Over 100 miles, but not in Hurricane

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stebbins
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Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2005 9:02 am
Location: Palmdale, CA

Over 100 miles, but not in Hurricane

Post by stebbins »

After getting up at 5am On Saturday, July 1st we drove to Walts Point in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. I had intended to try a 200 mile out and back flight, but the winds were too strong for the return leg to be reasonable. Therefore, I decided after launching to try to fly North as far as possible.

In case the 200 mile out-and-back became possible, I went south to get a turnpoint. This would mean I had a good thermal trigger at the 100 mile mark. I flew north towards Mt. Tinemeha, but the first 15 miles were pretty bumpy; :o The wind was starting to blow from the SW in the Sierras. I managed to get past Whitney Portal where the mountains are higher, and this mostly blocked the wind until I made Mount Tinemeha. At least it did as long as I stayed below 14,000 feet. The SW wind made the crossing great, however, as I took the last thermal on the Sierras to 15,200 feet and then followed a very weak cloud street 1/3 of the way across the valley. I arrived at Black mountain higher than I ever had before. :D

After I topped out there, I only stopped a couple of times on my way to Boundary Peak. I frequently had to leave lift early, as I had no oxygen. I set a personal limit of 15,000 feet except for a few short excursions above that. On the plus side, I often arrived at a cloud at 12,000 and just slowed down, leaving the other side at 15,000 without even stopping. Cool. Cold, in fact. I didn't have warm enough gloves, either. :(

Taking a turn-point at Boundary Peak on the Nevada border, I decided to try and go further NNE towards Mina, Nevada, as the wind was SSW. I found a few more thermals under the streets, but by then the wind had become more West. I would have decided to go towards Tonopah to the East, thus following the cloud streets. But I had told my wife, J, that I was headed towards Mina and she was out of communication due to the mountains between us. So, I decided that the smart thing to do was to head for Mina and then maybe Gabbs or even Austin. That way, my driver could find me.

Unfortunately, I had to cross streets to do this, and the sink was tremendous. I was getting only a 4 or 5 to 1 glide in my Litespeed-S no matter what I did with my airspeed. I really needed the extra altitude that I wasn't getting due to my decision (a wise one) to leave the lift early due to lack of oxygen. So, I just missed the last climb. As I was setting up my landing approach a thermal blew through. Now my 4 mph headwind had turned into a 4 mph tailwind. And I was at 30 feet. Ouch. In any case, I pulled off a safe but less-than-elegant landing. :oops: Then the wind switched back to the direction that I had set up for, and I saw a light dust-devil a short distance away. Clearly, I needed that extra altitude that I gave up in the name of safety. Oh well. :x

After downloading my flight, I found that straight line from my start turn-point to my ending point was 125 miles. And with the turnpoints I had used, it was 135 miles. In any case, a great flight, and my third longest, by just over a mile.

I did the entire flight in 4:43 minutes. The first 50 minutes were spent near launch. Thus the XC portion of the flight was in just under 4 hours.

I honestly think that if I had flown with O2, I'd have gone quite a bit farther. The day was still working, and I had plenty of daylight left. But I really was feeling the effects of the oxygen deprivation. Next time, I'll fly with some canned air. :!:

Thanks to my wife and driver, J. And thanks to my 22 month old daughter Jillian who had to endure hours and hours in her car-seat when she really didn't want to be there.

By the way, the next few days were not very good. We took Sunday off to do touristy things and to recuperate. It was overcast and windy anyway. Monday, I flew 35 miles down the middle of the valley. I had to leave the Sierras due to extreme turbulence. It was nice in the valley, if a bit windy and with weak lift. Tuesday was clearly likely to OD early, so we left for home.
Fly High; Fly Far; Fly Safe -- George
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