"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 :-)

less than 2 weeks :-))

Already in 2 weeks I should be flying in California - at least that's what I'm hoping for.
I shall be leaving for LAX on the 3rd of September with British Airways, STA in LAX: 1255.
If I'm not too tired/ jetlagged, I hope to be flying at Marshall in the late afternoon; hopefully also meeting Arnie again. I've met him for the first time last year in the Owens Valley and again this year for a trip in the Alps (Bischling, Schmittenhöhe, Gemona, Bassano).
Then the "plan" calls for another day at Marshall or Elsinore before leaving for LAS on Saturday.
There I hope to meet Ron Pecks for a day of towing/ flying at Jean Dry Bed (or somewhere else).