| Author |
Comment |
MattsFlyin
Unregistered
User
(7/24/04)
|
Owen's
Report
Lori and I arrived at about 7:30 Thursday at Tuttle Creek. Big Pine
is having two lanes added thru the middle of town but other than
that and the usual fire in Yosemite the route looked the same.
Friday we went up to launch at about 8:30. No one was there but
us. Within 1 minute Mike Kunitani showed up with 5 gliders on his
truck but only him in it. Mike was on his way home after ten days
there. I think he said 117 was their longest.
Launched at 10:30
in a good cycle and easily climbed out to almost 12k. The Sierra was
working great with the only clouds far to the west. Made good time
to Tinemaha, climbed out to 16K and crossed over to Black.
Got to
Black at 7500, thrashed around for 20 minutes and climbed out to
13k.
My quarter is running out here in the Lone Pine internet
cafe and I'm broke so to make a long story I got 116 miles to Giroex
Mine along Hwy 360 in Nevada. Made it to 17500 over Boundary where
it was 33ø! I'll fill in the details later.
Matt
|
Leo
Jones
Unregistered
User
(7/24/04)
|
Only 116
miles!!??
Sounds like a really crappy flight. It must have sucked!
Leo
(not jealous)Jones
|
MattsFlyin
Unregistered
User
(7/25/04)
|
Owens Report
Continued
To continue my report I have to say that the best flight of the day
should probably go to Nobu. What's a Nobu you say? I guess I should
back up a little. A Nobu is a Japanese pilot visiting the USA and
flying the Owen's for the first time. Mike had mentioned that he
(Nobu) had flown from Walt's the previous day or two and had managed
a very conservative 8 miles. Apparently Nobu is an experienced pilot
and is rapidly developing an appetite for big miles. Seems to be
alot of that going around these days. Nobu came to the States for a
month or two of flying and purchased a U2? I think it was. He flew
in Colorado abit before arriving in the Owens? and doesn't speak
English very well so I couldn't really get the facts straight.
But anyway, he got to launch soon after Mike had left and
began to set up. I was busy since the cycles were good and you know
how that goes. In case you don't know...as soon as you set up, the
cycles quit! So I was not feeling very chatty. I was already late
after "chatting" in camp while preparing to go up to launch. Two
sailplane pilots who used to fly hang gliders came over and visited
with Lori and me. Sometimes this comraderie of pilots is a drag! Also Nobu's
driver, a big local feller named Bill? was very friendly. Some of
you may remember him from last year. I finally had to crank up the
stereo to stop him from talking Lori's ear off. She'd look funny
with one ear and I like her just the way she is.
After
getting my glider and equipment set I spoke with Nobu to get his
radio frequency and flight plan for safety. We were going to fly on
different freqs but at least Lori could talk to them if needed.
Imagine having the whole Owens Valley to yourself I thought! I could
hardly wait to get in the air and right on cue it started blowing
DOWN!!! Luckily it was a weak effort and I soon had a decent cycle.
Nobu was off within a few minutes after me.
I climbed out to
10k moved back in front and climbed again to almost 12k. Nobu had
gotten the 12k thermal right after launching and was already on
course when I topped out. I realized immediately that this was a
good strong day, knew that going deep was not necessary and was in
fact detrimental to a long flight. Nobu either didn't know this or
didn't care. His flight plan was to get to Bishop so it really
didn't matter that much for him. So of course I easily out distanced
him, skipping 2-3 ridges at a time, only stopping when I got below
12k and pressing on when I was above 13k. At times I was able to
climb while gliding on and made it to Levine's Ravine on the front
of Goodale in 1h 45m. Barry's glider is still there in the same
spot. I was just below 12k at this point and had seen Nobu only
occasionally. He had changed tactics and was ridge hopping also.
In past years Goodale has been bery, bery good to me and in
fact I'd never even bothered with Tinemaha. This year was the same.
