MANG's truckee report 9/29 - last of the season!+ THANKS to LARRY for giving TRK instruction/checkouts to over half dozen club members!

As Ramy had predicted, this last Saturday was a great day for soaring
out of Truckee. I launched just before 3pm and there were big cumulus
to the west of the airport and a few in the direction of Mount Rose.
Bases were around 14 to 15k. I got off tow under a big cloud at
7,800', banked it to 45 degrees and quickly climbed up to 11,000'.

I'd done my homework on safe glide circles and landmarks around
Truckee and had thoughts of going as far as Sierraville if I could get
high enough (about 12,500' feet over Sierraville at an 18:1 glide
ratio and 1500' arrival altitude). I ended up staying much closer to
the airport since it was blue towards Sierraville and my passenger
started feeling a bit ill. When I'd told Jim Altman I planned to take
someone up with me he'd told me "well the first time just don't make
it a bumpy day where you pull it over to 45 degrees for a few minutes
in a tight circle". (I'll pause now while you go re-read the first
thing I did off tow.)

Over the course of the flight I practised hopping from one cloud to
the next while estimating how much altitude I'd need and checking my
position and altitude against a safe glide circle map I'd failed to
return to Larry on a previous trip to Truckee. I was able to climb
easily under cloud to 11,000' feet but after that it was slow going,
even though the cloudbase was probably 14 or 15,000'. I made a try
for Mount Rose but turned back when I hit my safety altitude of
11,000' in some sink before the cloud I was aiming for.

We tiptoed over the edge of Lake Tahoe near King's Beach. Even with
plenty of altitude it's an invigorating sight to look down on the
giant lake and have water below you!

With enough fun (and motion sickness) for one flight we turned back to
Truckee (all of about 9 miles away) and came in for satisfyingly
smooth landing (not so hard when the wind is an uncharacteristically
smooth 5 knots straight down the runway).

After the flight Van, Maya, Larry, Stefanie and myself put 81C onto
its trailer. It was a little sad to be honest! What a great season
in Truckee this year - the club had a good showing and we have to
thank Larry a lot for leading the charge as instructor for some new
NCSA pilots to start enjoying the mountains!

Flight track (with some annotations):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mangtronix/8045069707/in/set-72157631669979213

View from Soar Truckee upper deck at 1pm:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mangtronix/8044988811/sizes/k/in/set-72157631669979213/

- mang

THANKS LARRY FOR LEADING THE CHARGE AS INSRUCTOR FOR SOME NEW NCSA
PILOTS TO START ENJOYING THE MOUNTAINS!