|
|
|
|
PG Site Record at Potato Hill By Eric Reed - Monday, July 26, 1999 Boy, this is one active list. I know I'm a little behind but . . . Yes, Monday was definitely another great day at the spud. Even better than Sunday, with at least some long smooth fatties (and some inversion special bucking broncos too.) My first thermal off launch was just one long cruiser up to 7600. Thanks Sheryl and George for the retrieves. It sure was fun to have so many of us flying together and pot lucking together too. Thanks Bob for picking such a great weekend and Kitty for the potluck suggestion. Some random thoughts: - George's outlanding and subsequent jungle foray was not all for naught. In the process of looking for him, Greg and I stumbled upon a short road connecting the southern-most of a series of huge meadows to the St. John's road. Does this make the St. John's summit, heretofore stick-only because of the lack of glidable LZ's, a baggable summit? Perhaps. It shouldn't be too hard to work out the math. I have rough coords for the meadow and I think George can provide a better one along with an accurate altitude. Anyone have the coords and altitude for the St. John Launch (close but not on the summit?) For the half hour or hour I spent over it, the hang glider ramp was _the_ thermal trigger on the upper mountain. - The air over St. John was rougher still than over Potato. Who knows if this is always the case, though, and whether the roughness was due to topography / convergence or just to being higher and interacting with a different part of the inversion. I flew over the summit thinking I ought to be able to get to cloudbase but gave up on that plan after several tries. My first climb was to somewhere around 9500 or 9700 and the clouds over mountains to the north and west seemed much higher. I never managed to get back above 9K again and no clouds formed over St. John's. I have to suspect that either we were flying in a different (thicker/uglier) inversion than there was farther west into the mountain range. Anyway it was nice knowing that the George's LZ was nearby should I get badly flushed. - Clear Lake looks pretty close by from 9500. - The flight to Paskenta was just as fun, maybe more fun, than the last time. The highlight was probably when I first arrived at the low ridge that runs north from where Jill and Martin and I sunk out Sunday to just south of Elk Creek. I had a lot more altitude on the glide out this time but sill somehow managed to loose all but 100 ft or so over the top of the little ridge (which was itself only about 300 ft high). I turned to follow the terrain and some 'locals' down the ridgetop. We were cruising along at 25 or 30 mph just over the ridgetop, neither sinking nor gaining for a couple of miles. It put a big smile on my face to be hanging right on the edge of having to bail off the ridge to go land but to be flying with local guides who were leading the way. Eventually there was a somewhat more thermic little bit that I slowly worked up and back and managed to take back up to 4-something. - Again, everything I encountered after leaving the Potato/St. John area was way smoother and also generally a lot weaker than the "spud gun." - Why does the valley work so good? The flight, this time, was faster and easier because I had some tailwind (It was mostly east with just a little south when I started out and got progressively more south as the afternoon progressed.) Maybe 3 hours or even 2 1/2 after leaving St John for the last time. Other than the first leg to Elk Creek, I stayed more west than I did the last time, closer to the mountains and sometimes along their eastern slopes. Just like last time I had great thermals at 5pm and later. Shouldn't the east slopes of mountains not work so well when the sun is so far in the west? I haven't really figured that out. Both times there was an east wind which helps, I guess. After I got home I reread an email from Ed Stein which said that Red Mountain (North of Elk Creek) could get you spectacularly high due to convergence. Unfortunately when I was flying I knew he'd mentioned that something could get you spectacularly high but I couldn't remember what. What I think was probably Red Mountain was working quite well, but I didn't fly deep enough to find all that it had to offer. - I was low _a lot_ but kept finding something before I was on the ground. |
|
Home About Zephyr New & Visiting Pilot Info Useful Info For All Pilots PG & HG Flying Sites Our On-Line Magazine Links Guide To Our Website Contact:
kim"at"flyzephyr"dot"com |
USHPA Advanced Paragliding
Instructor & Observer