I got 16.5k at Goodale. I like Goodale because it's perfectly in
line with Crater Mtn and Black and more in line with the usual
southerly winds. Mike was monitoring and mentioned no wind in Big
Pine currently and 17k at Tinemaha the previous day. Hmmm I
thought.I'll try Tinemaha today and maybe get to Black above the
peak! The best I could do there was 16.5k so I pulled the string and
left. Nobu was nowhere in sight. I figured he sunk out just after
Onion Valley since it was the usual place to sink out and he was low
there. Poor Nobu had lost it on a great day.
As I
mentioned earlier Black was a bitch. My barogram shows it actually
took 25 minutes for me to get from 7.5 to 13k there. I was very
happy to finally leave. Just as I was leaving I saw a glider get
there low.Nobu! Now we'll see how good he is!! I was already nearing
14k crossing Black Canyon and saw Nobu give up on the southerly side
of Black where I had scratched my way up. "Oh crap!" I thought. Mike
had mentioned that a common mistake made at Black was to go for the
west facing slopes and sink out instead of sticking it out on the
rowdy southerly flank. Poor Nobu was doomed. I was well
past the canyon now and looked back to see him fly around into Black
Canyon and disappear from sight. I asked Lori if she could
communicate with Nobu or Bill but they would not answer.
I'll have to continue this tomorrow. I hope you are on the
edge of your seat and will come back for more long winded adventures
of "Where's Nobu??" You won't be disappointed.
Matt
|
Vince
Endter
'02,'03 Go-For-It
Champ
(7/26/04)
|
Re: Owens Report
Continued
Great flight Matt!. To be able to set up at Walt's and have the
entire launch to yourself makes me want to go back.
And
great story telling too.
Vince
|
Dave
Clement
Member
(7/27/04)
|
What happen
next?
Matt, We're all waiting to hear the rest of the story. If you are
interested on going again this season ,please let me know. Dave
|
MattsFlyin
Unregistered
User
(7/28/04)
|
Owens...The
Final Chapter
A few minutes later Nobu came back out of Black Canyon, still low
but still flying. "Whew!" A divine wind must have helped him I
thought. He continued his low level (from my perspective) assault on
the White Mtns as I pursued the first cumulus of the day after more
than 3 hrs of flying. At this point just past Silver Canyon the
clouds were nicely developed and I was at the south end of the
"street" just drooling at the prospect. Soon I was at 15.3k and
getting bounced around as I topped out. Now I noticed that Nobu was
catching up to me but still way low. Since the lift was strong where
I was I wondered if he was staying low on purpose. It seemed that he
could easily climb up if he wanted.
Lori was at the 72 mile
mark at this point and I 75 miles out. The lift began to go even
higher. After a minute or two Lori told me that she could finally
see me. I knew we were going at least to Basalt today so I asked
Lori to cruise ahead and gather some wind info. It seemed as if Nobu
was listening because he also cruised ahead of me now but even still
was low, about 10k I surmised. Mount Dubois is the high point of the
Whites and I was headed right for it with good lift all around. I
saw Nobu head out into the valley even lower near Boundary Peak as I
reached 17.5k and 33øF over Mount Dubois. Poor Nobu I thought.came
all this way today to sink out just short of 100 miles.
Even
with 5 layers I was starting to feel the cold so I pulled up my
turtle neck and made a bee-line for Basalt. A chilly glide later I
was back in the sun and climbing. Now after more than 4.5 hrs I was
really feeling the fatigue and the wind had begun to shift to the
east. Although not a headwind, the direction was not favorable since
I was headed NE to Tonopah Junction. After leaving the previous
thermal I noticed that the air was very bouncy and found it hard to
glide straight. My left arm and the right side of the back of my
neck were worn out. I began to consider my options. Lori called my
attention to the dust devils forming below. Since I was only about 7
or 8 miles from my personal best I tried and succeeded to find one
more thermal which would prove to be the last of the day for me. I
could see another dusty just ahead but was too low to take advantage
of it. I was going to come up a bit short of my longest flight.
