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Wed, 11 August 1999.
This is the last entry for this volume of the Soaring Diary.
I have had a couple of good flights in my DG. Flew out to Mina, then up to the Tracy Power Plant and back to Minden. Another day I declared and flew a 500 K, but was 500 feet too low to make the last turnpoint, before returning to Minden. I tried again a week later, but didn't come as close. I have observed Mike, at High Country Soaring doing some really high speed runs down to Bishop and back - he seems to have that route figured out. I also observed Pete Williams fying down the Owens Valley and back to Minden. On his flight last week he AVERAGED 72 mph. Very impressive. On that same day I flew down to Lee Vining, and only stopped to turn in one thermal between Lee Vining and Minden. I wish I hadn't exhausted myself on the previous day's 500k attempt - otherwise I would have joined Pete on his long high speed flight.
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Wed, 14 July 1999, 11 AM, last entry was almost 3 weeks ago.
Haven't heard from anyone about good flights. There were clouds over the tahoe area, and the weather looked unstable, so I checked the Soaring forecasts published by the NWS at Reno for the first few days of this week. Each day the soaring forecast called for thermals up to 18,000 ft, at strengths of over 1300 feet per minute. I'd say it was a good time to go soaring.
I had a phone message from Cindy that she went to fly at Parowan, so maybe we'll soon have some good soaring reports.
There was an article on page three of the S.F. Chronicle this morning. Here is what it said:
Head of Air Museum Killed in Glider Crash.
Minden, Nev. - Donald Engen, the head of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, died yesterday when the glider he was in broke apart and crashed. He was 75.
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Thurs, 24 Jun 1999, 8 AM, last entry was two weeks ago.
Haven't received any flight reports, except for the mini-Air Rallye that Shelton had at Cal City, but that was already posted on the PASCO page for us to read.
The tragic accident at the Nationals, with the tailplane falling off the glider before it was in the air was on national news. I'm sure we'll have an NTSB report later in the year. Whenever there is an accident, and you say that couldn't happen to me, you are just tempting fate. Always try to determine how you can prevent the same thing from happening to you.
The Board of Directors of the VSA (Valley Soaring Association) have been making some major decisions. The VSA newsletter - "The Windsock" will be forthcoming.
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Thurs, 10 Jun 1999, 10 AM, last entry was a couple of weeks ago.
I've heard about two weekends of great flying at Truckee. 29 and 30 May were 500 k days, 31st was just about a 200 miles type of day. 5 June was also a 300 k day plus. I was up there on the 6th. Wave to 27,000 in the Minden wave window. I went up to 22,000 and back down to 17,500 headed south, turned bridgeport, turned south Lake Tahoe Airport, flew up the west coast of Lake tahoe at 15,000, then went north to turn sierraville, and back to truckee. Monday the 7th was a high wave day, but not as much instability.
Regionals were held at Montague. Results are on the SSA web page under contests.
Had one report this period. Armand flew out of Reid Hillview in his Cessna 150, landed at Cal City, launched there in an LS-3, and after a good flight, returned to Cal city and then back to San Jose in his Cessna - here is his story....
From: "Armand A. Medieros" I haven't heard who won the Doc Mayes award for 1999. Elden
tells me that John Volkober won the Peterson Trophy. His exact words
were:
Gary Kemp has continued to have excellent flights out of Williams -
here is the latest flight report he sent to me:
Well, your record is still safe. I flew 361.5 miles today on a
mediocre day, the lift averaged 3.2 kts. I took off at 11:45 and
released, in the valley at 3500 feet. flew south on the first ridge
and it took me an hour to get high enough to go to Walker ridge.
Then to Goat Mt., Gravelly Valley, Round Valley, T-15, Hayfork and return
to Hiway 16/20 and then over to Pearce, Sites and Colusa. Got to just over
10,000 feet. I think some have moved to Truckee too early.
6 flights since April 24, averaged 285 miles with the 6th being only 130
miles.
I have the flight traces, and permission to show them from both Volkber
and Kemp for the above flights, but don't have the time to display them
- sorry. I might get to them next week.
