Owens Valley-- Mem Day '09

Wings of Rogallo had a strong (dominant!) presence at Walt's this weekend. Several first-timers put in impressive performances, showing good skills and judgement regarding conditions, which tended toward early overdevelopment and occaisionally "interesting" flying. Congrats to Ryan, Dirk and Mike, and everyone, really. Good flying.

Scott and I were returning for our second trip here, and both stretched our distances over last year. Scott's fiance Rhonda drove for us as well as keeping us in launch sandwiches and good humor. The Sierras were their usual gorgeous selves, festooned this weekend with a variety of clouds.


5/22/09. Walt’s to Big Ears. 52.6 mi. Launched at noon. Got to 13,500 pretty quick, headed north. Clouds developing over Sierra almost from start. Decent lift punctuated by heavy sink—1500 plus down. Really pulled in a lot, used VG, flew fast(for me) from ridge to ridge. Encountered some snow flurries. I was flirting with the edges to get lift and moving toward the valley when viz got sketchy. Basically a lot of fun. Just past Onion Valley (at 13 k) hit some 0g, then heavy twangs. Thought I was past it, then hit sudden massive sink. Vario pegged at 2000 down, then the bottom dropped out (very light in the harness). I could hardly believe it. Down to 7000’ in no time. Scary, as it was taking me straight down into a heavily bouldered area, didn’t seem to be anything I could do. My topless rocket was getting .5 to 1 glide. Unzipped ~300 agl, when I hit a bump. It felt solid, I turned, re-gained a couple K. I was shaken, didn’t trust anything, kept on into valley to make sure I had an lz on glide. Bubbles. Followed 395 for several miles, drifting N and E. Crossed fish pond, Mazurka road. OD over Whites had me skirting clouds ~ 8-9k (me, not them). Finally the clouds from Sierras and Whites started to converge, I bailed to Big Ears. Had to dive pretty hard to get down. Good landing in 15-20 S. Rhonda and Scott picked me up. Interesting day, and a bit further than I’d gone before.

5/23/09
Weather looked similar to yesterday, but developing even earlier. Launched ~10:15. Decent flying, nice views. I was wary approaching Onion Valley. Since I only had 12 K, I gave it a wide berth to the valley side. Weather looked likely to shut down the day before too long, so I opted for an easy landing near Aberdeen for maybe 35 miles. Ryan landed nearby--great first flight in the Owens.
Ryan brings it in near Aberdeen.

5/24/09
Got another early start. I was finding even better climbs than the past couple of days, frequently reaching cloudbase at 14.5k or so. No tailwind today, maybe even slight headwind, so progress north seemed slow. Saw Bruce and later Ben as they passed me. Passed high over Whitney Portal and Onion Valley, enjoying spectacular views. Still was wary of the area but nothing of note. Pissed on it just for good measure and moved on.
Friendly cu’s along the way, but I started noticing a huge tongue of dense, very high, cloud reaching into my path from the west. Didn’t know what to make of it. Not cu, and not cirrus, clearly being pushed by strong wind aloft. Possibly lenticular? Didn’t look quite right for that either, more like some errant tendril of the jet stream coming down to visit.* Eventually I headed east somewhere past Big Pine (My GPS kept shutting off, I think the cold was getting to my batteries, so I’m not sure exactly where I left the Sierras.)
Made the crossing with no issues, but that tongue kept reaching farther east, I wanted to get clear of it but wasn’t moving fast enough. Hit Black’s (a first for me) around 8K with Brian F overtaking me. Quickly climbed to 14.5 under a growing cu. Brian didn’t like the weather and went out to land. I raced north a bit further, but found alternating heavy lift and sink, and the Devil Tongue kept licking at my heels.
The hundred miler was beckoning, but with no GPS, faint familiarity with the landmarks further north, and vaguely threatening weather which I didn’t understand, I moved away from the peaks and closer to the foothills, still headed north. The weather uprange looked strong but fine, but I just wasn’t feeling comfortable with the situation where I was, so I left the hills after Flynn’s and landed along 6 between Flynn’s and Chalfant for 66 miles. My LZ was clear enough to pull off the no winder OK, but it was a hellish breakdown spot—half and half talcum powder and nasty stickers, and very hot.
Rhonda had trouble getting to Scott for his pickup, so I had a couple of hours to watch the clouds. The elevator over Black turned into an impressive cu-nim, exploding high and wide into a classic anvil. The tongue continued to spread east and grow, but became less and less defined. The shade brought some relief from the heat. Mayflies suddenly appeared out of nowhere, followed by a busy squadron of dragonflies gobbling them up. Passers-by offered welcomed water and beer. Cu’s and virga developed north and south. My ride eventually appeared, and we quested north to find Rick Dumlao, who did 80+ but landed without radio or cellphone coverage, but fortunately near the highway. Just another day in the Owens.

I was a little grumpy about cutting off the flight, but it was still a best for me. Met up with Bruce and Sarah, Wayne, Eric, Matt, and their drivers Nile and Suzanna for pizza and a thorough debrief on the day. Bruce, Ben and Steve all went better than 100 miles, though Bruce had to sacrifice a control bar($ouch$) and a modicum of flesh. Eric and Wayne also had good flights. Matt got stuck in the launch queue and didn’t get off before it started raining. (argggh).

*Bruce was able to enlighten me regarding the Evil Tongue—there had been T-storms over the West side of the Sierras, and what we saw was the dissipating remnants of those cu-nims being carried over the mountains by high westerlies. Ya learn something new every time.