St. Helena 4/12/11

A good day at St. Helena. Reavis and I went XC into Pope Valley then past Berryessa. He landed on the Blue Ridge fairly high up, then relaunched and flew to a lower meadow . A bit of a hike got him to the road.

I flew through the Capay Valley gap at Hwy 20 and landed on the east side of the ridge.  John Dudley can be seen in the right hand lower corner of the picture below.

Here we are making the jump into Pope Valley from the Pinnacles southeast of the mountain.

I was hanging with Reavis because my radio wasn't working properly.

St. Helena

We had an exceptionally good day for this late in the year. Clouds forming and 350 fpm up to cloudbase. I should have taken some pictures near the clouds. Leo Jones I believe on his T2 154

Kurt flew in from Cloverdale and hung out with us for awhile before motoring back.

St Helena

Kurt on VX heading for the south knob. Can I catch him?

You bet. My T2C 144 has good speed and great performance. Can't wait for primetime next year, some site records will be broken!! Flew for 1:35 mns then landed at Janes. She came out and chatted with us for awhile What a pleasant person she is.

The Grade

Justin Miller gets his first Grade flight. Wills Wing T2C

A fun flight.

Mosquito Landing

Kurt Bainum coming in to land at Cloverdale airport on VX

Nice flare in light winds.

Mingus Mt.

This was my first time at Mingus. It is a great site. The AHGA has done alot of work to secure and improve it. This is at the top of the concrete ramp

The ramp for hanggliders. Paragliders have there own launch a short distance farther down the ridge which is very nice.

Looking toward Cottonwood and Sedona in the background at the base of the cliffs.

Looking S toward Phoenix.

Standing on the ramp looking back toward the gated private campground for pilots. It is awesome. I stayed for a week. I'll go back next year for sure.

Mingus Mt. to Sedona AZ.

This is NE toward Sedona at the base of the cliffs to the right. 23 Mi. Flagstaff is in front of Humphreys Peak in the back left about 45mi. from Mingus

This photo was taken from about 14000' looking back toward Mingus Mt. which is under the tip of my wing. Bruce Bousfield, KM, Patrick Kruse and myself flew. KM and Bruce couldn't find the lift and landed at Cottonwood airport. The goal was Sedona to get to fly the red rock cliffs it's famous for.

The cliffs are beautiful. This is looking SE toward Sedona. The airport is the brown spot in the right background .

I worked good lift in front of the cliffs but couldn't get high enough to make the airport.

I flew back to the cliffs to the left and spotted a nice place to land...Cont'd
(older posts) this blog only allows 5 photos per post.

Mingus to Sedona...cont'd

I landed on the driving range at Seven Canyons golf club

I landed just on the other side of the practice green

I carried to the shade to break down. They were very relaxed about it and I went in and bought a beer at the bar.

Patrick Kruse coming in to land with me

He was a little long and landed on the green. I forgot to pull the pins! No hole in one.