Now it was all I could do to stay focused on wind direction
and speed. Bouncy air and tired arms make for sloppy flying. Sloppy
flying close to ground makes for broken gliders and maybe even
broken pilots. The time to land was at hand. Personal bests would
have to wait. Lori had given me a wind report a few minutes ago but
I had to overfly her position to avoid the dusty there. Now as I got
lower I could feel the headwind and see my ground speed decrease.
Seemed like an easy landing if I could just get it down straight in
to the wind. However.the lower I got, the lighter the wind became
until it felt like I had a slight tailwind. I circled and reached
for my streamer. "Crap!" I had forgotten to position the streamer
before launch and now I had no time to fish it out of my chest
pocket. I took my best guess and "landed" going downwind in a light
breeze. One whack later I was picking sand out of my teeth and
cussin' like a sailor. Didn't even bend a downtube but tweaked the
hell out of my ego!
Lori was immediately there to help me
pack up and just a quickly a trucker stopped to inform us "Some
Japanese feller just landed near Basalt and had lost contact with
his driver". Nobu in Basalt!? We packed up my stuff and set off to
find him. As we passed his last know location we called out on the
radio and scanned the roadside but no Nobu. Poor Nobu had flown over
100 miles and was now lost in Nevada.
After
a nice dinner in Lone Pine Lori and I returned to Tuttle Creek but
no Nobu. After a
restful evening we woke to a beautiful day but no Nobu. We drove up to
launch and met Ben Rogers, Wayne Michelson and another pilot named
Bill who was driving but no
Nobu. Was he still
out there somewhere? We returned to camp to pack up and head for
Bridgeport. Just as we were leaving the campground (we were at the
entrance on Horseshoe Meadows Road) guess who drives up. Nobu! With a big grin
 he tells us
about his low save just before Montgomery Pass. This last thermal
carried him from 9k to 13k and onto Basalt. He never heard from his
driver the whole flight  , blew off
the flight plan to Bishop  and
hitched back from Basalt  . As we drove
out of the valley we could hear that Ben had landed at Big Ears and
Wayne was on his way to a 100 miler. 
Matt
|
Dick
Girard
Member
(7/29/04)
|
Owens...The
Final Chapter
Matt,
Outstanding story-telling! I was riveted! I love it:
"Where's Nobu?" Way cool story. And congratuations on an outstanding
flight.
Dick Girard
|
waynemichelsen
Unregistered User
(7/29/04)
|
Owens Saturday -
Wayne and Ben
The Plan:
Owens Valley, just for the weekend, during a 100+ heat
wave, in July... is this nuts? Of course... but we have a driver! In
fact, not just any driver, but Bill Seneshen... H3, XC wannabe,
nice, intelligent, somewhat normal. All good changes from most HG
types, and finally a relief from my standard side-kick,
Ben.
The Drive:
The plan was to pack up at my house at
6:00, head over to get Bill, and hit the highway by 6:30. Well, it
was barely 5:00 when the whining started. "Ring ring... are you
leaving work yet?" "Not yet, 6:00 at my house" "Lets go now, I'm
already on my way" "Well, I still got stuff to do" "Come on, just
log out and lets go" Aaarrgghh! Wha wah wah. The whining just
continued for the next 56 hours. Unfortunately, he was partly right.
We left Bill's place at 6:30 and immediately got stuck in the middle
of w/e traffic all the way to Madera. With the usual stops for
vehicle and personal sustainence, we finally arrive in Lone Pine at
2:30a.
Saturday:
We wake to clear blue sky and nil wind.
Arriving at launch at 9:00a, we leasurely set up. We are the only
flyers there. Matt Jagelka drives up with glider on car, but had
flown 116 miles Friday and is wiped for the w/e. He tells us the
story of his flight, but the cycles are starting and it's hard to
stand by and listen. The cycles are coming in good by 10:00 and I
punch off around 10:30. Believe it or not, I actually launch before
Mr.-I'm-all-set-up-can't-wait-any-longer-Ben.
