Now that I flew 500km, my new goal was a declared 300km which is one of the diamond badge requirements. I configured Volkslogger and set an 300km out-and-return task between Start C and Kaibab Lodge. Kaibab lodge is on the Kaibab plateau next to Grand Canyon. This way, I can achieve my goal, and also take more pictures of Grand Canyon. At 11:45am, I towed up after Ramy did, but didn't hit any lift even when I reached 3,000 ft AGL. I asked Ramy how he was doing, and he said that he towed all the way to the other side of the ridge which is east of Parowan airport. Indeed, that's the only place I could see clouds. So, I did the same thing, and released around 4,000 ft AGL. That was a right decision. I instantly found myself caught in a 10 kts thermal, and got an easy 18,000 ft. Then I flew back to Parowan, turned Start C turnpoint at 15,300 ft, and headed to another cloud over Ceder Breaks. Got up to 18,000 ft again, and headed further south. But at 25 miles from Kanab airport, I ran out of clouds, and it was perfectly blue all the way to Kaibab plateau. Also, for the first time, I was able to see through the haze and find what's on Kaibab plateau. A huge towering OD, almost the same size as the plateau, was there. It already had dark virgas on its east half. With the blue hole between the plateau and me and the OD, it wasn't a difficult decision to give up another Grand Canyon tour.

So, I headed north, and tried to join others who headed east. I picked a few thermals near Bryce Canyon, and was able to keep high until I came to 15 miles north of Escalante airport. There were still clouds, and they even looked like forming a street. But the base was broken, and there was an active thunderstorm 10 miles south of Escalante airport. I gradually lost altitude. I did everything I could to make use of broken lifts, and also went to the small canyon north west of airport to find any lifts from the heated rocks. At one point, I was able to back up to 14,000 ft, but that was the top. The thermal from heated rocks was not connected to the cloud, and was not strong enough to push me up to 18,000 ft again. I went up and down, and started thinking about landing at Escalante. I flew over the airport at 5,000 ft AGL so that I can give my final shot on the sunny hills west of Escalante. But the air was totally calm there. Probably the thunderstorm cooled down the surface, and killed all thermal sources. I landed on Escalante airport, which is 50 miles away from Parowan, at 3:42pm.

The airport was unmanned. I pushed my glider into the taxi way by myself, and called Parowan airport to ask for an aero retrieve. Yes, I had a full five-bar signal on my Sprint cell phone. Jeff came in his Cessna 150 about 1 hour later. Upon take-off, he suggested a creative way to hold the wings level and off from the rugged runway surface.

I also found that the runway was slightly uphill towards 13. This wasn't an issue for us this time because we had a weak wind from 130.


The flight was 4 hours. It was a short and long flight. It wasn't a successful flight, but it felt good to try every intelligence, skills, and knowledge I had to the last minute. After all, glider was safe, I was safe, and I can fly again.


Flight trace

Bryce Canyon again

A thunderstorm south of Escalante

Using bushes as wing stands for take-off (didn't work well)

More pictured can be found here.

Since I couldn't take pictures of Bryce Canyon and Ceder Breaks yesterday, I decided to go there again to take some. I flew with 36 gallons of water (wing load = 9.6 lb/sqft), but it was too much. I dumped half of it, then the glider started to climb better. I think this glider flies best when it had 24 gallons of water.

Bryce Canyon National Park

A lot of more pictures can be found here.

The flight was 4.6 hours, and the total distance flown was 250km or so.

Before landing, I dropped by Brian Head (a peak inside Cyder Breaks park). The BASA president Harry Fox was there by car, and was calling gliders to shoot pictures of them. Thanks so much Harry for taking great pictures! These will be my treasures.



Me (GS) approaching Brian Head with Cyder Breaks in back
(photo by Harry)

Me (GS) flying over Brian Head
(photo by Harry)

The location of Brian Head shown on Google Earth (click to enlarge)

More pictures taken by Harry can be found here.

At night, we had a big BBQ party at Joy's house. Thanks Joy for a great dinner!

Flew 7.4 hours. The goal of this flight was to go to the Grand Canyon, and fly over it. The weather condition was supportive, and most people who flew today made the trip. On my way back, I dropped by Bryce Canyon, and Ceder Breaks. There was a solid cloud street from Bryce Canyon to the north of Escalante airport, and I didn't circle at all for 50 miles maintaining the altitude.

The flight was good. However, I took too many pictures before I got to the Grand Canyon, and my camera's battery died as soon as I got there.

It turned out to be another 500km flight.

Flight trace

Filling up oxygen before flight

Waiting in line

There were plenty of clouds

Poining the nose to the Grand Canyon
More pictures can be found here.

