We were toying with the idea of heading that way this weekend - anyone flying or have insight on the weather?

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We've had a couple of good flying days and might have another one tomorrow. The Berkeley crew is in town this weekend and there were more than 20 pilots on launch today. Everybody seemed to have good flights both days with some pilots going XC today. A thunderstorm hit Washoe Valley after everyone had landed.

Alex and I had a good time at Slide today. The forecast was good, but the inversion was pretty thick so we weren't sure what we would actually end up with in the air. It turned out to be pretty good. The lift was mostly easy to find and not turbulent so it was fun flying even if we didn't get very high. Another pilot showed up after we were already in the air, but I don't remember who it was. Tomorrow should be good, too.

There was a good sized group out flying today. We had some pilots from out of town mixed in with the usual locals. Everyone had a good time and tomorrow is looking like more of the same flying conditions.

Alex and I flew today. We were expecting the conditions to be similar to what we say yesterday. What we actually encountered was an incredible amount of severe turbulence. Of course the landing conditions were a whole lot of fun, too. Still, it was slightly better than not flying.

It was a good day for flying the site. Steve G, Mike, Alex, Willy, and I flew. The conditions got better as the day went on and you could fly as long as you wanted to. Everyone had a good flight.

It was a good day. Bruce, Eric, and I flew. There was plenty of lift and we were able to fly all over the valley and climb up to well above 11,000'.

There is an annual fly-in at Lakeview over the July 4th weekend. Very very casual, it's really just an excuse for pilots to get together. There is a race from Sugar hill to Town - 27 miles or so. I think Ken Museo has the record in 50 something minutes. There's also a BBQ one night.
But as I say, it's very casual, and just a really nice place for low stress XC flights and glassoffs.
So far, I think Steve G, Mike Freed and I are going. If you're interested in joining us and want more info, let us know.
Bruce.

Here's more info:

July 3-4-5, 2010
A friendly, family, fun fly-in! $20 Registration includes Barbecue Tandems, local drivers, five world-class launch sites, & a good time for all pilots

Saturday July 3
8AM to 5PM Registration open at the Chamber
9:00 AM Pilots Meeting, Weather Review
Paragliders Cumulative Competition

Sunday July 4
9:00 Pilot Meeting and Weather Summary
Paragliders Cumulative Competition
TBD Sugar Hill Hang Glider Dash
10:00 Fireworks Show

Monday July 5
9:00 Pilot Meeting and Weather Summary
Paragliders Cumulative Competition
4-7 PM Spot Landing- Hang Gliders and Paragliders
5:30-7 PM Barbecue and Awards

Sponsored by the Lake County Chamber of Commerce
126 North E Street, Lakeview, OR 97630
541/947-6040
877-947-6040

It was a late afternoon flight for Steve G, Mike, Willy, and I. We launched after five and everyone had a good flight. It's looking like springtime weather is finally here.

Willy, Paul, Mike, Steve and I headed up to the NW facing launch on McClellen today. It was pretty windy up there, 15-20mph with higher gusts. Willy launched first being pressed for time, but it was just too windy and torn up. But he still managed a nice top landing on Duck where his truck was from an earlier flight that day! Keen and talented :)

The rest of us waited for about 30 minutes by which time the wind had abated somewhat and there were actually calm spells. It was still hard work with bullet thermals cut up by the wind. Mike and Paul landed after a little while, Steve and I persevered. After about 40 minutes or so a bank of clouds which had been sitting at the North end of Washoe valley came our way. This was clearly a convergence of some kind. First Steve, then I got swept up to cloud base at 11000'+. What a relief, but it was cold :(. The cloud street stretched across to Slide where it filled in even more. We decided to follow it upwind to Slide. The hard part was staying below cloud base!, but we were able to scoot a little south out of the cloud suck, then back north into it. Fun in an adrenaline pumping kind of way.

Just before Slide the clouds darkened and we entered a strong region of sink. I persevered hoping to punch through into better lift, Steve decided to preserve his altitude (still 11K) and headed for Diamond Peak in the sun. I never found lift or even less worse sink and had to turn tail back into the valley. But even though I was down to 8K I entered the convergence again and got whisked back to 11K. I went back to Slide, but this time took my time and care and got about 1/2 mile from the peak, still at 11K before I had to dash through the sink to tag the peak. Cool :p, I turned tail, went back to the valley and did it again. It felt really odd coming from lift in the valley into strong sink over the peak.

Steve and I headed back to McClellen where there was still really strong lift, as in over 900'/min averaged.

After boating around for a while and with 3 hours in the bag we decided to land.

Except for the first 1/2 hour, a really fun and adventurous day.

Bruce

Four of us flew today. I had the wonderful opportunity to go back up for a refly after sinking out during my first flight. It was a fun day to fly. The conditions were on and off with the wind switching around between south and west just to keep things interesting.

It was a good day today at Palomino. There were 7 pilots out today, 3 went off the upper launch and the rest off the lower launch. Most had good flights with Bruce seeming to be stuck in the sky for hours.

Just a reminder of the June meeting of the Nevada Wings.

Tuesday 1st June 7:00pm
Austin's in South Reno
7671 South Virginia Street, Reno - (775) 852-1600

Less than 2 weeks to the Fly-in. Let's make sure we have all the bases covered. Anyone have contact with the weather gods to arrange for East winds? ;)

Cheers,
Bruce.

Slide looks like it will work tomorrow, Saturday.
Lots of people will be out of town.
Who is in town for flying?
lets meet in the lz

reno