I sent out a message to all on the pilot email list. If you want
to be on the list, send me your address- here is what the latest msg said:
Dear Pilot INCS,
1. We received the following msg from a media person looking for
footage of Gliders and thunderstorms. If you can be of assistance
to him, please contact him directly at his Email address. Here's
his msg:
2. Recent flights - I have placed all of the info I have received
about recent flights on the diary page. Be sure to read of the long
flights that NK has been accomplishing - also on the diary page.
Don't have a full report on the Chico Distance Camp, or the Doc Mayes Trophy
Results, but I did receive this from Elden -
3. There was a hand held radio for sale - see the diary pages
from early May.
4. Activities reminders -
a. Region 11 North Contest - June 1 - 5, Montague
------------------------------------------------------------
Cold front went thru last nite. Hi temps today are maybe 80 to 81 in
Sacto Vly.
24 and 48 hr pressure charts (dashed lines on the VSA link) show strong
winds from the south on friday - if the pressure fcst is accurate.
Oakland sounding (at 5 AM today) shows decent thermals - but very dry
air - probably no cu. That makes it tough. big wind shift in direction
between 6 and 7,000 and then back again. That'll make it hard to track
the thermals in the climb. But reading the adiabats, if temp gets to 27C/81F
then lift will get to 7 or 8,000 if the wind doesn't blow too much, and
up on the Mendicinos, if the temp on the side of some of those hills gets
up to 81 at 3,000, then that column of hot air will rise to over 15,000.
(but 75 would be more the tmp expected at 3,000 - which would yield thermals
solidly to 10,000, with slow climbs to 15 in the max heat of the day.)
It could be / probably will be a good day. I plan to fly from Nut Tree
today. I hope someone else will be in the air.
ALSO - the National weather Service - Reno office did not have the normal
format for the soaring fcst displayed. Are they changing it? Dropping the
old format? Maybe they don't know how much we all look at that page, and
feel no one cares. If you check the Reno Soaring Fcst, and it isn't posted
- you ought to email the Reno office and tell them you'd like to have that
product displayed! It will be a great loss to all of us if they stop running
the soaring fcst!
---------------------------------------------------
Heard yesterday (saturday the 15th) was a good day. Received a report
from Gary K. - That report follows. We also received a report from Chris
about a Radio for sale. That report follows Gary's report. The conditions
that existed yesterday were special. We need to be ready to take advantage
of such conditions. Before summer gets here, there will be days like this
(yesterday). Lift without overdevelopment! It's easy to set records on
days like that, but the trick is to be there. Perserverance - that's part
of it. Dedication to the sport. Will to achieve! All of those things. We
do it because it is fun. I wish I had been there. Here is Gary's and then
Chris' reports:
Mon, 10 May 1999, 8 AM, last entry was a week ago yesterday.
Well, this was the big weekend at Williams for this spring. It was the
Chico Distance Camp, with participants competing to see who would get their
name on the Lee Peterson Trophy (longest single flight), as well as the
Doc Mayes Contest, which is now the best cumulative distance over the three
day period. It was also Mother's day weekend, and that tends to put a crimp
in the level of participation. I am doing this report because I had two
different people tell me they appreciate these summaries of what's been
happening. That bit of acknowledgement has motivated me to write this report.
On all three days, the wind was howling from the North. The weather
this year has been a challenge (or stated another way - it really sucks).
There was a pressure gradient near the surface causing the strong winds
due to the high trying to come in from the Northwest, and the low not moving
any further to the south east - result: winds from the North! As you went
aloft they changed, backing (that means from a more counter-clockwise direction)
- as I said, backing from North on the surface to northwest at 5,000 and
west at 10,000. they were only 10 knots or so aloft, but the surface wind
was more like 15 kts most every morning. You could see the pressure pattern
and winds clearly on the pressure charts on the VSA weather pages. the
sounding indicated we could get convective lift in the areas where the
wind was blocked by mountains, and also later each afternoon when the wind
settled down (only to start blowing again the next AM).
On Friday, I wasn't there, but I heard that several people had good
flights - with JJ winning that day with some 200 miles or so, Jim D in
his new 20 did well, as did five or six others.
Saturday was the biggest crowd. JJ flew again, as did Jim D, but others
were going to have good days also. As I said, there were two trophies at
stake here - one for the longest single flight, and one for the most miles
in the three days. Unfortunately, not everyone had the rules straight.
