This Soaring Diary begins in June 2000
and ends in August 2000

To 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

(Click here to jump to the bottom of this page - to see links to other pages)

Reports in each Diary are provided by soaring enthusiasts from all over the world
(In chronological reverse order)

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

This will be the last entry for this volume of the Diary.  Next volume will start with the next entry.  If the volumes get too big, they take too long to load on your computer, so we keep them short.

I received a message from Mike Green - he's looking for someone to fly with him in the Duo at Montague at the end of August. See his message at the end of this entry.  The Regionals are looking good. It sounds like lots of people are going, and Jim Darke is going to be the CD - he loves the role of being the big boss.  I heard just today that MG, C2, and PS are all committed to participate.  Some of us might go up a few days early just to get reaquainted with the area.  Who ever heard of starting a contest on a wednesday anyhow?  But it's a good thing.  At least those of us that have the previous weekend available can get there early.

Also got a debrief from Key on how he made it back to Truckee - that too follows at the end of this entry.

I had finally made it to the Gerlach Dash.  This was the third annual.  It is always held in mid-August.  There is a start gate at Air Sailing, each self enrolled contestant comes through the start gate, the gate keeper writes down your time, then you go as fast as you can to the assigned turnpoints, go through the finish gate at Gerlach, and then land on the dry lake bed nearby, go the motel get cleaned up for dinner, attend a veritable banquet feast, participate in the banquet by introducing your self, and also be telling your story on how your flight was that day.  Of course the obligatory gorging and drinking are a part of the banquet also.  The next day is all self guided, consisting of-- walks, breakfast, tour of the pottery factory, Burning Man Festival tour, and out to the dry lake bed where you parked your bird.  There you interact with some of the locals, and watch as the local school students are given intro glider rides, while we all wait for the lift to begin.  Then we all fly back to our respective airports, and congratulate ourselves on another great weekend experience in the world of gliding and soaring.  This "Gerlach Dash" is a follow-on to the "Fallon Trophy Dash" that had been hosted by Norma and Alex Burnette, of Fallon, for twenty five years.  That had always been well attended, and was always a lot of fun. This new "Dash" seems to be keeping the tradition going.  The following is my view of the weekend------

--------------------------------------------------------------
Gerlach Dash 2000
By Peter Kelly

I arrived at Tahoe on Friday, the 11th of August, planned to accomplish some chores and honey do's, but some carried over into saturday morning.  On saturday I finally finished up and was able to arrive at the airport at Minden before 11 AM.  I made the obligatory stop at High Country to see my friends Tom, Bill and others, then drove to the flight line just in time to see John and JJ going out to the launch point.  I did get a chance to say hello to Pat Sinclair before I drove to my own ship to start the assembly process.  I was fortunate to have Jim Herd there to help me put the wings on (Jim was on a 500 K attempt down the whites in his new DG), and then Andrew came by and filled up my oxygen tank.  I was finally off the ground by about 1:30.  At 2:36 I had passed through the starting gate at Air Sailing and was on my way to Rye Patch Reservoir Dam.  It was a blue day - not a cloud in the sky.  lift was good in spots up to 12 or 13 thousand, but the spots were sometimes hard to find. I almost landed out at Lovelock, but climbed back up through 8,000, crossed the turnpoint at the Dam and made it to the finish gate at Gerlach in pretty good time.  My speed of just over 60 MPH was only good enough to be fourth over that 138 mile course.  Tony G., in his LS-8, took the prize for first place.

Tony had launched from Truckee as did Key Dismukes, in his new ASW-20.  There were three of us that had launched from Minden, and all the others departed from Air Sailing.  All told, there were 19 birds parked on the dry lake bed that night.  Add that to all of the support crews, we had well over 50 people at the Banquet that night.  There was also a "short course" for those who were not flying high performance ships.  They went from ASI directly to Gerlach.  Not surprisingly, Vern Frye came in first on that course.

Vern was the emcee that night, keeping the banquet moving at a fast pace.  Everyone enjoyed the informality, the abundant food and drink, the lively conversations, and the open attitudes everyone seemed to maintain.  It reminded me of scout camp or a survival school atmosphere, in that we all were experiencing the same challenges and common experience and we were now sharing a common bond.  I was pleasantly surprised to meet so many nice people- many for the first time, and it was great to see those who I only have the chance to see at glider activities.  I sat next to Doug Armstrong's sons - Andrew and Peter, and was across from Ron - a new cross country pilot, and Ramy - a contender for this year's Sawyer Award, and met many others.  It was a neat evening.  Videos of soaring were shown on the TV in the main bar later that night.  The next morning we woke up in our barracks - or at least that is what it reminded me of.  Back in 1964, just before receiving my commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force, we spent a basic summer camp in W.W.II barracks in Langley, Virginia.  It was just like that. But here in Gerlach, after you got outside on Sunday morning, the air was cool and had the smell of the desert - except for the occasional scent of unrefined oil from an oil well.  I didn't see any wells, but they must have been there somewhere.  There were no sounds, just an occasional vehicle moving about, as people were beginning to stir.  After breakfast, Nancy and Tony took Key and me out to the Pottery shop, and then toured some of the area before settling in at the dry lake bed - awaiting the convection that would allow us to fly back to our respective airports.  I wasn't concerned, and conditions were probably going to be the same as the previous day.  We were all in the air by 2 PM, and it was an uneventful trip home for everyone, as far as I could hear on the common radio frequency.

Back at Minden, Jim, and some of his many hang glider friends, Harm, John, etc.,  helped me derig, top up the oxygen, and tell stories over a beer.  It seemed Jim had to crank up his propulsion system to avoid landing at Bishop on his 500 k attempt on Saturday.  Pat Cook and Iron Mountain Mike came in with triumphant low passes from a trip down the Owens Valley, and then came over to chat, but I couldn't stay, since I had to get on the road, having to fly to Buffalo early the next morning.

