Riding Giants

When wind blows over mountains, under specific atmospheric conditions, the air begins to form the largest waves found on, or rather above this planet. High performance sailplanes are the tool for catching these waves. I concentrate hard as I start my takeoff roll with a 10 knot tailwind aboard "Juliet Hotel," in search of giants.

After towing through rotor I release in the lee of Goat Mountain. Down low the wave is weak with a few holes. I work hard below the Lenticular Clouds as I head towards Snow Mountain with Hull Mountain barely visible beyond.
Once above the clouds, lift turns on. The view is spectacular with Snow Mountain clearly visible through a gap between wave clouds.
My GPS warns me I'm at 17,500' and approaching Class A Airspace. Time to race South, beyond the Mendocino Wave. With good altitude I cross Indian Valley Reservoir, Walker Ridge, Cache Creek, The Capay Valley and contact solid wave over Vaca Ridge. I get a good view of the dam at Lake Berryessa.
I ride the wave back North to Bear Valley, head out and tag the valley towns of Arbuckle and Colusa below, before returning to Williams, tired and content after 4 hours riding giants.
Below is a reminder to inhale through your nose while wearing a nasal cannula at altitude.

Staying Local

Punching off the Towers into a good, but not great spring day, meant our group of five would stay local, soaring the North side of Diablo. All except for Kevin, who believes the closest LZ to Diablo is in Livermore. I'm in happy air, hanging loose over Bald Ridge at 400 fpm up, in my first thermal of the day.

I top out even with the peak, to low to leave, but high enough to stay and play.
Over Bald I take a hard look at Robert's Atos as I have rarely seen its upper surface.
With a mix of up and down we all trade places in the stack. Maybe I'll move over and join Mike as he's climbing well.
After our predetermined golden hour we all head out. A little circling above Mount Zion with a nice view of todays playground in the distance.
The steep walls of the quarry immediately west of todays LZ, Mitchell Canyon, where we had nice landings after a fun day in familiar sky.

A Fortunate Change of Plans

A couple of days spent soaring high performance glass coupled with a stiff North wind meant today was for chores. Then the miraculous happened, the North wind just quit. With Teri's understanding of the importance maintaining currency in different aircraft we were off to Diablo for more soaring, Icarus style. Off the tower into smooth air until hitting the inversion just above Eagle where I tucked in close to the magnificent yet intimidating rocky walls.

Strong short climbs were found to barely above the peak.
With the low inversion I had little chance of breaking through and with a faint heart it was off to lower ground. Some bugs were doing an excellent job staying centered in the parking lot thermal as sparrows plucked them from the air. I decided to join in their fun.
OK, low enough, time to land at the adjacent Mitchell LZ.

Number One Hundred

My attempt at illustrating the indescribable experience of soaring, has been my motivation for this flog. Although I'm not one for box scores, flight 100 piloting a sailplane stands out. More importantly, it was amazing and beautiful. A long tow to the mountains in the ASW-27B "Juliet-Hotel" put me at Goat Ridge, which was producing light thermic lift.

Most climbs placed me between 7500' and 8000'. I then broke out my seldom practiced skill, patience. I saw 9000' and immediately attempted driving towards Snow Mountain.
With a 20 knot North-East headwind and big sink I bailed back for my sure thing at Goat. With light lift and moderate wind, I kept drifting onto the Westward side.
I decided to hunt for lift on the safe side of the mountain. I knocked at the house thermal near Lett's Lake.
No one was home, so down ridge to the Tree Farm where I found moderate lift to bring me back above Goat.
After a couple hours in the mountains I realized today was not the day for big distance. I moved out to the foothills for a change of venue in my circling adventure.
I worked ratty wind blown lift in the foothills, then the valley, before landing on three-four at Williams straight into a 15 knot headwind after my 3.1 hour, flight 100 in the log book.