Part One
Challenge of climbing
the Sierra-Nevada Mountains to ASI
By Peter Kelly, Pilot
The single purpose of this flight was to regain possession
of the Egg and bring it back to Williams soaring Center
in California. The PASCO
Capture Trophy ( called The Egg) was proudly on display
at Air Sailing (ASI) ( about 30 miles NE of Reno Nevada),
and the line of sight distance from there is a mere 138
statute miles to Williams Soaring Center (WSC) in the Sacramento
Valley. However the terrain between the two glider ports
is formidable, rising from 68 feet above sea level crossing
mountains exceeding 10,000 ft, and landing at ASI which
is 4,300 ft in elevation. Prior to this flight, a glider
had never been flown from Williams to Air Saililng. This
is part one: detailing the flight from WSC to Air Sailing
on July 18, 2009.
It was a long time in development, but the plan finally
came together on July 18, 2009. Flying an ASH26E, the flight
time was 5.7 hours, with a departure from Williams CA at
11:12 AM and landing at Air Sailing NV at 4:51 PM. The overall
flight distance as measured from takeoff to landing, traveling
via two points on the Mendocino Mts. (Goat Mtn and Yolla
Peak), and then across the Sacramento Valley to Mt. Lassen
on the Sierra Mts. , was a total of 433 km (269 sm). The
task distance (starting at Goat) was a total of 236 miles
with a speed on task of 47 MPH.
The Egg had been at Williams more often than it had been
at any other glider ports within Region 11. In 2008 Ramy
had captured the Egg from Williams on behalf of the pilots
flying from Truckee, Ca. on an impressive flight from Truckee
to Williams via the long way around (North along the Sierras,
west over the mountains north of the Sacramento Valley,
and then south along the Mendocino Mts. to Williams). Before
the end of 2008 the Egg was captured from Truckee on behalf
of the pilots operating from Minden NV, and most recently,
on the first capture flight in 2009, the Egg was captured
by Rob "Stoney" Stone in February, 2009 and was
now on display at Air Sailing.
Multiple attempts had been made to fly from Williams to
Air Sailing, but no one met with success up to this point.
Conventional wisdom ruled that the most likely chance of
success would be a reversal of the course that Ramy had
flown when he flew from Truckee to WSC in 2008, but each
time I had attempted to fly that route in reverse order,
I either ran out of lift before getting high over the Sierra
Nevada Mountains or there was simply not enough daylight
left to fly the remainder of the way to Air Sailing and
expect to have any chance of returning to WSC on that same
day.
I finally concluded that the only solution was to glide
across the Sacramento Valley about mid-way between Williams
and the north end of the Valley. I had been studying the
maps for years, and had tried several different combinations
of jump off points from the Mendocinos, coupled with various
target glide points where I might hope to get a climb on
the Sierra Range. I had success one time - nearly ten years
earlier,when I made a
flight to Minden, on which I had departed Eagle Peak
and flew directly towards Rogers-Chester, Lake Almanor,
but the lift that day was extraordinary.
Buckhorn Peak had been used earlier this year because it
is further east than any other point south of Lake Shasta
and the high ground to the south east was “only” a 50 mile
glide. The negative factor for that route was the lack of
lift after deparint Buckhorn to the east and south east.
The lift in the area east of Redding has always been notably
poor. On at least thee occasions in the past ten years I
have been required to terminate my glider flight with an
in flight engine start when flying between Redding and Fall
River Mills.
I knew that somewhere south of Redding was a better choice,
based on my personal observations over the past 15 years.
The air over the north end of the Sacramento Valley, north
of Red Bluff, and south of Redding, always seemed to hold
the most promise. Since the thermals in the vicinity of
Yolla Peak have always proven to go to the highest altitude
anywhere on the west side of the Sacramento Valley, it seemed
most logical to depart from the area of Yolla Peak. And,
since the air was usually better north of Red Bluff, it
dictated a north easterly course rather than directly to
the east.
