US'16 0626 -Monroe Peak, Cove

1 hour drive to Monroe Peak on a pretty good unpaved road in Stacy's Pathfinder. (We all hope that his van will be repaired by tomorrow, latest when we have to leave Richfield...)

Ecxellent conditions on launch; there is no excuse for me sinking out after getting a little above TO! Andy did a much better job and landed east of Richfield.

looking towards Mt.Edna, where we flew (or better: got blown away) yesterday

Afterwards we checked in at our new motel (Super8) (we didn't like much the Motel6, where we have stayed the last 2 nights), took a short nap and headed up to Cove for some nice evening soaring.
Conditions have been better than yesterday, so climbs to 13'500/ 4100m have been possible. I flew locally and landed at sunset in the LZ, while Andy made it to Richfield and landed close by the motel.

Pano looking east:Cove (rt) - Monroe Peak (left)

Stacy

Stacy

US'16 0625 - Cove

Our car problems persisted: while driving up to Cove Stacy's van overheated and we had to leave it parked on the road. Additionally, Doug's SUV (the repacement car) got a flat tire upon reaching launch...

Dillon and Stacy changing tire on Doug's SUV

But conditions have been ideal and everybody has been able to bench up to the top..

Mountain goat watching us closely flying by...

So 'finally' a flight which delivered what Stacy had promised it would be ;-)

US'16 0625 - Mt.Edna

A beautiful looking day; together with some other pilots we headed up Mt.Edna. Unfortunately just a few miles up the hill the radiator in Adam's SUV 'blew'. So all the gear and the pilots riding in Adam's car had to be shuttled up in Stacy's van...
Very gently conditions on Mt.Edna, Utah's highest drive-up site (3500m); though we had to walk the last 200ft due to snow blocking this piece of the road.

Tusher Lillies (?)

looking down to launch

We all had easy launches and could nicely climb on the first spin just to the left of TO. But unfortunately this was to be the only good thermal of the flight. As soon as sinking below about 3100m we encountered a strong North flow (up to > 30kmh), which blew apart all the thermals as well as our hopes for a good xc-flight,  allowing only a flight downwind with ground speeds exceeding 70kmh at times. So once out in the valley I picked to nicest field for my landing (just North of Pajute Reservoir); Andy let himself be blown to Junction (South of the reservoir), a 'town' with no cell phone reception and not even a telephone booth...

looking out to Maryvale; on the left the road to launch

US'16 0624 - Otto's ridge - Arches Nat.Park

Again an early departure. Well. it could have been even half an hour earlier as the conditions have already been quite good when we had reached Otto's Ridge. This early morning site lies west of Grand Junction (CO) and is generally flown only until the thermal activity starts: a pure soaring site (a little similar to PotM (South side) but much longer).

As predicted, the winds then became too strong for any more flying that day. We continued west on I-70 and headed for Moab (UT) and the Arches National Park.

on I-70

Delicate Arch

Double Arch

Of the many great features and arches in this NP, there are just 2 pictures (more to be found on Flickr).

We finished the evening with a nice little piece of prime rib in Richfield, Stacy's home town. We'll stay here for the next days, hoping for thewx  fcst to be correct, which 'promises' the best flying days so far on our trip...

US'16 0623 - Roan

During the night it had been raining again, so when getting up at 0530, the day didn't look to promising. We left Glenwood Springs as planned at 0700 with our van and its replaced transmission heading west towards Rifle. There was still some rain, but the further west we drove, the brighter the sky got. Also there didn't seem to have been rain out there (which would have made driving up to Roan quite difficult).

on the way to Rifle

setting up a windsock at the intended LZ

looking towards Rifle and the intended LZ

Bildunterschrift hinzufügen

The conditions on launch have been very good with light winds coming in pretty straight and steady. Andy launched first for the long glide out. Only at the very end he found some lift and was actually able to thermal up about 500m. My gliders performance is a bit lower than his and so I arrived lower and have been unable to catch some lift and thus be able to reach our intended LZ (where we had set up our windsock), so I had to land on a lower field (on private land whose access was barred by a closed gate - which we didn't know at that time). Andy decided to land also at 'my' LZ.
Only a short while after we had packed up, some gas worker stopped by and offered to drive us out towards Rifle, thus solving the 'problem' of the closed gate as he knew its code. Thanks for the ride!

landing: at 1 o'clock from the right side of my accelerator

driving on I-70 West along the Colorado River

near Grand Junction

After we left Rifle, it started raining (again), so I think we had hit the possible flying window right on the spot. We stopped for the night in Grand Junction after just 1 hour of driving. Why didn't we go further? Well, we are hoping to fly a site nearby called "Otto's Ridge".This is an early morning site (a little similar to PotM-South), which is flown in the catabatic air flow before the thermals set in.