I immediately
rocket to 11.4K in front of launch, not even bothering with the
saddle. I watch Ben launch off, but it's a bit bumpy and I don't
feel like hanging out for him. I get a 3 mile head start and Ben is
flying fast to catch/keep up. At each spine, I plan to hold up so we
can fly together. But, it's turbulent enough that I always run away
hoping the next spine is smoother. That's the story for the entire
flight along the Sierras, we're flying together, but separated by a
ridge or two.
The turbulence feels like lee-side westerlies
may be starting, but I'm not crabbing into the hills at any point.
Tight and ratty thermals all along the Sierras instead seem to be
from moderate 10 mph SW wind shearing them off. Both of us mostly
stayed between 10.5K and 13K. Inter-thermal ground speed was often
45+ mph due to tail-wind component and (for me) pull-in pucker
procedure. In fact, Ben and I make Birch by 12:30, less than 2
hours.
At Birch, I climb to 14.1K and head across. Ben climbs
to 13K and follows. Lots of initial sink followed by net-zero gives
me a low arrival at Black of 7500. The temptation is to head toward
the west near side. But, having scratched along that side before and
failed, I fought the temptation and went farther on into the bowl on
the south side. Ben was of weaker willpower, drawn to the west side,
seduced by the Sirens, and was lured down to the Warm Springs... but
alas, the dozen nymphs were not found and Ben spends the next hour
waiting for Bill. Now, Bill's a good looking guy, but somehow just
not the same ;-)
The south face of Black works for me. There
was a 15mph south wind, and in varied combination of ridge lift and
thermal, I eventually climbed out and continue on. The Sierras were
rough, and from my prior flights, I only remember the shallow Whites
being worse. I'm not looking forward to the next hour and I'm right.
The turbulence is bad. I keep leaving thermals early just to get to
the next ridge where I hope to find something smoother. No
dice.
Finally, I get to the steep Whites with a sigh of
relief. This section has been smoother in the past. Unfortunately
not today. My relief is smashed with wire twangs and slack strap
jerks. Frankly, it's really getting annoyning. But, the 'hunerd' is
doable, and the worst should be behind me.
Still, the Whites
go by fast. With the strong south still pushing, I'm making great
time with long glides of 50+mph. By 2:30, I've reach the "Boundary
Bend" (the corner by Boundary Peak where you'd fly out to Janies, or
over toward Montgomery Pass). That's 100 miles in just 4 hours, and
it sure seems like I could get another 100 if luck is with me. I
tell Bill and Ben that I'm probably about to lose radio contact.
Matt comes on the radio from Walt's Point (we actually have great
contact) and he relays the same information for safety. I'm wishing
for that 150 miler or at least beating Ben's 115 from 2 years ago.
But, I'm worn out, really not having fun, and things are about to
get a whole lot worse.
In case you missed it, there's been a
strong south wind. Up at Boundary, it's actually even stronger SE
(20+). Now, Boundary Peak is 13.1K and I'm just not thinking about
what's happening. At 11K as I start over towards Montgomery Pass, I
fly right into the rotor of Boundary Peak. By the time I realize it,
I'm deep into it. I get twanged, rocked, and pitched violently.
Double pegged up followed immediately by double pegged down. The
climax was a pair of slack strap caribiner smacks to my helmet. I've
been holding on tight all day, but I now have a clenched death grip
on the bar. For the next 10 minutes, I'm stuffing it just to get the
heck out of there and doing my best to keep it straight. I'm also
plummeting at -1000fpm.
I finally escape and make it to the
low hills on the other side of Boundary Peak south of Montgomery
Pass. I don't find even a scrit of lift, so I eyeball Queen Valley
Ranch where I landed 2 years ago. However, that's about 1-mile off
hwy-6, so I decide to head along the road to the base of the pass.