Flew for 7.5 hours, and did my first 500km. It was an out-and-return flight to Mt Pleasant. There were a few tough parts. The first one was to jump ridges at Salina-Gunnison. After flying miles of quiet air, I barely reached the next ridge at around 10,000 ft. Luckily, I could find a solid lift over a wall of rocks. After that, the way to Mt Pleasant was not too difficult. There were lots of clouds that lead me to it. On my way back, I got low again to 11,000 ft, but was saved by a thermal over Knob Mountain. I jumped ridges again at Salina-Gunnison airport, and tried use left-over clouds. But the saddest moment of the flight came when I was heading to a nice-looking cloud just south of Pfeiler ranch. When I was flying to it, I thought I won my way back to Parowan, but as soon as I arrived, the cloud disappeared! I went there anyway to pick up any left-over thermal, but there was none. I just needed a couple of thousand feet, but the air was pretty quiet. I came down to 11,000 ft which was the same height as the ridge I have to cross to get back to Parowan, so there was no chance I could make it. A nice thing about Parowan is that there are abundant airports between ridges on which I can land safely. I chose Panguitch airport as my landing spot. But then, I had 3,000 ft extra altitude I could use. So, I decided to give my last shot on the big rock eminent from the ridge west of Panguitch airport. Then, wow, I hit a 7 kts thermal right above the rock (later, I learned its name Adams Head) which took me back to 15,000 ft. I was able to safely fly back to Parowan.

Flight trace

Altitude

Rock walls east of Salina-Gunnison airpot

A nice-looking cloud south of Pfeiler ranch, but it disappeared as soon as I got there
More pictures can be found here.

Thunderstorms came over the airport, so we decided not to fly today. Ramy, Yuliy, Morteza, and I went sightseeing to Ceder Breaks.

Glider in the rain

Flew at Parowan for 3.1 hours.

We had only a less powerful tow plane (a 150hp Cessna 150) today, so no water was allowed.

After the release, I quickly caught a 7 kts thermal, and went up to the 14,000 ft cloud base. After hanging around near airport and watched scenery, I headed south west following clouds. Clouds ran out after I passed Ceder City aiport, so I headed back to Parowan, hanged a while again, then headed west following the clouds again. The air was extremely calm there, and I flew 7 or 8 miles without losing much altitude.

A new place seem to trigger new stupid mistakes. Firstly, I released too low on my first tow (1,500 ft AGL), and had to relight. And when I landed, I should have landed in the opposite direction (rwy 22) than I took off (rwy 4) because the wind was from the south and the runway is sloping down towards the north. Secondly, when I landed the second time, I missed the first taxi way.

Yuliy cooking breakfast

Lots of Cu's, but the base was low

Looking at Ceder Breaks

It was unusually windy and cloudy for Ely today. Nobody flew. But that gave us a chance to go see Independence Day parade in the town. Craig, Helmut, Wilfried, Bob, three others, and I went down, and watched the pararde from 11am for about an hour.

Early afternoon, I disassembled my glider, and headed to Parowan. I thought there were very few roads in this countryside, so I trusted GPS and didn't check the overview map, but that was a mistake. When I got close to Parowan, I was navigated to smaller and smaller roads, and eventually to an unpaved road. If this was at night, I would have hard time avoiding bumps on the complete darkness. Even on the highways, there were crossing trenches which were covered by metal bars (with black-and-yellow posts on both sides), and I had to slow down to avoid damaging the glider.

Overcast..


July 4th Parade

A 213-mile drive from Ely to Parowan

Hitting the lonely road again

Arrived at Parowan just before dark

Flew 5.8 hours to make an out-and-return flight to Wells. There was a 20-kts headwind on the way back. The total distance flown was around 400km. Unlike yesterday, clouds stayed at the same place all day, so the condition was better. Late in the afternoon, virgas were observed on the downwind side of the clouds.

Not exactly a cloud street, but it was working

Wells airport

More pictures can be found here.

Flew at Ely with Craig (ASW27). We went half way to Wells, saw clouds disseminating, and head back to Ely. We lost each other somewhere on our way back, so I passed Ely airport, and kept flying south for 50 miles before turning back. I landed after 4 hour 20 minutes. The total distance was around 300km. It was a good introduction flight to Ely.

People here are very friendly, and the airport is quiet and at-home. Most of traffics are gliders.

Met Tony Smolder, another LS8 owner and a good friend of my glider's previous owner Casey Lenox, and yet another LS8 "71" from Arizona.

The ridge behind is a good starting point

Ely airport

Three LS8's (GS, TS1, and 71) in the parking

More pictures can be found here.

Decided to drop by Ely. Drove "the lonliest highway" for 5.5 hours. Arrived at Ely at 8:30pm, and had dinner with Craig and others.

