Drove to Driggs, ID

Left King Mountain before the noon and drove to Driggs, ID. It was only 3 hours of drive.

Most people left in the morning

Drove 148 miles

Wrapping up

The weather wasn't good, and the forecast for Sunday wasn't good either, so most people disassembled their ships. Yuliy and I went hiking to Antelope Valley. On our way, we checked out Antelope Valley airport. It was in very good shape. We had Cheer Leaders' fundraising and band dinner in the evening. We had lots of chickens.

All flights made from King Mountain Glider Park this year posted on OLC can be found here. Note that we didn't have the internet connection at the gliderport this year, so some flights are missing. The gliderport has a weak AT&T signal (0 to 3 bars depending on the location).

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Antelope Valley airport was in good shape

New in this year! On-site massage was provided by an Arco resident and Planning and Zoning administrator Lucy.

Dinner with the band music

Six days in the desert

I was feeling under the weather due to the bumpy ride yesterday, and the condition looked the same as yesterday. As I waited in the tow queue, three gliders were shot down within an hour. So, I decided not to fly in the last minutes. However, 3 people (all 18m ships) went to Teton and came back. Harry's pegasus also went to Teton but landed out on a field 2.6 miles south of Howe, and a motor glider used motor to fly back.

It was a weird day. We had two canopy unlocked takeoff & aborts, one tail-dolly-on flight (landed safely), and one near gear-up landing (ballooned up at 10 ft and geared down). Mike Swanson called it right, "Six days in the desert". All participants of this safari are well-experienced cross country pilots, but still, being exposed to the sun and wind for six days, they can make unthinkable basic mistakes. Everyone seemed to be tired.

Another thing worth noting is that there are no major cities near Moore, and the nearest city (Arco) has only limited variety of stores that tend to close early. You'd better prepared well for self-contained safari environment. Check spare batteries, spare tires, all tools you need, etc. Be "Murphy's Law" proof!

We had another potluck dinner in the evening for John's mother Ruby.

John announced a policy at King Mountain Glider Park. If you sing or play music at the campfire in the evening, you get free oxygen.

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Looking east. Not much clouds were observed, but apparently, there were more behind the mountain.

All birds in the safari

Campfire in the evening

Rough thermals

Flew 355 km in about 5 hours. Went to Challis, then south to Middle Butte, and came back. There were clouds everywhere, but it wasn't too easy. Even though the clouds had big flat bottom, the lifts were small and placed at unpredictable places. Sometimes, they were under the middle of the cloud, sometimes they were upwind side, and other times they were downwind side. In general, the sky was very bumpy.

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A 360-degree panorama picture near King Mountain
(Click to enlarge)

East butte and middle butte

Flew 355 km

Rest day

The weather forecast wasn't good, so nobody flew today. Everyone went sightseeing somewhere. Yuliy, Bill, Lynn, Russ, and I went to a hike to Titus Lake dropping by Twin Bridges airport and Smiley Creek lodge, and then Redfish lake to have a dinner at the lodge. Dinner was good, but they served so late that it was completely dark when we left. The hike to Titus lake was very nice. The trail had lots of trees which provided us shades. It was about 4 miles round trip, and it took us 2.5 hours or so. The road from Mackay to Ketchum (Trail Creek road) wad dirt but perfectly flat, well maintained and scenic, too. Smiley Creek lodge has famous milk shakes. They were indeed good. Came back to King Mountain almost midnight. Thanks Yuliy for driving!

Other candidates for sightseeing are,
- Trails from Iron Bog campground in Antelope Valley (has lots of wild flowers)
- Trails in Bear Creek
- Hot springs in Challis
- Trails in Lower Cedar Creek northeast of Mackay

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Twin Bridges airport was in pretty good shape

Titus Lake is a small lake in the mountain.

A = F = King Mountain
B = Ketchum
C = Titus Creek trail
D = Smiley airport and lodge
E = Redfish lake and lodge
Total 262 miles

Nice cloud street

Flew 330 km in 3.5 hours. Flew back from Smiley Creek to King Mountain without circling (a 60 nm stretch). It was more like cloud "step stones" instead of a street, but they were working well, and it was fun. Sawtooth mountain range has lots of lakes and very scenic. My stomach is getting much better. I even had lunch during flight.