As I scope out a level sage area, I drift over the low hills on the
other side of the road and find some lift. The little thermals are
reasonably strong, but broken and drifting to the NW. I scratch
around in them for 20 minutes as I slowly gain enough to think about
getting over the pass and at least matching Ben's 115.
For
the next 10 minutes, I struggle to follow the road east over the
pass against the strong SE wind. There aren't any obvious LZs over
the pass, and I'd be embarrassed to describe what I was planning to
use for bail-outs. But, I finally get into clear area and head north
along Hwy-360/Hwy-10 toward Tonopah.
The rest of the flight
is just a drift along, over the road, in utter exhaustion. I didn't
find any more thermals, and frankly, I didn't really care. As I
descend, I hear Ben calling out on the radio. We slowly regain radio
contact. I land just around the final bend and 2 miles short of
Tonopah Junction for 122.4 miles in 5:45 flight time.
Whew!!
Less than a minute later, Ben and Bill pull up, crack
open a beer, walk out, hand it to me, and ask, "Why aren't you
broken down yet?" Dripping in sweat, I collapse in a heap, and with
my last breath I weaze out a reply... "P*ss off" ;-)
Wayne
|
WMichelsen
Member
(7/29/04)
|
Owens Sunday -
Wayne and Ben
Sunday:
Again we woke to clear blue sky and nil wind. As we
packed up the car, another HG pilot pulled up. Nobu, a Japanese guy
on a solo flying holiday... for 3 months! His English wasn't great,
but we all got by. We loaded his gear and headed up the
hill.
Upon arriving at Walt's Pt. at 9:00, the streamer was
showing good strong cycles of about 10-15. Unfortunately, it was
mostly down. We offered to set up Nobu and toss him off, but he
wasn't used to such warm American hospitality and politely declined.
We hung around for 45 minutes, but nothing changed so it was time
for a new plan.
How about checking out Cerro Gordo? CG is the
old site directly across the dry lake from Walt's where the
Nationals were held in the 80s (?). The peak was listed on the map,
and there was even an old mining town of Cerro Gordo and a Cerro
Gordo road up the hill. The road up to the old launch was closed,
but we found another road going up to an antennae farm with
launchable faces. The wind was coming in straight, but Ben's ASI was
showing gusts to 30+. Hmmm, think I'll pass. We drive back down,
drop off Nobu, and can the day... almost.
Toward late
afternoon, we thought we'd check out Flynn's. Neither of us had been
there before, but finding it was not too difficult. We got up there
around 4:30 and it was looking pretty good. We were actually on a
mound about 200 yards behind and 170 feet above Flynn's. Ben decided
this spot was good enough, so we unloaded him. I decided I really
wanted the more open hill even though it was lower. One oversight
cost us 45 minutes to make that 200 yards, but we finally got
there.
From Flynn's, I watched Ben launch off in a bit of a
creative but sketchy maneuver. He got airborne, but was then getting
drilled pretty good on his way out front. It looked like he was
headed for a sledder. But, he did an amazing feat of scratching from
300' and pulled off the low save eventually working back up to
Flynn's where I was finishing my setup.
As Ben scratched
around in front in light ridge lift, I launched off smoothly. We
were both in the air at 6:00p. A little ridge lift play myself and I
eventually got enough room to work a thermal. This thermal was a
beauty. Smooth, consistent, 400 fpm, and carried me from 5800 to
10.4K. Ben found this same thermal, but didn't find the same core,
and struggled a bit more.
From here, things got good. I mean
really good. Like fantastically, totally good. While Ben was slowly
climbing, I headed north along the Whites. Starting out at 10.4K, I
flew straight, roughly 10 miles north, to arrive with an altitude of
10.5K :-) By then, Ben had gotten up and headed north, too. So, I
flew straight for 7 miles back south to meet up and arrived with an
altitude of 11.5K!
This was an amazing glass-off (?). Smooth,
abundant, boaty. Actually, there was one section, right where we
roundevous with pretty strong lift. Smooth, but strong. It was blue
sky, but I was getting sucked up pretty good. I stuffed and flew out
toward the valley to find the edge, and it was a long way
out.
