It was a wave and thermal day. After thermaling to 12,500 ft or so, I went down to Carson Valley, where climbed to 18,000 ft in a wave. Then I headed south east to Pine Nuts mountains, and caught another wave behind Mt. Siegel. I climbed back to 18,000 ft again, and headed further east to cloud streets east of Mt. Hawthorne. There, I could use some clouds, but they already started to dissipate, and I was only able to maintain 15,000 - 16,000 ft range. It was almost 4pm then, so I decided to head back. I was hoping to hit another wave behind Mt. Hawthorne, but there wasn't one. I headed back further west, and came down to 12,000 ft or so over Hilton Ranch. I thought I might land on Hilton Rance, but there I hit a good consistent wave despite the relatively low hills west of Hilton Ranch. I was able to go back to 18,000 ft again. With Truckee barely in the glide range, I headed straight to Truckee, hit some sink after passing Pine Nuts mountains, and hit another wave near Washer Lake. But stupidly, I didn't climb high enough there. I started my final glide when my computer showed a 2,000 ft margin on Brockway pass, but as soon as I came over Sergio's elevator, I hit a great sink and also was welcomed by an increased head wind. Being not able to see Brockway due to the sunset, I decided to turn back to Carson valley, where my hope to use the wave I hit earlier was crashed. I landed on Carson City airport around 6pm. Later, I heard from Buzz (11W) that he started his finale glide from Carson City at 17,000 ft, and lost 5,000 ft before he reached Truckee.


Clouds 13 miles east of Hawthorne

Flew 4.5 hours at Truckee, and went as south as Mt. Grant. After climbing to 12,500 ft in a thermal near Truckee airport, flew down to Carson Valley, and struggled there for about 1 hour. At 7,500 ft, I finally caught a good one over a white mine north east of Carson City airport. But still the top was 11,000 12,000 ft. I gradually headed east to Pine Nuts range, flew south along the ridge, and only after I reached Mt. Sigel, I was able to climb over 16,000 ft. It was already around 3:30pm. There, I saw a cloud street starting at Mt. Grant to the south, so I decided to at least turn Mt. Grant. As I reached there, the cloud started to dissipate, but there was still working part. I went up to 17,400 ft, and the cloud completely disappeared. I only needed to earn a few hundred extra feet over Mt. Sigel again to get back to Truckee.


Lake Tahoe in the clear air

More photos can be found here.

I flew only Sunday this weekend, but it was still worth going up to Truckee. I went up to 17,500 ft in an interesting convergence lift. The cloudbase was 14,500 ft on the west side of Carson Valley, and 17,500 ft on the east side. I heard some radios talking about Sweet Water and such, so I tried to go south. But there was a wall of low cloudbase between Carson City and Minden, so I gave up, and headed north instead. I
think everyone who flew from Truckee Sunday went north. There were some OD north of Truckee, and at least one landed out. I flew from Carson City to Air Sailing straight, and that line was never blocked by OD, so I used the same line on my way back, and made an easy back to Truckee. Those who went farther north suffered from OD. There was a landout as far as Adin.


Using convergence lift dodging clouds

A big OD about to dump water

Heavy rain shower on the lake surface

Based on yesterday's experience, I decided not to fly, and spent a couple of hours waxing my ship.


The wax I use

I took off around 1pm. The highest I went up about 12000 ft over Brockway, so I decided not to go out to Carson valley. I landed after short one hour. Several people ventured out to the south anyway, and five landed out on Carson airport.