Since it is mandatory to have a place to land on the East
side of the Sacramento Valley after the end of such a long
glide from the west, the course quickly dictated that Ponderosa
Sky - a private airport shown on the sectional chart would
be target to glide to. The other choices were: Shingle Springs,
Paradise, Chico, and others to the south, but Ponderosa
Sky was the logical choice. Just for the record, I have
no idea what the landing surface is like at that airport,
as I have never been on the ground at that location. I have
been as low as 1,500 feet over the top of it on a couple
of occasions, and it looked useable, but it does look narrow
and the surface looks rough. If we happen to find that it
is in fact a suitable runway, then this flight could well
be attempted by lots of other glider pilots departing from
Williams Soaring Center. The highway adjacent to the runway
comes directly from the center of Sacramento Valley it looks
like a ground retrieve would not be a challenge - but still,
I don't know what the airport itself is like.
If you are interested, some additional info concerning
Ponderosa Sky Airport may be found at:
The minimum distance that I could hope for was a glide
of 57.4 miles, and if the lift was over Yolla Peak, the
distance would be increased to 61.5 sm to get to Ponderosa
Sky airport - which has a field elevation of about 3,500
ft.
The added attraction of going to Ponderosa Sky is that
it is only 17 miles from Mt Lassen (probably the best area
of lift on the east side of the Sacramento Valley – as mentioned
previously). I studied Google Earth to confirm my recollections
of the geography and now all that remained was to establish
criteria for "go or no go" for the start of the
glide from the west side to the side of the valley.
Looking at the charts on Friday night, downloading the
RASP charts and overlaying them on to my proposed routes,
I concluded that if I could achieve any altitude above 12,000
feet in the vicinity of Yolla Peak I would start my glide
from the top of that thermal.
In the area of Pond-Sky I added black numbers t indicate
the BL tops, and just below that I added red numbers to
in dictate the terrain elevation lines. I posted this on
the Williams
Today Pages at 11:45 on Friday night.
Detail view of the combo of RASP charts showing why I expected
to have a BL top of 12,000 over Yolla Peak and 7,000 ft
over Ponderosa Sky ( the heavy black line goes from Yolla
to Lassen)
FYI, those charts were created using the following - all
of which were created on Friday night...
On Saturday morning I reviewed the latest version of the
RASP charts and I observed the conditions were not appreciably
different than what I had seen the night before. I didn't
take the time to reconstruct any new overlays, and I headed
for Williams Glider port.
Things I had to do before takeoff, in additions to all
of the normal assembly and preflight items, were to refill
my gasoline supply, and refuel the ship, top up the oil
reservoir, and service my oxygen bottle. Eric was on hand
to give me an assist, and I was ready to go about 75 minutes
after arriving at Williams. I requested my usual departure
profile and Mark obliged me with a tow to 2,000 ft. I then
did my usual engine start and self-climb to 5,500 ft and
shut down over cross-roads, about 5 miles east of the tree
farm start gate.
My initial climb was two or three knots to over 6,000,
and it illustrated that my launch time was about optimal
for today’s conditions. Moving northward at best forward
speed possible I didn't’t linger at any teaser thermals.
The first time I was able to get higher than 8,000 was about
4 miles south of Alder Springs. I followed the high ground
north west then jumped the gap northeast towards M-3, one
of my favorite places to find lift immediately north of
Alder Springs. – and that small climb took me to the Yolla
Peak area. There were no cu anywhere but I had arrived at
the place I needed to be. Now it was just a matter of waiting
for the bubble of hot air that would take me to something
aboove12,000 feet. I didn't’t have long to wait. I was soon
climbing at 6 kts in a tight thermal that took me from 10
to 12,5 passing 11 I rechecked my out bound course display,
insured I was set for the crossing and focused on getting
the most from that bubble. It seemed to quit at 12,500.
If I had at least 12,000 the mission was a go! I met the
criteria, and off I went. Yahoo!
I was underway!
It was a long glide in smooth air, passing well north of
Rancho Tehama, and slightly north of Red Bluff runway.
I continuously flew the optimum airspeed (between 55 and
60 kts) and monitored the progress of the glide as I descended
in the still air, dropping below 9,000 feet on the east
side of the valley. My actual ground speed was 90 MPH.
The statistics for the 55 mile, 36 minute, glide with no
lift yielded an L/D of 46.5 to 1.
At the end of the glide I was at 6,000 ft (rather than
below 6), due to the favorable tail wind.
As the air started to dance at about 6,000 ft. I took a
few turns when I thought it to be prudent, and was intent
on not rushing, that is, not trying to climb the steep terrain
to the east without enough enough altitude to remain clear
of the trees. I knew I would need to be patient and conservative.