Overall it was like a mini-vacation. A busy 48 hours.  It was an adventure, it was safe, it was something I had never done before, and it was lots of fun.  I recommend that you keep the middle weekend of August open next year.  Plan ahead, and be ready to participate in the Gerlach Dash in the year 2001 - you won't regret it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the quick debrief by Key on his flight from Gerlach to Truckee ---
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 22:17:04 -0700
From: key dismukes <keydismukes@earthlink.net>
To: pjkelly <pjkelly@community.net>

Peter
    I made it back to Truckee without undue difficulty by flying
slowly.  Hearing people struggling a bit on the radio I decided to work
all lift, mostly staying between 10 and 11K.  At the south end of
Winnemucca dry lake I had final glide +1000ft +1000ft to spare and set
off accross Pyramid Lake.  Just cleared the lower end of Virginna ridge,
caught some weak lift which grew stronger, taking me to 14K.  After that
the flight into Truckee was easy.  Cindy made it into Air Sailing--in
fact I think her time was maybe better than mine.  Thanks for suggesting
the Gerlach dash.  Everything worked out well.

Key
-----------------------------------------------------------

Here is a message I received from Mike Green - I'm sure several of you are interested in this, so I'll just post the whole message.  Here is Mike's message to me---

-------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 16:32:17 -0700
From: Michael I Green <mgorrila@home.com>
Subject: Fly the Montague Regionals with Mike Green in the Duo Discus

Hi,

I may have an opening for someone to fly/crew with me at the Montague
regionals.  It works like this.

There are two pilots who alternate flying with me. The one who is not
flying with me is the crew for the day.  We split the costs three ways.
There is room in my motor home for three and most of the meals are
cooked in my motor home.  Note that the typical charge of
commercial soaring operations for this is ~$400 a day.

I intend to leave for Montague in my motor home Sunday August 27
returning Tuesday September 5.  We should get in 5 to 8 days of flying.

If you are interested or know of someone who might be interested,
please get in touch with me.

mike

--
 Michael I Green
 117 Rheem Boulevard
 Orinda, CA 94563
 USA
 PH: 1-925-254-0609
 FAX: 1-925-253-8268
 email: mgorrila@home.com
                          _____
                               |
            `-----------( )-----------'
                               '
        mighty gorilla
        Duo Discus       N175DD
        PW-5               N80MG
------------------------------------------------------------------

End@@
Beginning@@ Mon, August 7, 2000

We received an Email from Bernald Smith regarding airspace in the Bay Area - it is of interest to many of you, so it is at the end of this entry.

We also received a flight report from Gary K.  On behalf of all the readers, thank you Gary for sending in this report.  We all like to read about any and all flights.  It doesn't matter where they were flown.  It sounds like you had exceptionally good  conditions.  The end of August should be good up there around Montague - it usually is.  I'm looking fwd to the Region 11 contest (practice day is 8/30 and day 5 is Labor Day, Sept 4th).  If anybody needs more info, contact Gary. ( PS to Gary - Please send me the registration package so I can study the turnpoints.)

Before I share the Gary's report with you, let me say that I have been checking the hotel accomodations in the Yreka area - home of the Region 11 contest near Siskiyou/ Montague.  I've found that group rates are more of a hassle than they are worth.  I went to the Yreka Chamber of Commerce web site - through the Mount Shasta Soaring Club web page, which was through my soaring web page at community.net/~soaring, and I found the phone numbers and names of the local motels.  Rates for a room with two beds, for two people were: Best Western on Miner St -- $66 per nite, and Amerihost was $64 and Super 8 was $54 - as I recall, but call to be sure of the rates, and you can always get discounts for AAA, government, etc,. I figure to have a room for tue nite the 29th, the night before the practice day, and six nites later will include sunday nite the 3rd and drive home after flying on mon the 4th.  It's a three day weekend, so get your reservations in soon.

Here's Gary's flight report:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2000 13:12:19 -0700
Subject: SOARING AT MONTAGUE
From: Gary Kemp <gkemp@sunset.net>
To: Peter Kelly <pjkelly@community.net>

Peter, I usually don't report on Montague flights but this past week, was
generally, fantastic.  I flew on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 1,2 flights
of 240 and 260 miles from Lake of the woods on the north, to Lake Siskiyou
Dam in the South and Dry Lake (Highway 395) on the East.  Friday was a
transition day only 150 miles, but Saturday and Sunday the 5th and 6th were
unbelievable.  Dale Bush, Mallory Lynch  flew to Dry Lake then to Lake
County (Lakeview Oregon) then back to Dry lake, Lake Siskiyou Dam (Castle
Crags area) Callahan, R Ranch and Return.  I started out going West to
Boulder Mountain in the Marble Mountain Wilderness area before joining them
to the East.  My flight was 385 miles and their's were about 330.  I started
West  first because Dick Pfieffner had declared a 500K from Boulder Peak, to
Alturas, back to Etna and return to Siskiyou county.  Everything was good
until he ran into thunder storms over the range to the West and finally made
it landing at 7:00 after ridge soaring a little butte about 5 miles west to
get enough altitude to get home. Lift averaged about 6 kts to 15,000 feet
during the day.

Saturday was even better, Dale Bush and I headed East (I went to Cottonwood
first), catching good strong lift to 13,000 feet just on the edge of Butte
Valley.  Then to Tennant, east to Alturas, North to Paisley State (about 50
miles North of Lakeview, OR), west to Pinehurst, South to Callahan, North to
Restuarant (back in Oregon) for Dale and I turned at R Ranch for flights of
430 for Dale and 419 for me.  Lift was so good that we didn't even stop for
6 knot lift, we averaged between 7 and 9 knots and Dale reported one of 13+,
we worked between 11,000 and 14,000, occasionally to 15,000.  Rex Mayes made a great flight with Kurt, as passenger from Williams, to Weed, to Medicine
Lake, Radar (in Oregon) back to Weed and landing at Siskiyou County about
7:00 after a 2:00 PM takeoff, for a flight of 330 miles.  Kenny and Susanne
came up and got him, getting there about 11:00 (ask Kenney about forgetting
the keys to the trailer??)

Anyway, a great weekend. and record flights for the Siskiyou area.

