Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest

As per forecast it was too windy today. So we (Kari, Richard+Jessie) went sightseeing: up Silver canyon to the top of the Whites range (ca 3500m). There another flat; but with Richard's help the tire was changed really quick. On the way back we passed through the 'ancient bristlecone pine forest'. Some of the trees are said to be abouit 4000 years old; anyway: pretty impressive...

It's getting windy (Black Eagle)

Finally the weather is changing and it's getting windy...


Lenticularis clouds over the Sierras

Kari, Doug, Richard, Arnie and Sam (Driver) was todays 'gang'. We departed late (1015) and decided to try out "Black Eagle", an East facing launch in the Inyo Mtns. The drive up there is quite spectacular and one wonders who put up the effort to build a road up there...
The flying was (right from the beginning) not really very nice, as the winds were coming out of the S (or even SE). I headed right out to land at the foothills in winds (10-20+ mph). Arnie was the only other pilot to put up with these conditions.

3rd time lucky (again) -Walt's Point

Finally even I was able to make a 'decent' flight, though it took 4 tries until I could launch of Walt's Point. Then it was rather slow going for me in the beginning, but as the day wore on, I was able to get higher und further.

But the honors today go undoutably to Arnie:


he was very fast and by Bishop he crossed the Valley and flew on to NE of Benton. At this time I'm not really sure how far he got, but I think at least 100mi!!!

Walt's Point (again) - not my day...

Everybody was heading out to Walt's Point today. Our group has changed a bit: we "lost" Richard (but he'll be back next week) and we were joined by Alvin and Arnie. So it was a bit a tight squeeze in the car for the ride up to Horseshoe. There already was a group of hangies and later some more PG-pilots joined.
I had to abort my first take-off. In doing this my stirrup/ accelerator got tangeled around my cockpit, but I didn't realize this until I became airborne on my 2nd try. It took me a while to figure out what had happened and some more time until I saw a way to fix this problem. I knew that I had to use both of my hand to do this, so I headed out towards the Valley to find a calm enough spot where I could let loose both brakes. I had to unhook the left side of my cockpit to get the stirrup released. Until then it wouldn't even have been possible to throw my reserve... All this took a lot of time while I sank lower and lower. I could catch one nice thermal but that was it :-((
Arnie had an excellent flight (5mi N of Bishop), also the rest of the group is quite happy with their flights.
Tomorrow there will be (probably) another chance...

Om the way back we saw a huge group of wild deer (?), which take advantage of the grassy meadows in the valley. They seem to be left alone...

McGee & Flynns

Pelicans migrating near Crawley lake

Same forecast as yesterday, but we choose McGee instead of Walts Point.
McGee is a 2000ft vert site just South of Mammoth airport. Also with us at the site were 3 HG pilots: Robin + Dan, Helmut. After a couple of tries, Kari launched first. She got high - as usual. I was able to hang out for about 30+ mins.
Later we moved to Flynns: same story there...

Walt's Point (aka Horseshoe)

The forecast predicted light winds from SE, so we headed out to Walt's Point.
This is one of the "strangest" PG-launches I've ever been to.
One has to lay out its glider almost perpendicular to the general wind direction; then the side further away from the edge is pulled up first, the wing vanes (turnes) into the wind and off you go...


But it's well worth the effort, and with help from Kari and Richard I was able to launch on my 4th try -once I understood what actually is going on.
The views along the Sierras are just spectacular!

Owens "lake"

Why would anyone call this a "lake"? I guess because many years ago it really was a lake; many years ago before L.A. started using up all of its water.
One must know that most of the land and allmost all of its water (rights) in the Owens Valley belong now to the DWP (Departement of Water and Power). It is said that many years ago those who have been unwilling to sell their rights to the DWP "misteriously disappeared"...

