This Soaring Diary begins in March 2000
and ends in May 2000To see a previous volume, click here and you'll see a selection of dates
(they go back in time at least two years).
(This link will also tell you what this diary is all about)Editor and publisher - Peter Kelly
Reports in each Diary are provided by soaring enthusiasts from all over the world
(In chronological reverse order)@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Mon May 1---7AM
This is the largest size of any previous diary volume. It's time to start a new one and archive this set of notes. But, before I do, we have announcments, and a few more reports we received. One is from Rick and the other is from John - both about the flying the end of last week, and a note about yesterday.Announcements-
PASCO League Meet # 1 at Williams - May 6, 7
See-- Tony Gaechter- (408)867-2182 h
Tony-gaechter@worldnet.att.netChico Distance Camp/ Doc Mayes Memorial Fun Contest
At Williams - 12,13, and 14 May
Chico Soaring Club and Williams invites you to come and enjoy-
Briefing each morning, BBQ Saturday nite, prestigious trophies to be awarded-
Please RSVP to Noelle at (530) 473-5600Avenal Contest - May 17 - 21st
See -- Dan Gudgel - (559) 924-7134 h
dgudgel@cnetech.com
or Mario - (559) 251-7933Those of you that flew on Sat and didn't show up on Sun didn't miss anything. It was just more of the same. I made it over to 3 sisters, up to 3,300 ft, and soared locally for about two hours - doing practice mini-cross-country tasks. It was a good day for training.
Here's the report by Rick--
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Cross-Country Wave Flight in the Duo
By Rick OgdenLately I’ve been frustrated about my rotten luck as far as soaring goes. I’m a weekend flyer who always seems to miss the good weekends. I took this week off from work and dedicated it to nothing but soaring. Monday was pretty good - able to get to 5,000 ft local in shear lift. Tues looked awesome but the glider port was closed. (There goes my rotten luck, again!) Wed, I took the Duo to the mountains with my wife Kathryn; we got no higher than 5,800 at Walker Ridge.
Thursday morning in Fairfield, the winds were blowing fairly hard at 20 mph from the WSW. I called Rex for a weather report: “It’s blowin’ pretty good and the clouds are moving in.” Knowing that Rex is a man of few words I asked him if there was wave today. “Oh yeah, I think I heard someone on the radio mention it.”
At the glider port Kenny said the there was indeed wave working but it was still “thermally” and turbulent. He suggested it probably wasn't a good day to take up first time passengers due to the possible turbulence, so Kathyrn and I decided I'd go solo.
I released from tow at about 2,000 with the rear seat in the Duo empty. I scratched around for a while, trying to work my way to a healthy-looking cloudbank to the West. The clouds weren’t moving but the air certainly was—blowing out of the SW at about 30 kts! When I finally made it to the windward side of the clouds, I found myself in 8 to 10 kt Lift. Before I knew it I was at 7,000 and still climbing like a rocket. By 8,000 ft, the vario settled down to 3-4 kt and things were becoming glassy smooth. The day very much resembled a wave flight I had with Sergio in Jan of 1999. That day, we took the Ask 21 to Berryessa dam. I thought I’d try and do the same thing this time and pointed my nose in that direction. After several minutes I checked to see my progress…my GPS reads only 8 miles from Williams. ‘Darn thing is broken! I looked down and there’s the glider port almost directly below me! It was really blowing up there. I scrubbed the cross-country mission and decided to go for altitude. At 11,000 the wave lost energy and I decided to penetrate to the West and see what if there were others. I dropped the Duo’s nose to 90 kts and easily broke the lee wave sink and found myself going up again at 7 kts. This time I rode it up it 14,000-- as high as I can legally go without oxygen. When I turned out of it, I was still going up at 4kts! When I got back to 12,000, I was amazed at the performance of the Duo when I traversed from one wave to another so I decided to make another go at distance. I trimmed the airspeed to about 80 kts and headed south. Occasionally, I would find myself drifting to the East and would have to leapfrog toward a more westerly wave. I was very surprised of the harmonics of the wave. They seemed to be only about 5 miles apart. Going from one wave to another was an easy task in the Duo. (‘sounds like a commercial!)
Berryessa was under a shroud of clouds so I aimed toward Vacaville. I found Nut Tree Airport and decided to make my turn there. Over northern Vacaville I was now out of the wave and descending. For a low-time pilot this was a little intimidating: flying in sink 45 miles from home in an area that is known for heavy, lumbering military traffic. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I made my turn at a little over 9,000 ft (to my recollection). If I actually made it to Nut Tree only the GPS knows. I did not get a chance to down load it.
The trip back was relaxing and a piece of cake. I kept my airspeed between 70 and 80 kts. As you can imagine with that tailwind, I got back in no time. At one point I was cruising at 90 kts with the vario pegged upward in perfectly smooth air. That summed up what kind of day it was, and what a beautiful machine the Duo Discus is! BTW, I wore nothing but sweat pants, a tee shirt and sneakers and I was perfectly comfortable. (The glider is airtight!) I was in the air for 3.5 hours.
What about Kathryn? She kept herself busy by helping Peter wax his trailer and making champagne runs.
As far a my rotten luck is concerned—I live near a first class glider operation with first class gliders located in an area with first class weather conditions. Most importantly, I’m married to someone who whole-heartedly supports my obsession with flying. I’m not lucky…I’m blessed.
Jim Dark said it best when I overheard him say; “No mortal man should have this much fun!” I am having fun!
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-------------------------------------------And here is the report by John Kahrs--
(John mentions that one wing is heavier than the other, which I discovered on my ship also, and was thinking aloud about it when someone mentioned that one wing has a differently shaped spar that the other wing - at least on the DG)---------------------------------------------
Maiden Flight in The New Discus - a pretty good day!
By John KahrsI drove up to Williams on Wednesday evening with the paperwork for my
new glider, a Discus CS. I had Rex install the instruments and he made
an appointment for the FSDO inspector to come up the following morning
to get the C of A and sign it off.When I walked into the hangar, there she sat, all put together. It was
actually the first time I'd seen it assembled. I walked around the
other side to check out the panel. It looked fantastic. The last time I
saw it was a featureless piece of pale green fiberglass. Now it looked
like something off the set of "The Matrix"- a symmetrical array of glass
disks arranged in a dark gray field punctuated by dozens of black screw
heads. Steve was apparently unsatisfied with the humdrum steel bolts
that held the panel to the tilt-up frame and so replaced them with these
cool black allen head bolts. I guess this sort of thing is typical of
his attention to detail. All in all, a very businesslike and uncluttered
panel.After a break for dinner, they broke out the scales and weighed it.
They raised the tail to level it, which made it look pretty cool,
sitting there poised in flight attitude. We discovered that one wing is
about 4 lbs. heavier than the other, something that was noted in the
factory papers but about which nothing was done. Curious. Maybe their
tolerance for wing weight difference is 4.0001 lbs. If it's ok with
them, well . . .The FSDO inspector was scheduled to arrive at 8 AM, so we were up early
the next day. Rex finished up the weight and balance sheet. I was
skulking around like a nervous cat, taking pictures, cleaning the dust
off the glider and otherwise being useless and getting in the way.
Steve showed me the gliders being worked on in the shop, including an
Open Cirrus and an irreparable-looking Pik that looked as if it had
literally exploded in flight. Mister FSDO finally arrived at 11:30, and
the whole process took probably less than an hour to inspect, pore over,
stamp, sign, re-placard and bless the machine. He was quite an
agreeable fellow.A nice wave had set up right over the airport, I was getting eager to
fly. I was now legally permitted to do so. I began taping the wings. By
this time I had grown accustomed to Rex's bone dry sense of humor. "You
believe this guy? Spends 50 dollars an hour shop time just to tape up
his glider. Boy, when he says money is no object, he means it!" Or
another one: "I'll just tape over your pitot inlet here as well. It's
important to get accustomed to flying without airspeed info right from
the start." I used up half a roll of tape learning the hard way how
tricky it is to seal the underside of a Discus wing root. I removed the
winglets and put the standard tips on. I figure I'll try the winglets
when I'm able to feel the difference. The standard tips are these cool
little curved corners that flip up and outward, completing the crescent
shape of the Discus wing. Rex mentioned that he'd heard it's one of the
only gliders that winglets don't make much difference on.Rex opened the hangar doors and rolled it out. We pushed it to the
flight line. I put on a chute and hopped in. Rex did a quick check out,
and I ran through the checklist. Thumbs up and wiggled the rudder. I
distinctly remember the tail wheel coming up and a few seconds going by
before it lifted off. I remember reading somewhere about the wing
incidence of the Discus that made the take-off roll a bit different. I
was concentrating pretty hard with a quartering tailwind. I remember it
occurring to me that it was my very own glider only after I was airborne
for a minute or two.I released too early and scraped around about town for about 10 minutes
before coming in. There was a moderate crosswind blowing. I suppose I
made an adequate first landing. I pushed around to wait for the towplane
and Peter Kelly took a break from waxing his trailer to come over and
chat. He took some pictures of me sitting in the cockpit with these
dramatic roll clouds behind me. He offered some advice about the wave.