Gary Kemp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the msg I received from Bernald Smith, and the FAA Announcement is included in the message:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 09:40:03 -0700
To: marc@ranlog.com, webmaster@airsailing.org, soarstan@aol.com,
        wsnow@bethany.edu, birecki@hpl.hp.com, info@soarhollister.com,
        soaring@colusanet.com, PJKelly@community.net
From: bernald@juggernaut.com (bernald smith)
Subject: San Francisco Class B Airspace Modification Meetings
Cc: Rolfpete@aol.com

Hello addressees,

Rolf Peterson and I are PASCO and SSA representatives, respectively, with
NCAUWG, the Northern California Airspace Users Working Group, made up of
all the various airspace users in the area, from airlines to military to GA
to airports to FAA etc., and including PASCO and SSA.  Rolf and I agree
that the following information may be useful to the soaring community.
Therefore, I acquired your addresses from your web pages as the pertinent
contacts for this information which we suggest you may want to consider for
your web pages.  Please note the timeliness, with the first meeting this
coming Monday at San Carlos.  If you do put it on your web page, please
remove it at the end of August.

NCAUWG worked with FAA developing the Class B modification and flyways.
Rolf and I were very active in that work.

Bernald S. Smith
SSA NCAUWG representative

The following is the FAA announcement of the meetings:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAN FRANCISCO CLASS B AIRSPACE MODIFICATION
and VFR FLYWAY CHART PRESENTATION
AVIATION SAFETY-EDUCATION PROGRAM
(Plus Runway Incursion Information)
(Presented by Bay TRACON and local Towers in conjuction with OAK and SJC FSDO Aviation Safety Programs)

Bay TRACON and local Tower personnel will provide information on the new
SFO Class B airspace modification and new VFR Flyway Chart that will become
effective 7Sep00.  In addition, a short discussion on runway incursions
will be included.  Presentations will be held as part of several Pilot
Education Seminars around the Bay Area which have been set up by the San
Jose and Oakland FSDOs.  If you'd like to get a leg up on the upcoming
modification and the new VFR Flyway Chart, come join us at the following
locations!
 

SAN CARLOS              PALO ALTO               SAN JOSE
Mon. 8/7                        Wed. 8/9                    Thur. 8/17
7pm                                7pm                             7pm
Bel Air Int'l                      West Valley                 American
San Carlos                      Flying Club                 Academy of
Airport                            PAO Airport                 Aviation
                                                                        1144 Coleman Ave.
 

OAKLAND*                CONCORD*                PETALUMA*
Mon. 8/21                   Tue. 8/22                   Wed. 8/23
7pm                             7pm                         7pm
Francesco's                 Water                       Lucahesse
Restaurant                    District                    Park
Hegenberger                1331                        320 N.
& Pardee                     Concord Ave.            McDowell Blvd
 

MONTEREY                SANTA ROSA*             STOCKTON#
Thur. 8/24                        Mon. 8/28                   Tue. 8/29
7pm                                 7pm                             7pm
Monterey                        Office of                       Main Terminal
Airplane Co.                    Education                     Stockton
808 Airport Rd.                 5340 Skyland            Airport Blvd.
 

* Main Program "VFR Flight Not Recommended and Special VFR",
        presented by Terry Lankford
# Main Program "Mountain Flying" presented by Ar Hayssen

(Both qualify for the FAA Wings Program.)
SEE YOU THERE!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Beginning@@ Thurs, August 3, 2000

It's been a few weeks since the last diary entry. Two reports were received - I'll address them in a moment.  I flew the Duo at Truckee.  Key got his new ASW-20 (which he labeled "PS") and flew the maiden flight last weekend at Truckee.  Jim D is flying the old PS which he has modified with blue tape to read "BS".Jim is flying it and pretending to be promoting the purchase of that bird by some prospective new owner so that Key can pay for the new bird (which used to belong to Jack Cash) but I don't think Jim is trying too hard - he is enjoying flying it.   I'll tell you, if you are looking for a ship, you ought to really take a look at that ASW-20 that Key is selling.  When Key is flying it, it will beat most ships around here.  He just won the Air Sailing Sports Class while flying it in early July. And... I think he is eager to sell, so you will get it at a good price.  It is a lot more glider per dollar than you will find anywhere else. See the photos on the diary pages from late last year.

The two reports we received are a flight reort from Jim Herd up at Minden, and a request for input from Gary Kemp.

Gary is running the Region 11 Contest at Siskiyou County Airport at the end of August.  This is August, and Gary says its time to make your intentions known.  He sent me an email to broadcast to everyone. Unfortunately, I probably don't have as extensive a list as some of you may have.  If each of you would please rebroadcast this email to any soaring pilots that you think might be interested in attending the contest, it would be helpful to Gary.  He has volunteered to do the contest, but he needs to know how many are going to be there.  Let's get the word out via networking.

I have arranged my schedule so that I will be off the last four days of August, so I will be there for at least a couple of days of flying, but as usual, I can't tell about my schedule for next month until the last minute.

Here is Gary's message:
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 18:44:01 -0700
Subject: Regionals
From: Gary Kemp <gkemp@sunset.net>
To: Peter Kelly <pjkelly@community.net>

Peter:
If it wouldn't be any trouble, could you please send a note via your
e-mail soaring listees, to please contact
gkemp@diamond.sunset.net
if they intend to fly in the Regional 11 Contest in Montague August 30-Sept. 4
(includes Practice day).  We need to make the appropriate reservations for
tow planes, etc.

Thanks,
Gary
---------------------------------------------------------------

From that message, as I see it, the practice day is on Wednesday the 30th of August, so I plan to get there on Tuesday the 29th.
Day 1 is Thurs, 31 Aug., Day 2 is Fri, Day 3 is Sat, day 4 is Sun,  and Day 5 is Monday, which is Labor day the 4th of Sep.  Get the word out to all pilots that this is on the schedule.  This will be a great contest if lots of people show up. I'm not aware of any conflicts with other contests.  This will be the last big fling of the season, and yet it is the height of the best soaring conditions in california.  The Mendicinos have been spectacular this summer, so I see no reason to think it won't be good at Montague in late August.  If you miss this one, there is always next year, but then it comes back to that quote from Mark Twain:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
                                                                -- Mark Twain

And that was written by a guy who never took a flight in a glider.  Imagine if he had ever experienced a glider ride?  It probably would have ruined him.  The rest of life pales by comparison to the experiences that we enjoy when we have a good soaring flight.  I can clearly envision having cruised down to Callaghan's in Scott Valley, and then past China Peak, and past the north face of Mount Shasta, as we transitioned to the high lift to the east, late in the afternoon.