Ten miles between turnpoints seemed to be understood, but the rule that
says you can't go immediately back to a turnpont which you just used, without
an intervening TP was just too difficult for some pilots to grasp immediately,
but they finally did!
There were a bunch of us that flew on Sunday as well, and John V was
intent. I suspect he might have won the Peterson trophy, and maybe even
the Doc Mayes Trophy. Jim D and JJ each had a shot at the Doc Mayes, but
neither flew on Sunday due to other reasons.
The BBQ on Saturday night was more like "the Hinkle family BBQ" rather
than the Chico Soaring Club. Elden's entire family turned out to bake the
rolls, cook the steaks, make the pasta salad, logistics of drinks, plates,
and grill all attended to by Elden and his family. And of course deserts.
Midge contributed by cooking up some brownies and served ice cream and
syrup as well. It was all delicious and lots of fun. I sure enjoyed talking
to the people there. Unfortunatley, I was dead tired, and by Sunday night,
I was really wiped out. With everyone flying over 5 hour flights we were
all pretty tired.
On Sunday it was blowing even harder than sat in the AM, and but it
let up around mid-afternnon, or so I was told. I spent the day up on top
of the hills, flying another five hour flight, racing up and down the mountians
trying to log the miles. Lift went up to 12,000 on both sat and sunday
- but that was only at the very end of the peak part of each day. 10,000
was more the norm for the top of the thermals. On Sunday even Nevada Fox
and Joe Findley showed up.
Sun., 2 May 99, Last entry was Friday
Sat 1 May was a good day at Williams. Walt Cannon flew his first Williams
cross-country, and was impressed with the lift, and the good speed and
distances possible. He followed Dave Greenhill for awhile, but Dave continued
North to Weaverville - that's on the Klammath Sectioal, so Walt may not
have had that chart, besides I know he didn't have the latest GPS database
for the Williams area. In any case Walt didn't want to get more than
80 miles from home, so he quit following Dave. I was heading north
when Dave was heading south abeam Red Bluff. The two of us flew south to
Alder Springs where we joined with Sergio. Then Sergio and I headed SE
to Colusa, flew into the shear at about 2,000 ft, climbed back up to 6,000,
and flew east and south, doing final glides back to WSC. Dave didn't have
such luck - After going North along the mountains, he headed East into
the valley north of Willows, and ended up landing there and needing an
aerotow home.
Gary Kemp flew another fantastic flight - only his second one in his
new Nimbus. He cruised up the Mendicinos from Alder Springs, and as he
passed Anthony, he was up to over 10,000 in wave. Seeing the cu on the
east side of the valley some 50 miles away, he decided to go for it. He
crossed Red Bluff at 8,000 went east of Chico and eventually made his way
back home, approaching Williams from the Northeast.
Sumner launched late, but I didn't get a report. Harolyn launched just
30 minutes after me, flew for a couple of hours between 3 Sisters and Colusa,
reporting the locaton of the sheer line to those of us that were interested.
Henryick had another good flight in the Libelle, doing a final glide from
6,000 north east of Colusa.
Fri., 30 Apr 99, 8 AM. Last entry was 1 PM yesterday
I made another attempt at putting a flight on top of the sectional.
Looking at Jet and pressure chart forecasts (from the quick list VSA
wx page), it doesn't look all that good for today and tomorrow. The
low over Nevada/Arizona/Colorado is not moving to the east as quickly as
was forecast earlier in the week. The TV wx guys on 10 and 13 forecst
the Sacramento temp to be in the low 80's today, with less wind than yesterday.
But I think they are just hesitant to admit to the public that it will
still be windy from the north again today - but the pressure charts might
be off. I think I'll go try flying anyway.
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Thurs., 29 Apr 99, 1 PM. Last entry was last yesterday
Wx looks hopeful for this weekend- the jet is moving - finally!
The jet traveling down the coast will drop off, and the tail of it will
take that low pressure off to the east, so we ought to lose the strong
pressure gradients that are giving us all this wind. And worst of
all it is a north wind. Hopefully there will be a cold air mass moving
through as the wind dies, and with the expected solar heating, sans wind,
we ought to have good soaring Friday PM or at least on Sat. High
clouds are expected late Sat, so try to launch early on Sat. if the heating
allows it, as the soaring might end early in the evening.
