The Short Divide

The Short Divide, Cody Dobson's home site, was the place to be on Sunday. Even though it wasn't an incredible XC day, the site handled the strong south winds, no problem! Last weekend Cody, Jeff Obrien and Greg Billow had great XC flights with 80+ and 60+ mile flights respectively. So the whole Salt Lake crew came out for a possible repeat. Lisa V , Val and Sam had thirty mile flights while Greg, Cody and myself eked out a measly 13 miles. Steve had a long flight, but remained out front on the lower bench and landed safely in a big plowed field not too far from the main road. A great site with fantastic XC potential. Maybe next weekend.



Lisa V prepares to launch



Greg giving Cody a "pep talk"



Julie, one of our trusty drivers



Yours truly

Northside 5/14/07

A gathering of hangs and paras showed up this afternoon for some fine air! The early afternoon was dominated by half a dozen hang gliders, but it wasn't long until the sky was inundated by airborne jellyfish. There's lots of room in the sky, so no worries! Several Hangs ventured out into the gap, only to find little thermal activity. The main ridge behind launch was pumpin' out some descent thermals for a while. Early evening smoothed things out and the air became quite glassy until sunset.

More True Tales

Today began with a bit of work this morning - I wrapped it up and headed to the valley where I met Val and Greg at the Point of the Mountain. From there, we decided to drive down to Inspiration point in Provo and check out the possibility of flying. It had been an awesome day on Wednesday. Several pilots reported gains to over 13,000ft asl. As it turned out, the wind was a bit to cross and strong, so we headed back to the south side of the Point. When we arrived the conditions were too strong there as well. So after all the driving Greg and I were determined to fly, so we set up our gliders and waited. Several pilots from Telluride were in the process of setting up when we got Back to the south side. We hung out for a few hours and told stories until the wind finally began to tail off. At around six thirty, we began trundling off launch. A total of six hang gliders flew including a couple flying Tandem. The air was mildly textured at first, the later it got the smoother the air became. After my first twenty minutes I landed and re-launched. I noticed Greg and one of the Telluride pilots on the west end of the ridge. They were working some light but consistent lift and seemed to be staying higher than the others. I flew over where they were and enjoyed some very smooth lift that got us to 700 -800ft over launch. For fourty minutes, we worked a very smooth convergence area just in front of the prominant point on the west end. Great fun! Moma "S" pays out again!!