Mammoth Mountain & Mono Lake (Lee Vining)

Sam, Kari, Doug, Richard

The winds are still light from N, NE - which is rather unusal. So Kari took us to Mammoth Lake. After having done some paperwork, we were guided up the mountain (!). I think the reason for this was that they were blowing up 'dudes' (?), explosive charges used in the winter time to release avalanches, which haden't blown up at that time.
The view from the top is really great. Everyone got off just fine.
Beside nice lift I found right next to it huge sink (> 1000fpm) - this didn't really invite me to go far...

As we were already up North from Bishop, Kari then took us to a site overlooking Mono Lake (Lee Vining is the small town below launch). Again a great view!

Pajute

Today for the first time our group for the coming days got together:
Kari (our guide), Sam (Driver), Doug, Richard and I (as pilots).
We went to Pajute, the northermost launch on the East side of the valley. Everybody got off fine, but due to the high pressure, the thermals weren't so organized and we never got about 10'500. Doug started with a cool flight to Big Pine...

Change of Tire in Death Valley NP

After having continously lost air over the last days (which I refilled), the rear right tire finally "blew" today.
This of all places on my way 10 miles from the Eureka Sand Dunes in Death Valley NP...
Luckily Stacy had showed me how to change tire on this car (- he had to do it on the way back from Gold Gulch), so it took me only about 25 minutes (- temperature probably close to 100F/ 35C).
In Bishop at Symon's Tyre I was told it was unreparable, so I had to buy a new one. I must say, that this garage had me very impressed: impeccably clean, speedy service (- all in all less than 1 hour! -) at a reasonable price.
Then I went shopping and got myself installed in Kari's cabin.

Transfer

The morning started with some early rain, so I didn't drive to "the Point" for some kiting. It was a "driving day": via SLC West to Wendover (NV) and then South to Ely.
What impressed me most is the immense vastness of this country - impossible to picture.
I was driving for almost 2 hours straight West - one could have almost fixed the steering wheel. I was wondering how the early explorers/ settlers found their way or more: how they found water to make it across.
Shortly before Wendover I stopped at the Bonneville Speedway.


A team from the Ohio State University is testeing their Hydrogen vehicule: max speed so far: > 286mph (almost 500kmh).

In Ely later I was lucky to found the steam engine of the local railroad museum fired up.

Parawaiting -3

Yesterday evening I made a "short" stop at the Sushi bar near the hotel -the same one I had Stacy taken to last week...

Today I got up early, in order to be at the South side of "the Point" before sunrise.

Unfortunately the wind was just a little too strong for me to feel comfortable, so after waiting quite a while, I tried to kite up from the bottom of the hill, but by then the winds had become cross and the slope was very "bushy".

For the afternoon I drove out to Provo; at the LZ there was another pilot (Tom from Florida), also looking for a ride to launch. Se we carpooled up.


But we didn't much like the big cloud over Utah lake, wich continued growing, so no flight.
Again the wind at the South side of the Point came out of the south in the evening - so there went my (last) chance to fly the North side :-((

Mt.Edna & Point of The Mountain

As usual, Stacy tried his best to get me airborne also today. But halfway up Mt.Edna, we realized, that it was shadowing over very fast, so we returned to Richfield.
I drove up to Lehi, where I had reserved a room at a Days Inn. Heading out for the Point (the North side), I saw a couple of PG wings flying on the South side! So I headed up there and for a while I kited my Cobra. A thunderstorm was brewing behind the mountains and all of a sudden the winds started to veer to E and picked up speed. I made it just in time back to my car and to throw in the glider...





@Stacy: MANY THANKS again! I highly appreciate you taking time off and showing me the best of Utah's flying sites. I hope, that one day (soon), I'll be able to show you some Swiss sites!

Inspo & Francis

Inspo: launch; then Provo/ Orem; Utah Lake; Lake Mountain (back)

Yesterday we travelled North to Salt Lake City again.
In Provo/ Orem Stacy showed me the LZ's for Inspiration Point (aka Inspo). At 1330 we (Stacy, Johann, Dennis, ++) drove up to launch: a paved road right to the parking behind launch - great! Stacy got off first and with a great low save off the foothills got high.
Unfortunately retreiving Dennis took much (!) longer than anticipated, so we could leave the LZ only at 1700, instead at 1630, as we had originally planned. This made us arrive at Francis Peak rather late. Only Johann and Todd were able to launch before the winds turned catabatic too bad :-((
We arrived back in Richfield at 0030.


