The gods must have been appeased as the hang gliding
Saturday was incident free. Rich, Kurt and I went back to Elk. We are still
trying to repeat that illusive journey to the Central Valley from here. We were
set up and ready to go by 12:00. The cycles were coming straight in the south
launch, but to me they seemed more like wind gust rather than thermal cycles.
By 12:30 Kurt was itching to go. He launched by 12:40 and I launched at 12:45
with Rich a few minutes later. We were early. This time of year the sunrise is
so much later that it takes a later launch before conditions get better. After
20 minutes Rich and I were on our way to Horse at only 5,500 (last weekend we
were getting to 7,000 at Elk).
Prior to launch, at Richs suggestion, we had set a waypoint at Hull for 4,000.
We then set our GPS to go to this waypoint. We could then tell exactly what we
would need at Horse to make it to Hull. Over Horse, I climbed to 6,600. My GPS
said it was a 19 to 1 glide to my waypoint. With the tail wind I figured I could
easily make it, so I headed on my way. Rich was having trouble with a head cold
and congestion and was having a more difficult time getting above 6,000 at
Horse. With the tail wind I averaged 22 to 1 for the crossing.
I made it to Hull with plenty of altitude to spare but made a major mistake. I
flew through lift on the way to the house thermal. I figured I would find better
lift ahead. I was wrong. I was down to 3,000 over the knob at the end of the
airstrip before I found lift again (the airstrip is at 2,000). It took almost
30 minutes to climb from here to the top of Hull. As I crossed over the
timberline launch I saw 7 gliders set up waiting to launch. I yelled down that
conditions were good and they should start launching.
Rich had a climb to 6,400 at Horse and figured he better head to Hull on that
since he had been try to get up for most of an hour. He made it to Hull and soon
joined me over the top. The only place we found lift was in very rough air.
There were many times when I asked myself if I really wanted to circle around
through that again. At 2:30 we had our best climb to just over 10,000. We made
several attempts to fly toward the Central Valley, hoping for just one more
thermal that would get us across the mountains. We could see clouds forming just
6 miles away, but were never able to find enough lift to continue.
Kurt finally made it to Hull and joined us in our attempts to cross to the
Central Valley. After three and a half hours of this, each time topping out at a
lower altitude, I gave up and headed for an aerial tour around the lake, heading
first toward Snow, then around the lake. The landing conditions in the LZ were
the norm for Hull and we all had easy landings. I did not realize how tight I
had been gripping the base tube until after I landed. My fingers were numb and
it took a good 10 minutes to get my feelings fully back. It was the longest I
have been in air that rough for quite some time.
Vince's IGC file.
Vince