If you like to fly in great soaring conditions, if you enjoy the interaction with other pilots, if you want to see how well a contest can be run, both effeciently and correctly, then attend this one at Montague/ Siskiyou.  The facilities are good, there is little dust and dirt, lots of people to see, places to go and things to do, and the drive up there is very pleasant.  Take the whole family.  Send them over the hill to Oregon for a few days while you are at the contest.  Let the family and friends see what a contest is like - I'll bet they'll enjoy the heck out of it.

On another note, here is a report from Jim Herd - Jim took his new DG over to the campout at Ely, Nevada.  By way of background - Tom Stowers, of High Country Soaring at Minden has been leading soaring safari's across the western states for many years now.  About three years ago he took a contingent of people and support equipment over to Ely, and it has become an annual outing.  This report by Jim Herd sort of sums it up. Not a lot of detail, like exaclty how many ships or who the pilots were, etc, but I think is not a structured operation.  Tom runs a hang loose operation.  "Do it if you want to"-- kind of attitude prevails.  It's no wonder Jim doesn't have a lot of detail. You don't have to be part of the "in" crowd to participate in anything organized by High Country. Tom and his staff make everyone feel welcome.  You are part of the group as soon as you participate.  Sounds like it was fun.  I hope to do it in a year or so.  Here is Jim's report:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: A Brief Ely Report!

Fellow Cloud Chasers,

We just got back from a week at the "Ely Camp". This is becoming an
annual event sponsored by Tom Stowers at High Country Soaring. Ely is on
the eastern edge of central Nevada. An incredible soaring venue!! Very
remote - and very soarable! Read on.

Jennifer counted 28 sailplanes on the ramp. Including FOUR Stemme's, a
cluster of DG's, a bevy of Nimbii, and the very best from Schemp Hirth,
Schleicher, etc. All were with our group because there are no sail plane
services there - Tom dragged absolutely everything across the 300 mile
desert with his entourage.

The group includes many of the Minden locals (that's how we new it would
be a good trip!), as well as several from all over the western U.S. and
two from New Zealand. Actually, the Kiwi's were incredibly aggressive!

Regarding the people, we were struck by the incredible diversity of the
group, and the richness of all the personalities. Just sitting around on
the ramp was fun - no matter the flying! In addition, the town was
friendly and there is a variety of local entertainment.  Caves, glacier,
alpine lake, railway museum, gambling, whore houses, mountain biking,
kayaking... - plenty to do!

To the flying ......
In a word - outstanding! 20K cloud bases, strong/reliable lift, and
adequate "emergency" landing areas (but few airfields).
In another word - 1000K! Actually, several of them. 500K to 1000K
virtually every day, by several people. And very few land-outs - less
than a hand full.

The scenery is breathtaking. At least until the fire smoke took over!
Until then, visibility rivaled anywhere I have ever been. Airport
conditions were very benign every day - only one day with winds over 15
knots, and then straight down the main runway.

As a genuine "newbie", I can say that the scene was a tad intimidating
for me. World class pilots, world class conditions, and world class
flights. The real studs were in the air before 11:00 a.m. and back
around 6 - or even 8 p.m. (Sunset around 7:30!) I listened to them on
the aircraft radio and by the time I was in the air, they were already
past 100 miles. I remained steadfastly committed to staying squarely
inside my experience limits. I picked up a bunch of tips though. I also
was honored with a 4 1/2 hour flight with Carl Herold in his Nimbus 3.
We flew several hundred miles in different directions, and I picked up
tips on thermal spotting, macro-weather, XC strategy, navigation, and
pilotage. My engineering background allowed me to remain calm when Carl
poured gasoline into an open carburetor to get his engine started!!

In terms of routes, people were going in all the compass directions. As
far as the Grand Canyon! The smoke was a factor, but not a major one.
Several people flew from Minden to Ely on the first day - and some flew
back on the last day!! It was our maiden voyage in the motor home - so I
was grounded to pilot the sleeping quarters for the ride out and back.

The local Press made a really big deal of our presence. The Newspaper
and the Radio Station had big splurges about the event.

I am aware of NO significant "bad things" that happened during the week.
And that is the best part of all.

Bottom line - I recommend it!!

Jim Herd
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Beginning@@ Fri, July 21

Received one report since the last diary entry-- from Kenny at Williams.  Here it is--
--------------------------------------------------------
To: "Peter Kelly" <pjkelly@community.net>
Subject: Mendicino Mountains.

I know most of you are flying in the desert right now, but I have to say that the Mendicino range has been spectacular this year. We have had cu forming everyday, by 10.30 a.m. (with cu @ 9:30 a.m. this weekend( the 8th and 9th of July) and really every weekend since the last week in June. Crazy Creek Soaring has been taking advantage of the tremendous soaring also, with many flights as far north as Weaverville. Cloud bases as high as 14,000' have been found.

Monday, July 10th, a student and I flew a 120 mile out and return with ease. Looking north at our last turn point, the raising cloud bases extended beyond Mt. Shasta!!

Kenny
Williams Soaring Center
2668 Husted road
Williams, CA 95987
(530) 473-5600 voice
(530) 473-5315 fax
------------------------------------------------------------

Kenny, thanks for that report.  I wish I could get out and go flying more often.

I've heard more details about the accident in Topaz Valley that happened in mid-June.  Actually, it was well south of Topaz - closer to the south end of the valley.  Here is my version of what I heard.  I don't claim that it is totally accurate, but it's what I have been hearing in various conversatons--

---------------------------------------------------------
Summary:
The tow plane hit a fence shortly after takeoff, while
the glider was still attached to the other end of the rope, and
then the glider crashed in the adjacent field.

Details:
The glider pilot was on a cross country flight, but was unable
to stay aloft.  He selected a cultivated field, and landed without
incident.  Less than an hour later the tow plane landed to initiate
an aero-retrieve.

The takeoff roll was normal, and they started a shallow
right turn.  As they approached the far corner of the field,
the tow plane hit the top of a fence.  The glider released,
jogged a little, and then straightened out relative to a small
adjacent field.  Just before touchdown, the wing of the glider
clipped a fence post, causing the glider to immediately hit
the ground, as it spun around and came to rest facing the tow
plane, which was less than two hundred yards away.

Neither pilot was injured in their respective crashes, but major
damage was done to each ship.  The tow plane had a damaged right wing,
and had stopped on its nose, with the tail pointing skyward.
The left wing of the glider had a large piece taken out of it,
and the tail boom had been broken off and damaged.

