaps. He got the aircraft off the Rwy and made a valiant effort to taxi in but kept spinnin donuts on the taxiway!. Tug came out and drug him in.

Pilot kept his cool and did a super job managing the aircraft. Had a veteran controller in the tower that was equally cool and did everything right. Nice when a potentially bad situation turns out well.

Always is, and I carry my own hand held with me too lol. It happened to me once in a 150 and sucked because the radar had a hard time picking me up lol (I was pretty far from center's radar dish). So about every 4th spin of the scope they said I would show up then the next I'd be gone lol.

I know we hijacked, but were talking about flying so i feel like its damn worth it haha, but how bad is the atc situation regarding retiring and hiring controllers? Is it as bad as they say (it sounds like it so far)? Pilots are supposed to be expecting the same problem in about 10 years. They say only 200 some of delta's 2000 pilots are under age 40 and when retirement hits the company is screwed lol.

Great job on your team getting that plane in. You guys are our guardian angels when we mess things up really bad. Even if we can't talk to you, we know you can see where we are, and can tell where to send the rescue teams haha.

There is no feeling in the world when you've lost an engine in IFR, and electrical too, and you pull out your handheld and the controller on the other end says, "it sounds like you could use some no-gyro vectors, let's get you home."

Mannnnn thats a nice sound lol

Macboy,

Great story that I can totally relate to. I'm not sure why I didn't continue to race. Prolly the same reason I quit bike racing - Chose to be a dad instead. I still train hard and do some local events but no sponsorship or road trips to races! I've been doing some local obstacle" races. They seem to be the new thing. I did a 4 miler last month that had some pretty tough challenges ( walls, jumps, log carries, 50# sandbag tosses, a pair of 5 gallon water cans carried 200 yards, ugh) along the way. When I finished, I saw some friends at the start line with a missing teammate and was asked to join their group which I did and pulled off a double. Good time!

I think that Subaru did a series here also. It was a regional with a national championship at the end of the season.
Congrats on the bike support - that's awesome. Amazing what technology has done with bikes. I raced a Serotta Titainium for years that was cutting edge when I got it. Replaced it last year with a Specialized Tarmac and the bike weight went from 19.6 lbs to 14.8!!!!!

That downhill section with the MTB must have been a blast. They didn't make you ride back up it? lol

Fly,

Thanks for the kind words.

You noticed that I said I had a VETERAN Controller in the tower? The odds of that happening are slim and getting slimmer. The overall experience of the workforce is diminishing due to attrition. The quality of the students we are getting is not very high. This is in part due to the lack of an effective screening process before they reach a field facility. After the stike in 1981 the FAA instituted a rigid screen in OKC. The failure rate was ~50 to ~60 percent thus ensuring that only the top candidates & those with some aptitude for the job reached the field.

The current process sends all students to the field. It then can take up to 12 to 18 months to identify and document unsatisfactory performance in order to have someone removed from training. Frustrating. But, our controllers are stepping up and meeting the challenge and hopefully, this is transparent to you in the airplane. I'm sure some of you fellow students in the ATC program are familiar with the issues.