A very warm day for April with temps pushing 90. 11 pilots on launch. D5 driver Donna chasing, and a very good soaring forcast. What more can a pilot ask for!!
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| St. Helena launch, add 30 mns. to camera time for real time. |
Fred and I climbed out to 6000' pretty quick, I asked him if he was ready to go XC he replied he'd like another 1000' of altitude first. I said ok I'd stick around a bit and see if we could get it. It didn't happen we had a hard time getting back to 6000' after 20 mns. Finally we got it and with nice cumys popping just south of Middletown we went. Got there around 4500' and climbed to 6600'. Not much in the way of clouds out in front of us for the next 20 miles but nice clouds on Walker Ridge .
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| This is over Hidden Valley Lake on glide to the NE. looking toward the SE. Lake Berryessa in the far distance. |
We found lift on the hills behind HVLake and climbed to 6600' again. From there we headed straight for Walker Ridge. We had to cross over the Little Blue Ridge to get there but we had the height to do it and a nice LZ (landing zone) is on the other side at HWY 20 and the Cache Creek crossing. We came in on the Little blue at 4200' and hit some bits of lift which I stopped to work not wanting to get impatient and not have the altitude to make it to the beautiful clouds 5 miles in front of us on Walker. Fred was following me and staying in the game very well. After about 10 mns. of scratching around on Little Blue I had lost about 1200'ft. I decided there wasn't anything there and told Fred I was heading across to the base of Red Rocks just before Walker. He was a few hundred over me and decided to stay there to find a thermal. I came in at 2200' and with enough alt. for a search, hit the rocky face just above the LZ and found solid lift to 8400'. Fred meanwhile worked himself low and landed at the far eastern side of the LZ. almost a mile from the gated access area.
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| Looking west from 8400' above Red Rocks. Clear Lake and Mt. Konocti |
From here I had to decide where I wanted to go. I've flown down Bear Valley before to Stonyford but have always thought it would be fun to get up on Goat Mt. and onto Snow Mt. and then St. John Mt. Today looked like the day it could happen. When opportunity presents itself you have to take advantage. I went for it.
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Indian Valley Reservoir with a few clouds popping down the west side looked like the ticket to Goat which is under clouds to the left. Bear Valley to the right.
I hit more solid lift half way down the lake staying high |
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| Matt Epperson out of Williams Soaring joined me for a thermal before I headed up Pacific Ridge to Goat Mt. under the nice clouds. Snow Mt. in distance. |
Go to (older post) below to continue.
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