I have been trying for many months to get a flight track ontop of a
sectional, so we can view peoples flights in relation to the charts.
Here is an example of my progress thus far. (Gary's track is
not shown). You can see that the overlay is not quite the same size
as the sectional, and I will have to clean up which TP's are displayed,
so that the image is easier to read, but I can't control all of the clutter
on the sectional - only the clutter that comes in with the flight track
out of the Cambridge display.
---------------------------------------------------
Wed., 28 Apr 99, 1 PM. Last entry was yesterday at 6 AM.
Kenny send us a report about Monday's flying - I'll put it at the end
of this entry.
Yesterday morning I was deceived by the sounding chart. The Air
mass was slightly different. I loaded with water, declared my 500k,
and after I revised that bad database and reloaded the GPS, I launched.
I never got above 8,000 but did have a good flight. Went pretty far,
found consistent lift, been to places I have never been before, and remapped
some of the TP's. I won't bore you with the flight trace.
I spent many hours re writing the turnpont data web pages. I would
appreciate your coments on the philosophy stated regards to the purpose
of and the election of turnpoints.
Go to the VSA home page and then to the turnpoint page to see the info.
Soaring Weather Outlook is promising for thurs or fri, or at least the
weekend. This is the time of year for prime soaring conditions in
the valley. I think we'll have a good crowd at Williams since there aren't
other events scheduled (that I know about), and Truckee isn't quite started
up yet, and people are keeping their birds in the valley rather than the
mountains because of the upcoming contests.
Here's Kenny's note about Monday's flying.
Tue., 27 Apr 99, 6 AM. Last entry was last Fri.
Went soaring at Williams on Sat the 24th, as did lots of others.
I was there early, but JJ already had his ASH-25 ready to go. He
and John were going flying. Gimmey showed up just after Volkober.
Key was one of the last ones to arrive, flying in with family in his 182.
Sergio, Mike Schuster, and several others were ready to go well before
me. Joe Findley rigged George Marinos' Pegasus and loaded it with
water. I think he's practicing for the nats. Gary Kemp was
flying his new Nimbus for the first time, and what a flight he had- nearly
300 miles (WSC to Walker to Mysterious Vly to Calistoga to Walker to Anthony
Pk to Yolla hill 8092, back down to Mysterious Vly, then over to Williams).
He was pleased with his flight and his new ship. He was the only
one of the big boys with a working GPS, as JJ, Gimmey and others were asking
him for winds, and distances periodically. I collected the flight
logs of several of the pilots, but didn't have the time to depict them
here for you, in fact I need to get over to the weather pages and see if
today is going to be any good - we had a change in the air mass again yesterday.
Much colder today, but breezy West winds are forecast by the TV news.
Let me mention a few other things, then I need to get going.
There were lots of other flights and good ones too. Henryick flew
the Libelle and Kenny did lots of training, rides and a few acro flights
- or were those on Sunday? In any case, Williams did nearly 30 tows on
Saturday - more than are done at a contest. It was good to see such
a good crowd out flying. Many of us went to Dinner later, Mike and
Diana arrived late - Mike took a flight, and then the two joined us for
dinner, and I hear they are heading over to Europe. I missed hearing
about that bit of news while they were at dinner! Sorry, no details.
I stayed overnite in the bunk room as did Key. We had breakfast in
the AM at Denny's, with JJ and Pat joining us. That was a nice event
also. JJ is negotiating his 1999 soaring schedule with the chariman,
so he was taking her to Calistoga Spas to encourage a positive attitude.
Sort of a sales day for JJ. I'm sure they both had a good day.
Sunday's flying started very late, as there were low clouds from the intruding
marine air. But by 3 PM, you could go anywhere in the valley, but not over
3 or 4,000 ft. and there were no clouds, only dust devils to guide you,
and the hills never worked all day.
All in all it was a fabulous soaring weekend. George T, came by
late on sunday as did Lucky Lady - Karol H. Georege had his bird
in the shop. Karol flew dual in the Discus Several of us had
Pizza at the house with Rex and Noelle and family.
I reviewed some of the TP's being used by Mike Schuster and Gary
Kemp. Key and I checked many against my list and the charts.