US'16 0622 - Glenwood Springs - waiting

...waiting for the transmission of our car to be fixed (actually it had to be replaced). And both rental companies in  town didn't have a single car to rent out :-((
When we finally got the car back in the afternoon, it had started to overdevellop - so today  no flying.
The wx forecast for the next couple of days doesn't look too promising, so we had to adapt our 'schedule' and drop Villa Grove unfortunately of our itinerary.
It should be flyable tomorrow morning in Roan, a site nearby. Then we'll head west to stay overnight at Grand Junction, hoping to be able to fly there Otto's Ridge early on Friday morning. With a side trip to Moab on Saturday.

our trip as it stands as of today

US'16 0612 - Skinny Ridge

...getting close(r) to what we're looking for...
Our friends here at Glennwood Springs sent us to Skinny Ridge. For Roan the winds came out of the wrong direction. While driving up to launch, we realized we had a problem with the transmission of our car: it would only work in 1st and 2nd gear anymore - but what else would we need on such a mountain road, so we continued  ;-)

Andy ready to launch

We both got off easily and soon Andy was high and heading east. For at least 30mins I was scratching in front of launch without ever getting more than 150m over. 

Then I decided to head out towards a possible LZ on the valley floor, always looking/ hoping for lift. Finally abeam my intended LZ (the only meadow in the valley where the grass has already been cut) I found really good lift all the way up to 3750m; with this altitude I also headed east.

looking back to launch from above 3000m

looking east towards Glennwood Springs (below 'big' cloud)

But I haven't been able to climb again high enough to fly safely over the ridge you can see in the pix above, as with the westerly airflow I wanted to be really high there in order to avoid any possible rotors.
So this made me turn around and look for a nice LZ.

landing on the cut grass (in the top rh corner of the pix)

Just shortly after landing, I didn't even have time to begin packing up my gear a Chevy Tahoe drove upto me. The driver said something like 'driving is certainly better than hiking out' and offered to drive me out to the interstate. While talking it turned out that he actually was going to Glennwood. So he dropped me off right at the motel :-))  THANKS a lot!!
Meanwhile Andy also got there: he had landed in the LZ at Glennwood and could ride the bus back.

Update on the transmission: it's gone and needs to be replaced, which is hopefully done by tomorrow afternoon.

US'16 - 0620 Dinosaur, Lookout Mtn (Glenwood Springs)

Sunrise in Vernal while folding up my glider from yesterdays failed launch attempts :-((

One more (long!) ride up to Dinosaur: good looking conditions...

...parawaiting...

...but (apparently) I didn't wait long enough, so after a short while I had to land in the 'Pampa' (= sage bush). It took me a while to get my gear out to the road (even though from the air it had looked pretty close).

Andy had waited longer and had a better flight, but still nothing really spectacular.

Now we've had enough of all those tales of great flights out of Dinosaurs, with ceilings of 18'000ft and awesome glass-offs ;-) and started our drive towards Glennwood Springs.

After 3 hrs driving we got there and could make a nice evening flight off Lookout Mtn.

soaring Lookout Mtn (Glennwood Springs)

Looking SE towards Aspen

US'16 0619 -Dinosaur/ Dinosaur National Monument

Much less wind today on TO! So we could start early and I even found some nice thermals taking me to 200m over launch. Unfortunatley the meteo-wind was still rather strong out of the west, so further out there was no more thermal activity.

looking back to launch

heading out to LZ

Andy landing at Corral LZ

By now it was noon and we didn't want to relaunch a this time of the day in such a high desert site,so we returned to Vernal for a short nap. In the afternoon we visited Dinosaur National Monument, more precisely Harper's Corner: what spectacular views!

After this sightseeing trip we drove again to Dinosaur around 1800; Andy immediately launched, but unfortunately found nothing. I waited (too long!) and the conditions became weaker and much more cross, even a little tail wind . So after a few failed launches I had to pack up :-((