Further commentary-
It is easy to say the field was too short, but was it?
I am guessing that, many of us would have made the
same mistake, because if you compare the normal
takeoff roll from the home field with the distance that
was available in that field it probably looked ok.  I
suspect the density altitude was probably higher than
what we are normally used to dealing with, and
that the obstacles in the flight path weren't given enough
consideration.  We don't ever have to deal with obstacles
when launching from an airport.
- but I guess we ought to know how to deal with them.

What's that rule we use for landing in a field?  If there are tall trees, or a tall fence
on the apporach end of the field, then multiply the height of that fence times 20, and that is where you should consider the first part of the field to begin.

I suspect we should each come up with a rule for departure as well.  For example,
if there is a ten foot tree that you have to fly over the top of after liftoff, then multiply that ten feet times what?  times 30?  If we used 30, then a 10 ft tree cuts the field length by 300 feet?  Maybe that's not enough of a factor.  Maybe it ought to be 50 times the height of the obstacle?  And/or add 1/3 of the wingspan to the height of the obstacle, so that we won't hit it if we are in a slight turn.  Thus a 10 ft tree, with 5 ft added for wingtip clearance in a turn,  would become a 15 ft obstacle, multiply that 15 feet times 50, and that equals 750ft.  thus you would decrease the useable length of the field by 750 feet, for a 10 foot obstacle?
 

Beginning@@ Wed, July 5, 11 am

It's been a while.  We've received a few flight reports.  I'll copy them into this date entry.  A couple of weeks ago, we lost another glider and a tow plane.  Here's my version of the story, third hand -- The glider landed out near Topaz, the tow plane arrived to do an aerotow.  The field was short.  On takeoff, the tow plane got over the fence at the end of the field, but then dropped a wing and crashed.  The glider released as the tow plane went in, tried to put it into a field ahead and to the right of the takeoff path, but hit a pole before touchdown, broke the fuselage, with the tail boom breaking off,  and damaged both wings.  Both tow pilot and glider pilot were uninjured.  Lucky.

I attended the Sports Class contest at Air Sailing last week.  Here is my report on that--

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Airsailing Sports Class Contest
By Peter Kelly

Every year for the past 20 plus years Air Sailing near Sparks, Nevada has the SSA Sanctioned Sports Class contest.  I always heard it was a good contest but was never able to attend due to my work schedule, but his year I was able to get there.

Ty White won it last year, and so he was running it this year.  Ty is a master at organization.  He is quite, polite, and respectful others.  He is extremely knowledgebal of the rules and procedures, knows how to plan ahead, organize a staff, and communicate effectively.  He undoubtedly put in a lot of hard work to put this contest together, and it came off without  a hitch.  Charlie Hayes was Airport Director and Weather guy, Dale Thompson - Line Ops, Norma Burnette - Gate, Bob Dwyer - Tow, and there were many helpers.

The contestants were a good mix of various pilots and a variety of airplanes.  Everyone had a good practice day on sunday 25 Jun, with Bob Kuykendall being the fastest inhis HP-11A.  Chad Moore won the first official contest day in his new ship - a Russia AC-4C.  On day 2 Jimmy Hamilton flew his newly refinished Ventus C at an average speed of  76 mph over 283 miles, bringing him up to 4th place (he had a bad first day).  I covered over 500 km at 68 mph, but it only put me in third place on that second day.

On day 3 Jimmy again flew the fastest - this time at 78 mph over 236 miles. Key Dismukes flew his ASW-20 (which is still for sale - I think he'll take an offer at this point) to take second place, with Chad placing third.  I flew another long flight (over 500 k) at a speed of 76 mph, but it only landed me in 4th place.  The competition was keen.

Day 5 was a mix of thermals and wave.  I managed to win the day at 60 mph on a two hour task, and that put me in a final finish position of 5th place.  Pam Sutton was the real winner that day - she blew the start time interval, so her roll time/ photo defense time was used for the start, but she still averaged 48 mph in her discus.  Key slid from second to first on the final standings, making him the overall contest winner.  Jimmy bumped down to finsh second, and Chad who didn't even fly that last day due to a mechanical problem, finshed in third.

The BBQ was well atttended, with a myriad of entertaining skits.  Everyone had a good time.

Whether you are an experienced competitor, or have never flown a contest, the Air Sailing Contest is an event that you shouldn't miss next year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a report from Kenny from June 23rd--

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: pjkelly@community.net
Subject: Soaring Wednesday @ Williams.

Hi Pete, Wednesday, I flew with a student earning his commercial add-on.
His name is Andreas Sommer and he was born and raised in the swiss alps.

We had a busy morning of slack lines, rope breaks and all the emergency
type flying you could think of. Looking out to the west, we saw cu
running from Goat Mt. north,  Rex asked Andreas if he would like to
experience some X-country type flying in the Duo Discus, of course he
said"YES!"  so off we went.

We towed to Indian ranch and released at 5000', pushed into the east
bowl of Goat Mt. where we found 2-3 kts. which we then flew into the
tree farm area and contacted 7 kts.to cloud base, (10,000'). We cruised
the shear to Alder springs, Diamond M, Black Butte mountain and south to
the Gold mine lake back to Williams, about a hundred miles. Andreas had
a good time and he also passed his commercial check ride today.
Kenny
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a report from Kenny from June 29th
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: "Peter Kelly" <pjkelly@community.net>
Subject: Flying @ Williams.

Hi Pete,
I took a student out to the mountains wed (Jun 28th). We towed to Indian Ranch and released at 5000' penetrating into the eastern hills of Goat Mt. We connected with 5 kts. and climbed to 7500', dead heading into Snow Mt., we contacted 5-7 kts. up to 10,500'.   Following the shearline took us to Alder Springs and Diamond M ranch, back to Walker Ridge and home.

The soaring has been very good this year in the Mendocinos with early cu and high cloud bases.

Joe Findley flew from here to Castle Crags (up near Mt Shasta) and back in 3 1/2 hrs. on Sunday (25 Jun).

Talk to you soon.
Williams Soaring Center
2668 Husted road
Williams, CA 95987
(530) 473-5600 voice
(530) 473-5315 fax
soaring@colusanet.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a quicke from Peter Deane
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: pjkelly@community.net
Subject: Truckee Soaring June25/25 2000

Hi Peter;

    Just a quick report on a good weekend; Sat June 25th was a great
soaring day with t-stms forecast for pts south and a moist airmass I
figured it would be a good day to head east, an unusual occurrence.