Right about then, Ben radios that he finally had a good
thermal and was passing 12K. I warned him of my fear (but then, I'm
always scared) that there may be a convergence developing and that
it may be hard to come down. His reply: "I hope so". Well, be
careful what you wish for.
The next radio contact is: "I'm
passing 13K and it's getting better." "14.2K and I'm trying to get
out of here" "14.5K and I'm in trouble" At least, it's all blue sky.
But, all I can do is hope he finds the edge. And thus, Ben's
TIWTIWGTD moment.
He does fly out front, and eventually finds
neutral air. We start heading north again. From here on out it is
absolute bliss. We boat along between 10.4K and 10.7K for the next
20 miles in glass zero sink.
At 8:00p the sun is low and
we're a 5-mile glide from Benton (where Hwy-120, and our road home,
starts). I leave the Whites at 9300 and arrive at 7400 getting 14:1
at 30+ mph. Ben does even better on his glide out. Bill is in town
scoping out LZs. We land in a beautiful field right in the middle of
town for 31.4 miles and 2:10 time.
We're finally on the road
at 9:00p. That get's us home around 3:00a. But, for this kind of
flight, it's *way* worth it :-)
Wayne
|
Lori
Allen
Member
(7/29/04)
|
Great
stories!!!
Gosh, I wish my Owens Valley story was nearly so exciting but as it
was, I found myself in the Owens at the intersection of 190 and 395
weekend before last south of Lone Pine, but it was in a motor
vehicle because it was a long-promised family trip to (groannn ...
cringe) Disneyland that included two families (sort of a warped
version of the Brady Bunch). Guess I was crossing through the Owens
about the same time y'all were having these marvelous
flights.
Gosh, it sure is breathtakingly gorgeous there by
the way.
Lori
|
Mike
K
Unregistered User
(7/29/04)
|
Mike's summary
& Matt's Prologue:
We arrived in the Owens on July 13, but were forewarned by our LA
flying friend, Stuart Anderson, that there had been quite a lot of
smoke in the southern valley due to forest fires in the LA area.
During our first 4 days there was a lot of intense smoke southeast
of the valley which would work its way into the southern half of the
valley each afternoon and mostly clear out during the nights. July
14 was very windy with high clouds from the SW, even at Mozurka, so
we chose not to fly. On Thur. We launched at Walts and danced our
way down the Sierras at lower altitudes in weak lift, about 12K max.
We had to bail about 1PM as the Sierra lift dwindled; I was further
down the ridge than the others and left at Lookout. Over the highway
I started to find small thermals and bubbled along the highway going
North, threatening to land every 5 miles or so. As I passed Big
Ears, then Bishop, then Laws, I got up to 11K and tried to fly back
into the Whites but extreme turbulence dissuaded me from that route.
So I stuck with what was working, just flying down the valley. Short
of Benton that strategy stopped working too, so I landed at 86 mi.
This was a fairly relaxed flight, as the valley thermals were quite
soft, and the distance was mostly through the Southern tailwind.
Friday dawned clearer, and the lift down the Sierras was a
bit better, getting to 13-14K further down the ridge. However, the
cloudbase was rather low, about 15 K, which would later be limiting.
Paul Susman launched well ahead of me and was the first to reach
Black. Unfortunately he was not able to get up and landed at Big
Ears. I got up at Black Mt. and flew Northward, but the extensive
cloud cover and low cloud base meant that I had to avoid the crest
of the Whites as there was precious little altitude between the
ridgeline and cloudbase. I was concerned about a big patch of
cloudsuck (it was strong at times) and little working vertical
space. Thus I worked my way down the front of the Whites with very
little circling, and flew around the base of Boundry Peak instead of
over it. Cloud cover over the desert was also extensive, and flying
North towards Mina I hit some very light rain. This sinking air put
me on the deck for 117 mi.
