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Written by Bob Semans
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Saturday, 27 June 2009 |
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Bob Semans writes about his spectacular flight yesterday out of Minden...
This was the best Wx I have ever found between Mina and the Toiyabe Range. T.O. just before 11:00 and towed toward Bismark Peak, my Start Point for a declared 502 mi. triangle. Good lift right away ... should have towed off at least a half hour earlier. Start @ 11.18 at 12,800 ft ... Wisps in the area. From Bald Mtn. (#1) reached to Cu on Pine Grove Hills. Hopped to more numerous Cu S of Lucky boy Pass and then it was off to the races with bases 16K plus. Sparse cu on Inyos but fast cruising on blue shear above ridge. Made 1st turn just N of Cerro Gordo @ 13:52 at 16K. I was happy. :-)
Great climb at Silver Peak range and raced to 2nd Turn at Toiyabe Range Peak (half way up the range to Austin) turning @ 15:56 at 15K. Cu bases lifted to 17.5, 8 to 10 kt climbs , one briefly at 14 kts.
On third leg, had to make a major deviation to stay with the edge of the Cu, very dry to North. Followed Cu line, to establish the third turn for the OLC FAI Competition. over Fallen Leaf Lake. Long glide to close the declared task at Bismark Peak. Just W of the Finish Point, good lift back to 12K plus, so flew E to a point 30 mi away from MEV to try to exceed 1000 km for the OLC Classic. Happily, I succeeded.
Landed MEV at 19:47.
OLC results below: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=539757029
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Scoring: OLC-Classic
Pts: 843.08
Km: 1047.56
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Scoring: OLC-FAI
Pts: 720.94
Km: 865.12
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Scoring: OLC-League
Pts: 134.49
Km: 369.84
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090627 052432 - Flight claimed through Server (timeofvaluation 180120 - 024712)
090627 052435 - Flight loaded for Batch Calculation
090627 052447 - Optimized flight for olc
090627 052449 - Optimized flight for olc-fai
090627 052451 - Optimized flight for olc-league
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 27 June 2009 )
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Written by Dave Bingham
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 |
 | I got Jan on the road at 10:30am with the RV and the toy trailer for Montague Roher which is a few miles away from Sysku Airport. She drives the RV and I get to fly the Stemme (I don't get away with this very often!). Nothing much was happening at Minden and I planned on being in the air by 1:30pm - big mistake! By 1:30pm the sky had exploded all along the crest of the Sierras as far as one could see. I found a thermal less than a mile away from Minden Airport, shut down the iron thermal and got to 14k. Now what? The high altitude anvils were forming and heading east putting large areas in the shade. So I headed NW but further E than I would have desired and the conditions got worse. Looking through the virga columns, occasional lightning I caught a glimpse of Lassen where I figured the storms would stop and not extend further W. I started from 15k and got to Lassen at 9K a distance of nearly 50 miles under black clouds, virga and mostly sink. The big old Stemme does not like getting its wings wet and its performance degrades. About 15 minutes of groveling NW of Lassen and I am back up to 13k and then another 35 miles of blue sky until the cus around Shasta. Then easy glide to Montague - about 3 and one half hours in the air and about 300 statute miles taking into account the deviation from a straight course. The Stemme excels at high speed runs, thermals OK but requires a lot of effort on the stick. There were a couple of pilots from Williams also in the Shasta area discussing what path they should take to get back to Williams. Conclusion - I felt it was a challenging flight crossing the over grossly OD regions. I would not have felt comfortable in a straight glider and would probably not have attempted it. For you die hards I would like to make a case for Roher airport. Super friendly airport manager who welcomes RVs. There is a shower and all facilities and it is a short walk into Montague to the restaurants. And I almost forgot to mention there are 2 runways at right angles to one another (one black top and the other grass). They own a Pawnee although at this time I think it is at Sysku for the comps. As I write this I am watching closeby the assembly of a hot air balloon and its launch over some of the most pleasant countryside this planet has to offer. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 May 2009 )
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Greatest Season Ever - Brewing? |
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Written by Ramy Yanetz
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Tuesday, 19 May 2009 |
 | While the Minden pilots seem to be waking up from their hibernation, the Hollister ones are doing things that seemed near impossible a few years ago... On a lazy Sunday afternoon, they flew to Mt. Whitney (usually a Minden-owned turf...) and then back to the Bay Area! Congratulations Ramy! (LM)
Sunday wasn't just a great day. It was a very unusual day. In fact, I've never seen this kind of conditions before. 14K bases near the coast (Paso Robles area), 16K+ along the Kern and Tehachapi mountains connecting the costal range with the Sierra, then 16-17K bases in the middle and western Sierras. Some pilots actually flew from Tehachapi to Mammoth and back on the western divide and foothills! This was the first time Hollister pilots managed to go to Whitney "around the horn". So far this season had the best soaring weather for long and unusual flights from the Bay Area that I recall. and Matt writes: Today started late as expected from the soundings, requiring close to 100F to get things cranking was hard to believe even though I checked it ten times. But the subsidence was still heating from the top down and had a strong cap. But when the flow paths were established, it was booming. And there were clouds. TG, UV, U2 and CA went down to New Cuyama and I heard TG and UV on final glide to Hollister earlier. They did a great job with the time available. Slow starts for some. If they fly tomorrow, I hope they rehydrate tonight ;-) They sounded tired on their radio transmissions. Christain and I only had the afternoon slot we were not able to get quite as early but flew down south if Indian Valley and then decided to Cross over to the Santa Lucias. A cu popped near the Lockwood Valley and San Ardo and clinched the deal. It was working to 12.5K over the Santa Lucias with a few markers, the last over Tassajara. There were markers to the south near San Antonio Lake. If it was earlier we could have ventured that way. One cu west of Paso was right over the spine of the Santa Lucia. I don't understand why there weren't any BASA members taking up 9JH. It sat on the ground today. Tomorrow is looking much better.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 19 May 2009 )
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