    I flew Truckee to Battle Mtn and return (625km) with 7hr 20 mins in
the air. Had the first cu's of the day heading out (they were forming as I got there, magic!) and the last cu's of the day getting back (they dissipated as I got to
them, not good!). Ridge soared Verdi to make it home from Peavine. Lost
time and height pushing to the turnpoint in sink & virga, with delayed
me 20 minutes parked at 8500 ft near Battle Mtn waiting for the clouds
to cycle. Flew the flight without water ballast due to laziness, which
with hindsight was a mistake.

    Sunday was another very good day; Started just at trigger time at
Truckee, took 30 mins to climb out and then headed north. More tstorms
to the south, worse than Saturday. Flew Truckee to Susanville to
Airsailing to Truckee to Quincy & return (490km) at an average speed of
74mph dry. It was a real 'shoulda-oughta' day since Alturas & return was
easily doable ; I chickened out at Susanville due to fears of Trk
overdevelopment late in the day and sharing a ride back to the bay area
in the evening. Never chicken out, its a bad feeling. Trk did get very
close to o'ding with lighting around 5.30pm but no rain. Oh well.

    All in all, a good weekend; over 1000km and 12hrs flying time. Not
too bad!

    Peter Deane (2T)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

And most recently, here is a report from Minden from Brian--
A very good read, and an inspiration to all of you new and old x-c pilots.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: <pjkelly@community.net>
Subject: Two Days in Minden

Peter,

Thought I'd drop you a quick line (or maybe it won't be so quick, we'll see) on my latest 2-day soaring trip in Minden this past weekend (June 24-25).  Once again, I had a great time.  The weather was good and the soaring great.  Spent a little over 13 hours in the air this weekend (the 7.7 hour flight on Saturday was my longest to date)--needless to say I did as much running around the office as I could come Monday.

Pulled in to Minden on Friday evening (June 23) and got some of the regulars to help me put the glider together that evening--thanks again guys!  After sleeping in late on Saturday, I arrived at the airfield and put the final preps on the glider, pulled it to the line, checked the forecast (looked like definite overdevelopment today), and then launched at around 11:30.  Winds were light aloft, heating was good, and lift turned out to be 3-5 knots early on in the valley and then 5-8 knots (I saw one 12-knotter) later on the hills up to 16k' or so.

Since I had never really dealt with overdevelopment in the Carson Valley before (last year there was very little cloud development as I recall), I was a little apprehensive about my return into the valley.  But, since that was many hours away and this was after all day one, I figured what the heck, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.  The climb-out was relatively straightforward.  I got to altitude (~ 14k') in about 35 minutes and headed South down the Pine Nuts to hit a southern turnpoint before the clouds got too thick.  However, by the time I got to Alpine County and Freel Peak the clouds were already overdeveloping and virga could be seen spewing from the bottom of some of the clouds.  So, I said goodbye to the southern part of the valley and begin a trek northward (for no particular destination).  As I got to the northern end of the Pine Nuts though, the clouds suddenly got a lot more sparse.

Up past Virginia City, I could see a nice cloud or two forming, so I got as I high as I could and headed out at a conservative speed.  Behind me I could hear everyone returning from the south and proceeding in my direction as well.  I made it cleanly underneath a nice cloud at about 12,500' and grabbed a 5-knot climb to 16k'.  I continued north headed this time for a turnpoint at Fallon; however, as I bumped along from one cloud to another I noticed that my cloudstreet was moving off to the East more towards the restricted airspace.  With only a $200 GPS unit (no detailed map), I decided not to press any closer to this airspace (I had already seen one fast burner at my altitude apparently transitioning the area) and stopped shy about 10-15 miles east of Fallon.  Seeing another juicy cloud street headed north, I was off once again this time towards Derby.  By now I was 2 hours into the flight and the clouds were really kicking off.  I was making good time.  I reached Derby and kept on going for awhile until I came to the end of a nice street up by Rye Patch Reservoir (some 130 miles away from Minden).  (note by editor - it's just north of the Lovelock area, north of Hwy 80)

By this time it was 3pm and I felt like it was about time to head back, so for the first time in 2 1/2 hours I turned around and headed back down to the South.  The first 80 miles just flew by.  In an hour I was closing in on my final glide.  Good thing too, because I was rapidly running out of nice clouds.  In fact the last climb or two was made under some pretty raggedy-looking clouds with rain pouring out one side or the other.  Remembering what my Pik-20 felt like (and performed like) in rain, I did my best to detour around the rain.  I grabbed a little extra altitude for reserve and then headed down the eastern side of the Sierras toward Minden (40 miles away).  As I came abreast Reno, I tuned the radio to approach frequencies to monitor inbound aircraft.  By this point the entire Carson Valley was overcast, but fortunately it was fairly void of precipitation.  I took a straight line into Minden arriving about 2500' AGL.

I was 5 hours into the flight and figured I had another 20 minutes to go (heaven knows the bladder was looking forward to some relief), but then I saw 3 gliders circling.  Not believing there could be lift under these flat, life-less, overblown clouds, I headed over to check things out.  Sure enough there was 1-2 knots (great by eastern standards, but by western standards we simply classify that as "not sink").  Nonetheless, I found myself circling--if for no other reason than to see if I could beat out these guys (between my competitiveness and my desire for flight time, it really is a wonder I am ever on the ground).  A half-hour later I was back to 11k' looking for lift further west and then back down to the south over Freel Peak again.  I spent the next 2 hours gliding around checking out all the peaks to the south and the view to Lake Tahoe from the southern mountains.  It was beautiful and quite impressive that the thermals in the valley had re-established themselves (though considerably weaker than before).  Of course, by now the competition was to beat my previous 7.1 hour longest flight, so I convinced the bladder to hang tight for another 30 minutes and sweated it out till just after 7:30 pm.  I made a good landing into a slight crosswind, took the glider over to its tie-down spot, and got ready to repeat the day on Sunday (but this time with water).  I had pulled off another 500 km triangle (approximately 600 km around 6 turnpoints).

