"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
Leonardo da Vinci

Monday, April 26, 2010

A-Shift and Big Wave

Not Engine 41, Truck 41 and certainly not Medic 41; Felipe and I selected the Duo Discus "Mike-Golf" for riding big mountain wave. We towed to East Park Resevoir and climbed high in what was likely secondary or tertiary wave off the Mendos.
I pushed towards the Mendos but never caught the primary wave, only an awesome view of sun beaming upon the mountains.
A cold front was advancing and at 16,500' MSL; wind WSW at 50+ KTS, air temp 14 F. Snow showers moved in, obscured our view and with vents open the cockpit became a giant snow globe. Time to race South away from the front.
We ran in and out of wave all the way down to Lake Berryessa where we turned the Towers.
Over the ridge to The Cache Creek Casino and Golf Course.
Back North surfing good wave off Capay Valley's Western ridge until we hit the Rumsey Gap.
North over the foothills to the 20 Gap and a fast final glide to Williams. A three hour flight is condensed into a one minute video of 41 A-shift surfing the Northern California sky.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

High Pressure Option "B"

This particularly nice April day brought Gerry, Ian, Robert, Mike, Bob and myself to Diablo to battle high pressure. With warm ground fighting a stable atmosphere two logical strategies exist off the Tower Launch. Head straight for Eagle Peak and arrive as high as possible or turn right off launch and try to bench up Ransom Peak. With mediocre success displayed by others I chose option "B" as I pulled below Bob who made it work.
I scratched, gained, lost and played. Since I had chosen this option I was determined and went down the ridge stopping at everything for a couple hundred up here and down over there.
Working the upper mountain was fun but put me below Eagle as I arrived. The steep West slope put up the usual fight with strong, rough cores making for exciting circles.
I managed to fall out of a tight core and after a solid turn in sink I scrapped through and out of Mitchell Canyon pretty low.
I worked the lower hills and benched up Mitchell Rock. The thermals were weak, but smooth and relaxing.
The crowd soared Eagle Peak well and reported it's typical high pressure rock and roll. We all landed at Mitchell LZ where Teri and Janet faithfully arrived. Although I don't know if option "A" would have resulted in a longer flight I thoroughly enjoyed my half hour on this gorgeous spring day scratching upper and lower Mount Diablo.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Big Mountain Air

With wind blown clouds over the Mendocino Range, energy was in the sky, so I decided to take a mountain tow aboard "Juliet Hotel." Close to the mountains the air became rough and we hit widespread sink, actually loosing altitude on tow over a seven mile stretch. My nose is pointed towards Snow Mountain but our ground track is crabbed towards Goat which is out of the frame to the left despite an 80 Knot tow speed.
As we neared the ridge frequent slack line occurred and I worked to keep in position. At 8000' feet my computer indicated I was below glide slope to WSC at 32 miles out due to 52 knot North-East wind over the ridge. With the strong head wind, big sink and slack line I was so puckered up I made an ultra-conservative release at 10,000' which was one of the highest tows ever out of WSC. I knew I could some day break a gliding record. I then contacted weak wave and climbed high so I could finally take a deep breath and enjoy the spectacular view of the snow covered mountains of Snow and Hull as well as Lett's Lake and Lake Pillsbury.
I reached 13000' above Goat and was frequently flying backwards in this high performance glass ship. I pushed the nose over to 90 KIAS to penetrate and found myself high over Bear Valley in lighter winds and I was able to breath real easy.
With good altitude I pushed North-East into the wind and contacted a weak convergence over the middle of the valley. At Maxwell I hit good lift and spun it up.
With the convergence I pushed a little further upwind and followed HWY 5 with Willows in the distance.
After flying the convergence I took a fun and fast downwind glide to WSC where I found the reason for the convergence as I landed into a light South wind after 4 hours in the big air.

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Front With Texture

Conflicting soaring indicators had me bewildered as I set up at Mount Diablo. A strong cold front was due tonight. A visible marine layer over the North and East Bay hills led to good development south. Tattered Cu would form just above Juniper Launch but also below out in front. A nice SSW wind at 15 would occasionally lull to nothing. Only one way to find out.
After barely ridge soaring Juniper Launch I was off to the South-West Bowl which should collect thermals in this wind direction.
Once up in a small, strong, wind blown core all of Moses Rock Ridge seemed to be semi ridge soarable.
With the lift working only a couple hundred above launch, that is where I decided to play.
...and had fun diving at launch.
I played until my nerves couldn't take the scratching and texture any longer. Out to the 1000 Footer. With a decent South Wind I knew the rotor would be handful. I looked at my straight down tubes and promised to try to keep them that way. I set up high, dove through the rotor into the smooth wind above the hill top for a no stepper, phew.