The next 4-5 days was either
raining and blowing hard or short flights to Lake Diaz. At least the
strong rain cleared out much of the smoke. On Wed. we flew from
Black Eagle, but only Stuart caught a decent thermal (only one!) and
he landed near Tinemaha Res. Thursday July 22 was the best lift of
the trip. We had hired the Lone Pine local, Bill, to drive on our
last day there so we could all fly. Launching from Walts first about
10:45, I left Wanoga with over 13K ft and caught even better lift
along the ridgeline to Owens Pt. I skipped Owens Pt bowl altogether
(!) and proceeded directly to Lone Pine peak where I found stong
lift to over 15K. Sailing in front of Whitney, I radioed back to
Franz that he should get some great shots of Whitney today from his
wing-mounted camera. I will have a separate post on how this digital
camera worked out (well). In fact, Franz spent extra effort flying
over, and around Whitney for some time taking pictures. Although a
bit hazy, the views down the Sierra were wonderful. I remember
getting to 16,700 at Kearsarge and tested out the lift along the
Sierra crest (it was non-existent). There was very little wind
drift, a bit from the SW early, a bit from the E later. Leaving
Timemaha at 17.2K I found absolutely no lift in the valley but lots
of moderate sink. Feeling a bit desperate for lift I flew low over
the Westguard pass road over the foothills area south of Black Mt
and started to find modest lift. I worked this into Black, got up
high and was on my way North, with moderate cloud cover on the
Whites. The cloudbase was a bit higher this time (about 16-17K), and
I made good time flying between 13-15K. I was able to safely fly
over Boundry, but getting over the desert, had a hard time making
headway as the wind direction seemed to have changed again. I
decided to burn off lots of altitude and land at Basalt. Given the
switchy winds I was concerned about landing, using drift, circling
and GPS techniques to try to get a read on wind direction. The setup
looked good, but as I got to 75 ft the bottom dropped out and (I
think) a nearby thermal made the wind suddenly switch my approach
from upwind to downwind. Good thing the desert sand is so soft, as I
planted my nose hard and ended up on top of my glider. I will have
to reconsider carrying a smoke bomb as I always seem to outfly the
chase vehicle by a big margin and land in switchy winds (at least on
this trip). However, in this situation of last minute, low level
wind direction change I don't know if a wind indicator would have
helped. Paul also circled down at Basalt (106 mi) to join me, while
Stuart came in much lower and landed at Janies (102 mi). Robert and
Franz landed at Big Ears. This flight was quicker that normal, I
made Walts to Boundry in about 4 hr. then lollygaged over the desert
for some time.
A great set of flights to end our trip. That
evening Paul, Robert and Franz headed home while Stuart and I
returned to our camp at Horseshoe. The next morning, July 23, I
unexpectedly met Matt at Walts on my way home. Of course his great
tale chronologically follows this one....
Mike K
|
levineb
Member
(7/29/04)
|
Where's
Nobu
Great story, Matt!
Your language carries all sorts of
resonances. Particularly, when you write:
A few minutes later
Nobu came back out of Black Canyon, still low but still flying.
"Whew!" A divine wind must have helped him I thought...
If
memory serves, "divine wind" translates as "kamikaze".
Barry
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Ernie
Camacho
Administrator
(7/29/04)
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Story telling -
it doesn't get any better
All you folks are doing a great job of not only telling us what you
did, but describing it well enough that I can be there in the air
with you as you bounce around the sky at the mercy of the sky
gods.
Great story telling! And of course, it'll all be
preserved for posterity in our archives.
I'm looking forward
to the photos and the stories behind them.
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MattsFlyin
Unregistered
User
(7/29/04)
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Words
You are correct Barry. My original intention was to use the term in
it's pre WWII sense but I figured it would be too confusing to many.
I decided to go with the english meaning and see if it would be
noticed.
Matt "Kamikaze Enthusiast" Jagelka
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SonomaWingsBB
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