Sunday looked to be a repeat indeed of Saturday, though morning clouds (left overs from last night) was slowing the heating.  The forecast was for definite overdevelopment (this time even further north), slightly weaker thermals, and a corresponding slightly lower ceiling (typically about 14.5-15.5k').  With a full load of water, I started at about noontime, but fought for the first 30-40 minutes to make much progress.  Even though I was in a small gaggle of gliders, we were still hard-pressed to make any progress.  And, of course, with my water load I was having a real hard time keeping up with any of other gliders on climb rate.  But the heating continued and I finally made it high enough to head further east into the Pine Nuts for stronger lift.  I saw a nice cloud forming a few miles further east than I really wanted to be, but decided to stretch my boundraries and go for it.  After all, I had just spent the whole morning driving the countryside below to check out potential landing spots and had identified two really good landing spots (really beefs up the confidence knowing what the spots look like and that you have the GPS coordinates absolutely on the money).  Sure enough as I neared this nice-looking cloud, the vario sung sweet music to my ears.  I latched into a strong 8-knotter that held pure contempt for the full load of water I had on-board.  In minutes I topped out at 14k' and headed back down south to Freel Peak.

The plan today was to follow some folks already ahead of me down south along the eastern side of the Sierras; however, as I got in the neighborhood everything was going to hell in a hand basket.  Every cloud I went for was falling apart.  Lift was scratchy to non-existent. I arrived at Freel Peak 1000' above the mountain and spent the next hour trying to get enough altitude to get back to the north.  At one point I got below the mountains, no worries though, Tahoe airport was still well within gliding range (though I surely would have been upset to cut the flight at 2 hours).  After struggling for the better part of an hour though, I finally got above the mountains and begin carefully bumping my way back north.  Soon I was back in the lift and keeping up with another 15m glider.  With my water, the other guy beat me out each time on the climb, but even though he had a newer ship, I'd catch up to him again at the next cloud.  Up north of Reno, the other guy opted for a blue thermal that took him above cloud base.  Knowing I could make better time porposing under the clouds, I opted to stay below cloudbase--and so our paths parted.

The lift looked great to the north, but this time looking back to the south I saw the area quickly disintegrating behind me.  I was going to have to be a little more careful how far I went today since the distance at which a final glide would likely have to be made would only increase as the day progressed (since the overdeveloment would only continue to spread further north).  I set my sights on Air Sailing (nice location) and then pressed on to the northwest up to Herlong (and finally got to see what that weird 2mile-by-4mile rectangular restricted space was hiding).  From 15k' at Herlong I could look North and see Mount Shasta sticking straight up out of the earth (some 70-100 miles??? away).  But again looking back to the south at the dark sky, I threw on my conservative hat and begin the journey back home.  From 70 miles away, it didn't take long at all to get within glide range especially seeing as how I was averaging 80-90 knots indicated; however, the obvious rain ahead of me was definitely going to be a factor now.  Instead of taking the straight shot into Minden through miles and miles of rain, I headed west towards Truckee to hang out.  I arrived at 6000' AGL over Truckee and searched around till I found a nice climb back to 16k'.  Now I was safe--I could have done 100kt in pouring rain and 400fpm down and still made it home, but before I left I called Minden to check weather.  No since blasting into the valley if the wind was all over the place.  But it was relatively calm, so home I went.  I bled off the extra altitude over top the airfield and made a leisurely  landing (if not slightly short) in stronger than expected headwinds.  5.5 hours was plenty of flying for today, besides I had to tear apart the glider, find a home for it on the field, and drive 4 hours back home.  Another 300km triangle and roughly 450km overall.

So as you can see it was another good weekend for me.  It's taken me several years (I have over 900 sorties and 450 hours), but I am finally gaining more and more confidence in my cross-country abilities, and of course living in this area (with 10-knot lift and 13,000 ft cloudbases) sure does help.  In the last month I have completed  my first, second, and third 500km triangles and averaged over 400km on a half-dozen flights--I sure will miss this area when the Air Force calls me away to my next duty station in the next year or so.  But, I'm not gone yet, and I got lots more plans for flying here this summer.  So till next time.

-Brian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

He makes it sound easy, doesn't he?  Thanks Brian, for the report.

Beginning@@@@@@ Sun June 4 2000, 9 PM

No reports and no forecasts received.  I crossed the Sierras at 1 PM today at flight level 310 coming back from DFW.  Nice patch of cu 1,000 ft thick, based at about 20,000 or so. It spread from Hilton to Patterson to Mono, but that was about it - no other signs of convection, and vis was poor.  One isolated wisp or two on whites.  Heard a few gliders over the pinenuts, heard one over 17,000 over Hilton Ranch.

At the Avenal contest (PASCO League #2) it sounded like they were doing great.  3E- Jim, HB- Bruce, 1DB- Diana, LU- Sumner were all going through the gate.  SM (Findley) was talking, but I couldn't sort it out - something about moving the IP for the gate because everyone was so high.  We'll await the reports.

Did you receive your copy of the Windsock?  If not send in your $10 to Cindy for this years membership - send it c/o Cindy, VSA at the Williams Gliderport, 2668 Husted Rd, Williams CA 95987.  This edition was very informative (12 pages). Lots of good photos, and Kenny put some words on paper that are worth remembering....  good articles all around.  Nice job Diana and Mike.   We all appreciate your work.
 

Beginning@@@@@@ Thurs, June 1 2000
Starting a new Soaring Diary.  I was gonna go soaring today, but the charts said - "don't bother", so I didn't.

We received an email from John K. about the flying that Key reported last weekend at Williams, he even includes a photo.  Sorry to break up the two reports, but I had to start a new volume of the diary. Besides we have some from Montague on the same day.

We also received reports from Gary K and Elden about soaring in Montague.

First, here is John's report --  Everyone should read this carefully.  John is a master at writing, so it is interesting, but more importantly, John is conveying important safety concepts - at his own expense.  Very noble of you to do so John, we all thank you.  Hopefully, others can have empathy with these circumstances... and possible avoid an accident.  I wonder of Chuck G. appreciates the impact of his remarks?  It's the little things that count, that we do to help each other out.