Friday, April 16, 2010

A Whole Lot of Fakus

I got world famous hang gliding pilot Monte as my "RIO" today aboard the Duo Discus. We towed to the nicest looking developed sky anyone has ever seen above the foothills West of WSC. When we got there we found, yes, absolutely nothing. We moved out to the valley, blundered into a much needed blue thermal before the Cu started popping to help us out.
Thank you cummie.
Once high enough we pushed back under the beautiful clouds above the hills.
Again, no joy, back to the valley for lift. We tried this technique again, then again and then a few more times before deciding to fly with all the smart pilots in the valley. Here "DDS" is pulling up on our "six" in this sweat thermal.
Monte, this bogey is all over me, he's got missile lock on me!
We ended up with several hours and a fun valley day as we scratched our heads looking up at the big teaser over the hills.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Foothills and Valley Gaggles

Being Tax Day gliders were heading for the hills when I arrived at WSC. I jumped into"Juliet-Hotel" and towed to Indian Valley where I worked North towards East Park Resevoir under a weak cloud street.
The clouds dried up, the lift weakened and I was 20 miles out, low in the foothills. After an hour of this my fun meter was pegged.
I moved towards the valley and decided to work lift closer to home. Fortunately everyone else had the same idea and I found some good pilots to follow around the valley.
Although, occasionally I would lead.
There were six sailplanes out helping locate thermals and we got in some fun gaggles.
As the lift gradually died in the late afternoon I found myself needing to stay within sight of the airport towards the end of this 4-1/4 hour flight and they questioned if I was going for a low altitude duration record.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Solar Powered Lift

With O.D. and a West wind forecast for today my hope was for ridge lift off Juniper Launch at Diablo. I got some passes above launch but soon lost the lift in a lull. I was sinking down the shadowed mountain with yesterdays sled ride fresh in my mind. I couldn't help but think "not another sledder, it's April."
I was low and desperately needed a thermal. Then sun then broke out over the foothills. Yes, up air.
I worked the sun soaked ground and benched up finding myself near cloud base.
There were nice Cumulous clouds to play under.
With the sun exposed, strong lift was everywhere and I enjoyed the view above the mountain.
After a nice hour in thermic lift, widespread clouds again formed blocking the sun's rays. I found myself low and took advantage of the shadow, which should take the bite out of a windy 1000 Footer landing.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Devil O.D.

With an abundance of moisture and instability, good soaring conditions looked possible on this post-frontal day. However, too much of a good thing is sometimes bad as the Devil produced gluttonous proportions of sun blocking clouds. Mike and I arrived to find an overcast sky with no cycles and realized the Devil had O.D. We tried to wait it out but finally ran off Juniper Launch in close succession into the breathless sky.
I stared at my variometer hoping for luck and some other number besides -200 fpm.
Mike's down at the 1000 Footer just beyond the white van and I'm soon to join him in that tall wet grass after a sled ride under the overdeveloped sky.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Scratching the Devil

Dr. Jack told me lift would be light at Diablo on this high pressure, stable day. I planned accordingly and launched late afternoon from the Tower. Thermals were aplenty, but weak and low allowing partial turns in lift with the occasional 200' climb.
The Devil normally likes to play my side wires like a banjo on high pressure days but today he was nowhere to be found, allowing me to explore low and slow over the awesome terrain. With light North-East wind I drifted back in the lift but didn't want to get too deep into Mitchell Canyon.
Enjoying the scenery up close and personal while developing my scratching skills finally ends at the Mitchell Canyon LZ on this wonderful April afternoon.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Streets Galore

With Cumulous forming over the foothills, I took a tow to Bear Valley aboard "Juliet Hotel" on this nice post-frontal day.
Cloud base appeared to rise towards high ground, so I worked uphill into the mountains which were covered in fresh snow from yesterdays storm.
Showers began to move in and once snow hit my canopy I turned around. With an abundance of cloud streets I raced South, dolphin style. Without a circle, and maintaing near base I approached the Rumsey Gap with Lake Berryessa in the distance.
The waters of Cache Creek were flowing high through the canyon and the campground was filled on this fine spring day.
I took another street, fast to the North and turned the 20 Gap. These conditions are my forte; big, fat, abundant, cloud marked lift.
Back South under yet another street towards the Capay Valley with a view of the Rumsey Gap from the other side.
With as many streets available as New York City, I made a big mistake. I tried to cross a "small" blue hole. I sank fast to 3500' before finding lift and finally fighting my way back up to cloud base. Once there I made sure to stay under the clouds for a few more runs until the day was over.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Slippery When Wet

I headed South to Ed Levin in attempt to catch an advancing cold front's sweet breeze and beat it's deluge. I slapped the Sport 2 together and kept it level as I punched off launch with showers visible over the Coastal Range.
All alone at Ed Levin on a pre-frontal day, I question if I missed something in the forecast as I turn and climb.
The sky grows darker, the showers closer and my wife/driver/camerawoman/Teri bails for the car after grabbing this fine shot.
I can attest to the fact, that the Sport 2 flies and lands just fine when wet. Spread out in the garage the glider and harness should be dry soon.