Indian Valley

This past weekend I visited and flew in the Indian Valley area with a group from the bay and reno areas. The informal "fly-in" was put together by Stacy and Carmela and they reserved a large group camp with great amenities for us all to enjoy (thanks!). Indian Valley includes the towns of Greenville and Taylorsville and is one of the most appealing places I have flown so far in California. There are numerous ridges surrounding the valley(s) offering up many challenges for intermediate to the most advanced pilots. Conditions were excellent and we flew 3 of the 4 days we were there.

Above, Steve is climbing out under some nice cumi's. The conditions were deceptively appealing this day and many pilots sank out early. But for those fortunate enough to wait it out it turned on late and Ben and Mike climbed up to over 13k. I managed to get over 9k all three days and had some great views of the valley from the "burn" launch.

Above looking out over the bailout LZ (lower right) towards Greenville. We landed at Bobby's (near the blue spot in the valley). Below, looking out further East toward Taylorsville at the far end of the valley.
The first day out I got a little far down the ridge and decided to just head out to Taylorsville for some easy XC practice. I got a ride almost immediately (with my glider!) from a local rancher.
Saturday the winds kicked up and we decided to do our hang-waiting at the local swimming hole (Indian Falls) on Indian Creek. As good a day as any on the trip.
Monday, we slept in and showed up to Mount Hough around midday to find winds blowing15+ into the Crystal lake basin at the summit. The view was... well... The launch we had hoped to use from behind the lake was not possible given the conditions and I was ready to head home content after a great weekend....

After a while we checked out an east facing launch and wandered all around a challenging bowl area trying to determine true wind direction. Then Steve R. called on a local for a demonstration. The red tail below soared right out in front of us, worked some lift then parked high above the treetops into the wind to make sure we got the hint. Steve and Eric F. wasted no time in setting up and showing us the way. Soon there were 7 of us up over Hough and racing around the valley.Above: Eric Froelich-ing out in front of launch.

Below: Crystal Lake at Hough's summit
Below: Looking over the back side of Hough toward Quincy in the valley.Ben on final at Hough's LZ.
Special thanks to Stacy and Carmela for putting together such great trip, Ben, Eric, that Red tail Hawk and Steve R. for getting us in the air on an epic day!

St. John Fly-in

St. John is a mountain site just East of Stonyford Ca. The friendly competition/fly-in is held annually and we arrived to find excellent conditions Saturday and a bit of a challenge on Sunday. Around 30 pilots showed up to the meet, with a mix of rigid wings, flex wings and a few paragliders. Below - Vince, Rich, and Kurt line up to launch their rigids.

Rich and Vince (below) find ample lift on Saturday out in front of launch. They flew over 100 miles North for a Fly-in rigid best. Ben Dunn took best of class for flex wing, flying all the way to Red Bluff and a short distance back (60 miles?).

It was my first time at this site, renowned for it's cross-country potential. Initially I was pretty intimidated at the glide out to our primary landing zone. We launched at 6,200' and the glide out is in excess of 8 miles (@ 1,200') direct (the most efficient flight is a bit of a dog leg though). The long glide requires you to find some lift to make it, though there are a few undesirable bail-outs along the way. Fortunately, I got up fairly quickly finding lift in excess of 1,100' per minute (surrounded by equivalent sink) and rose to over 10,000'. The view was incredible aside from some smoke to the North from wildfires. The photo below looks to the East and our LZ is marked in blue.

Below is the view to the West looking over St. John toward Pillsbury Lake and Hull Mountain. To the right (circled) is a sailplane that was working lift below me (he-he!). The blue dot marks the launch. (click to enlarge)

Clouds were forming off the thermals coming up the West face of St. John and offered me some fun contact with fresh cumi's. I lapped out many times speeding to the lift below them and getting sucked up to their base drifting to the East. They would dissipate and I would chase back to the area where they were forming again. Very cool... This photo is looking North as a couple are breaking up.
Overall a great trip with all the usual suspects. Should have taken many more pictures throughout the event, bar-b-que and camping, but I was having too much fun. Had a great time flying a nice swath of mountains and look forward to landing out after covering some good xc distance my next time out.

4th of July - Waddell Creek

Waddell turned it up to 11 for us on the 4th. We launched around 11:30 and climbed quickly from the 100' launch to nearly 1600'. John is moving up the runway to the launch below (The small strip of white just below where the trail wraps around the front of the bluff). Brought out my new camera this time!

Over the Big Creek Lumber yard and Highway 1. John is on launch below (right of the loop).

Barely visible against the far hill John is working his way up the lift in middle of the valley. Most likely about to get "served" as he approaches Waddell's infamous twanger territory.

Looking East over the ridge behind Big Creek.

Below John is working his way out of the Waddell Valley.

Parked out over the water in abundant lift soaking in the view (North). Looking out over Ano Nuevo to pidgeon point lighthouse on the next peninsula.

Looking South, Monterey in the distance and Greyhound rock below.

After a couple of hours we landed and came back to get great flights Saturday and Sunday (though both days topped out around 800'). I have flown the low bluff many times previously and had some good flights over Big Creek Lumber, but this was the first flight of its kind for me. Lift was abundant and everywhere. I have already forgotten all the days I've shown up and it was blown out and Northy. Waddell is like nowhere else..

Lakeview, Oregon

We just got back from a trip to Southeastern Oregon near Lakeview where we spent 3 days flying a few different sites in the area. (all pictures courtesy of Gary since my camera broke). We camped just below a site called Black Cap overlooking the town of Lakeview. One afternoon we launched and landed right at our campsite (you can see my glider on the ground near the tents).

Above and below is approach to the landing zone at Sugarhill looking out toward Goose Lake. The landing areas out there are everywhere and the winds in the LZ were smooth coming off the lake. We had great flights here with a couple in our group getting a few thousand over launch and staying up around 2 hours.

Here I'm flaring on final approach.

After flying Sugar a few times our local guide, Ralph, took us to Palisades (a lesser flown site North of Lakeview) The site was full of cliffs with excellent ridge lift but it was blowing pretty strong and had a long glide out to the LZ. It was about 4,000' over the valley and required a 4 mile glide into the wind to the landing. The clouds above show that there are high winds above us. (surveying the site and checking windspeed)

I got to be the wind dummy at this site because my glider had a slightly better glide ratio. The launch was fairly turbulent and I wouldn't have been able to approach the launch and balance for launch without wire support.

Getting off the hill... The lift was strong and I was immediately going up at 1,000' per minute until I got up to around 2,000' over launch.

This photo looks North up the Valley. After working the ridge back and forth awhile I took off from the mountain and landed at the very end of the valley in a fallow field next to the road. I used streamers for the first time on this flight to judge wind direction (dropped from around 1,000').

Below, "specking out" heading across the valley. The view was incredible... I've got to get a new onboard camera going before my next trip.

Special thanks to Harold Johnson for taking us from students to pilots and showing us this amazing place!