We had a potluck dinner in the evening.

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Alturas lake near Smiley Creek airport

Looking east from Sawtooth mountain range

Campfire in the evening

Flew 330 km

An OD day

As soon as I went out to the runway around 8am, I noticed several clouds with virgas in the north, west, and south. A local weather guru predicted them to go away by the afternoon, but they kept developing and were there for the whole day. After I launched and caught the first good lift to 12,000 ft, it was obvious that the east was the only way to go. Even in the east, one in 4 clouds had virga underneath. I kept going east around 40 nautical miles, then turned back worrying the returning path might be closed by rain. Some people went further east, but last year's bad memory kept me from taking the risk. Last year, I landed out on Mud Lake airport when I came back from Yellowstone. I wanted to overwrite the memory with a successful flight coming back from the east.

Since I was coming back from the east, I had to take the terrain into the account to calculate the final glide. King Mountain Glider Park is on the west side of King Mountain, so I needed to be at least 2,000 ft over the glide path. When I turned back, I had something like 2,000 ft over the glider path, but I lost altitude considerably in the rain and had to use a few thermals to regain the altitude. Eventually, I came back with enough a margin. However, the air was rather bumpy and I threw up again. But again, I had a relief bag and had no trouble handing it. Yesterday, I gave up at 14,000 ft, but today I was able to go up to 16,500 ft, so it's getting better.

There was one landout on Mud Lake, and a motorglider used the motor to fly back home.

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Nasty virgas

Flew 187 km

The first flight at King Mountain

Flew for 3 hours at King Mountain. There was a nice cloud street towards northwest, so I followed it to Castle Peak, went west a bit to checkout Sun Valley, and turned back. When I turned back, I was 300 ft below the glide path to King Mountain, but when I arrived at King Mountain, I was 4,500 above the glide path. The cloud street was working very well. Some lifts exceeded 10 kts on the average. The cloud base was probably near 17,000 ft. But I had to keep myself under 14,000 ft because my body hadn't adjusted from the sea level to the high altitude. In fact, I managed to throw up in the cockpit eventually. This commonly happened to me when I moved to a high altitude place, hadn't had good sleep, and was tired. I just used a prepared relief bag and there was no mess at all. I do use oxygen from 10,000 ft but apparently, that's not enough. This problem usually goes away after a few days.

After coming back to King Mountain, I used the extra altitude to visit Craters of the Moon National Monument. These lava flows are only 1,000 years old and look very fresh. The area was totally blue, but had good amount of thermal activities. On my way, I had 15 kts of tail wind, but after I turned back to King Mountain, it decreased to 8 kts. There seemed to be a wind sear between the mountain range and the flat area.

After everyone landed safely, we had the first potluck dinner.

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Following the cloud street

Flying over Crater of the moon National Monument

The sunset on the Invisible mountain range

Flew about 270 km

Driving to King Mountain (cont)

Drove additional 13 hours (550 miles or 880 km) and arrived at King Mountain just before the sunset. Saw some familiar faces.



A glider and the moon

Driving to King Mountain

Drove for 4 hours (200 miles or 320 km) on highway 80 from Williams towards east. I'm heading King Mountain, Idaho to join the 2nd annual soaring safari. See last year's notes here.

http://genssoaring.blogspot.com/2009/08/today-was-first-day-at-king-mountain.html
http://genssoaring.blogspot.com/2009/08/no-flight-at-king-mountain.html
http://genssoaring.blogspot.com/2009/08/tough-day.html
http://genssoaring.blogspot.com/2009/08/no-flight-at-king-mountain_20.html
http://genssoaring.blogspot.com/2009/08/flight-to-yellowstone-national-park.html
http://genssoaring.blogspot.com/2009/08/taking-rest.html
http://genssoaring.blogspot.com/2009/08/glider-safari-enthusiasts-trailers.html
http://genssoaring.blogspot.com/2009/08/howe.html



Passed Reno near the sunset. The trailer is nice and clean.

The first flight of the season

Flew LS8 for 25 minutes at Williams. I haven't flown it for nearly 10 months, so just did a local flight to 2,500 ft. The glider was fine, but the trailer was really dusty, so had it washed and waxed.

Lots of new homes were developed near the gliderportsince I flew last time.