Big conditions for the top guns and more manageable conditions around the launch for everybody made for lots of happy pilots today.
Climbing out at launch was much easier today without the scratching below launch of the last two days. I worked with one of the first gaggles up to about 10,000 ft, where the inversion layer was. The gaggle was climbing deeper into the high terrain, so I left to fly further out the front. As I'm still quite intimidated by flying these huge mountains, and didn't have an oxygen system, I knew I wasn't going to fly 80km at high attitude in the freezing cold.
For the first time this week I actually reached the start circle before the start, so took off right on time with one other pilot. We parted ways searching for lift after a couple of ridges, and I found a beautiful thermal over the big wash at the base of the Paiute launch. Then I worked along the front of the hills, finding one other nice thermal that took me to my highest altitude of about 11,000ft.
Climbing out at launch was much easier today without the scratching below launch of the last two days. I worked with one of the first gaggles up to about 10,000 ft, where the inversion layer was. The gaggle was climbing deeper into the high terrain, so I left to fly further out the front. As I'm still quite intimidated by flying these huge mountains, and didn't have an oxygen system, I knew I wasn't going to fly 80km at high attitude in the freezing cold.
Climbing out in the second big gaggle of the day
Still climbing at around 9,000ft
For the first time this week I actually reached the start circle before the start, so took off right on time with one other pilot. We parted ways searching for lift after a couple of ridges, and I found a beautiful thermal over the big wash at the base of the Paiute launch. Then I worked along the front of the hills, finding one other nice thermal that took me to my highest altitude of about 11,000ft.
Paragliding Selfie at 10,000ft
Meanwhile the top pilots were cruising along at between 13,000 and the legal limit of 17,999ft in the freezing cold above the white mountains. A big day! Paragliders are not allowed to fly higher than that as it is reserved for commercial air traffic. These high altitudes are one reason people come to fly in this location.
After about 30km I left the hills and headed for the road. The road was working like on the practice day, with big rigs triggering the hot air to lift off as thermals. I was able to fly another 13km essentially in a straight line down the road that stretches endlessly through the desert. The course required tagging a turnpoint that was at the foot of the mountains, but for me that might have involved landing out in the desert 5km from the road, so I landed in a nice big field right next to to make getting picked up easier.
Following the road through the desert
A fun day of exciting flying. I won't have moved much up the results list but maybe I'll pluck up the courage to go bigger in the next days if the weather cooperates.
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