"Just tow up to the leading edge of that cloud there and it'll take you
right up. Why fight it, right?"He was right. This time I got off at the right time and went up like an
elevator between the two cloud rolls. Very satisfying to effortlessly
rise in that smooth lift. About 10-15 minutes later I was up to 11
thousand. Rex would periodically check up on me on the radio. That was
nice of him. I did some slow flight and stalls (obvious buffet,
predictable and gentle), some steep turns. I cranked it up to 100 knots
and ran up and down the wave, high over the clouds. It looked
completely closed in over Crazy Creek, and Goat and Snow Mountains had
these rough cloud domes roiling over them to mark where they were.
Pretty dramatic weather, nothing like I've ever seen or flown in before.
I poked around just south of Arbuckle, then traversed to the next wave
upwind. I think it was better and more organized downwind, at least it
looked that way, but it was still easy to work. I dawdled over the
Three Sisters and then to the edge of Indian reservoir and the foothills
leading up to Goat Mt., then headed home. I really did dawdle- I was up
for almost two and a half hours. I headed back and did some mediocre
chandelles on the way. The glider handles beautifully. Easy to fly. It
probably thinks having me at the wheel is an insult to its refined
sensibilities. I kept looking out at the wings, envisioning the airflow
slipping cleanly off those little crescent tips I had just taped.
Couldn't have asked for better conditions to familiarize myself with a
new sailplane. That is, until . . .Kenny came on the radio saying winds were directly across the runway at
7 gusting to 17. A few seconds later I descended into the rotor that
had been pleasantly absent on the way up. I'll admit I was getting a bit
puckered. I was on the downwind leg crabbing at a nearly 45 degree
angle, looking down at the sock sticking straight out. On final, I'm
pushing and pushing the rudder to slip. I've got it pushed to full
deflection and that's just enough. I happened to glance at the airspeed
indicator, whose needle is swinging maniacally from 75 to 25 knots and
back again within a second. Then some weird dust devil puts me
completely out of whack about 60 feet over the runway. I'm thinking,
"This is it. This is how my first day with the glider ends." I really
felt utterly helpless for about 3 full seconds. I pulled it together
again and things chilled out as I settled in abeam the trailers and put
it down. I think the conditions were perhaps a bit beyond the capability
of both myself and the aircraft.When I open up the canopy, I see Rex, Peter Kelly, Kenny and all the
other pilots walking towards me with a bottle of champagne and plastic
cups. I jump out and start running like a headless chicken to get my
tailwheel, freaked out because the glider's sitting in the middle of the
runway. Nobody cared about that.
"Hey! Where ya goin?"
"I gotta get my tailwheel!"
"Tailwheel? Nah, nah, get back over there. We gotta get some
pictures here."They were obviously less concerned about it than I was.
Rex popped the cork about 20 feet high and poured the champagne, Peter
Kelly and Kathryn Ogden took a bunch of pictures, I shook hands and dribbled some bubbly over the "bow". I relaxed a little, and soon felt pretty good,
especially after having landed in that bitch of a crosswind. It was nice
for them to do that, you know? They didn't have to.Tom Seliger (who's transitioning from hang gliders) was a big help
de-rigging the ship, something neither of us had done before, but we
didn't break nuthin'. Then Rex, Kenny, Tom, Pat Page and I went out for a burger and beer in town. Kenny kept egging on Rex to tell more flying stories, and so he did. Everyone told stories, except me. I just listened. Before we knew it, it was 10 o'clock.I thought it was a pretty good day.
John Kahrs
kahrs@pixar.com
510.620.3486
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Sun Apr 30----8AM
Yesterday was Valley only, just as today will be. Yesterday started out with a strong north wind, just as I had forecasted at 11AM on Tuesday the 25th - the forecast charts were uncannily accurate this time. Any way, the winds quit mid-afternoon, also as forecasted, and the soaring was so-so up to 3,500 ft. No one landed out, lots of people (probably 15 ships, about 9 or 10 privates), most stayed for the BBQ.Wx for today - temps aloft are too stable to go to the mountains. Valley thermals will be there but not organized due to the lack of a wind flow pattern from the sfc up. There may be an easterly component over williams at 3,000, sfc wind will probably be south east but very light, becoming south west by 5 pm. Day will start early and end late, but not much over 4,000 ft. All this if the forecast charts remain accurate.
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Sat Apr 29----8AM
Yesterday Sergio, Bob K, JimD in that order took off went north from goat went to Mt Shasta area - Sergio actually went around it, or so I think I heard, others a little short, and then all returned home to Williams. Key, Pat Page, and I went south. I started at 3 sisters, then Pope Vly, then Budweiser plant Cordelia, then Travis AFB / center of the runways, then angwin, then Ukiah, then Loran tower at crazy creek, and home to WSC. Pat came back from the vaca-fairfiled area and came up the valley, Key came back up to Ukiah with me, but got stuck coming back to Crazy Creek area and had to land at Lampson- so he had an aero retrieve. I'm sure the combined total of miles flown by the six of us well over 1,000 miles, and the fact that some we ranged both north and south as well as to the west attests to the variety of flying that is going on. It was just an OK day - no one was over 7,000 to the south and those north only got to 10 or so.Today looks good- norht flow on the east side of the valley dying off to westerly flow in the PM - Tomorrow looks better than today - especially for a mountain tow.
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Thu Apr 27 ----10pm
Several things make me write tonight.
I started cleaning waxing and buffing my trailer today, and Kathryn asks ... "...can I help?" I was so taken aback, all I could think of was Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence. I did have an extra spounge, wax and a buffing machine, and she just went right to work. Three hours later her husband Rick returned from his record stetting flight and by that time we were entirely done. Thank you Kathryn. The trailer looks like new!Speaking of Rick - he went to over 14,000 today in strong wave. Pat Page made it to 13,000 and went south to Lake Bereyessa and back. John Kahrs flew his new Discus for the first time, made it to over 10,000 and we celebrated Johns flight with a champagne toast - photos to follow - stay tuned.
Kenny had some good flight with students - Tome Seeliger and PJ Kelly, both of whom had to fight some good crosswinds in the pattern. A good day for training.
Weather for tomorrow looks awesome - I plan to go early and stay late. Key D. is going to use a vacation day, so he'll be there by 10 or 11... I'll probably load up with water and put on the long wings just to try to stay up with Key.
Wx for Sat doesn't look bad - maybe the wind won't swing aroung to a north wind until after 6 PM. So there is hope for Saturday - but friday looks better.
Last week or so Kenny went over to Crazy Creek and captured the egg..details to follow. Here are some photos. Kenny and ---- at Crazy Creek , and , Kenny and ----after landing back at Williams ....still showing off the egg.
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Thu Apr 27 ----8 AM
Charlie T. added the combined tracks to the display on his site. That is, you can see the track from both Jim and I on the same rendering - the overhead/ plan view is the most revealing and impressive - you can see where we used the same thermals, and where we were on different courses. See it at:
http://www.soar-high.com/charlie/Soaring/3d/PKelly/index.htmlJim D. put those same tracks from that Apr 21st flight on top of a sectional - he combined the SFO with the Klamath Falls sectionals. For those of you that are used to reading sectionals, that display probably has more meaning than the topographical display - but not as neat. - click here to see the sectional with the tracks on top of it
Regards to the weather - I took a quick look at today (I'm going toWSC to wax the trailer) and I see the bottom of the low will come past us this afternoon - at all levels (300mb, 700mb, and 1000mb).
