Tehachapi to Tonopah (the non song version)

Today I'm in Tonopah, Nevada. Got here yesterday by flying my glider from Tehachapi in the dust devil dash. The dash is a straight out race held every year the weekend after labor day. While , as they say in Hawaii talking story with some old friends, the line up for tows got very long. Went and got the glider out and ended up last in line for a tow.

The lift was very good by the time I got flying and pretty quickly went to 14,ooo feet just south of the gliderport. Flew to the ridge just west of kelso Valley and climbed to 16,000 feet or so. Didn't hit anything until the ridge just west of Inyokern then worked my way along the eastern edge of the sierra nevada mountains.

Near olancha peak the lift wasn't very strong so went west into the mountains a bit to fly under the clouds. It wasn't all that strong there either but climbed to a little less than 16,000 again. Speaking with Pat Rusette (ASW-20) on the radio thought I heard him say the inyo mountains were good but he actually said that they were not good stay on the sierra. Jumped to the inyos and had a slow trip to westguard pass, from there the lift was very strong to boundary peak.

Headed south for a few miles then flew to Silver Peak, Nevada where I climbed back up to 14,000 feet again and headed for Tonopah. The edge of the north side of the valley with the large lithium mine had me descending at 5 to 6 knots, this went on for it seemed an eternity, zig zagged back and forth trying to get out of the sink thinking that I might be flying along a line of sink. When abut 20 miles out of Tonopah airport got out of the sink and made and easy glide to the airport.

Paul Robinson and his crew Wyatt were derigging his 304cz, we met up in town at the best western and had dinner at the mexican restaurant. I keep a travel trailer in Tonopah in the summer as I really enjoy flying there. My shortest flight of the six that are counted for the olc this year was 660 km. Had a 760 km flight that didn't count as the flight recorder failed. Had that flight been good on the recorder my shortest flight would have been just a few km under 700. With the really good weather and a bunch of great pilots this only got me to 31st in the traditional olc and 10th on the fai olc in the U.S.

Labor day weekend soaring at mountain valley airport Tehachapi, California

Twin grob over golden hills

For Labor Day weekend, we drove to Tehachapi, California to fly gliders and hike the southern end of the sierra nevada mountains. There is a sailplane homebuilders workshop at the mountain valley gliderport in Tehachapi every year at this time. Met up with a number of old friends that I hadn't seen for some time including Larry and Jane who run the airport. We stayed with our friends Jim and Misti.

Jeff Byard's TG

The weather for soaring was good on Saturday with flights up into the owens valley area and back. We got there too late to take advantage of the weather, rigged and tied down the glider planning to fly on Sunday. The wind really blew on Sunday and we mostly flew the Tehachapi convergence, some wave, and an occasional thermal for a two hour flight. It's amazing that any thermal held together well enough to be useable in the wind. The 302 was showing 29 knots from the west most of the day, the lift was strong and easy to work. The problem was that I could only get to 9200 feet and never left the valley.

Tehachapi from ASH-26E

Most of my flights this year have been in good soaring weather and I had mostly been flying straight. I've had this ship for less than a year so it was good to learn a little more about flying the ASH-26 in the varied conditions of the Tehachapi Valley. Seems that every glider model has it's own personality and it takes me a season to learn how to fly it well.

The soaring on Monday didn't look too good on the forecast so we drove around the mountains to the north of the gliderport. Helped a young couple with a baby get to a auto repair shop near Lake Isabella after we came upon them in their broken down car. Had a great soak at remington h0t springs then back to Tehachapi.

We had dinner with our friend Misti at a very nice Thai restaurant in Tehachapi. After the great meal, we picked up the glider trailer and towed it home to Boulder City. The glider was left tied down at mountain valley so that I could enter the dust devil dash the next Saturday. Will be hitching a ride from Bakersfield Airport with my friend Oscar after he gets off work. We'll see if it was wise to take the trailer home a week before the race.