Great flying from Laguna after tricky weather call was made. Originally the plan was to have a 'warmup' weekend in the Owens Valley before the US Paragliding Nationals is held there next week.
Cloudy skies meant conditions were a little more dampened than usual for this desert site.
I took off about fifth and got a nice climb out in the house thermal directly off launch. You can see the small launch area - its only just big enough for a single glider. There are a few hang gliders setting up back at their launch area by the road.
Along by the 'Y' the climbs gave pilots enough height to make the big transition over to Granite Mountain. For a while it looked like at least four pilots would be landing in the wash at the base of Granite Mountain, but no one gave up and everyone thermalled out, some from just a few hundred feet over the valley floor.
I was able to climb out over Grantite Mountain with Dimitri ahead and Aaron and Jason just behind.
From Granite we glided to near the Banner valley and slowly climbed up the ridge to Mt Vulcan, and then surfed along a weak convergence line to the VOR on Mt Vulcan. The VOR is a radio beacon used by commercial aircraft. It's a known thermal trigger but on this day wasn't working well for me.
I ended up miscalculating the strength of south wind and getting into an area of sink and lee side turbulence. In the video you can see Jason Cinch up ahead, who said he made slow circles drifting along the range and then climbed out at the start of the Warner plain.
Should have followed him!
After sinking out into the valley, I tried to cross to the Grapevine Mountains on the other side of the San Felipe valley, but lost too much height on the transition and so had to land in the valley in hot gusty conditions. The local super friendly ranch owner came and found me after I landed in his field, chatted while I packed up my gear, then drove me to the local bar to wait for retrieve!
Cloudy skies meant conditions were a little more dampened than usual for this desert site.
I took off about fifth and got a nice climb out in the house thermal directly off launch. You can see the small launch area - its only just big enough for a single glider. There are a few hang gliders setting up back at their launch area by the road.
Along by the 'Y' the climbs gave pilots enough height to make the big transition over to Granite Mountain. For a while it looked like at least four pilots would be landing in the wash at the base of Granite Mountain, but no one gave up and everyone thermalled out, some from just a few hundred feet over the valley floor.
I was able to climb out over Grantite Mountain with Dimitri ahead and Aaron and Jason just behind.
From Granite we glided to near the Banner valley and slowly climbed up the ridge to Mt Vulcan, and then surfed along a weak convergence line to the VOR on Mt Vulcan. The VOR is a radio beacon used by commercial aircraft. It's a known thermal trigger but on this day wasn't working well for me.
I ended up miscalculating the strength of south wind and getting into an area of sink and lee side turbulence. In the video you can see Jason Cinch up ahead, who said he made slow circles drifting along the range and then climbed out at the start of the Warner plain.
Should have followed him!
After sinking out into the valley, I tried to cross to the Grapevine Mountains on the other side of the San Felipe valley, but lost too much height on the transition and so had to land in the valley in hot gusty conditions. The local super friendly ranch owner came and found me after I landed in his field, chatted while I packed up my gear, then drove me to the local bar to wait for retrieve!
Click the Map for Tracklog on Leonardo