It is reported on RAS today that Dave Bigelow (age 69) in attempting a wave flight  in his DG400 to 40,000 feet crashed and passed away on the side of Moana Kea. When I still had the DG800B we had discussed him using my 800 on the west coast here and I flying his 400 on the Big Island. Occasionally there is some very good wave soaring above the 2 big volcanoes on the Big Island. Dave sent me pictures taken by him and other pilots flying Hawaii and I put Hawaii on my wish list. His last report was at 28,000 feet where there should not have been any turbulence (the 2 volcanoes have peaks close to 14k) and we must speculate what went wrong. Obviously hypoxia is the leading contender. I used to want to go as high as possible in wave but the fires of desirability are burning much more coolly these days in me. I promise myself to be much more vigilant when attempting wave to checking the equipment and making sure I have extra batteries etc. for the EDS system and so on. Also regardless, in the future I am going to limit myself to 28,000 feet. which is the maximum height for the Minden wave window (except by special permission).

Yesterday I was to cross the Sierras and fly to the Bay Area in my Jabiru J250 light sport aircraft (LSA). Cap clouds were beginning to build up over the peaks in anticipation of a storm and this would be the only chance for this flight for a couple of days. Looking west across the Central Valley of California from the crest of the Sierras there was a low ugly brown opaque fog layer for 70 miles obliterating views of the ground. An engine out would probably have been a disaster. So I did the only prudent thing and that was a 180 degree turn back to Minden. Now the clouds were beginning to look interesting. Cap clouds and small lennies over the Sierras, then a blue gap on the lee side of the mountains and finally roll clouds with high lennies above - indicative of good wave.So with nothing better to do I went for it.

At 12k msl at the windward edge of the roll clouds I cut power to just above idle, dropped the IAS to between 60 and 65 knots for minimum sink with about 7 degrees of flaps and there I was a near equivalent to a glider. In about 20 minutes I was at 17.9k msl. Lift was still about 300 feet per minute with the engine a little above idle. The engine was still running smoothly even though it has a Bing carb with no mixture control. My feet were toasty warm because of the heater and I was comfortable, in fact more so than in the SparrowHawk where I would be cold which makes me want to pee often. This was luxury!
 So will I do this again? You bet! I will add another EDS oxygen system so I can take a passenger. Also I intend, when the wave window is open, to explore altitudes above 18k up to say 25k. Sometimes it pays to just think outside the box and do new things!