I had arrived near Ponderosa Sky about 2,000 above the terrain,
so I was not uncomfortable with my altitude above the terrain,
but the comfort level would soon change as I traveled eastward
up the eastern slope of the Sacramento Valley.
I could see several small cu on the high ground some 15
miles east, and periodically a small cu would cycle over
the top of Mount Lassen but that was over 17 miles to the
north east of the area that I was working. I knew that this
was the most critical part of the flight. Without a climb
this would probably be my sixth failed attempt in getting
to Air Sailing, but I was confident that it was possible
this time. I was flying well and was not yet frustrated
by a total lack of lift.
I initially drifted past the airport, observing the fine
highway that provided good access to this area. Feeling
confident, I made a glide up the hill to higher ground,
but I soon retreated. Locating a weak thermal back down
at 6,000 ft, I did a long slow climb (27 turns to climb
1500 ft), drifting uphill. Once again I tried to push eastward
and was thwarted by the lack of thermals. With the 6500
ft I now had, and considering my location, I was out of
glide range to get back to Ponderosa Sky, but I calculated
that I could glide to the hay fields due west of my location
and worked a weak thermal that was aligned downwind of the
larger thermal that I had previously found. Some 20 turns
later, I was heading towards the white rocks of Mount Lassen
at 9800 ft.
As soon as I started to cool down, getting comfortable
with my success, I did some sight seeing, and snapped a
few photos of this beautiful area.
This first photo shows the pristine alpine lakes on the
side of the volcano. At first I was only 1,000 feet above
the tourists parked in the lots adjacent to the lakes. The
photo does not do justice to the view.
Looking eastward, over the top of Mount Lassen ("...possibly
the largest dome volcano in the world...") I could
see the most difficult part of the flight was over - plenty
of lift on the route ahead.
Looking back over the left wing past the tail towards the
southwest, you can see there was no evidence of lift in
the Sacramento Valley.
Another photo to the southwest from inside the cockpit
shows that Mount Tehama would have formed a Crater Lake
here in our area, but the rim around the sides of the crater
did not remain. See more
info about the crater and Mt Lassen
A view to the southeast passing 11,000 in the climb, before
heading out.
One last look back to the southwest. The last time I had
traveled this far on my quest for the Egg, it was already
past 3:30 PM and the lift to the east did not look as favorable
as it did today.
As I rolled out heading eastbound I rechecked that my transponder
was squawking 0440, and proceeded to have lunch. It had
been a long trip up to this point. From the start at Goat
Mt. up to the Yolla Peak it was 1.6 hours, flying over familiar
terrain, and this past 2 hours I was flying over areas that
I had visited only a few times previously. I found it easy
to relax at this point.
I was cruising at good speed and estimated I'd be on the
ground at Air Sailing before 5 PM. After my third thermal,
traveling south of the high ridge, I was SE of Susanville
and SW of Herlong. It was time to review the ASI
Field Ops Guide that i had bought along with me. I was
on final glide and had the field made, even though the Dogskins
blocked my view of the airport area - still about 40 miles
away.
I made a few radio calls, stayed low along the terrain
as I came around the north end of the Dogskins, and came
down the valley talking first to Lee Edling and then to
Stoney. It was only right that Stoney was there to meet
me and get me back off the ground again, since it was he
who had captured the Egg from Minden earlier in the year.
Here is a screen shot of the Nevada Soaring web page that
shows Stoney displaying "his" trophy:
Link to the home page is... http://nevadasoaring.com/
I requested a 'minimum ground time', but Stoney was reluctant,
insisting I had to deplane, sign papers, take photos, etc.
You can see by the above photos, Stoney was quite proud
of having captured the Egg, and I could appreciate his hesitation
in handing it over.
As I readied the ship to leave, Stoney was heading over
to refuel the Tow plane to get me back into the sky.
The following photos were graciously taken by Chris Adams,
using my camera..
Putting on my glider hat and looking for a place to carefully
stow the Egg and the Log Book.
Strapping the parachute back on, I was feeling quite triumphant
and was all smiles for the camera.
Chris also captured the pattern and landing on his camera
in video format. See that video on You tube
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuNG-0GF_Eo
Chris also snapped this goofy looking photo of me, using
his own camera, as I waited for the tow rope. I needed to
advise Noelle and Cora at Williams that I had landed safely
at Air Sailing, and that I was now proposing to depart for
Williams ( with the Egg on board) and that my ETA would
be about 8:30 PM - if things went well!