I revised the latest TP list for Williams yesterday. I'll post it
on the VSA TP page so you can use it if you want to. I have called this
version - WSC426.DAT that is my way to remember that it is the turnpoint
data for Williams Soaring center, and it was last revised on 4/26/99.
............
I just watched the TV weather - it looks like today ought to be a 500
k day - I gotta get ready to drive to the glider port. If you miss
today, be sure to watch for this thurs, fri, and sat, I think we are goind
to have a couple of 500 k days in the area. I plan to fly from Willimas
up until the Maother's day weekend - big contest weekend at WSC.
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Fri., 23 Apr 99, 4 PM. Last entry was Wed.
Wind is blowing again today, but it is looking good for the weekend.
I plan to send out a message to all pilots saying the following:
1. Most importantly, I wanted to mention the changes forecast in the
weather for this weekend. From the forecast Jet Stream and pressure
charts I just looked at, and looking at the Oakland sounding from this
morning, and considering the flow aloft is fcst to be from West to East
by sunday, we are in for a good day, if, and whenever, the
wind stops, and the flow changes to light westerlies. It could be
late tomorrow or on Sunday. I plan to be ready both days. Thought
I would share my optimism with you, just in case you haven't had a chance
to evaluate the weather charts today.
2. Activities reminders -
3. One final note - I have been working on the Turnpoints at both Williams
and Truckee. Visit the VSA web page for further info on that subject.
---------------------------------------------------
Wed, 21 Apr 99, 9 PM. Last entry was last Thurs
The weather continues to be miserable - soaring is non-existent.
Tomorrow the pressure lines are close together at both the surface and
at 18,000 and the resulting strong wind will be from the northeast.
However, the weekend does look promising- less wind and higher temps.
We'll probably have to take mountain tows, but that's all right. Of course
all of that assumes the weather charts are correct. They certainly
have been full of erroneous info lately. The forecast position of
the jet and the forecast pressure charts haven't even been close to what
subsequently transpires.
There have been updates to the turnpoint pages. Truckee has been
added.
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Thurs, 15 Apr 99, 8 PM. Last entry was this AM
Just had to check to see if it was any good today. Looking at the OAK
sounding for 5 pm this afternoon, I can see I was correct in my prog. That
inversion at 6,000 prevented even the warm air in the valley from ascending
the Mendicinos. Glad I didn't waste my time driving to the gliderport.
I
have to work this weekend, but the outlook doesn't look good anyway. The
jet is snaking up the coast, and after 48 hrs, there is a stronger jet
out in the Pacific doing another U-turn to the north. I figure it can only
get better! I plan to do a 500 k here in the valley at the end of next
week. Anybody care to join me? I've laid out the turnpoints on the planned
500 k section of the Williams Turnpoint web page. Drop me an email if you
might make it.
Thurs., 15 APR 1999, 10 AM. Last entry was last Tue
Miserable Wx! Yesterday it blew all day from the north. I reinstalled
my Cambridge S- Nav since repairs were made, and watched Ron and son Chris
work on their Pegasus. Paula fixed us lunch. Today I'm not even going out
to the Gliderport. Based on the Oakland sounding, it would have to get
up into the 90's to be any good, and we know that's not going to happen.
I'm looking fwd to the reports of the Geezer Glide. I think they might
have had a couple of good days, in spite of the terrible weather. We'll
wait an see.
Today I updated the VSA Home page and included info about the altitude
chamber. The address that was in the Feb. West Wind was not complete, so
you can see and go to the correct address on our home pages.
I also updated the Turnpoint pages. I think you will find the latest
version of the Williams turnpoints more useful. However, due to the weather,
I still haven't test flown those turnpoints.
---------------------------------------------------
Mon., 12 APR 1999, 9 AM. Last entry was last Thus
Heard yesterday was good in the PM at WSC - maybe we'll hear from Joe
Finley- he's flying today. I hope to go tomorrow.
I heard Rex is changing the format of the Doc Mayes Memorial spring
contest at WSC to something compatible with the Chico Distance Camp/ Peterson
Trophy. His proposals sound very promising and will undoubtedly be
well received. Stay tuned. Be sure to plan on attending the
combined event on May 7, 8, and 9. I'll have the latest version of
the GPS data base for Williams posted well before then.