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Tue Apr 25 ----11 AM
I gotta get away from this computer and get some work done, but... after I closed out those last remarks I just had to take a look at the long range forecasts. In the process I revised my soaring weather forecast page. The MRF section of the UNISYS page gives us the 2 to 10 day forecasts. Bottom line---- I see wave over northern Ca sometime late Thurs/ Fri, and a north wind over the north part of the sacto valley for sat. but all that could change. keep an eye on those weather charts - learn how to read them. the wind blows parallel to the isobars (generally).They even have little arrows on the charts. Know the pressure levels (850 mb is 5,000, 300mb is 30,000, etc). Let the upper level air charts guide you in your forecasts. I think I'm going to try to go flying on Friday based on what I see on todays forecast charts - because sat doesn't look promising at this point - not with that north easterly flow - but all that can change with a wiggle in the jet stream.--------------------------------------------------------------
Tue Apr 25 ----8 AM
Friends, for those of you poor buggers stuck in an office somewhere, reading this diary, don't give up hope - all is not lost - the weekend is coming. TV weather people say there is a disturbance coming through on Thurs and Friday - of course they only say that sort of thing to keep you interested enough to tune in again later in the week - that's what they are in business for!, but there may be a break in the existing pattern of high pressure. If so, then the weekend could be good soaring - see you saturday at Williams.This is jim's version of what happened last Friday. It is a much better written than my gut reaction account that I had written (and I though he only knew how to do graphics). Jim has several neat software programs that help him to do comprehensive post-flight analysis, as I am sure many of you have seen. This is worth reading, and it may prove useful to you if you remember the advice that Jim quotes from JJ. Oh, and another point, note the fallacy of group thinking, each of us thought the other sounded confident just before final glide! Jim, thanks for taking the time to write it up, I know it is appreciated by all the readers, and it is meaningful because you pass on some good advice.
Here is Jim's story---------------------------------------
It Was A Good Friday
By Jim DarkeReading Peter K's forecast at lunch on Thursday and looking at the cu that were at least 3,000' above the ridge line while driving home that evening was just too much to bear. The decision was easy, Good Friday was to be a vacation day and some sort of a long distance soaring venture had to be attempted.
Took a mountain tow from Williams, released at about 6,000' and headed for the usual spot on the spine that leads up to Goat Mt. It was working and the thermal felt good. There is something about catching the first thermal that sets the tone for the whole day. After puttering around Goat for a little while, Peter and I both made a start from Letz Lake at 12:30.
Moving north over familiar terrain the lift was solid between 7 and 9,000'. At T-16 (75sm NW of Williams) it was time to head out over some new terrain. Peter was about 5 minutes ahead of me as we headed north on the ridge that is west of the Whiskeytown reservoir. The lift was still solid and topping out at around 9,000' as we headed out over new territory. North of Lake Shasta, I stumbled around a little bit, worrying because it sounded like JJ & Elden were about to catch us in their improved and even bigger ASH-25. Peter graciously came back and waited for me until I had exorcised those demons. Then we continued north to a point just south of the impressive rock face at Castle Craig and turned east into even more unfamiliar territory. At a little after 3:00PM we caught a nice thermal 10 miles SSE of Dunsmuir. The top of the lift was now up to around 9,500', which was good because the ground was also going up.
Our plan was to go east, get on the Sierra and see how far south we could go. The best clouds at this point were also east of us, so all seemed well. But the further we went the more things remained the same. After about 45 minutes of heading east, the best clouds were still to the east. After some extended conversation about our exact location and probable course, we found ourselves over Fall River Mills at around 8,000'. It was now about 4:00PM. Since we no longer had each other in sight, there was more radio traffic about who was where and what was what. Now those good clouds off to the east weren't looking so good. In fact, the clouds to the southeast had rain coming out of them. East was no longer the way to go. We headed south over terrain that consisted entirely of rocks and trees. Pretty scenery, but rocks and trees were all there was to look at as we slowly descended heading south looking for lift.
Radio traffic decreased with our altitude. Finally at around 7,000', 20 miles northeast of Mt Lassen, there was a good bump that turned into 3 knots under the edge of a black cloud. After a few turns, things were comfortable enough to search around and find Peter a couple of miles away in a different thermal. Upon reaching 10,000', we continued south towards Chester. Now the scenery was truly spectacular. The cinder cone 10 miles NE of Mt Lassen is almost completely symmetrical, covered with snow and made an impressive sight as it slid by off the right wing tip.
Five miles north of the airport at Chester at 10,000' it was decision time (5:30PM). Chester was a sure thing. Quincy appeared doable. But the Cambridge box said that Red Bluff was 53 statute miles away and could be reached even with a 10 knot head wind. Of course the black box didn't know or care about the ridge that ran south from Mt Lassen about 15 miles out into the blue from where we were. There appeared to be a couple of little cu that were cycling on top of it. OK. Here's the plan. Peter sounds confident (read his description to find out why). The box says we can make Red Bluff. Eyeball says we can clear the ridge. There is a fair probability of lift near it. If there is strong sink, we can swing a little to the right through the pass and follow the highway down to the flat land. About 15 somewhat nervous minutes later, there was a gentle bump that turned into a 'last of the day' large weak bubble of a thermal. It gave me about 700' and confidence that the plan was going to work. Peter was just enough lower than I was that he missed the bubble that allowed me to resume normal breathing. I watch him work the area just below me until the thermal died completely and I began to sink. Deciding that descending to Peter's altitude would do little to help him, I committed to the glide. One basic thing that I have learned from working with a glide computer, is that if you commit to a glide that may turn out to be fairly close, the best thing is to fly the correct heading and speeds and don't mess with uncertain lift along the way. JJ says, "Trim it up just right and then don't touch anything." That's what I did and it worked. I managed to avoid the temptation to try and gain 'just a little more of a cushion' in some of the smooth almost laminar almost rising air I encountered along the way.
It was hard to spot the airport in the setting sun. I was a little surprised to see Peter appear from underneath my right wing at least 7 or 800' lower than I was. Not sure what I would have done at his altitude. Worried a lot more, I guess.
All's well that ends well. We both landed safely. The ever-reliable Kenny Price retrieved me in the Pawnee. Peter started his engine and we all headed safely home. The flight was not any sort of a distance record, but it is one of the more interesting ones that I have shared with Peter. It was definitely a team effort. There is no way that any pilot (with the possible exception of Sergio, the Italian ironman) would have been at all comfortable that far out in the boonies without a wingman. At one point Peter remarked, "One Bravo, we are very far from home now." I checked the GPS and we were about 140 statute miles out of Williams. I'll take Peter on my wing any day.
The numbers look like this:
Location Distance
SMTime Speed
MPHRemarks Letz Lake - - - Easy Starting Point T-16 (6757) 58 1+11 47 Peak 5613 (SE Dunsmir) 69 1+30 44.8 Tried to take photos here Fall River Mills (town) 41 0+55 44.8 Peak 8375 (N Chester) 36 1+12 29 Speed indicates how much fun we were having Red Bluff AP 57 1+10 44 Final glide Totals 263 5+58 44 Slow Average
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Mon Apr 24 ----10 PM
Folks, Charlie T has done it again. Take a look at his 3-dimensional renderings of the flight that Jim and I took last Friday, April 21. Each change in color is a new hour. We landed at Red Bluff, but didn't depower the GPS, so it is all one file- all the way back to WSC. I did one climb to 4,000 or so and a second climb to 5,000 in order to get from Red Bluff to Williams (just before dark). You can see on my trace during the flight that a couple of times I went back on the course just so Jim and I would be flying with Jim - I wouldn't want to be out in those boonies unless I had a wingman! I crossed back from the east back to the west side of I-5 just north of Lake Shasta, and then after Fall River Mills, I told Jim I was flying a track of 110 deg to the distant clouds, but I was reading XTE rather than Track - Yeh, yeh, I'm instrument rated, but I'm not as familiar as I should be with those Cambrige screens.
Then Jim had to wait for me a few miles south while I caught up to him. Get a look at that final glide - yes, we were descending at the same rate as the terrain!!Jm has written a piece about the flight from his perspective, but I haen't gotten it yet - maybe tomorrow. See Jim's flight at:
http://www.soar-high.com/charlie/Soaring/3d/JDarke/index.html
And see my flight at---, but look at April 21st ( my Flight around Round Valley the previous week) is also there....
http://www.soar-high.com/charlie/Soaring/3d/PKelly/index.html
Thanks again Charlie for doing these presentations.
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Mon Apr 24 ---- mid- afternoon.
We received the following debrief from Elden. Thanks Elden, I know everyone appreciates seeing your report, so I will say thank you from the other readers.
Here is Elden's report------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 13:17:19 EDT
Subject: Great weekend at Williams
Peter,
Great flight you and Jim D had on friday, JJ and I also had a good flight,
Launched at 12:30 and fumbled for what seamed like 30 minutes before we found
our first thermal to 7500 and headed toward Snow Mountain. As you know there
were good clouds all the way to Whisky res. where we turned east to cross
the valley. We went as far as the town of Redding when we thought better of
it and headed back to the west hills and back to Williams - really a great day.Then on Saturday Art Clark was to fly the Chico Clubs Jantar and JJ son,
John, to fly the ASH.(sounds like bad planning on my part)So I helped Art
assemble the Jantar and I noticed that Dean was flying the Duo Discus by
himself so I sarted standing real close to him, you know like Rex's dogs do
when you are eating your lunch. He finally asked me if I wanted to go along!
