FOUR VERSIONS OF A GOOD, TOUGH DAY IN PARADISE

Independence Day, 2015 was far from ideal for soaring cross-country from Crystal, but four hardy souls gave it a shot.  Here's what they had to say.

Barry McGarraugh soared 208 miles to Bishop. His report:

The monsoonal weather conditions continue to confuse the decision which direction to go. Friday morning, Dr

Jacks forecast for Saturday looked promising toward Las Vegas, but it deteriorated Saturday morning with lots of OD

forecast near Clark Mtn. The forecast on the Sierras did not look all that good either with lots of OD north of Olancha.

Since the ground temperatures were predicted to be ~108+ at Baker, I figured that it would be better to head up the

Owens Valley where it was a bit cooler when I had to disassemble the glider. Since I had not flown for the past two

weekends, I figured that I would head as far north as I could and land at Inyokern if the Sierras were shut off.

Clouds were starting to form on the San Gabriel’s, but they were a strange mix of Cu’s, rotor, and lenticular looking

stuff that did not look all that soarable. I decided to give it try, and towed away from Crystal at 11:10. I took an extra

high tow over the labor camp in the event that things were not working in the mountains, and I had to run back out to

the desert. To my surprise the not so classic looking clouds where pulling well in some areas, and 30 minutes I was

over Wrightwood at 15K. I headed out to Rosemond in really smooth air until I got To Silver Queen at 7.7K where I

found a teaser thermal. I worked it hard for about 5 minutes until it finally strengthened enough to get me to just under

10K and connected with the Barren Ridge. Cu’s were forming there, but they were a fair distance back in the mountains,

so I committed to Kelso Valley and drove back to the first Cu that I could reach. It was pulling well, and I was

quickly up to 15.5K and on my way to Inyokern. I arrived at Walker Pass at 10K and found another good thermal that

got me back up to 12K. At this point, things looked pretty good up to Olancha so I declared Cinder Cone and headed

up Boomer Ridge under a dark bottomed cloud street. I was a bit to the south of Olancha when the rain drops on the

canopy made it apparent that it was letting loose on Olancha Peak, so I decided to head to the east and the clearer

skies over the valley floor. As I headed out over Owens Dry Lake, I could see that Sierras between Olancha Peak and

Mt Williamson were being hammered and completely impassable. Rain bands were forming on the eastern slopes of

the Sierras down to the valley floor, but the Inyos were much clearer with nicer looking (but not well formed) clouds.

A good thermal ½ way between Keeler and Lone Pine go me back up to 14K and on the ridge top and headed north

under another dark bottomed cloud street. At Westgard Pass, the clouds quit and milkey Cirrus covered the sky over

the White Mountains and deep into Nevada. At this point it looked like I had pretty much exercised all of my options,

so I decided to land at Bishop 4 hours after launch. Dan Gonzales was sitting on the ramp and he helped me push

the glider to the tie down area. My son Ian and his friend Quinn got to the field about 30 minutes after I landed and we

had the glider back in the trailer and headed into town about 45 minutes later to find lodging and dinner. After a nice

Chinese dinner, we watched the fireworks display at the airport from our second story hotel in town. Although it was

not a great soaring weekend, I got further than I had expected and we had a nice time.

Sean Eckstein flew 90 miles to a dry lake called 031 west of Baker. His report:

It was one of those days where it would have been better to throw in the towel rater than attempt to go cross country,

but these are the flights that challenge you. The sky above Crystal was clear and conditions on the 2nd ridge took me

to 11.5k, enough to make the glide to Apple Valley where the beginning of total cloud overcast started.

I reached the hills north of Apple Valley and found a little wannabe thermal, I needed to start thinking about heading

back towards Apple Valley airport, which would have probably ended the flight. I decided to call out an alternate

landing area closer which gave me more time and altitude to find lift, which didn’t take long. I was able to make a few

more climbs on course, each weaker and lower than the last. I was trying to get past the cloud overcast towards blue

sky where I was hoping the thermal strengths would improve.

Unfortunately the flight ended at 031 dry lake, where the 103 degree temperature was bearable because of the cloud

cover. (Nature’s sunscreen)

Niv Levy made 87 miles, to Inyokern. His report:

Headed north after talking to Barry earlier - Blipmaps that morning suggested good conditions to Inyokern with

overcast further north. Ended up launching around 1145, by which point Barry was already on course. Left the local

mountains around 10.5K and headed over the mostly blue desert. Got low in a hurry, down to about 7K around northeast 

Palmdale, finally started climbing reasonably again to 10K.

Headed towards Rosamond and then Mojave , wasting time trying to stay high and eyeing the awesome looking

clouds over the mountains. Once I had enough height to go to the mountains from Mojave i went under a nice cloud

and got about 4-5 kt to 11K over the slopes and could move under the main streets and from that point I could just

stay between 12 and 14K and run north.

Was still doing great parallel to Inyokern, so after making sure Sharona knew I was heading north again, headed to

Porter Ranch. Got there around 10.5K and was thinking of the next step after I hit another boomer and was climbing

back to cloud base when I realized:

1. I’m out of water

2. I didn’t quite close the Gatorade bottle and it leaked - so I’m really out of water (and wet)

3. Tophat’s maps extend up to about Cindercone and

4. It’s raining over the Sierras ahead, making progress harder.

Didn’t quite feel like figuring out where exactly is the runway at Porter and how to get the trailer in, so just headed

back to Inyokern - and of course had to opened the brakes to descend from 10K. (Sharona was already at Inyokern

with the trailer, otherwise I might have just tried to head back).

Overall it was (mostly) blue and meh over the desert and fantastic over the Sierras.

P. S. Inyokern access is gate 5, not 6 as we have listed (code is correct).

Arnie Frankenberger soared 54 miles to California City. His report:

My wife Debbie and I were headed up to Tahoe for the long weekend which gave me the opportunity to try my first

straight out flight. I climbed to 12k above Mt. Lewis and headed out on glide towards Rosamond. I didn’t hit much

until I arrived at Silver Queen where I committed to stay until I had Cal City safely on glide. It took a while and a low

save from 4500 feet but eventually I moved on towards Cal City. A few failed attempts to get high over the hills to the

west of Cal City and the thick overcast ahead on course line convinced me to throw in the towel and land at Cal City.

It was a very conservative first straight out attempt but it was also a great learning experience and hopefully the start

of many future xc flights. A big thank you to Peter and Sean who inspired me to give it a try and to my wife who did a

great job chasing me on retrieve!  THANKS AGAIN GUYS!