saturday's flying at Walt's Point-Owens Valley

[diablo]

With cumis forming on the Inyos @ 9:00 a.m,it promised to be an in interesting day with 3 pilots over 100 miles! I'll let Southside, Hammer, Cougie, Pokie tell their own stories. Eddie was there with three Kagel pilots and can furnish their details. Takeoff 10:40 landing in 9 miles east of Fallon, Nevada nearly on Highway 50. 206 miles 7.5 hours. Spent a great deal part of the day floundering around including flushing off the Sierras and having to work it up from 7500' in Westgard Pass. From The White Mountains I cut the corner to Lunning. At Lunning to west of Gabbs I spent the majority of the time trying to out run the overdevelopment. I considered landing west of Gabbs but saw the multiple gust fronts and the over development which was near me. Thought better about landing tanked up on altitude and went on glide for parts unknown. Had wanted to go more northeast towards Austin but the whole area was over developing. Trying to fly away from the rapidly approaching over-development I had 50+ on the gps and could still feel the cloud behind me trying to draw me into it @ 1500' p/min. up. Gliding in a head wind towards Fallon at the 196 mile mark it looked like I was going to be short. Tanked up on week thermal to 8k and went on file landing straight in. Carolyn was able to locate me by 8 after I had sent her first towards Hawthorne then to Gabbs and finally back to Fallon via Hawthorne. In the air at Gabbs it was one of those times you wish you were on the ground. Carolyn and I were treated to a spectacular lightning show that evening. Definitely learned more from all the mistakes I made then the flight itself.

[Southside]

It's a little tough to follow a 200 mile write-up, but I did pass the century mark by 1 mile with a flight to Janie's.

Like Tony, my original intention was to stay on the Sierras with Hammer and YNA. I didn't connect at Birch Mountain so I couldn't cut the corner over Coyote Flats in order to make Mt. Tom. I got up nicely at Round Mtn. out front, but I just seemed to be in a better position to make the crossing to the Whites rather than continue on the Sierras. A line of wispy clouds running south to north in the middle of the Valley helped make the decision. Came into the Whites below 7k just north of the Bishop airport. There was some really rough air at that altitude, but I eventually got into something that got me back up to 13k. Just then the ole motion sickness kicked in; about 30 miles from, what has been for me, the elusive 100 mile flight from Walt's. Fortunately, the Whites were really going off so I was able to just dolphin fly the rest of the way in.

Hammer and YNA continued on the Sierras landing at Lee Vining and the Mammoth airport, respectively. Hammer being knocked down by the overdevelopment ahead of him in Bridgeport and YNA by the west wind that blew through by the time that he got to the Mammoth area.

Speaking of overdevelopment, the Owens really put on a show in the late afternoon. First, about an hour and a half after I landed, the winds started gusting 40+ out of the north (it was light south during my flight). On the drive back it was blowing 40+ due east at Chalfont (sp?) and 40+ due west at Bishop; gusting due south just north of Independence and then due north just north of Lone Pine. And of course there were the spectacular lighting strikes. I don't think I have ever seen so much weather.

John

P.S. Just wanted to thank Hammer and Phoenix for going out of their way to pick me up. At the time, they knew that Tony wasn't going to be landing anytime soon so they felt sorry for me and spared me the long turn around.

P.P.S. Pokie is the one that really needs to do a write-up :-)

[yna]

Second to last off out of the small crowd of eight...sweet climb out after light wind dive off launch, no brainer down range to Big Pine, 10-13k mostly out front, finding turb and wrenching my left risk while flying one handed (due to radio and camera use by right hand) then a low save passing over Glacier Lodge Road, drifting over Coyote Flats...super cool area, intermittant lift to Mt Tom...took the long way to Lake Crowley, leaving at 12k was a mistake as I hit a wall at Mammoth Airport, testing the runway direction dead into the West wind and in the flight path...landed across the street at 7200' msl, water skied 15 yards before flaring and sinking into the swamp grass a foot...anvil head over Mammoth started to gust my way, so content to have called it a day, took some video along the way and extracted some stills:

http://spaces.msn.com/bob-shots/

Cougie

[Bo]

Great pics Bob, thanks for sharing! It's nice to get a sense of what I might see if I ever made that flight.

[scott]

good job

[Guest]

Okay, this is coming quite late, so I don't expect too many readers at this point. I didn't feel like there was any need to post, but since Southside's P.P.S., I've been strongly encouraged by several people to do so. I flew about 20 miles to "New Bishop", otherwise known as Independence. I had a great time in the air for a couple of hours, reaching 14.7k and sucking off the oxygen bottle - my first flight with O2. It was also my first XC flight from Walts. I headed out into the valley with about 12k because the weather to the north looked a little ominous (and I hadn't seen the half of it), and because I saw an inviting Cumi forming over "New Bishop". It's amazing how close that cloud looked at the time, and yet how far away it actually was. I'd learned from the previous week's experience out in El Mirage to prioritize landing near civilization (a bar) and a main road, even if it means having to backtrack. So, remembering Cougie's words, I headed for green squishy stuff just north of the airport and close to Hwy 395. I had a nice landing, stashed my stuff and caught a ride into town. Needless to say, my spirits sank a tad when the driver told me that we were headed into Independence and not Bishop. (I won't make that mistake again.) Speaking of spirits, I was really dejected to find out that there are no bars in Independence, so I was reduced to drinking out of a paper bag at the Chevron station. Then, a couple of hours later, while I'm headed back out to get my stuff, it starts pouring. Lightning is striking on both sides of the valley, and the wind is blowing from every direction, but mostly from the north. I got soaked, my gear got soaked, and I'd left my radio sitting on the branch of a tree. (I retreived it the following morning, and it still worked!) It was all worth that 15 minutes or so of looking down on Mt. Whitney and the surrounding peaks and lakes in the portal, and seeing both sides of the Sierras below me.

Pokie

[Guest]

That's a good story and one that a lot of folks can learn from. One of my earlier flights from Walts (not that I've had too many) was in the late '80s and I landed a few miles north of the Big Ears radio telescopes. My water was gone and after a couple of hours I was so thirsty (and w/o retrieve) that I ended up gulping down water from some pond filled with muddy water. The handful of cows that were standing in it (it barely covered their hooves) seemed amused...

I was sure I was going to get sicker than a dog but never had any side effects.

Forger

[skrappy60]

Nice flying cougie....

Skrappy.