I spent 4 days excellent days last week at Bishop, CA with the Nevada Soaring Association. They bring down their tow plane to Bishop and invite members to come and fly at one of the world’s premier soaring sites. I went with Bill Levinson, another club member, with whom I planned to share a glider, which meant I would fly 2 of the 4 days we would be there. As you may know, Bishop (el 4100’) is located in the Owens Valley between the Sierra Nevada and White Mts. The backside of the Sierras rises very dramatically up to 12-14k ft peaks. It reminded a lot of the Grand Tetons. The Whites are nearly as high, with White Mountain ~12k ft. They slope up more gradually than the Sierras, but are still steep with deep canyons.
The first day Bill had the plane so I took a flight with an instructor, Rob Stone (Stoney), to get familiar with the area. It was a great lesson. The wind was coming from the south and was flowing over the White Mts. Stoney explained how thermals don’t work very well in these conditions, and the best strategy is to fly figure eights close to the ridges and then move further up and into the range. It’s quite a feeling to fly right at the ridge and feel the plane rise rapidly as the ridge passes below. We made it up to the top of the Whites to about 14k and flew just below the face of White Mountain Peak, back to the south end of the Whites, across the valley to the Sierras, and then back down to Bishop; total flight time ~ 2.5 hrs, most of it spent with me trying to climb up the ridge.
Second day was my turn with our sailplane (Grob 102, SS). I released at nearly the same place as the previous day’s flight with Stoney. So I just did all the same things I had done before and made to the top of the ridge & up to 16k ft. That’s a personal best max altitude for me; total flight time ~2.5 hrs.
Third day, my next scheduled day off, I was invited by another pilot to fly with him in a DG-1000, a high performance 2 place glider. Its glide ratio is about 46:1. He did most of the flying, especially climbing the ridge, but he let me fly as well. We went up the Whites to Boundary Peak, back to Bishop, across the valley over to the Sierras and down to Lone Pine. At that point we turned into the Sierras toward Mt Whitney (14,505’). At first we flew past Whitney, it doesn’t really stick up much higher than the surrounding mountains, but it is recognizable by the stone hut on the peak. We flew back and found Mt Whitney and could see hikers on the peak by the stone hut. We did a pass over Whitney and took pictures of the hikers while they took pictures of us as well. From there we crossed the valley again to the Inyos and flew back to Bishop. Total flight time ~5.5 hours. Cool.
Fourth day was my turn in SS again, so decided to try for the Silver badge requirement of a 5 hour flight. Again I released in the same area as my previous flights and managed to climb up the ridge to the top of the Whites. I flew along the top of the ridge trying to stay where most of the lift is found. After several runs up and down the crest I ran into sink and had to turn toward the valley and quickly descended. I flew along below the ridge looking for lift without luck until I was down to about 8600’, less than 1000’ higher than my initial release. Finally I found lift and climbed back up. I flew along the ridge again and tried taking some video from the cockpit, which is not easy. Mostly it consists of pointing the camera toward the window and pressing the record button for 30 seconds or so, and hoping it captures something good. At the southern most end of the ridge I hit sink and again fell off the ridge to about 9600’. I finally hit a strong thermal which I stayed in and climbed up to over 11,000’. For the remainder of the flight I managed to stay over 10,000’. Five hours came, but I wanted to make sure I had more than enough time, so I ended up flying for over 5.5 hours. Another personal best for me….
See photos from Mt Whitney flight at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhviolet/2010_06_23_Bishop?authkey=Gv1sRgCJa42YmCsujFLw&feat=directlink
See flight recorder trace graphs in attached jpg files. The graph shows altitude vs time, with the dark mass below representing the ground altitude.
Great flying and hope to return next year.
Mark
1 comment:
Nice pics! Thanks for sharing.
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