Weekend Soaring

[Ginny Farnsworth]

We had a good weekend on the field (and in the air). I drove up yesterday AM, took a tow to 1,200 at about 2 PM in G3. I was planning to tow to Walker an have a look at the water level in Indian Valley Reservoir (it's still almost full), but my Sage was showing > 10 kts on the averager from the end of the runway to the sewer ponds, so I released to check it out. Was able to climb to 4200 without much trouble, flew up to Maxwell, then back, couldn't find the spot again, so I landed. Blue thermal, under high, patchy cirrus provided the lift at about 4-6 kts.

Today Nina Watanabe and I took a flight in the ASK 21. We towed to Walker, found nothing. Cruised to Wilbur Hot Springs, found some lift at 2-4 kts and climbed about 500 ft, then found a little more over the Cortinas ridge around highway 20 gap, and climbed again.

Then Jim in 1 B came up along side and we flew across the valley. Visibility was great, could see the Sac skyline, Shasta, Lassen, Sierra, etc. Thermals were blue.

Erik Knight and I flew again at about 3:30, found no lift, but had a great flight anyway.

Juan Bravo, PK, Matt Epperson, Bill Ludlow, Jack Munger, Nick Mayes also flew, and Ed took up a few rides and worked with a student, Jerry Robison in the ASK 21.

Any stories to tell?

Ed got the day off to a good start with an airshow with his RC. Sampson the Mighty did bite the aircraft once, and is now in the dog house (literally). It was great to see Ed out teaching again. Welcome back!

I caught a glimpse of the new Schleicher "31" in the North Hangar - and the proud new owner Mitch Polinski (I'm not sure I've ever seen Mitch smile so much).

Porbably much more going on that I was not aware of, hope someone else will update us on all of that!

Hope to see many of you in the air next weekend!

And... A big Thanks to all at WSC who made (and always make) the day go so well.

[Peter Kelly]

I had a good day.
Launched after most everyone else, except Jack, and was in free flight at 3,000 over 3 Sisters.
Went south of the gap about 1/2 mile. Did some scratching and made it up to 4,000 moved to 20/16 got 4 kts to 6,000 - high for the day.
Went over Rumsey then gold mines
( took photos with my cell pohone) , almost to Crazy creek into pope valley and 2 miles north of PV tried to get back north but that was the end of my glider flight. out came the prop.
But it was good while it lasted.
I did some serious practicing. some thermals required 55 to 58 kts - due to steep bank angle required. regular thermals were a challenge - - I found it hard not to stray outside of the 48 to 52 knot range without agressive use of the elevator. Good practice.

Took a couple more relights (boooo ) to get home to WSC.

Great day.

[Peter Kelly]

More info on my flight today.
I didn't have my camera with me, but I did have my cell phone. No, I never put it outside, since it does not have a strap on it.

I wanted to snap a few photos of the Gold Mine Ranch.

Just yesterday I finished posting the story about how Key landed there back in 2004 and Jim and I and Barb retrieved him.

see photos and story at...
http://www.valleysoaring.net/?page_id=936

So today I snapped a couple of shots with my cell phone and they turned out ok.
Place looks the same as it - almost eight years ago.

See the photos on the vsa page and you will be able to see what it looks like at ground level. These photos are snapped looking to the south east

On the retrieve, we drove on to the ranch from the south ( coming from the top right side to the center of these photos.)

[Stelian]

I had a great Saturday also, thanks to ED I put another 4 flights on my logbook. They set me up and "lost the plane" one flight before the last. Had to release and ED was happy the way I did it! On the other hand I hated to pass trough the thermals not to check them out, we did couple spirals and got back to my flight plan.....glad Ginny had to bump in one of those thermals we left up there!
Thanks ED for the teaching!