Flew 320km at Williams. Towed to Tree Farm with Rich(7HV), and released at 5,600 ft.

There was a 7 kts lift 8 miles south west of Alder Springs up to 12,000 ft. With that altitude, I was able to reach a cumulus over Black Butte. The strong lift there brought me up to 14,000 ft. There, I could see a few cumulus west of T15, but they were very far. I decided to head up there anyway, and did reach them, but they weren't as reliable as the could over Black Butte. I circled under Rich for a while, but 12,800 ft or so was the highest I could climb. By then, I could see some cumulus popping over Ruth, so I headed there. But the lift there was sort of broken. I spend 20 min or so there, but the situation didn't improve, so I decided to turn south.

On my way back, I met Frank (F1) over Anthony peak, and flew with him in a couple of thermals. Caught a good thermal over a rock between Snow Mountain and Goat, which gave me a ticket back to Williams. Frank climbed even higher, and cleared Ramsey Gap.


Looking south from north of Ruth

Flew 320km

Flew about 300km at Williams. Towed to Tree Farm with Ginny(G3), and released at 6,500 ft. Caught a thermal, headed Snow Mtn, then St. John, went and Sheet Iron. Flew a few miles further north, but couldn't find anything, headed south. Came back to Tree Farm, then Goat Pass, and went a few miles further south, but couldn't find anything, so headed north again. This time, I wanted to try different path, so headed to Hull Mtn north of Gravely Valley airport. This was a mistake. There was a thermal over Hull Mtn, but it went up to only 8,700 ft. That wasn't comfortable altitude to come back to the east ridges, but I managed to catch another lift between Hull Mtn and Sheet Iron, and was able to back up on the ridge. There, I headed to Black Butte where I caught a good lift up to 11,000 ft. The lift allowed me to clear Anthony Peak, but there was nothing between Black Butte and Anthony, so I turned back south there. On my way back, I used the same thermal over Black Butte, and circled with Luke(C1). A few people including Luke, Rich(7HV), Peter(PK), Bob(JH), and Peter Dean went further north by heading to Eagle Peak directly. But they reported that they had very hard time at Eagle Peak. With a few more lifts, I cleared Ramsey Gap, and flew back to Williams.

Climbing with Luke(C1) near Black Butte

Flew in a wave for 4.5 hours. After climbing up to 12,000 ft over Mt. Rose, went down to Carson Valley where Yuliy reported 5 to 7 knots of wave between Washoe lake and Mt. Rose. But the wind wasn't too strong (around 16 kts), and it wasn't until I lost to 10,500 ft when I finally caught the wave Yuliy reported. Once in a stable spot, the wave (more like a wavelet) consistently gave me a lift to 18,000 ft. Then I cruised south to Feele Peak. This was the best part of this flight. I was flying at 100 kts at 17,900 ft without loosing any altitude. Then I headed to Topaz Lake where Yuliy again reported another wave. Between Feel Peak and Topaz Lake, the air was unpleasantly quiet, but there was surely a wave over Topaz Lake. This one was very weak, and gave me only 1 to 1.5 knots, so I decided to dump some water.

However, when I operated the dump lever, there was a cracking sound, and the water didn't dump. I suspected that either cables in the water dumping mechanism or the water in wings froze up, or both. The glider was flying fine otherwise, and Yuliy was further south then, so I was tempted to keep flying, but the cracking sound clearly indicated that something broke inside the glider. So, I decided to head back to Truckee while there is still daylight left to do any troubleshooting. Except for using a wavelet 5 miles north east of Feel Peak, I almost headed straight back to Truckee. I arrived near the airport, and operated the dumping water again, but it wasn't still working. I wasn't sure what was happening, but the water freeze in the wings was still a possibility, so I stayed between 9,000 ft and 10,000 ft for about 1.5 hour to melt it as much as possible. I tried slow flights and stalls a few times to see if there is any uneven load on the wings. Finally, I felt comfortable with landing with the situation I was given, so I landed on rwy 19 as usual. The landing was pretty normal, and I thought I was able to dump all water in the air after all the troubles. But when my left wing gently dropped on the ground, I learned that I wasn't. In fact, I still had all water I loaded before the take-off. I was glad that I didn't have too much water today (I had 24 gallons on wings and 3.5 litter in the tail).

After landing, Mike Mayo helped me to figure out what went wrong. It turned out that a tiny plastic clamp that attached the dumping cable to the wall came off. The cracking sound was from the plastic clamp. Without the clamp, the cable loosely hanged in the cockpit, and couldn't sustain enough tension to open the dump holes. If I knew, I could have pulled the cables by hand to open the dump holes. I was glad that it wasn't anything more serious that broke! I think this is what happened; the water around dump holes under the wings froze, and locked in the valve. When I pulled the levers forward, the cables couldn't move the valves, got too tight, and released themselves from the cockpit wall by breaking the clamp.


