After a long awaited change to warm weather, I was getting anxious to fly the mountains. I decided to take the sharpest arrow out of the quiver, an ASW-27B "Juliet-Hotel," up for some cross country soaring. I was rewarded with a very nice day. By no means was it epic, but it certainly didn't suck, like most of spring has, either. Unlimited visibility, warm temperatures, challenging but doable, a few Q's, nature glowing, relatively smooth, light winds, WOW.
Off tow in the blue at Tree Farm for some work climbing out before flying over Lett's Lake towards the only visible Q which were low above Snow Mountain.
The beautiful and aptly named Snow Mountain.
Staying over high ground I head North-West. From this vantage I can see the long glide from Hull to Lake Pillsbury for a hang glider. I use to make it all the time on my custom, duct taped leading edge, Pacific Airwave Pulse.
With a few days of warm weather Mount Saint John is now clear of snow and lying off to the East.
After getting into the blue over no mans land and not wanting to land at Gravely Valley I turn around just past Sheet Iron and head back towards the reliable Q over Snow.
After climbing back up at Snow and then Goat I head South towards the foothills and find big, bumpy lift over Walker Ridge. I climb to 8000' over little Walker Ridge which is nearly as high as I was getting in the mountains. I notice gust lines blowing across Indian Valley Reservoir towards Walker.
Leaving Walker I hit sustained 700-800 fpm sink for three miles which completely negates my big climb at Walker. I carefully fly down to Cache Creek and Rumsey Canyon. Now low with contaminated wings I'm forced to make a conservatively slow final glide which allows me time to gaze and reflect at todays spectacular playground lying off in the distance.
A clip from the beginning and end of this very nice day.
2 comments:
OK, you're gonna have to explain this term - "contaminated wings"?
RM
In this case, contaminated wings refer to bug splatters on the leading edge. Often a problem in spring with high performance ships relying on good laminar air flow. Worst case examples have shown glide ratios cut in half and most glide computers have a contamination percentage feature. Since the effect worsens with increased airspeed I flew the 25 mile final glide at a conservative 55 KIAS.
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