Rex is also proposing a change to the PASCO Capture Trophy. Another
positive change. We'll see what the PASCO board does with that proposal.
It needs needs revision - so that Avenal, Byron, Truckee, Minden and Air
Sailing can be involved. His ideas on that subject also sound very
promising. Again, Stay Tuned!
I just received the updates on my Cambridge L-Nav/ S-Nav. Dave
Ellis has written a good explanation of how it now works. Be sure
to get your update, and be sure to read the document written by Ellis dated
Feb. 99 "Flying with L-Nav Version 5.7, etc." It's the best documentation
I've seen yet on the cambridge computers.
---------------------------------------------------
Thurs., 8 APR 1999, 9 AM. Last entry was Tue.
Went gliding yesterday. Arrived plenty early, but fiddled around
as usual and launched two hours later than I should have. Kenny told
me he had a good flight on Tue. in the Pegasus over to St. Helena, Indian
Ranch and return - no GPS on board, so no images to share. If one
of you has a good flight, and would like to share the image of the trace,
then capture/copy it in the buffer (alt+prnt screen) and then paste
it into a photo image program of some kind and then save it as a .jpg
After I finally got ready to fly yesterday, I talked to Mark and told
him I'd be extending my engine at 1,000 ft and starting it on tow, and
then shutting it down again at 2,000 ft. The purpose was to see if
it would show up on the Cambridge flight trace ok, which it did! Here is
the vertical trace from takeoff to release from tow. Now when I attempt
my 500 k, I will use this as a means of validating that the motor was not
used after release from tow. The green is climbing, blue is descending,
and red is when the motor is running.
There is a new sod runway just behind (about 1/2 mile northwest of)
the Three Sisters turnpoint. You can see by my flight trace ground
track that I almost used it . Lift was good near the Indian Vly Reservoir
(up to 8,000), and I had two low points which you can see on the vertical
display. One when within gliding range of Pope and the other near
Guinda - there is a sod runway 1/2 mile northwest of Guinda that I was
going to use, but then the wave began to work. Kenny was reporting
20 to 30 knot winds from the SSE at WSC. On the glide from Capay to Williams
I had at least a 30 knot tailwind! It was turbulent on descent between
1200 and 800 ft as the wind changed direction by nearly over 100 degrees!
I waited over an hour before derigging, but the wind was still blowing
at 10 to 15 kts. I had help from Kenny, Steve and Robert- thanks guys for
making it safe.
It was a good flight, covering less than 100 miles, but it was good
experience on reading clouds and seeing major surface wind shifts in each
different area of the flight
Weather looks poor for today, tomorrow (Friday) looks to be very unstable,
with more precip coming in on Sat- two days ago the fcst looked good
for sat, but not so any more. Sunday may still be a rainy day and
Monday looks good at the moment, but things change. Watch the jet
stream - see how the area to the east of us has changed in the last 48
hours from south to north over to a west to east flow pattern. These
storms are now passing through more quickly now that the jet has straightened
out.
Regarding Turnpoint flies. I spent lots more time revising the set that
I had been using. I've made a major revision in the one that was on the
TP Web page. I will call it revision version number 3 (WSCv3). Some TP's
are still off. e.g. Yesterday I could see that Indian Vly Reservoir Dam
was way off, as were some of the others. It is apparent that the coordinates
are from the old turnpoint book when we used to use photos - What we need
now are the coordinates of the landmark itself (the old photo target -
in this case the dam). I wish some of you would send me the data files
you use in your Cambridge datalogger for areas such as Byron, Avenal, Cal
City, Truckee and Minden, so I can put them on the TP web pages for others
(and myself) to use.
---------------------------------------------------
Tue., 6 APR 1999, 9 AM. Last entry was Sunday.
Tough to decide. Fly today with north wind, showers, or wait till tomorrow
with more of a nw flow on the surface, but rain approaching in mid afternoon.
This next weekend looks much better, but these next couple are are my days
off. Rats.
I spent lots of time redoing the diary pages, let me know if the latest
stored volume (ending mar 99) is unreadable.
I spent time making up a bunch of 500 k flights out of Williams. I hope
to post them to the turnpoints pages before too long. I need to get my
500 k diamond leg, and I hope to get it the last week of April flying from
Williams. Anyone else going to be around that last week in April to fly
from Williams?
