Dave Cook, was the pilot with the power pack.

The rocks we carried our gear over were (ascending) Permian Concha Limestone and Rainvalley Formation (also limestone). These limestones are around 250 to 240 million years old. The nodules you may have seen in the limestone are not fossils, rather deposits of Chert. The limestones however did have a lot of fossils in them, and they were usually the white, small (one to two cm half shell appearing objects). As we got near launch (5700-5800 ft.)we crossed out of the limestone and moved forward 40 million years into conglomerates and above those (the yellowish outcrops at launch), some volcanic rocks creatively named the "Volcanic and Sedimentary Rocks of Mustang Mountains." I intially thought the conglomerates were Glance conglomerates, but it turns out these are older and more localized. The absent 40 million years of rock were eroded away when the land was raised above sea level during that period of time. The vertical cliffs on the south and west side of Mt. Bruce are all Concha ls. Structurally the limestones have been folded, and the north end, at least, may be the top of a northwest plunging antiform. When we left the lower shallow sloping ground and began the steeper part of the climb on the lower limestones, we crossed a small normal fault that is younger than the limestones.

The birds we flew with at altitude were Apodidae Aeronautes saxatalis, otherwise known to rag baggers and stiffies as the White-Throated Swift. These guys are related to the "bird nest soup" swifts of southeast Asia and use their saliva to glue together their nests which in all likelyhood are located in the cliffs of Mt. Bruce. Locally known as the bisquit.

Heart felt thanks to the PG pilots that helped us haul up our gear. Without you we probably would only have gotten one glider up. This is a nice small site and to me the flight was well worth the effort. I enjoyed manuevering in and around those big colorful parachute looking things with people slung below in a rather unnatural sitting postion. I also noticed that at least one of those things was nearly always above me and try as hard as I might I couldnt get up to his altitude - at least until he flew away towards Mustang Peak and on the return lost a lot of altitude and had to scratch in order to survive.

Landing at sunset was another effortless Falcon type joy.

Thanks for letting me crash the party.

I have been looking on and off for quite a while for a weekend with a high probability of soaring the Mustangs and decided conditions looked pretty good for Saturday (single digit winds through 6000 feet mostly from the west). I checked this board and saw that a few people planned to congregate there, so I sacrificed what I considered to be a sure thermal soar in the valley for what looked to be pretty good odds and a long drive to the Mustangs. It turns out it was the place to be.

I arrived in the LZ at around 3:30 and could see people on launch, but no gliders were out. I set up and launched from the LZ for a brief flight that made it obvious that the additional 3000 feet of altitude in the LZ compared to the valley in Tucson required a leaner carb setting, which can't be done in the air. No choice but to land and swap main jets in the carb.

While back on the ground, I saw what appeared to be two hang gliders being set up on launch. I studied the vehicles in the LZ and none had hang glider racks, so I was scratching my head a little but was highly amused by the ever-inventive stiffie pilots out flying Mustangs.

After a little effort getting the engine tuned up for altitude, I re-launched just after Eric and Chuck were off in their hang gliders. What a beautiful sight. I climbed up nearly to launch in a few minutes and slowly made my way over to the peak, periodically checking wind velocity to assure I could penetrate, not knowing for sure what the conditions were on the ridge.

Gunter launched and settled the question, so I worked my way over into the lift band and killed the engine for the rest of the evening. Lift was abundant, even with the draggy motor. The prop stopped horizontally and I wanted to reach back and turn it vertically so it would be in my body's wind shadow instead of creating its own drag, but not possible.

I watched as each pilot laid out his or her glider, inflated it, and launched. And in some instances, I watched gliders gleefully mock the pilot's attempts to tame them. But each glider finally bent to the intent of each pilot to become one with the Arizona sky.

It was quite interesting keeping track of eight other gliders, two of which were swifty stiffies and one paraglider that at any moment might break out into big wingovers. It took a moment for me to get dialed-in to everyone, but I did and it was great. I had forgotten what beautiful surroundings Mustangs affords.

It was surprising how quickly the lift subsided after the sun set. Several people were making for the LZ, and a couple did not make it all the way. Oh, I didn't mention, but once in the air, I saw the truck with the hang glider rack parked at the foot of the mountain at the south ridge by the trail. Some pilots took advantage of it and landed by the truck.

I decided to scratch all the way down the mountain with the intent to restart at the last minute. Just when I could wait no longer, I restarted the cold engine after five, fully choked, two-handed pulls. The engine came alive just in time; otherwise, I would have been quickly setting up a landing on the sloping plane at the bottom of the north ridge in pesky ocotillo.

After restarting, I worked my way back up the terrain and over to Biscuit and found myself in the midst of hundreds of swallows billowing and rolling. There was light lift right against the cliff on the NW as the wind had shifted much more northerly. I took in the views of the twilight evening while making my way back over to launch. There was a tight, light, lift band on the north ridge between the rock pile and the Biscuit saddle which I was able to work all by myself without a collision worry (which had occupied me greatly earlier as I felt continually compelled to counted all eight gliders lest one should sneak up on me), all the while as Dima was a lone pilot still scratching a very small area right over the top of the peak (very impressive, as there was very little lift).