-------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 00:18:03 -0700
From: John Kahrs <kahrs@pixar.com>
To: pjkelly@community.net
Subject: Saturday's wave

Just reading Key's report about the wave on Saturday.  I only went up
because Saturday was supposed to be the warmest day of the weekend.  In
my childlike beginner's mind, I somehow still make a correlation between
forecast high temperatures and good soaring, although I'm beginning to
know better. I too towed out to walker just before Key did. I was poking
around north of Antelope, and finding something - I don't know what-
turbulent and weak. I missed it. I slowly, inevitably meandered back to
WSC and landed.

After squinting in the sun meaninglessly for an hour or so, I heard the
same news as everyone else and took another tow.  That was a lot of fun
going up in the wave and poking around with 3E.  I pushed upwind to the
next wave over Goat, it was sink sink sink . . . then a slight burble in
the sink, then, click! like someone turned on a switch, I was going up.
It was an amazingly abrupt transition. I drifted up and over towards
Snow to 13,000, asking Bruce(HB) for his location.  It seemed like a
relatively small parcel of air that we were sharing, (click here to see the
small parcel, showing HB over Snow), maybe 4X4X1 miles,
yet it still took a while to pick him out of the blue sky. We were both
facing upwind looking down on Snow, I was higher and pulled the spoilers
and sidled down next to him, took his picture. My GPS said winds were
from 240 at 35 kts. I thought we might try to push over to the what
appeared to be the next oscillation and so we did.  I went for a little
ragged cloud upwind and he went for a larger cluster further downwind,
but basically between Pillsbury and Foust Springs creek.

I turned tail slipping under 8800 ft after I realized there was nothing
there, HB wasn't behind me and he wasn't finding anything either. The
reality of how far out I was hit home. It was rather dumb, I think, to
be out there without a plan.  I hadn't the slightest notion of using
Stonyford or Gravelly Valley or even Diamond M as possible landing
sites, and I was definitely at the height and place where I should've
had such things in mind.  I pushed right back towards Antelope,
crabbing, passing Snow Mtn. at eye level, still ok glideslope-wise but
in an large area of rotor that was mostly sinking. I probably rode in
the trough of the wave for the entire way back. I could've pushed back
towards Snow, but that was no guarantee: I'd arrive below ridge height:
not a place I wanted to be. Trying for wave downwind seemed silly as
well. Maybe something rolling off of St. Johns as I passed over top . .
. nope, not really. I didn't (and still don't) really have a handle on
how to approach moving through expansive areas of sink: blast through at
90+ knots, stick with best glide, or somewhere in between? I ended up
moderating between 65 and 80 knots. Slower in the mild stuff, faster in
the meaner stuff. I arrived over Williams at 500 feet over pattern
altitude. Not exactly death-defying, but I was relieved and humbled.
Scrambling back home through that rotor, I was shaken up enough to do
something dumb, like intending to pull the spoilers full out on
touchdown and, weirdly, pulling back on the stick instead, ballooning up
10 feet and basically making a double landing. At least they were two
serviceable landings instead of a full blown PIO.

I remember looking at the big area map with Chuck Griffin at Crazy Creek
one day last year, and he was describing how formidable the area north
of Clear Lake was. Pointing at it, he said, "You get in trouble out here
and you'll almost certainly destroy your glider, and you may even get
yourself killed. You want to be sure of what you're doing before you
cross an area like this." He continued thoughtfully, "See, a lot of
guys, they get out somewhere a little too far and get low, and they
scare themselves.  You don't want to scare yourself, because then you're
not having fun, which is what this is supposed to be about anyway.
That's what happens to a lot of guys: they scare themselves and they
lose interest and quit flying, which is a real shame."

It wasn't a very long or far or spectacular flight, but I learned a lot.

jk
--------------------------------------

Here is Gary's report --

-----------------------------------

Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 14:50:05 -0700
Subject: Siskiyou
From: Gary Kemp <gkemp@sunset.net>
To: <pjkelly@community.net>

Went up to Montague and flew with JJ on Friday and about 10 others on the
next three days of Memorial Weekend.  Rex flew on Sunday, borrowing Dale's
ASH 25.  On Friday we flew around Scott Valley, and Shasta Valley, got low
coming out of Callahan and then got one that averaged over 8 kts, in fact at
12.6 Kts. I had the left wing thrown up against full control and threw me
inverted.  The trace shows no altitude lost, the lift was so strong.
Saturday was windy and cloudy and only Dick Pfiffner flew to 20,000 (opened
the Wave window)  On Sunday we flew around the area and I went out to Dry
Lake, Cloud bases were between 9-11,000.  Monday Elden with Sinclair as a
passenger and I flew to Bieber Southard, about 60 miles South, then to Canby
where JJ headed home and I started North, about 12 miles of no company and I
headed home, hitting wave just east of Backscatter radar to 14,500, on back
to Tennant, Weed, Quartz Valley (got a thermal that averaged 8.2 to 11,000
feet at 5:00 PM.  Around R-Ranch and home for 280 miles.

Gary
---------------------------------------------
 

And here is Elden's report - thank you Gary and Elden for keeping us all up to date.

----------------------------------------------
From: EHinkle@aol.com
Message-ID: <3b.58f63f3.2666e344@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 17:51:00 EDT
Subject: Montague
To: pjkelly@community.net

Thought I would send you a report of last weekend (May 27, 28 &29) Art Clark,
JJ, Kemp, Rex and myself spent the weekend flying at Montague. Saturday was
windy and a couple of the locals went to 20K in the wave. Sunday was a more
normal day and the flying was very good. We launched 12:30 and climb to 7K on
Craggy and headed west to Quartz, then south along the Marbles to Callahan,
out to Weed and turned North to Restaurant. A couple of guys headed on and
landed at Ashland. We turned to the east to Goosenest and played around and
returned to Montague. On Monday we launched about the same time but could
have launched much earlier. We climb to 8K and headed to the East with Kemp.
We climb to 9K near Willow Creek and headed Southeast to Bieber Southhard. I
do not know why or who lives out there but it was very green and pretty. We
turn back to the northeast to Cambie, from here Kemp wanted to go on to
Alturus but it started getting late and needed to drive home, (anyway that is
the excuse) Gary kept going, we turned up to Medicine Lake climb to 11K and
cruised under the clouds back to Montague landed a little after 4:00 P.M.
Thank you Rex for bringing one of his tow planes and also flew with us on
Saturday. The little airport at Montague also has a tow plane available.
----------------------------------------------------

End@@ June 1

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