The PASCO Spring Clinic is set up for the weekend of 22, 23 April at
Byron, hosted by NCSA, contact person is Bruce Roberts at brucer@rockie.nsc.com
and, the Geezer Glide (Western Seniors Compet) is starting this next weekend
at Phoenix (11 - 17th) contact is Ray Gimmey at rgimmey@pacbell.net
---------------------------------------------------
Easter Sunday, 4 April 1999. Preceding entry was Tue. 30 mar in the
previous volume.
I missed all of the action the last few days - had to go to work but
I did receive a report from Gary Kemp, which I'll share with you in a moment.
I saw a glider on the Vaca Ridge near the towers at around 2:30 this afternoon.
I wonder who that was?
We received a flyer from Elden H. about the Chico Distance Camp. Click
here to see a graphic flyer sent in by Elden which provides all the details.
The essence of it is that the Chico Distance Camp will be held on 7, 8
and 9 May, Steak BBQ and Slide show at $12 per person.
Here is the article we received from Gary K. Thank you Gary for a well
written article. I enjoyed reading it, and I'm sure others will enjoy it
as well. Click here to see a Photo of Gary Here's Gary's article:
----------------------------------------------------------------
And the Wind Did Blow
Today was the first day of the Air Rally at Williams, Friday April 2.
John Volkober in 13 took the first tow to the ridge and stayed local in
week lift for about 2 and 1/2 hours. I released near Williams at 2100 feet
and stayed local for about 2 hours, wind was blowing at about 17 mph.
John Shelton, was tired from a late night retrieve to Arvin and decided
to take a nap.
We discussed the weather and I mentioned that blowing wind did not always
indicate a poor day, but it had to blow after a frontal passage.
According to the progs we thought that tomorrow would be more stable but
that there might be lift in the mountains.
The next morning, Saturday, April 3, I looked outside as I awoke and
saw an overcast sky with the wind blowing briskly. This was at 6:00 AM.
As I puttered around getting ready to go to Williams (27 miles south for
me) I could see the cloud cover dissipating from the North and heard on
the radio that the Weather Service had issued a high wind warning, great,
but my ship was together from yesterday so off to Williams I went.
On the drive down I could see what looked like cumulus clouds beginning
to form over the mountains and in the Valley to the North (about 9:00 AM).
There was John Shelton and I at Williams when I got there and as we
stood around watching the wind gusting to 35 mph we could see a line of
cu forming over the first ridge to the west. Kenny said he would
give me a tow. I loaded up my gear and pushed out with a great deal
of help. Shelton mentioned I was making glider pilots look nuts by
flying. I launched at 10:45. A young man ran my wing and it
felt as if he held on to it (my first inclination was to do without a wing
runner, but he seemed to want to so I let him). Anyway, I soon found
myself heading for the hanger and as I reached for the release, Kenny and
the wind combined to pop me off the ground and apparently was airborne
and blown sideways over some trailers sitting there. It looked a
lot worse that it was I think but sufficient to discourage others from
flying.
We climbed rapidly through very turbulent air and it smoothed out about
2500 feet, I released just before the three sisters at 4000 feet and found
turbulent, disorganized lift that I was able to work to about 6500 feet.
At this point I headed towards the North end of Walker Ridge where there
is often a convergence working and where there was a line of cu.
I didn't find anything and had to scamper back to the valley encountering
a lot of sink I just cleared the ridge at 2500 feet. I again contacted
lift that got me back up and I headed towards Indian Ranch. Coming
out of Indian Ranch I contacted very good lift that eventually averaged
1100 feet a minute and took me to 11,000 feet which was cloud base.
I worked between 7 and 10 thousand feet most of the day. I flew to
Willows and then Corning averaging about 25 mph. I did find lift
as strong a couple of more times, once even bouncing to 1500 fpm.
It was very cold as I turned south and made the Sutter Buttes in about
15 minutes before returning to Williams. Bob Klemmedson was there
wanting to fly the Duo, but the towplane wouldn't start.
The flight was 5 hours and 10 minutes and could have been longer.
As to the weather, the only thing I can think of is that we had a frontal
passage which brought in very cold and unstable air. I have run south
to near Bakersfield in these conditions but caught the front and was not
able to proceed further. I think the same would have happened today.
