ANOTHER DIAMOND FLIGHT FOR CAPT. ECKSTEIN

I was the only SOCC flight from Crystal this Saturday.

First thank you Chris for getting me a tow as fast as you did despite being short handed.  I wasn’t convinced that Saturdays conditions were going to allow for a flight north, mainly because of the 15kt SW wind pushing into the Mojave area.  Fortunately the lift was strong and altitudes were good allowing me to reach the mountain range by Mojave.  I climbed to 13.8k at Crystal and headed for what’s left of the Silver Queen (mining it away at a very fast pace), working a few wind blown thermals I worked my way into the mountains climbing to 13.5 and made my towards Mt Whitney.  The plan was to cross the Owens Valley at an angle to connect with the Inyo mountains by Independence to save time.

I struggled for awhile to get on top of the Inyos then headed north towards the Whites.  The Whites had solid clouds all the way to Boundary, the ceiling was 16k to 17k.  Reaching the Bishop area cloud cover increased and the northern Sierra range had a lot of virga and very little sun reaching the ground, visibility was very poor.

The weather reports showed that heading from Boundary towards Yerington would have the best altitudes, but the conditions were deteriorating fast.  Look- ing towards Gabbs the altitudes would be lower but the conditions were still good.  Gliding to Mina I was able to climb to 15.6k just south of Mina and had a 40 NM glide to Gabbs easily made, landing at 5:40 PM.

I could have gone further but a warring beep from my EDS was indicating a O2 problem as I glided toward Gabbs.  I have a leak.