Note: I do have other sunglasses with the reading lenses
built into them, but this combo of polarized sunglasses
and then reading glasses on the tip of my nose seems to
be the most comfortable to me for all around cockpit operations.
Using separate reading glasses in this manner, I am able
to by pass the polarized sunglasses thius allowing me to
read the moving map on the GPS Navigation System as well
as the instruments and other displays that are LCD screens.
I'd be in the air within a few, but the wind was picking
up from the west, and clouds were decaying. I was less than
confident at this point that I had time to get all the way
back to Williams, but decided to give it a try. I passed
through the usual strong thermal at 1,000 ft AGL on the
downwind turn towards the Red Rocks, but I resisted the
urge to release, and waited until I was in another strong
thermal and I had nearly 2,000 ft of altitude above the
field. Crossing a mile north of ASI at 9,000 in just a few
minutes I checked in with Reno Approach and proceeded directly
towards the area of Portola - where I figured I would be
starting the engine for the climb over the Sierra Range.
Unfortunately, I remained low all the way to Portola, passing
low over the south end of Frenchmen's Lake, and ridge soaring
past Nervino airport ( wind was from the south west in that
area). I fired up the iron thermal over Portola Peak, and
gave it a go, but the closer I came to the 9,000 ridge line,
the stronger the wind became. With sun low on the horizon,
dark mountains shadows before me, and the wind increasing
in strength, causing downwash as I got closer to the top,
I saw it was a hopeless cause, and made a 90 degree turn
to the south, announcing in the blind to any Williams Traffic
on 123.3 that I was now diverting to Truckee Airport.
You may download the flight log here: 97IC3UW2.IGC
The approach and landing at Truckee were uneventful, and
then the fun began.
Making a normal left hand pattern on runway 19, I came
in with full flaps, and the proper speed, and required little
braking in order to turn off the runway at the first turn
near the Office Of Soar Truckee.
Ray Sanford appeared before me, ready to assist with a
tow, and parking, and immediately discussed the wonderful
dinner he had available for me. Within 5 minutes the ship
was securely parked for the night, and I was sitting down
to dinner among the 30 or so people that were all there
enjoying the usual Truckee Saturday night dinner fest.
It was very enjoyable visiting with old friends and making
new ones all at the same time. I talked to Sergio for a
minute and he immediately invited me to use his auto for
the evening - thus allowing me to go to my nearby vacation
home and have a hot shower and a good nights sleep. The
only down side to using Sergio's fancy car was that I was
unable to indulge in any of the local brew that Soar Truckee
always has on tap - it looked sooo delicious and inviting.
But after two hard flights, I was truly exhausted, and it
would have only taken a few sips of beer to cause me to
be oblivious to the world. Not a good thing when driving
a car.
After finishing up the Pasta that Connie had made (with
fresh basil, tomatoes, walnuts and pine nuts) as well as
the garlic bread, and a piece of blueberry pie provided
by Tom - VN and also a piece of cake by another pilot, I
coordinated my departure plans. Darren-U2 generously provided
me with a full tank of fuel and any other assistance that
I needed. Before I started on that meal prepared by Ray
and Connie, Richard Pearl had another dish of food available
for me, as well as did others, with David-GJ handing me
a fresh steak for the grill if I wanted meat instead of
pasta. After dinner Doug Lentz and I discussed operations
and it was quite obvious that he was rightfully proud of
the fine facility that Truckee has become over the past
20 years. It has always been good, but it just seems to
keep getting better and better. The hospitality by everyone
was unbeatable.
Visit the following page on the web at http://www.soartruckee.com/index.html
The next morning, the field was once again busy as pilots
prepared for another splendid day of cross country flying.
I had a very interesting flight on my return to Williams,
which I will relate to you in Part 2 of this series.
Overall it was a busy two days,but extremely enjoyable
and rewarding. Here is a copy of the SPOT Messenger page
- displaying the many position reports that were transmitted
and recorded by the SPOT Messenger during my flights:
You will see when I tell you the story about the flight
from Truckee to Williams, that it was not an easy journey.
The Messenger was not on during the most difficult portion
of that flight, but I have the flight log and will explain
all of the details at a later date.
Return to top
Return to Stories
page for this Series