A 336-mile drive from Minden to Ely

The loneliest highway US50

More pictures can be found here.

Flew LS8 at Minden for 2.5 hours. Went up to 17,100 ft. Toured around local landing spots (Dayton, Yerington, Rosachi, Farias, Alpine, and Topaz. According to Gabe, Topaz has a high glass, and not really suitable for aero-tow retrieve. Rosachi and Farias are good sites. There were some OD and virgas, strong sinks again, and wind (20+ kts).

The light log is posted on OLC.


Flying at the cloud base near Yerington

More pictures can be found here.

Towed LS8 from Williams to Minden via Truckee. Took about 4 hours to drive 200 miles.

When I was parking my trailer at Minden, Lemmy, a visiting pilot from England, walked up to me and kindly gave me a hand. Lemmy flies LS8-18 in England and visiting Minden to teach cross county flights We had a lunch together.

Flew with John Ellis in his Numbus 3 for about 3 hours. There were few, but very strong thermals (14 kts average), and we went up to 18,000 ft in a matter of minutes after we released. There was also strong and widespread sink. We went south, and turned back north over Mt Patterson.

After flight, John, Tony, Christopher (visiting from Hawaii), Gearhart (visiting from Germany), and I went to a nice Italian restaurant Villa Gigli Trattoria.



Departing Williams

At 17,900 feet

Over development on the east

More pictures can be found here.

How to setup SeeYou

Download and install Vector maps cit_usa2.exe, cit_usa3.exe, and cit_usa5.exe from Naviter.

Download and install turnpoint database for Williams (2007), Truckee (2003), Minden (Region 11, 2007), and Parowan (Region 9, 2007) from Worldwide Soaring Turnpoint Exchange database.

Download and install Williams' turnpoint and task data from VSA's race series page.

Download and install USA airspace data from Naviter or use an old one. Remove all other airspaces.

In SeeYou, go to File->Mobile Wizard, and select areas to export. The map can be scrolled by clicking on the edges. Right click, and choose Go To Location to center on a particular way point. Use Zoom In and Out buttons are on the upper right corner.

Copy the generated .cit, .cub, and .cup files to PDA. Open SeeYou, and Create profiles.

I woke up in the morning, and found that today's weather wasn't as exciting as yesterday. Besides, another fire went off nearby, and the visibility was far less than optimal. So, I decided to spend a day to test flight my glider with water ballast. This was the first time I put water ballast since I bought it. I put 12 gallons (45 litter) in each wing, 1.5 litter in the tail tank. I didn't bring a water tank from home today, so borrowed a water meter from Pete. This worked very well. I think I should get one instead of carrying around a huge water tank.

I towed up to 4,000 ft. The maneuvering was surprisingly unchanged. The aileron worked just as sharp during the takeoff and in the air. The airspeeds shifted around 3 to 4 kts, but nothing dramatic. Dumping water went smoothly, too. I didn't notice much difference until I dumped all water ballast. But once all water was gone, the plane was noticeably light.

I also made a little improvement on my trailer this weekend. A solar-powered ventilator was added on top. This fan has rechargeable battery, so it should keep working day and night to keep the glider cool and dry.

Pete's water meter

trailer fan

It was smokey

Flew LS8 for 1.3 hours at Williams. Released at 4,200 ft, but thermals were very choppy, and the sink was wide and strong. There were clouds, but the strong (20+ kts) wind made it unreliable markers of the thermal source. Some clouds had rain underneath them. The highest I climbed was 6,800 ft at 5 miles north of 3 Sisters. There was a light wave there. Most people did pretty much the same, but those who are in the race series (a couple of ASH26E's (Peter Kelly and Darryl Ramm) and a couple of ASG29's (Pete Alexander and Ray Gimmy) completed a 100km task with the low top. Other people who flew today were Rich Parker(7HV), Ginny Farnsworth(G3), Larry Roberts(YE), Jim Darke(1B), Key Dismukes(PS). Later in day, the wind got even stronger, and the wave brought one of them up to 14,000 ft.

After flight, we had a BBQ and a big birthday party for Key Dismukes.

Flying with Rich Parker(7HV) over the town of Williams

More notably, Eric Rupp flew from Hollister to Mexico border in his DG300 today. This was a phenomenal achievement in the local soaring community, and the news spread out quickly over the net. In the past, many attempts were made by great pilots only to result in an unsuccessful straight-out outlanding followed by a long daunting retrieve drive. This flight may result in a long retrieve drive too, but I'm sure that Eric is smiling all the way back home.

Here is today's NASA's satellite picture. Great cloud streets can be observed.



Here is an article about this flight.