Flying higher than clouds. The cloudbase was around 13,000 ft, and I was at 17,700 ft in this picture.

Flew 234km
More pictures can be found here.

Flew to 5 miles east of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. I started with 30 gallons of water in wings and 3.5 litter in tail, but dumped it for 25 sec on my way to the south. The could street ended around USMC, and there were only step stone clouds, but lifts were still good (7 to 10 kts) along the same line as the cloud street. There was a soft spot west of South Lake Tahoe airport which cost me some time. After coming back to Truckee, I tried to go north, but clouds started to dissipate, and couldn't make it. There was a big blue gap north of Sierraville for about 20 miles. Many people who started much earlier than me went as north as Mt Lassen.

Half Dome

Flew 497km

Flew to Mt Rifter (west of Mammoth airport). I carried 30 gallons of water in the wings, and 3.5 litter in the tail. I think Harry Fox had the best flight of the day. He flew Pegasus without water, flew over 500km, and achieved 118km/h. He had a stretch of 163 km without circling on his way back from the south to Truckee.
After coming back to Truckee, a very good (7 - 10 kts) lift over Brokeway pass brought me back to 16,500 ft, so I used it to make an extra trip to Sierraville.

An aerial shot of me taken by Matt Gillis

Flew 487km

Flew to Bishop, which is about 160 miles away, and came back. This was my longest flight from Truckee so far. I climbed to 13,000 or so over Mt. Rose, and ventured out to Carson Valley. Caught another thermal right in the valley which brought me up to 14,000 ft, then headed to Pine Nuts. Over there, I climbed to 18,000 ft, and headed further south. There were plenty of clouds which I could use as a step stones, so the way to Boundary Peak wasn't too difficult. There was a good deal of west wind at that time, so I worried about coming back, but by the time I turned back, the wind shifted to south-west and it was alright. After I reached Boundary Peak, there was a cloud street all the way to Bishop. I could go even further to Lone Pine, but decided that that was enough for my first flight over Whites. I didn't turn at all when I was flying over the mountain range except when I shot some pictures of Whites and Boundary Peak. I turned back north around 4:30pm. The way back was a bit tricky because the straight line between Hilton Ranch and Truckee was all blue. I took a detour to the north, and used some Cu's over Yerington, then took my final glider to Truckee. Tony Gaechter (1A) was ahead of me all the way. Trying to catch up with him was a good exercise.

I had 24 gallons of water in the wings and 3 litter in the tail, but I left that I should have had more water.


Whites mountain range

Flew 579km
More pictures of Whites can be found here.

Flew to Mammoth airport. This was my longest flight from Truckee so far. I had 24 gallons of water in the wings and 2.5 litter in the tail.

Mono Lake

Flew 433km

These two days, thermals started very late. I took off around 3pm, and released over Hot Rock. Climbed to 12,000 ft without much struggle, and headed east. I hit another one over Martis Peak, and yet another one 6 miles south of Mt. Rose. The last one brought me up to 15,000 ft. Then I headed south over the Sergio's Elevator until I could closely see Spooner Pass, but the air was quiet. I headed back north, caught a few more good ones which brought me back to 15,000 ft again. I came as north as Verdi Peak, then headed west to see how things were like there. Despite dynamic landscape which looked good thermal sources, there weren't much activities except for some bumps. I landed 5:40pm after flying 2.7 hour.


Washoe Lake

I was the only private pilot who flew from Truckee today. The forecast was pretty weak - 4 to 5 kts thermals up to 12,000 feet. But after releasing at 7,800 feet near Brockway, and I caught a good thermal over North Star's second parking lot, which brought me to 12,000 ft. Then I headed to Mt. Rose. There, I was able to climb up even higher to almost 14,000 ft, breaking the forecast. With that high altitude, there no reason not to venture out to Carson Valley, so I did, but once I passed Carson Valley, the air was totally dead. I went as far east as I could comfortably do, but didn't hit any clue of a lift. I turned back, decided to crawl over the city just in case those large factories and parking lots generated thermals. I went down as low as 7,500 ft, but finally caught a weak but workable 1 kts lift. After a half-an-hour test of patience, I came back to 9,500 ft. Gaining a slight hope to fly back to Truckee, I decided to use the hard-earned altitude for the ridge east of Sergio's elevator. I was just hoping a different type of airmass activities over the hills, but with a pleasant surprise, I hit a wave. The 2 to 5 kts wave gave me additional altitude to 13,000 ft, and that was enough for me to glide back to Truckee.


Working a wave (note the red line on PDA which denotes a lift)