Dima and I flew out to the LZ together. Darkness was quickly gathering over a beautiful orange band on the horizon contrasted by a purple sky and punctuated by bright Venus. I love flights that make me ponder.

(P.S. Gunter -- I said hello to you and you used my cell phone. I told Shirley I didn't think you recognized me!)

Oops, sorry David!!

Gunter wrote: Some one drove their car into a ditch and it landed upside down on it's roof about 10 ft down. No one was hurt - except the car.
Gunter

I am deeply grateful for everyone's kindness to helped me a lot.
Thank you very much for Guido, he brought us to a hotel.
Thank you very much for Irena, Chaz and Dima, they saved our car.
I wish your fine flights.
from some one

Wow. Sounds like an incredible day.

Hard for me to know which item surprised me the most.
1. Chuck and Eric hiking their HGs to the top of the 'Stangs, or
2. Dima got married.

anyway- I'm jealous and looking forward to returning to the SW. it's been more or less raining here every day for 3 weeks. Snow is predicted for tomorrow night after a full day of rain
-morey in massechusetts

oh- thanks for the description of the geology Chuck. It's pretty interesting up that climb. We've all seen the little shell fossils. I always thought that the black rock was basaltic and always wondered about the intrusions. What is Chert and how do they form? Very interesting and entertaining for the climb. Almost worth owning a PG for.

Hi everyone,

Yes, Mustangs was good on Saturday. I'm still kicking myself though for not making it back to the take off zone, after visiting the mountain just on the other side of the valley. I'm a good scratcher (lots of practice time here on the cliffs), but I didn't even make it back to a scratchable place on Mustangs. The only thing I found on my way back was sink, and lots of it, and even some rotor.

Anyway, great experience that was. I don't think I've ever flown three days consecutively before (Thursday and Friday at Box). And after these three days, I don't really think paragliding is an extreme sport anymore, everything around/before/after though...

I'll upload a few pictures, and a video possibly too, once I get them on my computer here, which should be soon.

Thanks a lot for the great hospitality. It's been most enjoyable!

Michael

I also put some photos in my personal album. you can watch them at:
http://sahga.com/forum/album_personal.php?user_id=52
I also made my first attempts to shoot videos during the flight over Mustang...but they are pretty big (4 files in 640x480: Erics launch, Chucks launch, Gunters launch, 2x short sequences during the flight) size: 20 to 85 MB (compressed zip file). To be honest, they aren't so spectacular..If s.o. has a big mail account and is interested in give me a short notice... I intend to burn some CDs of it and mail it to John or Gunter so you can watch them at the next SAHGA meeting..

regards Guido

Morey I dont know much about chert, but this, very simplistically, is some of what I do know. It is pure silica that is deposited on the sea bottom from decomposing animals like diatoms, sponges (spicules)and others. These micro-organisms take the silica out of solution in water and use it in the formation of their skeletal systems (the concentration of silica in seawater is apparently so low that it will not precipitate to form chert on its own.) When they die, their little bodies sink to the bottom, decompose, and deposit the silica. Sometimes the silica collects as nodules in cavities in the bottom surface, and sometimes as bedded layers. Examples of both are on the way up the Mustangs. The nodules are everywhere, and look like branches, or bones protruding from the limestone. The layered stuff is less abundant. I saw one deposit. It was about a meter long, four inches thick and blood red. Chert is solid silica, and is a depositional microcrystalline quartz. Thanks for asking. Next to flying I like rocks best.

chuck,

thank you for a good review of the geology. keep your eye out for caves.

i have some experience with 'chert' from an archaeological perspective. in general you are correct in your description of the formation of nodules in limestone. it gets rather more complex if you try to back trace. you can find perfectly good, butter smooth, silica in the igneous structures at the north end of the tucson mountains and in some spots to the south. consider obsidian as well. i have a modest collection if you want to drop by sometime.

cheers

chaz

Hi again,

I've finally uploaded some of my pictures... Most of them are taken whilst flying. I'm still surprised that the air over there was so smooth. Flying without touching the brakes was not a problem, so that's why I was able to take so many pictures.

It reminded me of flying the cliffs here (I've added a picture of them too in the gallery), only Mustang's a much higher, and drier place.

If you want any of the pictures in full size, let me know, I can send them. I've also taken a few videos, which, like Guido's, turned out to be quite big. Should I send them all over on a cd?

Michael

I add the pictures from Saturday. Sonya, my collegue from Australia made them. It was a beautiful day, indeed.

Gunter wrote:Some one drove their car into a ditch and it landed upside down on it's roof about 10 ft down. No one was hurt - except the car.
Gunter

The "official version" I wrote in the form is:
"Wrong parking at the unpaved lot. The car felt into the wash".
Dima.