Bay Area Glider Makes Record-Breaking Flight to Mexico

Flew Nimbus 3DT again with John Ellis at Minden, NV. John was visiting the US from England to fly glider for one month. John is a very good pilot and CFI, and I learned new things from him about flaps in this 4 hour flight. It was a blue day with no clouds, but there were good blue thermals up to 15,000 feet. We released over Burn about 3,500 feet AGL, and went south again. We turned back north around Sweet Water, but on our way to Sweet Water we were hit by very widespread strong sink. We got pretty low near Sweet Water, as low as around 8,000 feet. But John did a dramatic recovery. He patiently picked up weak lifts over Gimmy Bowl, and finally caught a strong one which brought us back to 15,000 feet.

When we were back at Mt Siegel, we saw some wild horses on the ridge.

Wild horses on top of Mt Siegel
(click to view a large picture, and look around a bit off the center to lower left)
Here are more pictures.

Flew Nimbus 3DT with Barry Danieli at Minden, Nevada. After releasing around 2,500 feet AGL, we caught a good thermal, and flew to the south. There were reasonable amount of clouds. Some of them were working, others were not, but mostly we could find a good lift under clouds. The sky had unusual haze due to the fire in Paradise, CA. We went as south as between Mono Lake and White Mountain Peak, which made about 300km out-and-return flight in 4 hours. The highest we got was 17,500 feet. See below to find a short video I shot while Barry was thermaling at 14,000 feet. It is posted on YouTube, too.


Looking at Mono Lake.

After the flight, we had a dinner at Wasabi's Sushi and Asian Bistro. Barry's wife Diane, and Tom and his wife Jane also joined, and we had another fun. They had an interesting combination of Japanese food and Thai food in their menu.

Here are more pictures.

A nice glider video. Notice the side stick control. This must be Diana 2.



Another nice glider video. This one is more educative, and shows trailer, rigging, and towing. It is not common to fly above clouds like this, but it sure looks good.

Created RSS Feeder for Williams Soaring Club's forum. Subscribe to the following feed, and you'll get updates automatically in your RSS Reader.

http://www.soaringsearch.com/cgi-bin/wscforum2rss.py

Flew LS8 for about 2 hours from Williams. The sky was totally blue with no clouds, and was hot. Larry (YE) and I launched on a double tow around 12:30pm. I had done double tows on the short rope a dozen times, but being on the long rope was new. It was unusual to see another glider right in front of me during the takeoff, but once we took off it wasn't a big deal. Larry had correctly warned me about the tendency to get slack ropes when flying in the low tow position. When we passed Tree Farm around 6,000 feet, the vario indicated 10 kts, so I proposed Larry to release at 6,500 feet which we did. But the air around the bump was rather quiet. I managed to go back to the thermal we hit before we released, went up and down several times, but the highest I got was 7,800 feet over Tree Farm. That isn't usually enough to march onto the north, but I headed north anyway because pireps on the south didn't sound good, either. I went as far as east of Snow Mountain, but I didn't feel much energy in the air, so I came back to the same thermal. I met a few gliders near Tree Farm, but all of them were much lower than me. I could have flown a couple hours more, but decided to wrap up early and get home early since it was getting really hot in the cockpit. Next time, I should bring ice water instead of just water bottles.

Overall, this was my first flight in 3 weeks, and I'm glad that I went for flying this weekend.

Larry and me on a double tow

I woke up at 7am, and drove up to Williams only to find that the wind was too high to fly. But I met a new friend Craig Melvin who flies ASW27 and ASH26E, and we went Wilbur Springs together. It was a neat hotspring just 30 min from Williams.

Flew LS8 from Williams for about 4 hours - 300km. Released at Tree Farm at 7,500 feet, climbed a little over 9,000 feet, and headed north. Caught another good thermal near Black Butte to 11,000 feet, and headed further north, but the air was totall quiet there. I went as far as Anthony twice before I decided to head south. Turned Rumsey Gap, and flew back to Williams. Flight log is posted on OLC.

Looking down another glider near Black Butte

Flew LS8 from Williams. I started very late, around 2:30pm. Released at Walker Ridge at 5,000 feet, climbed above 8,000 feet over Tree Farm, and headed north. There was a good cloud street all the way to T15. I turned T15 around 4:30pm, but got shot down by virga between M3 and M6 on my way back, and ended up landing on Willows. It was a good 3 hour 20 minutes flight. Flight log is posted on OLC.

Flying over Snow Mountain

At Willows airport

Flew ASW27 at Williams. This was my first flight in ASW27, and I found it to be a very nice ship. It flies so smooth, and maneuvering and landings are very easy. The acceleration when flaps were put into negative positions was very addictive..


Williams' ASW27

Flew LS8 for .5 hour. There was a weak wave over Sutter Butte.

Oktoberfest at Williams. Flew Discus CS for 1 hour.