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.
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: 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
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...
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", 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...
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)...
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.
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!!