We had a great flight, Dean ridge soared the first ridge up to Capay Valley
all between 2500-3000' before he found a good thermal and we got to cloud
base. We headed on down to Berryessa Dam. We turned east to Yolo with some
discussion on where we really were, it is sure nice when they print the name
on the runway (there ought to be a law) and followed the clouds north to
Woodland on to the Sutter Buttes north to the big town of Princeton where
we turned to the west to Willows and back north to Artois. We heard Peter D. say
he was at Mawell so we headed toward him. We climbed above 6,000 ft, averaged as high 8.5 (what a thermal) flew out over Stoneyford then back to Williams
Another great day thanks to Dean and 5H.Elden
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Sat 22 Apr 00 -- 11 PM
Today was another great day. Incredible. I passed Peter Deane (w/ Dave Greenhill in right seat) on I-5, on the way to Williams. Got there and Jim D was showing everyone our flight trace from yesterday, lots of congrats all around from those looking at the trace - you can expect to see that trace on this page sometime this week. Jim shot some photos, so you will be treated to them as well. Any way, I printed out the diary entry from this morning and passed it around confidently. And sure enough, we had good lift in the valley to 5,000, and only Sergio went to the mountains. He got above 9000 just one time - and was operating around 8000 most of the day - see the forecsat charts are accurate (sometimes )!!! I wish some of you would commit to giving a forecast. How 'bout it?? No sense me hogging all the glory.So, Jim D. was launched first and headed south from Colusa, Dean went down the ridge towards Bessa Dam, and got stuck near the bush with the red berries (as if we were supposed to know where that was).But then he turned the dam at bessa, turned Yolo airport, headed north past williams, turned Princeton, and I don't know where else. He (and Elden) were having a good day - as they always do. Peter D and Dave G headed south turned Woodland, then bessa dam, and went north, Peter wandered incommunicado further north, and then finally returned after dave had landed. I missed getting a photo of his pass - mostly because he didn't announce he was coming!! Jim D turned Woodland, back to Sutter Buttes, turned Bessa Dam then back to WSC, Key and I started at Colusa, then woodland bessa dam and home.
Diana had her first two hour flight, and when Rex, who was flying the Dou (Delta Delta), called her on the radio, she always had the window open, so that all you could hear was wind noise - It was a funny conversation as Rex asked her if the window was open and then she closed it, but complained about the heat. you had to have been there. JJ flew as Art Clark, all getting good flts. Like I said - it was a super day. Sergio made it almost to Hayfork - all below 9,000 ft!! Sumner had a good day doing triangles around n-s and e-w away from williams, practicing going from one TP to another. Nathan had a long flight in the Junior, and Keny was getting in some good instruction time. I met Pat who was taking her first flt in the K-21 - she had been flying at Warner Springs with Bret and Karen.Later about 15 of us went to dinner in Arbuckle. The whole day was relaxed and not intense - very enjoyable for all.
Let me finish that story about yesterday - the long flight that Jim and I took. so there we were......, at 10,000 ft....., just north of Almanor, easy glide for the landing at Chester, jim was suggesting that we go to Quicny ( and thus spend the night in a motel) (and get a tow out in the AM - maybe), but we finally decided to try to crest the sierras for the glide to Red Bluff. Jim had 200 ft on me as we headed west towards the crest. There were some scraps, and jim then had another 500 on me - he headed for Red Bluff - I was not concentrating, worried about the glide into that wind. I hadn't used my motor since we started out on course, even though we were both low at one point east of Lassen. But now I was concerned about the glide. I headed west with about 5 to 800 less than Jim - and I chose to follow the highway that comes out of the south end of Lassen thru the gap. I was flying too fast maybe. Any way, I passed Jim about 5 miles east of RBL, and I was over 1,000 ft below him. he was doing good - no need to worry about him anymore. I didn't make it. I was in a position to make a right base leg turn (with a 200 ft wings level final), landing downwind to the north on rwy 34, all without the correct unicom freq. It wasn't worth the risk. I should have gotten that other 5 to 800 ft some 40 miles back, before I started that stressful final glide over unlandable terrain. I gave the day to Jim and started my motor about 1/4 mile short of the field, climbed up 800 ft and did a normal pattern and landing. Jim had enough altitude to do a few 360's while I made my pattern and then he came in triumphiantly - as was his due. Good flying Jim! And congrats Jim, on probably holding the new record for the longest flight out of Williams. Maybe not the most total miles, but the most miles without doubling back on course, I'm sure. How 'bout it Gary K? Have you flown that many miles - one way before - out of Williams?
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Sat 22 Apr 00 -- 8 AM
I just finished the wx analysis - it took me about 20 minutes. I'll brief you in the order I did it, and show you my notes. I'll list the product, and then my observations--Sounding - OAK 5 AM - westerly flow all the way up, low level moisture - that explains the clouds, generally stable with tow inversions - one at 7k and other at 11k, if 60 deg at 3,000 at stony ford, only getting to 8,000 - probably have some wave.300mb (on each chart I looked at 5 am then 5 pm - the 12 and the 24 hr fcst.)jet NW > 80 kts by 5 pm500mb divergence overhead, NW winds, higher vorticity to N part of Calif700mb westerly flow, vert velocity 1 to 3 in nw Calif, decreasing by 5 pm850mb flow WNW, cool air approaching, visby ought to be good.1000mb temps in the hi 40's well inland, all marine air, that explains the low clouds, westerlies continue thru 5 pm, I'd say we might be able to work the middle of the mendicinos coming home, if we ever get north today, there will be major sink on the east side of the hills over Diamond M, etc,Doesn't look like we'll get high today - unless it's in wave. Today is not a good day, little thermals on the hills, certainly I don't ecpect to get over 9,000 in thermals. If I didn't have my bird sitting out, I would probably stay home and do yard work. I could have seen this last night (just as you could have), but I was too tired to check it. but I had such a great flight yesterday, but it was totally exhausting. Wtih regards to todays trip to the gliderport... See, you should learn to do your own soaring weather analysis. Practice. You would have seen this all last night.
But Wait......, let me check the soundings forecast.........maybe there'll be lift in the Valley!
Looking at the forecast soundings 7 am thru 2 pm today for sacramento, it says, if 64 deg, then thermals to 4,000 ft, on the 11 AM chart, if 68 deg on the 2 pm chart, then thermals to over 5000 ft. And each thermal will have a cu on top of it! All of this if the soundings ar accurately forecasted!!! Based on all this - I'll be arriving at the gliderport about 10:30 AM, and launch after we see the solid cu's around noon. Glad I evaluated the valley weather. Sometimes I get tunnel vision - looking only at the Mendicinos.Fly safely, Peter.
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Sat 22 Apr 00 -- 7 AM
Well yesterday was special. I selflaunched climbed to 3 miles nw of the field to 2500 ft glided over to sites, inflight restart at 1000 ft , climbed to 3,500 or so, glided over to the top of Century ranch (which still looks landable), restarted and climbed from 2,500 to 4,500 ft, and shut down in a 3 kt thermal over the ridge junction SE of Boys ranch. Jim D was already at 7,000 making his way to the top of Goat. He passed me on tow over the canal and released at 6,000. We each explored the top of Goat, but there was no lift on top or the west side. Back to the East side of Goat, we used Lets Lake as a starting point. We moved easily to the north, operating between 9,000 and 7,000. At T-16 abeam Red Bluff we decided to try going around the north end of the valley and down the sierras, and either dropping back off the top of the hills at Quincy over to Orville and into Williams, or spending the night at either Chester on Lake Almanor, Quincy or Truckee. We were on an adventure, and were prepared to spend the night out somewhere at a motel, and the arrange for an aerotow for Jim in the AM.We passed north around Wiskeytown Reservoir, North around Lake Shasta, Stayed on the west side of I-5 until 10 miles south of Dunsmir, then finally headed east under good lift, took some photos of me in a thermal with Mt Shasta in the background just south of McCloud, made the turn to the south by passing nearly overhead Falls River Mills (good size runway). There was lots of precip about 30 miles East of Lassen National Park, so as we moved south towards Lake Almanor we operated between the precip and the high ground of Lassen. We passed well east of Bearny Peak, Crater Peak, Mt Lassen, and finally made it to the NW corner of Lake Almanor. With 10,000 ft we tried to move west to get a pump up off some wispy clouds over the crest of the sierra, and then glide into Red Bluff nearly 50 miles west of our position.Wind was from the West! I was super nervous. Jim was acting very confident.
