Saturday's and Sunday's Flying out in the desert

[Tony Deleo]

Fast Eddie, John Hesch and I headed out to try a new site southwest of Inyo Kern. After fumbling around we finally located the site which, with the landing area nearly 4 miles away, was sketchy and best, at least for Saturday. We opted to fly Garlock and took off at 3:15. There was wind and cycles, unfortunately the southwest had pushed thru so the lift was broken. With 5600' I drifted downwind towards Trona where I landed at the airport 40 miles. John, not being familiar with the site, opted to land at the abandon town of Garlock to check out the historical landmark. Flying in SB prepared me for this day in as much as the majority of the flight was spend 2000-3000 agl.

After much discussion we "dashed" over to Blackhawk from Tehacapi, a mere 3+ hour drive, to join John Scott, Bruce Barmakian, Jonathon D. and their crew. Eddie called it right with the area not really working until 1:00 which was the time that we were ready to fly. Slow climbs to 9K, jumped on to the San Bernardinos then to The Ord Mnts climbing to 10,500'. John's crew were trying to fly a triangle. I think Bruce may have made in on his ATOS C model. After dashing around in the desert both days and with the slow going I opted to fly towards Northwest, instead of northeast up the Highway 15. My goal was to fly to Trona which would have put me over 100 miles. Unfortunately, northwest of Harper Dry Lake, I could not climb high enough to glide, up hill, to Red Mountain some 15 miles away. I made a couple of attempts but could not make it work consequently ended up flying down the alluvial fan landing northwest of Harper Dry Lake at the 60 mile mark where we saw a tortoise. If you haven't been out to the desert areas-the wild flowers are really putting on a show. The Antelope Valley looks like something out of the Wizard of Oz-absolutely incredible.

[ravenclaw]

Tony I'm going to buy you a camera! kevin