It would be interesting to know.
Remember, just because the wind is blowing doesn't mean that it won't
be good. I flew for 5 + hours and 140 miles and experienced the some
of the strongest lift and highest cloud bases that I have ever had in 20
years of Valley soaring.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Tue., 30 Mar, 1999
This was the date of the last entry in the preceding volume
of the Diary.
Tue, 25 May 1999, 3 PM, last entry was a week ago.
"John Volkber had the longest handicapped flight of 245/230 for the
Chico Distance camp of the flights that was turned in. This Distance Camp
had the longest flights that we have had in years."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Gary Kemp" <gkemp@glenncounty.net>
To: "Peter Kelly" <pjkelly@community.net>
Subject: May 19
Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 21:38:55 -0700
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: 25 May 1999
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 14:56:47 -0700
From: doug quan <dquan@idmail.com>
To: pjkelly@community.net
Subject: request for info
Hi there,
I was just browsing through your website and thought you might be able
to help me out. I'm with a television program called Storm Warning
on
the Discovery Channel. We're based out of Vancouver, Canada. We're
currently looking into doing a segment on an incident involving a glider
in the U.K. that was struck by lightning, forcing its two occupants
to
parachute to safety. In order to effectively tell their amazing story,
we need to find some footage of gliders flying near thunderclouds,
shot
either from the ground or from the plane. If you are aware of anyone
in
possession of this kind of footage, I'd appreciate hearing back from
you.
Thank you for your help,
Douglas Quan
------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
John Volkber had the longest handicapped flight of 245/230 for the
Chico Distance Camp of the flights that was turned in. This Distance Camp
had the longest flights that we have had in years.
--------------------------
Congrats to John V.
Dale Bush -
541-535-8187
b. 1999 Air Sailing Thermal Camp - June 7-11
Rolf Peterson
- rolfpete@aol.com
c. 1999 Standard Class Nats- June 15-24
Elden Hinkle
- ehinkle@aol.com
d. Air Sailing Sports Contest - June 28-July 3,
Dick Horn -
DJH2@ix.netcom.com
Wed, 19 May 1999, 8 AM, last entry was a this past Sunday.
Sun, 16 May 1999, 11PM, last entry was a week ago.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Gary Kemp"
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 21:31:27 -0700
To: Peter Kelly
---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
Also, I corrected the Williams data base again, and reloaded it - calling
this one WSC428.DAT, which is file name shorthand for "Willliams
Soaring Center 4/24/99. Database
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 22:35:49 EDT
Subject: Soaring at Williams.
To: pjkelly@community.net
Hey Pete.
Just a note about today's soaring. Around
10:30, the sky was
completly
obscured except for the NW which was littered with lenticulars over
Snow
Mountain. Winds on the ground were SE at 15, gusting to 25 and
obviously,
winds aloft were westerly. I took a tow with a student at 11:15
and
contacted wave over Three Sisters and climbed quickly to 8000' and
proceeded
to Walker Ridge where we found the primary. We landed soon after
and I sent
him (Dave McKay) back up solo. He proceeded to find the wave and
climb to
14000' which he was still climbing at 500ft a minute. While this was
taking
place, the Maxwell sheer was moving through the area and there were
climb
rates in excess of 1000' per minute in the sheer. Not a bad
day. Hope to
see you up here soon.
Kenny Price
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
PASCO Spring Soaring Clinic is this weekend at Byron.
The Chico Distance Camp is coming up - 7, 8, and 9 May at Williams.
The Doc Mayes Fun Contest is also that same time, and the winner
is now recognized by the Doc Mayes Trophy Award. It is now
based upon the distance only. Whoever logs the most cumulative/total
miles while flying from Williams during the three day period - 7, 8, and
9 May - using the Chico Distance Camp/ Peterson Award Criteria and rules,
wins the Doc Mayes Trophy Award. (The Peterson is for the
longest single flight during that 3 day period).
The Avenal Contest is May 13- 16, and
The PASCO League Meet is at Crazy Creek 15, 16 and 22, 23 May.
by
Gary Kemp
To visit previous editions, go to
psdinfo.html
Valley Soaring Association (VSA)