I'll finish this story later. Gotta check the weather for today. I left my bird out, and I need to get back up there early, because I may be blocking some other gliders. I was the last one on the ground last night at Williams. Right now (7 AM) there are low clouds and a breeze blowing. What's happening?
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Thurs 20 Apr 00 --6:45 PM
Jim D just called - he saw the same thing today as I saw -
Good lift from Vacaville north as far as the eye could see. Cloud base probably 5 to 6,000 over bessa dam, and higher to the north.
We are both going to fly out of Williams tomorrow - Friday as well as Sat.
Gotta go - too many chores to do between now and 6 AM.
I'll report back on Monday probably.--------------------------------------------------------------
Thurs 20 Apr 00 --11 AM
Just received a note from Dale T at Air Sailing. He has provided us with a report of progress and plans at Air Sailing - Click here to take a look at Dale's fine report.--------------------------------------------------------------
Thurs 20 Apr 00Really trying to catch up. Key advised me that the Nov 99 to Mar 00 diary got lost is cyberspace - I've fixed that, and it is now indexed on the Diary Info page. (see link at top of this page).
I plan to go gliding on Sat, 22 April. I just looked at five different weather charts. Each one was a 60 hour fcst, using my links to the UNISYS pages on my weather page. Here is what I saw on each product for Sat at 12Z which is 5 AM local time Saturday morning. This is "long range" forecasting, so give me a break!!!#@!
My plans are are the end of the analysis. I review each product, one at a time.30k- 300 mb - Strong jet overhead from about 300 degrees
18k- 500 mb - divergence over the mendicinos westerly flow - probably good lift
10k - 700mb - divergence over mendicinos, vertical velocity 0, and -4 in San Jauquin Vly - bad soaring at Avenal, good over mendicinos.
5k - 850mb - Westerly flow still exists, It's looking good, I'm getting excited... - lets try to turn Mt Lassen, or at least Shasta Dam or Hayfork!! If we hit Lassen, probably come back on the East side of the valley. I'd expect a south to SW wind over Orville.
Sfc - 1000mb - Convergence from Ft Bragg to Oregon along the coast - temp patterns indicate inversion will exist in the sacto valley. I suspect a south east wind at williams will exist during early afternoon, feeding the lift on the ridges/ mountains to the west. Southerly flow will meet the westerly wind at 5 pm and the Maxwell shear ought to set up. I'd say that after we return from Shasta or Hayfork (it'll be late), then we ought to depart St John's at 10,000 ft, cross over maxwell at 9,000, Cross Colusa at 8,000, then if we still have daylight, use Rumsey gap as our final glide back to Williams. If we push to Lassen, then the final glide will be from the Oroville area. Don't know if I'll load with water ballast, we'll have to look at the soundings on sat AM to decide the strength of the lift, but a mountain tow is probably going to be required. Maybe we can do dual tows - but maybe not if we are going to carry water. Probably better, if there are more than four of us, and only two tow planes, that we plan on no water and dual tows! More than two mountain tow launches puts too much separation between us- about 30 minutes between releases off of tow.
That's my plan and I'm sticking to it - unless the weather doesn't turn out as it is forecast to be.
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Wed 19 Apr 00Been out of touch for a week, so we have some catching up to do!
Email from Kenny about soaring at Williams - I'll insert some dates so you can see which days Kenny is referring to. I'll put Kenny's report after Jim's, since it is older.More recently, we received a graphic and a written report from Jim D about his flight in the valley on Saturday April 15. Here is Jim's report first --
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To: pjkelly@community.net
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 10:16:11 -0700
Subject: Saturday's FlightsPeter
Had a nice flight with Joe Findley Saturday. Nothing special, just puttering
around the valley for 3.3Hrs. Although it was somewhat overcast there were cu's
underneath that worked. The lift was from 2-4,000' and for the most part was
there when needed. Bob Ireland did manage to landout at Gunnersfield and had some difficulty on takeoff which neccesitated a ground retrieve.
I know you prefer words to pictures, but let me know if the attached is
readable. The red track is Joe's flight, the green one is mine. The turnpoints
are yours. I have shrunk it to 137K.
Jim
------------------------------------As ususal, Jim has managed to produce an excellent graphic. You can see that Jim and Joe pretty much flew together the entire flight, ranging south then east, and then north of Williams. It's amazing to see they flew nearly identical groundtracks much of the time, and you can see that Jim made a bee line for home (green line east side of Maxwell) and was probably in the box by the time Joe landed. Here is the graphic (about 87k) in size.
Here is Kenny's report--
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Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 10:35:11 -0700
To: pjkelly@community.netHi Peter,
It has been a very good soaring week at Williams (Apr 10-14) with many student
duration and altitude personal records being made. Wednesday (April 12), we had
thermal and shearline flying in the early part of the day and later I
was able to clearly show a student how a wave is generated and form with
a classic line of lennies and the lift and sink bands from here to the
Walker ridge, we got to 10,500. The rest of the week has been
outstanding and today, friday(Apr 13) is no exception, Sergio is here as well as
Bob Ireland and they are planning good flights. Spring is here!!
Regards,
Kenny Price
----------------------------------------------Kenny later described those lennies to me - Primary over three sisters, secondary over charters, terciary over caldwells. I can just imagine what it looked like. It sounded spectacular. Kenny has a video of it from one of his students.
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Thurs 13 Apr 00
Those photos and grahics from yesterday looked so good that I decided to post a few more for you to see.
Here is Kenny bringing the wing out of the trailer, and here he is holding the wing up waiting for me to put the pins in to hold it together. And here is one of Marc Ramsey getting ready to fly, with Kempton Izuno transferring his ship from his old trailer to his brand new Cobra trailer.--------------------------------------------------------------
Wed 12 Apr 00 - 9 PM
I just received an email from Charlie Thaeler. He has done a "rendering" of the flights that Bob and I each flew on sunday in the Mendicinos. The color of the trace changes on the hour, thus, my flight starts out in light green, and then changes to dark blue. The dark blue represents from 1 PM to 2 PM. and each subsequent hour is a different color. Charlie's rendering certainly gives you a perspective of the terrain just West of Williams -- really awesome! Check it out.... Charlie has on overhead view and a 3d view of each flight. see my flight at--http://www.soar-high.com/charlie/Soaring/3d/PKelly/index.html
and see Bob's flight at --
http://www.soar-high.com/charlie/Soaring/3d/BKorves/index.html
Charlie - thanks for doing the graphics - really spectacular.
Now you, the reader, can see what we are talking about. When you are at Snow mountain or at St John's at 6,000 ft, you can see why you are within easy glide range of Williams, some 20 plus miles away. The Mendicinos are impressive, because they rise from nearly sea level to over 7,000 ft.
Just to go along with that, here is a photo I took on sunday just before I made that bee line for williams (the red line) I snapped this photo of myself as I was waiting for Bob to come from the Gold mines ( I was going to intercept him, and fly back to Williams with him), and then I snapped this photo of the clouds that were still over Goat Mountain (just above my wingtip), Snow Mtn, and the hills to the north (that's the norhtwest edge of Indian Vly reservoir close in on the right side of the photo).
