Hurricane on the Fourth of July
Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 12:11 pm
I’m just discovering that the Fourth of July is almost here! We should definitely go fly somewhere.
The obvious choice is to return to Hurricane, Utah, where we’ve usually gotten both spectacular cross-country flights and great ridge-soaring. The weather is always hot and sunny, with occasional thunderstorms mixed in. I’d say that the site generally requires basic Hang-3 flying skills, but with Hang-4 weather-prediction skills due to the potential for thunderstorms, gust fronts, and whatnot. Non-flying attractions include Zion National park just down the road, Bryce National Park a couple hours away, swimming and splashing in the river just a short cross-country flight back from the Hurricane ridge, and fireworks on the evening of the Fourth of course.
Since we haven’t made plans in advance, the easiest option is to camp at the Red Ledge campground in Kanarraville, which is about a half hour drive north of Hurricane and ten degrees cooler. Given sufficient interest soon enough, it might still be possible to rent a house as we did last year; I don’t know. Hurricane is a six or seven hour drive from Sylmar (plus an hour of time change), so one possible schedule is to drive east on Wednesday July 3, aim to fly on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and drive home through Las Vegas traffic on Sunday, July 7. Variants include spending a night at Primm or Las Vegas on the outbound or return trips.
The interested pilots I know about include Greg Angsten, Steve and Pat Murillo, Jeff Odle, Sue Sen, and myself. Please speak up if you’re interested, with any plans or preferences you may have. Thanks.
The obvious choice is to return to Hurricane, Utah, where we’ve usually gotten both spectacular cross-country flights and great ridge-soaring. The weather is always hot and sunny, with occasional thunderstorms mixed in. I’d say that the site generally requires basic Hang-3 flying skills, but with Hang-4 weather-prediction skills due to the potential for thunderstorms, gust fronts, and whatnot. Non-flying attractions include Zion National park just down the road, Bryce National Park a couple hours away, swimming and splashing in the river just a short cross-country flight back from the Hurricane ridge, and fireworks on the evening of the Fourth of course.
Since we haven’t made plans in advance, the easiest option is to camp at the Red Ledge campground in Kanarraville, which is about a half hour drive north of Hurricane and ten degrees cooler. Given sufficient interest soon enough, it might still be possible to rent a house as we did last year; I don’t know. Hurricane is a six or seven hour drive from Sylmar (plus an hour of time change), so one possible schedule is to drive east on Wednesday July 3, aim to fly on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and drive home through Las Vegas traffic on Sunday, July 7. Variants include spending a night at Primm or Las Vegas on the outbound or return trips.
The interested pilots I know about include Greg Angsten, Steve and Pat Murillo, Jeff Odle, Sue Sen, and myself. Please speak up if you’re interested, with any plans or preferences you may have. Thanks.