Stacy trying to launch off Francis Peak at sunset

Parawaiting -2

Unfortunately. yeterday the actual winds didn't behave at all to the forecast: they were supposed to be light out of the N on Mt.Edna, but actually they were SW/ 15-30 :-((
So in the morning instead we choose Elsinore, a site that is normally used only NOV - MAR with NE winds: Stacy made a sledder, I didn't fly.
In the early afternoon we drove up Cove (actual winds reading W), but once we got there they came out of the N. In addition it started to overdevellop fast. So no flight again.
In the late afternoon we tried Cove again: just a sledder, as the clouds had shaded off the area for too long...

third time lucky: Cedar City

Today for the third time on my visits here in Southern Utah I was finally able to launch of Cedar Mountain - the other times the winds were either too strong or the direction was wrong. The first flight was a bit too early - the thermals allowed just to hold TO altitude. One hour later, the conditions had a bit improved and it was possible to get about 700ft over, but it was impossible to get really away.
We picked up Robert (Stacy's son) and drove down to St.George to fly "the Usual".
Probably due to the N-Winds, the thermals stopped unusually fast and everybody (we were joined by Thomas, Berit and Marc) sunk out... Thanks Robert for driving!


Stacy ready to launch

"breezy and scattered thunderstorms"

"Breezy and scattered thunderstorms", that was todays forecast.
So, already yesterday evening, we decided to call it a day.
In the morning/ early afternoon I did my laundery and some work on my pictures. Later in the day I drove up to Cove: the winds would just have been flyable, but as you can see in the pix, the thunderstorms were building...

Bryce NP

The winds forcasted seemed to be to strong for PG-ing; even though we drove up "Uranium" (near Marysvale). For a moment they seemed flyable, so Stacy broke out the tarp. But then they started to pick up speed and never slowed down any more. We were more than glad, that the winds increased while we were trying to lay out our wings than later while we would have been in the air.


So we drove down to Panguitch -where Stacy works- and through Red Canyon into Bryce NP: even if clouds covered the sun for most of the time it simply looks just awesome. You could take hundreds of pictures there and still wanted to take more: 'sensory overload'!
On the way back we passed Cedar Breaks NM, in a way a smaller copy of Bryce NP: here the winds really were howling (> 40kts)...

Hancock + Cove (again)

Very slowly autumn is approaching and the colors are changing (looking up to Fish Lake plateau)

Contrary to the wx forecast, which had predicted winds out of the N, they were coming out of the W in the morning. That made us choose Parker as flying site. On the way we (Stacy, Todd, Jeff) noticed a SW flow, so we chanched to Hancock. Todd took off first and got up nicley on the right side, but later got landed on sagebush :-((



I tried the left side: Nada, as winds were changing from SW to NW.
With everybody on the ground we decided to try Parker, but it was Blown out...
Later in the afternoon we also had a go at Cove, but it was much weaker than predicted and only in the beginning the thermals got us above TO...
So we got back in time for me to have a nice prime rib dinner.

Mt.Edna + Cove

Today we got more luck with the gate and we could drive up Mt.Edna. Winds were out of the N, perfectly on the nose for launch.



With these kinds of winds, we (Stacy, Todd and I) never got up really, but we could soar a small ridge for quite some time. Doug (Stacy's son) made the retreives - THANKS!

Later in the afternoon we (without Doug) drove up Cove. Stacy explained how to fly this site with a NW-Wind and how to bench up to the top of Cove. As winds were really light I had to launch forward of the N launch. Stacy's tipps proved to be very helpful, so within a short while Todd and I had benched up. The thermals were perfectly smooth. Stacy toplanded to get the car; Todd and I landed shortly after sunset - just awesome!!