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Wed 12 Apr 00
My comments about weather forecasting of soaring conditions. After this past week of forecasting, and flying, I have concluded that the models which are used to predict temps aloft in the Sacramento Valley, up through about 6,000 ft are not accurate, as they do not sufficiently, if at all, take into account the unique local geographic conditions which alter the normal behaviors of the atmospere at the lower levels. Meaning? I will continue to look at forecast pressure charts, but air temps and wind patterns from 6,000 ft down to the surface must be predicted by the soaring pilot - from experience. I recommend you become familiar with the UNISYS products I have outlined on my weather page so that you have a feel about trends in the upper air movement, and combine that knowledge with your best instincts about local generation of thermals so that YOU can predict lift below 6,000 ft.We had a report from Gary Kemp about a good flight he had on Monday. He wasn't able to make it this past weekend, but he sure had a longer flight on Monday than any of us experienced over the last week. He went up past Ruth. Take a look at your Klamath Falls sectional - you can see the reservoir on the mad river he mentions. Up there he is closer to Eureka than he is to Red Bluff!! I guess we need to add a few more turnpoints that are way up north to the Williams database so we can plot where Gary flys to. It would be great to see Gary, Sergio, Bob K, Jim D, Peter D, Ray G, Paul K, and lots of others all on the same schedule one day. We could have Letz Lake set up as the start line, Hayfork or T-15 as the northern turnoint and each have a last tp to the south that is commensurate with their glider handicapp, so that they SHOULD all finsih at the same time. That would be a classic race to watch on the computer screen. Can somebody come up with the distance numbers?? - based on the type of ships each of these pilots fly? I think maybe we should use T-15 (just east of Ruth) as the northern point. That way we don't have to wait for that 1 in 100 day when the soaring conditions are just right. Next we need to know which type of ship each is flying, so we can look up the handicap values, then can agree on the distance each pilot has to fly that day. Let's specify Alder Springs as the last FIXED turnpoint coming back southbound, and then leave it up to each pilot to select a necessary turnpoint (based on the total distance requred to be flown for his type ship) at the far south end so that each flys the required distance before he lands back at Williams for the finish! Jim and Peter D fly the ASW-20A, Sergio the Discus, Gary? Paul the Standard Libelle?, Ray?, Bob the Duo, me in the DG800B, etc.. Can someone complete the list and come up with each of the handicapps? This would be a better race than the usual of everyone flying a fixed distance and then handicapping the speed. And, the Mendicino race course really allows for this type of race very well. Any comments? Anybody want to send me the ship types with the handicapps?
Here is Gary's report for Monday, Apr 10---
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Towed off at
12:30 from Williams and released at 3000 feet, in the Valley, I was chicken
because there were no cu, it was pretty good and I climbed to 3700 feet,
over the Cortina ridge, up to 5500 feet then on to Walker ridge, still no
cu. Up to about 6000 feet and moved towards Goat Mountain, where I ridge
soared, until I could pick a thermal up to get on top. Up to the top, over
to Snow Mt. and one little cu, just to the west. I got to 9000 feet, and
there were sporadic cu to the North with a well defined but short street
over the end of the range where I got to 10800 feet, then to Ruth and West
to the Mad River Reservoir. Hayfork was under shadow from some cirrus and I
waited around a bit to run out and back about 30 miles with no cu. Back to
the cu and South to Rumsey Gap and home. Landed at 6:15 and about 285
miles. Nothing over about 5 kts. but I thought the day was better than I
was.Gary Kemp
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Sun 9 Apr 00 - 10 PM
It was a great day, you should have been there.
Several others showed up - Peter D in 2T, Bryan in 9Z, and some couldn't make it - 1B, CP, but there was a fair crowd, with Bob K in 5H, me in PK, Sergio in C2, Bob I in MJ, Rick in Junior RM, Mac from Minnesota flew w/ Rex in the Duo in DD, JJ in Super Albatross, Elden in 9T, Sumner in LU, etc.
Sergio loaded up with water, and then Peter D did same, so I took the time to load also. As Sergio said - it was contagious. I was nearly last off, launcing at 12:55 - which was still too early. We all circled below 3,000 for over 30 minutes before is started to work - yes I think all of us dumped the water in the first 30 minutes. I headed over to the north end of Bear Vly at 3,000 then towards Indian Ranch Airport before getting up to 4,000 then climbed goat, just north of the IV Reservoir. It took 1 hour and 20 minutes from takeoff to get to Goat. From there I headed North, and abeam St John's at 9,000 ft, I then cruised over Hull Mtn, then past Sanhedrin, and then Round Valley airport arriving there at 5,000 ft, and never stopped to thermal even once on that 45 minute leg that was over 40 miles long! I turned over the top of Round Vly Airport and headed towards T-15 but couldn't make it. On that leg, I thermaled with a herd or flock of Monarch Butterflies - that was a first for me. Bob Korves was returning from Yolla Bolla Wilderness, and it was nearing 4 PM, so I used Anthony Peak as my northern Turnpoint. From Anthony down south to Hwy 20/Hwy 16 south of Indian Vly res, I averaged over 60 MPH on that 60 mile leg. Bob K was heading for home so I did the same. I plan to have a few of the flight logs from todays flying up and available later this week. Probably won't get one from, 2T because he was held down because he chose to go north on the east side of the mendicinos, but it wasn't working. He did report that he ridge soared from 3 sisters down to Rumsey Gap, just cruising and porpoising just above the trees along the ridge. He said the scenery was spectacular. We probably won't get any traces from C2 or 9Z either since they each landed out in Bear Valley, and had to get ground retrieved. But is was a good day, and everyone, especially me, really enjoyed it. Stay tuned for some graphics later in the week. I am in the cue at Charlie's place.--------------------------------------------------------------
Sun 9 Apr 00 - 7 AM
Just finished evaluatiing the wx charts. Today will be even better than yesterday, and it will extend all the way down to the vaca hills, and all the way up to red bluff. Cloud base over RBL will be about 5,000, looking at temp dew point lines. Thermals along ridge will be more of the same as yesterday of 600 to 800 fpm. I don't think we'll see much above 11,000, but I think it'll be solid lift all day for a 500 k attempt, and the maxwell shear ought to be working by around 5 PM.--------------------------------------------------------------
Sat. 8 Apr 00 - 9 PM
Fantastic day! The weather was just as forecast to be. Read what I said in the AM today. 1B launced first, everyone was taking a mountain tow, Duo 5H w/ Bob K as PIC was next, the K-21 was doing training, there were a couple of tow planes operating. Sergio launched, I self launched, Bob I was up, Cindy, Steve, I think even Rex was airborne today. Joe Fin, showed up along with George Marinos, good to see those guys again. Ray G was flying the duo today. JJ had his super albatross - Elden launced in the big bird (Jantar) from the Chico club. Sergio and I each turned around at T-15 - up past Red Bluff in the hills. I was up to 10,500 ft back at St John's, so I went over to the Sutter buttes, and then rode the maxwell shear to back to Rumsey. I was intercepted by Kenny and Marsha returning home from Rumsey, so I cruised home with them.Tomorrow, if the fcst is accurate, ought to start early and end late. No north wind expected, and it shouldn't be strong in any case, so it ought to be good. Sergio, Cindy, JJ, Jim and I will be there, as I'm sure lots of others will be.
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Sat. 8 Apr 00 - 8 AM
Too much time on my hands? Just checked the wx again after yesterday's up close and personal encounter. The Low was centered off the CA/OR border at 5 am, by 5 PM it wll be over North half of Nevada. It'll be drawing south winds up the valley today, with the westerly flow pickiing up later, and by 1 or 2 pm the upper air will become less stable. If you are north along the mendicinos it should be good in the late afternoon. If only it had moved through 6 - 8 hours earlier, we could have had an early start and made the turn at Trinity center at Lake shasta. It's too stable up to 5,000 to do much in the early part of the day today.No new flight reports received.
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Fri. 7 Apr 00 - 10 PM
Miserable day. The Cambridge is dead. "Seal Broken" it says when I try to upload or download anything. I used the new software that I had downloaded on the 15th of March, but that is already out of date - that is probably what gave me a "seal broken" indication. Get version 5.882e I got it from Rex - Steve actually. Jim D had downloaded it from the net last Saturday with Sergio.Any way I fiddled with that while waiting for the day to devolop. I was showing Kenny the wx pages, and saw the problem. The upper air didn't move at all as forecasted. Wind at 5,000 never came out of the east, lower and upper levels were supposed to be westerly. Everything was out of the south - thus a land breeze up the valley, not a sea breeze. There was nothing out of the west. Fact is there was no breeze at all, with no direction to the flow. The convergence areas at the lower levels that were forecast didn't materialize. The divergence at the upper levels didn't happen, because that low off the coast just moved in an easterly direction, quicker than forecasted.
I launched around one. Bob I. and Carl were there also. Lesson learned - you can't trust the forecasts. There was lift in the valley up to 3,500 or so. The top of the inversion at 4,000 or so was visible from the mountains. I went into free flight mode at the north end of the Walker Ridge at 4,000, climbed to 5,500, made my way up goat and up to 7,500. Went around the west side of snow, up to 9,000 next to St John's, topped back up to 9,500 and 10,000 passing Alder Springs, Black Butte, Anthony Pk, then came back to WSC doing a final glide to williams from 48 nautical miles, at 10,000 ft. Climbed in a Rice fire from 1200 back up to 1800 when 7 miles out.
Shasta and Lassen were cleraly visible. There was an area of cu over shasta reservoir. Gotta start looking ot those charts the night berore each flight, so we can establish some sense of what to watch for. Some of you ought to be able to provide input and comments. Go to the wx pages, see what level of vorticity at 10,000 is required to give us good lift along the hills! Look for those convergence areas on the 1,000 mb charts, etc. Let's see what works.
