One "last" flight at Marshall (nice thermals) and now it's the end of my trip.
I'm awaiting here in the lounge at LAX the departure of my flight to LHR and ZRH.
I'd like to thank all who have contributed to this trip beeing so succesfull and such a great experience.
Thanks especially go to Stacy in Richfield (UT) and Kari in Bishop (CA): both went out of their way to show me new sites, guide me around and also organize permission to fly in "restricted" places like Snowbird or Mammoth.
Point of the Mountain (South side)
Rapidly my trip to the US is coming to its end.
Today I was up on Marshall for a nice thermalling flight.
As nobody was in the LZ when I was there, I had driven up with my own car and was therefore "forced" to top land.
For dinner a last "prime rib" meal...
I don't know, if Leonarodo really said this, as he hasn't flown at all as far a I know.
Torrey Pines is almost as I remember: well not allmost: the paperwork has gotten even worse. Now it's about 8 pages one must initial and sign. I think 1993 it were only 5 or 6 pages...
But the air is still as smooth and laminar as ever and permits hourlong flights/ toplandings and kiting as you please.
So I stayed 2 days (MON, TUE) before heading up the coast towards LA (or "smell-A", as Kari used to say).
Today was a travel day. I had stayed one more night in Bishop, partly also because I was expecting a(nother) nice sunset.
Then it was a 4+ hr drive to LA. At least here they are using part of nature's power to generate electricity, even though I saw very few solar panels on houses.
But if nor here where the sun shines 300+ days, then where else???
I stopped at Sylmar/ Kagel, but was discouraged from flying. So I continued to Marshall, but it was too windy here.
Another fine fall day here in the Valley.
I had had to fix another tire, so we were rather late in getting up the mountain: this day: Gunther.
While I was setting up, Kari was "enjoing" here ration of "rabbit food" as part of her 500kcal/ day diet.
The winds were blowing S, almost SE, and the thermals were small and sharp...
Later we tried Chuck Bluffs, but with winds 14-18mph, this was too strong for me to handle safely with my XL glider...
Tuesday's winds have cleared away all the dust/ haze and we (Kari, Richard + Devin ("Observer") had a fine day out near Crawley Lake. It took a while until the sun had heated uo the ridge enough for the cycles to come in straight. The thermals remained weak so Richard and I had to land rather too soon...
Flynn's later: winds too strong and cross.
Sushi for dinner (> Hi Stacy!)
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...
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.
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!!!
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...
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...
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!
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"...
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!
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...
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.
