Southern Arizona Hang Glider AssociationFlying Report for Box on Sat 10/16
Moderators:ioan, John Wolfe, aaroncromer, jlowery
Well it turned out to be much stronger at launch than anticipated. Charles Jancic from San Diego, and Casey Jowers from Oregon, and myself headed up to the lower launch around 12 noon. All the way up we're thinking that it's really strong and we may be walking back down. We sat at the lower launch for about 1/2 an hour before we headed down the SW launch seeking a less windy launch site. It was blowing SW @ around 15, occasionally gusting to 20. We stopped about 100' below the lower launch and checked it out. Still to windy. Then we headed down another 200' to a launch Pav and I had previously launched from in strong winds. Being a friendly local, I offered to launch first. Not a pretty launch, but one that took me straight up before I had even turned around. I then proceeded to gain altitude and test my forward speed with the GPS. My forward speed was never slower than 3mph with hands up. I then proceeded to go over the upper launch and higher. About 15 minutes later Casey launched and then about 20 min. later Charlie launched. My max alt was 7400', and Casey got up to 7900', but couldn't break past that. Winds were strong but fairly smooth, with occasional thermal (+600fpm) coming through. Later we flew past the hill in front of the LZ and we were still above 6000'. I landed after about 1hr and 40min. in the air, with the others coming down shortly thereafter. It was a totally GREAT flying day. We all landed with big smiles on our faces. Gunter
I thought about a trip to Sonoita this weekend on Saturday for a mid-day flight off Mustangs, but the FSL soundings looked a little strong down that way which made the proposition look a little iffy. Instead, I launched with the motor from 1700 feet MSL at 2pm from the valley about a mile or two southwest of the base of Newman peak.
After a brief climb, I caught a thermal with enough lift to kill my engine at 600 feet AGL. Well formed, towering dust devils were visible across the valley. I worked what I had and managed to soar from 600 feet AGL up through 4600 feet AGL before hitting increasing turbulence about 1800 feet over the top of Newman.
From the FSL soundings, it looked like the top of useable lift was somewhere around 7000 feet MSL around Tucson, so I thought maybe I was starting to hit the turbulence at the inversion, but don't really know. Decided to bail after taking a couple of hits and landed after 40 minutes of engine-off soaring. I left a lot of useable lift on the table for a hardier soul.
Shirley accompanied me for a little exploring around the area before my flight, and she was patiently occupying herself in the shade of our sun canopy when I landed.
After a brief climb, I caught a thermal with enough lift to kill my engine at 600 feet AGL. Well formed, towering dust devils were visible across the valley. I worked what I had and managed to soar from 600 feet AGL up through 4600 feet AGL before hitting increasing turbulence about 1800 feet over the top of Newman.
From the FSL soundings, it looked like the top of useable lift was somewhere around 7000 feet MSL around Tucson, so I thought maybe I was starting to hit the turbulence at the inversion, but don't really know. Decided to bail after taking a couple of hits and landed after 40 minutes of engine-off soaring. I left a lot of useable lift on the table for a hardier soul.
Shirley accompanied me for a little exploring around the area before my flight, and she was patiently occupying herself in the shade of our sun canopy when I landed.