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Thurs. 6 Apr 00 - 11 PM
Just got off work, I came over the sierras at 8 PM- I could see shasta when crossing Mono, as well as Fresno at the same time - i.e. good visibility. I Just checked the wx charts on my wx page - http://www.community.net/~soaring/tswxlst.html and here is what I saw-For tomorrow, fri-
30,000 a divergence - that's good for lift - with jet above N Calif on Sunday.
18,000 vorticity of 10 in AM but less in the PM
10,000 vorticity less than 2 in the am, but 3 in PM
5,000 Convergence along coast N of bay area. Winds from east at this one level - they'll be bringing warm air to the mendicinos in the PM, with a possible convergence over the hills.
1,000 mb - Vaca hills good in AM, Shasta area and mono lake areas good in PM
Current soundings and forecast soundings all look good.The Plan for tomorrow-
Launch out of Williams no later than 11 am - head south to bessa towers, on way back past gold mines at noon, expect thermals to 5,000ft., take the split at Walker, go up goat, expect thermals to 9,000 over snow by 1:30, run north to T-15, maybe even weaverville - thermals along mendicinos may be 12 to 14 k. If wind shifts, could come back to williams via the east side of the valley over quincy, but more likely, just come south over alder springs, cruising at 12 to 14,000.Wishful thinking? Probably. I don't have a lot of experience with these new wx charts. But I'll report back tomorrow nite, and let you know what I found.
Good night, gotta get some sleep for tomorrow's flight.No flight reports received from anyone.
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Wed, 5 Apr 00Had a note from Gary G. about his flight yesterday, and also an inquiry about my new weather page from Andy L.. I've put a link at top and bottom of this page so people can find their way around a bit easier...., more to follow.
I've been looking at the new wx pages and have added a few more notes to help me sort out the products. Looks like Friday will be good on the east side of the Sacramento Valley, up into the Sierras, of course I'll have to look at it the night before, but the 3 day forecasts show, ascending air at 18,000, high vorticity at 10,000, divergence at 30,000 - all good signs.
Here's Gary's report:
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We self-launched out of Sonoma Skypark and motored to 5000 feet since there
was nothing . Drifted over to Calistoga and hit rotors over the town and
eventually got up to 12,700 feet. Went through beaucoup biennial flight review maneuvers and then floated down the Napa Valley and eventually landed back at Skypark after four hours of pure and joyful gliding or drifting whatever one can
call it. Just a great day. The views were fabulous.
Regards, Gary
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Tue, 4 Apr 00We received a flight report about last weekend from John Kahrs, thank you John.
Here it is, edited for publication. I left in the comments about the good training as a testimony to the quality of training found there at Williams.
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I had four flights on Saturday with Rex. An expensive journey
back to proficiency with 3 flights in the Duo Discus, then a
checkout/short flight in the Junior. Practically nobody was there. It
was unusually hot, and there were valley thermals pushing up through a
stiff 15-20 kt Northwest wind that made for good pattern planning. The
lift was up to about 3200 ft. Fragmented but workable, but it didn't
last long into the afternoon. By the time I got into the Junior it was
only bubbling up to 1200 feet or so, and the multitude of fires
throughout the valley illustrated the winds clearly. I imagine Sunday
was when everyone else showed up because the winds had abated.Rex was getting me to plan my patterns and landings more
definitively, as if each one could have been a landout, and make
definite touchdown and stop points based not only on imaginary paddock
sizes, but also simply in terms of how far we had to schlep the gliders
back to the tiedowns after we came to a stop. It was a good,
safety-minded way to start the season.John Kahrs
kahrs@pixar.com
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Mon 3 Apr 00Looks like the weather has been miserable for soaring - no reports received. I've been away..., I just finished my biennial - a little more comprehensive than what most glider pilots complete, but then again I have a different job, but it does count for my glider flying biennial - engine fires, loss of hydraulics, handflown single engine approaches and missed approaches in the weather, non-precision as well as precision down to 50 ft ceiling, etc..
I redid the weather page. Bob Ireland showed me a neat page a week ago, so I put it on my weather page - the one I use for forecasting. I use the wx page as a file of bookmarks. You can use it too. With this new link from Bob, you can predict soundings, and therefore, predict thermals. I have lots of other new pages there also.
On another note, did you see the how well the Univ of Conn Ladies basketball did in the NCAA finals on Sunday nite? - my daughter was cheering them on.
GPS- On something I found out the hard way. If you have a Cambridge Datalogger, and you try to download your flight and review it, you will be disappointed when you try, unless you have the new Y2K compliant software. Go to the web site at cambridge and get it, or see me, or ask Rex for a copy. It takes two floppy disks to hold the revised software.
I think I can go soaring on this Friday - the weather may be good.
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Wed 29 Mar 00Recv'd the following note from Gary K. - it certainly serves as a motivator, and tells you what you are missing--
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Peter: Soaring season has begun . On Friday (March 24th), previous to the weekend, I flew 224 miles in a little less than 4 hours, down to Bessa Dam and then
North back over Walker Ridge, between Goat and Snow Mountain, around to the
back side looking over Gravelly Valley and then North to near Round Valley.
The cloud base was much higher to the West, got to 9500 feet. Met Ray
Gimmey at Hull Mountain before turning for home. A good day.Yesterday, the 28the was much more consistent, took off at 10 minutes to
11:00, was slow getting to the airport, could have gone an hour earlier.
Flew again, down to the Dam, back up to the Towers, over to Crazy Creek,
back to 5 ponds, then North to Indian Ranch and Willows, straight down the
Valley to a street running West of Capay Valley, back to the towers. Met up
with Kenny in the Duo and then North to the 3 sisters and East to Colusa.
Lift was quite dependable as I flew 5 hours and 272 miles, cloudbase was
6000 feet.Gary
-----------------------Thanks from all of us for that report Gary. How 'bout some of you other pilots that just flew a local flight? Tell us about it!
Another comment about the last weekend - I didn't mention, but the dinner was awesome - and of course I ate too much food AND deserts. It was a good social event. And you should see the new hangar - it's hard to believe you're at a gliderport. All indoors, with heat, lights, etc. Plenty of tables and benches. A First Class operation there at Williams.
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Tue 28 Mar 00You missed a nice weekend at Williams. Sergio- safety chairman for PASCO, had arranged speakers for both Sat and Sunday. Excellent talks! Thank you Sergio for putting in all of that time and effort. Flying on Sat was poor - hills worked for a couple who took long tows - Sergio and Dean, maybe some others. The rest of us stayed in the valley, flew up to 2,800 ft. Some of the pro's covered some distance - going from williams to maxwell to arbuckle, etc. Several very local flights as well. Sunday was much better. Lift started at top of Walker, I made it to T-15, but couldn't get home. Sergio made it from Goat to t-15 and back, Gimmey turned around near Anthony, as did Peter Deane. Lots of othrs had good flights too. Maybe some will write to us - but I won't hold my breather waiting to receive the reports.
This next weekend looks good - soaring season has definitely begun.
We got another up date to the experience page http://www.community.net/~soaring/tsgpe.html
- send in YOUR stats! Pilots are telling me they appreciate seeing what the other people are flying - even though the data is skewed way off - most people only fly a few hours a year! But we may never know for sure, since few people are sending in their info.---------------------------------------------------------------
Mon 20 Mar 00Yesterday turned out to be a good day. The actual jet was quite different than that forecast. There was a 5 mile long wave cloud from a NW wind about over Indian Ranch. By 1 PM the wave went and thermals appeared - it was looking good.
Sergio took off, followed by Bob Ireland, Carl was helping with the launches, I think he flew, Steve and Dean had to flight test the Duo - 5H, I launched and climbed right over the field to 2500 ft. We all went to Walker, south to esparto, sergio went on to Nut Tree Vacaville, I went over the bessa twrs, gold mines, almost to Goat, and home. It was good.I've received one input from a low time pilot for the experiences page. If you logged any time at all in 1999, I'd apreciate having your stats. Peter.
Next weekend is the seminar weekend at Williams - it ought to be good, see you there.
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Sun 19 Mar 00We received a report from Gary Kemp - from all the readers, Gary, thank you for the report. PS- please send me the Lat Long for the Solar Panels - I'll make it a turnpoint. We could use one more starting point over there on the first ridge.