Snowbird

Snowbird: one of the world's top skiresorts; for a long time the place for the longest footlaunched flights in the US. Stacy had been so kind to organise a flight from here, as flying in Snowbird is strictly "by invitation only". There is quite some paperwork involved and he had it all set up earlier. My thanks go also to Ken, who had accepted to take me along -THANKS guys!!
The launch is quite tricky, sitting there on top of the mountain in the confluence of the winds from 3 sides, but I was lucky enough to catch a real good moment to launch. Flying is very nice: beautiful scenery and strong thermals, which - due to the very high pressure - didn't take us up very high. Landing is another tricky thing: you have to pass between 2 trees, you shouldn't overshoot as this will 'land' you in the cables of a chairlift, but somehow I managed, even if there was quite some lift turning final.
On the way back Stacy managed to get a short flight in at the North side of the Point: that's really a world class set-up for PG and HG!! There were at least 40 pilots in the air, but he only caught the back end of the thermals, as we arrived there a little late...

Gold Gulch

Contrary to the information Stacy had, the gate of the road which would have led us to the top of Mt.Edna was closed :-(
As an alternative we drove up Gold Gulch rd, where Stacy had earlier on pioneered a TO at 2600m. I was able to reverse launch without my lines being stuck in the dead wood. The flight took me up to almost 15000ft. Even though there was a nice cloud street going N towards Richfield, I sank out while trying to cross the valley near Joseph...

2021: Stacy's account of that day:

Yes I remember the flight well. We had a problem with the key to Mt. Edna, so we went to Gold Gulch instead. >ou thermaled up over mt Edna. and I got a flat tire on the rental vehicle. Then you flew all the way past Marysvale Canyon and landed in the State Road inclosure in Sevier, which is 2 miles southwest of the Town of Joseph. There was an 8 ft fence with barbed wire at the top, so we got 2 by 4 boards for you to climb the gate and I parked the rental vehicle so you could climb on the roof when you got over the gate. That was an interesting day...

Monroe Peak

The winds at high altitudes looked weak from the W, so we choose Monroe peak for flying. As we got up there too early for going high and far, Stacy made a sledder to the LZ, where I picked him up.
I took off at 1400 and after having to search a moment for a good thermal, I finally got up to 14500ft and started going SW. The lift was really nice and strong and I got to >17000ft. At one point I had to do a steep spiral to get under the clouds again. Then for a while 'accelerated big ears' to stay at 16000ft. Upon reaching the Parker ridge I followed it to the S. Suddenly there was this zone of massive sink as the wind had switched to N-NW, which brought me down to a few hundred feet above the ridge. Here it was no fun at all anymore and for I while I was thinking about landing on the ridge. Finally I was able to climb a bit and this allowed me to fly out to Hwy 62; landing on the Hwy, so it was an easy retrieve for Stacy.
Being his birthday, I offered to drive him up to Cove for an evening flight. At the LZ we met Theo and Lisa (both Swiss). Theo and Stacy launched off Cove-N and where able to bench up to the top. The evening ended with Stacy and me having a nice steak at Steve's steakhouse.

Mollies Nipple (Hurricane)

Looking at the picture should make it clear why this site got its name; but don't ask me who Mollie was ;-)
Again we met Gary, Berit and Mark; furthermore Thomas joined us as well (- I've met him last year at St.George).
The flying was nice, though not as epic as yesterday; I also didn't feel like trying to go any distance.
On the way back to Cedar City Stacy took me to Kolob Canyons (Zion Nat.Park): absolutely stunning! (This rock formation is called '5 Fingers'.)


It took me another 2 hrs to drive to Richfield, where I'll be staying the next 11 days.