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Here is Gary's report--Peter: I was able to fly on Friday the 17th, released at 3200' near the
first ridge. Lift was strange, it would show 10 kts and when you turned it
would disappear. Got up to 6000' on the ridge at my favorite house thermal
over the solar panels, crossed to Walker, couldn't find anything, then North
to East Park Reservoir and back to Rumsey for 120 miles. Sergio took a 7000
foot tow to Goat Mt. and flew from there to around St. Johns. I was up for
about 3.5 hours.Saturday, quite a bit of activity, most of the tows went to Walker and I
went to my favorite spot on the first ridge, got to Walker and then up to
Goat Mt. where I got to 8500' (Top for the Year), then North to the clouds
(foolers, no lift) finally to Diamond M ranch and out to the Valley, I found
some lift but was at 2500 feet over Willows and marginal to Williams, and I
didn't relish landing 1000 lbs in a muddy field so I called my son and
landed at Willows, he brought me back to Williams. Lots of flying going on,
I would guess more than 10 pilots. Jim Darke was kind of filling in for the
operation and I know he gave at least one checkout to Cyndy Donovan .
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Sat 18 Mar 00Just returned from a two day trip - had a layover in ABQ - Albuquerque. Took a cab to the convention ctr at 4:15PM saw both display rooms of the SSA Convention, met lots of people, they closed it up at 5:15. Said hello to Pete and Charm Williams, Agnes Spiendelberger, Jerry P, of Winpilot, Bob Seamans, saw Oliver -DG, Dave Ellis, Frank Reid, had cocktials with Rex, Noelle, and Kenny, Dinner with same as well as John and Pat Sinclair.
Just checked the wx for tomorrow - spent a total of 15 minutes. Looks like dry thermals, not a great day, not very unstable, but may be soarable over the hills. wind NNW at 10 kts. It's my day to go soaring, so I'm going.
Had a few reports I want to share--
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Jim Darke writes about 14 March
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Thanks for the updates.
Had a fairly nice flight on Sunday with the first PK, 7V, 2T & somebody in the
Duo. Tow to Walker, about 6K there, on to Goat, 7K at the look out tower, north
towards St Johns, no lift, back to the spine on Goat, up to the tower, back to
Walker & meander home. 2.3Hrs. Not bad for the first flight of the year in the
20.
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Mike Schuster writes---
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Saturday 11/March turned out to be fun at Hollister. I logged almost three
hours with two tows. On the first tow I was taken straight out toward the west
and couldn't quite scratch my way back to the hills on the east. I took
another tow closer to the hills and the obvious lift. Winds were light and I
found quite a few small convergences with stepped cloud bases
throughout the afternoon. I flew mostly between Henry Coe park
to the north and a little past Quien Sabe valley to the south. Later
in the day I decided to try crossing the valley to the west to Fremont
Peak. That turned out to be easy and I got my highest climb to 5000
there in a multiple stepped cloud base convergence. My averager
mostly read 2 knots during the day but in one convergence I was able
to get it to read just over 4 for a few circles. It was fun although I was
feeling a bit rusty at flying. There is quite a bit of powered traffic
at Hollister, more so than at Minden (but no jets), so you have to deal
with that in the pattern.
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Gary Gammal writes --
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I went on a two hour flight Sunday March 12.
The lift was scratchy but stayed between 2-4 knots. I self-launched out of
Sonoma Skypark and headed West towards Novato and the closed Hamilton Field
(which is still landable) so that I would have some place to land if I ran
out of lift and could not re-start. Then headed north-west to Point Reyes and
a short way up the coast hoping to spot the whale migration (nada).
I did a restart over Bodega Bay to gain a couple thosand feet so that I could reach the Santa Rosa airport if I failed to find any more lift to get me home.
Turned Southeast towards Santa Rosa and picked up enough lift and landing fields to get back toSonoma.
------------------------------Those are three excellent debriefs, on behalf of all the readers, thanks to each of you.
Anybody else have any flights?
Have you sent in your statistics for 1999 to me yet? (flying time totals for 1999) We need a few of the 10 and 15 hour pilots to send in their stats to get the averages to where they should be. So far we have only heard from the high time pilots.
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Sergio sent out this msg to all --
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MINISAFETYSEMINAR
at Williams Airport, the last weekend of this month of March,
Saturday/Sunday 25/26.Four powerful topics by four dynamic presenters:
Saturday
9.00 AM: Sergio Colacevich "Check the Speed"
10.00 AM: Gary Kemp "Flying in the Coast Range"
Sunday
9.00 AM: Richard Pearl "It's a Small Thing"
10.00 AM: Peter Deane "Racing Across Country"
Two hours seminar in the morning, fly in the afternoon.Saturday evening, Williams barbecue grill in operation: Take your own meat,
and a side dish to share with friends. You can spend the night at the
airport, by making a reservation (530)473-5600 (no, it is not a new hotel,
again old good Rex and family accomodating the honorable guests, showing
their famous hospitality).The forecast is for bright skies, clouds of a crisp white, ground
aggressively green. Fly the ridge; soar above the Three Sisters; ride the wave to 18,000'; try the unique dual tow to the mountains: if you try, you can fly above the snow (Peter Deane and Ray Gimmey did that just yesterday). But all this may
happen, if you boldly hit the road and travel to WILLIAMS! Williams,
Williams, the place to be, the place to share with friends, the place to fly
in March 25/26, 2000!
Everybody will be there, don't miss it - they are all gossipers, and they'll
love to talk about you if you are absent!For more info, please call Sergio Colacevich:
Home (916) 967-5710,
Work (916) 274-5874.
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Mon 13 Mar 00Started a new web page today called TASKS. You can visit it at
http://www.community.net/~soaring/tstasks.htmlSend in your tasks, and I'll add them to the list. Also, send in a few words about each - as to why you think each one is a good task, i.e. why have you selected/ constructed this particular task?
No reports received in last few days - maybe this past weekend wasn't any good. I did get Task lists from Gary - I've posted some of it on the new web page mentioned above.
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Sat 11 Mar 00 This is the date of the first entry in this Diary.Today was probably a good soaring day. I am spending the weekend at Tahoe- without a sailplane.
This whole soaring diary thing needs more participation. Many pilots read this, I realize that, but it's difficult to write meaningful dialogue without input from you. Like, why didn't you send in your flying time for last year? Are you ashamed or embarrassed that you only flew a few hours? Who gives a dam. The purpose of the exercise is to let other pilots see what pilots fly each year. It isn't a brag board. It's a pilot experience log. There are no names, and the only identification of the pilot is what state did he/she fly in. I think the pilot experience page of the Soaring Tips will prove useful. What do you think? See it at http://www.community.net/~soaring/tsgpe.html
How about some personal opinions? This diary needs some personal opinions to be real. Nice if it relates to soaring, and I do serve as editor, so I will avoid publishing anything that is slanderous, but short of that, why don't you send some email to me.
I have an opinion about weather forecasting =
Why should I bother to share me opinions about which day is going to be a good day? Do you analyze the charts? Too tough? What's the problem? What is it that you find difficult? Send in a email that tells everyone why you find it difficult to forecast. Maybe some of the other readers will be able to help. One comment that this may solicit, is who gives a hoot. You can only go out to fly when you can get the time, so why bother to forecast? If it doesn't look good you won't go. That sounds ok for average weekend, but wx forecasting is a skill that requires practice, so if you don't practice, you won't be have the skill when you need it. A lot if times my forecast is nothing more than watching the local weather report, because I get so few days to go to the glider port - I just go if there is even a chance of some lift.I keep changing my wx web page because I use it as my bookmarks. So no matter what computer I am at, I can go to those same familiar links. At the same time, I figure many of you readers will use it the same way, and thus you too can do a forecast at a moments notice - if you practice.
Opinion about flying reports=
Throughout the year - for the past several years, I continually get positive comments about the diary, and the most positive comments come from the flying reports. So don't be selfish. If you read this, then make a contribution. No body gives a hoot if it was a lousy flight. Just a few lines that say you went flying, is news. Send it in!!Opinion about events=
Debriefs on soaring events are most worthwhile. I took some heat from a couple of people about my comments about egos in a recent set of remarks - life goes on.Opinions about turnpoints=
It takes hundreds of hours of work to get a TP database up to speed. Surely you have some comments about the info in the database - if you ever use it. Jim and I have spent lots of time on both the Truckee/Minden/ Air Sailing database, as well as the Williams/Crazy Creek one. If you use any of these, and you see any TP's or landing sites that need further qualification, or adjustment, then send the comments to me. John Leibacher has evaluated every landing site in our databases using a map program. Lots of communications between John, Jim and I have resulted in the data bases for this area, that you see on John's web site. Don't hesitate to send in your comments, or supplementary info.
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