Honeymoon (Hurricane Ridge)

You're probably wondering why this flying site is called 'Honeymoon'.
I've been told that close to this site passes the 'Honeymoon trail', called this way because in the early days the Mormons from Arizona and Colorado used to take this trail in order to get married at the (Mormon) temple in St.George. At that time there were only 4 temples in the whole of Utah and people needed to get married in a temple. So why not get married in your local church? Marriage in a Temple is said to be for eternity, marriage in a church only for this life...

Anyway, we had to wait a while before the wind had switched around and good cycles were starting to come in. Stacy offered to be the wind dummy and unfortunately after a few turns in a thermal sank out. I took off about 4 mins later and caught a nice thermal lifting me quickly above launch.
Berit and Mark were not so lucky...
The wind was quite strong from a S-SW direction (25-30+ kmh) and pushed me nicely along Hurricane ridge to the N. As you can see on my tracklog (on XContest) the ground speed sometimes was 70+ kmh. At the end of Black ridge there were no more thermals so I had to land near a place called 'Harmony'. Facing into the wind the GS was almost 0...
I have been told that this flight probably is a new PG site record for Honeymoon: 36miles and that so far nobody flew up Black Ridge...

long drive - no flight

I hadn't realized that it was Labour Day's weekend. So traffic was heavy and Ron Peck, the guy I wanted to meet in LAS, was away in the Owens, so I didn't want to fly on my own on any unknown site.
San Bernardino - Cedar City: > 500miles/ 800kms with some detours: especially impressing were the trains and tracks at Cajun Pass: 4 (more or less) parallel tracks. The train I saw had 4 engines and more than 100 cars loaded with (doublestacked) containers and trailers!



I had a look at the flying sites of Jean Drybed/ Jean ridge, Goodsprings and the 'Usual' at St.George. I also passed by the Hoover dam (with thousands of others), then along the north shore of Lake Meade. Temperatures in LAS were in the low 100's (almost 40C).
I'm staying the next 2 nights in Cedar City and shall be meeting Stacy (my guide here in Utah) tomorrow (SUN) at 1000 at the LZ of Cedar City.

Parawaiting -1

Today I tried to fly from Crestline, but the wind never mellowed enough so that it was safe to launch in a PG (HG got off very well). As you can see, there are also flying dogs...



Finally I flew (again) from Marshall, but it was already quite late.

my phone number in the US

(001) 435 503 0505

long trip - short flight

ZRH-LHR: BA709, C-class, A321: almost on time: more than 100kts headwind at times, therefore also light turbulence for a short while.
Remark: good breakfast, including warm 'pain au chocolat'. The AP (Sigi Müller) was very attentive to detail, so after the turbulence spilt some tea onto my tray, he immediately brought some napkins... Arrived LHR with about 20mins delay.



LHR-LAX: BA279, F-class, B744: flttime: 10hrs25mins, landed on time, but due to occupied stand arrived 20mins late at gate. Outstanding service by MC Martin Powell and AP Mark. Even slept about 3hrs.
Getting through immigration and custums took about 1hr.
Alamo rental cars: it took a while to find the car I needed: I wanted to have a car NOT in black or dark color and with 4LO-gear, but in the end I got it.
Traffic across Los Angeles to San Bernardino was rather slow: it took 1hr more than my GPS had originally calculated. So I drove straight to the LZ (landing-zone) at Marshall, where I met Arnie. I quickly changed and then we drove to launch. As it was already qute late (1800), thermals were weak and after 30mins we landed. After we got Arnie's car down I finally felt the long day; I had to skip dinner with him, made a few shoppings and checked in at the Days Inn.

Checked in...

"only" about 60kgs (allowance is 3*23kgs):
Luggage: 22.0; Rucksack 1: 22kgs; Rucksack 2: 16kgs

Final Countdown: less than 24hrs before departure

By E-mail I was asked to check-in, this was possible 24hrs before departure. So I could choose my seat and print my boarding passes.
All that remains now, is to pack my luggage and drop it late this afternoon at the airport, then I'm able to take tomorrow's 6am train to the airport and walk just to the gate :-)