Three Days of Understanding

After being blown out at Heber Friday and Saturday, returning with the same wind forecast seemed masochistic. Sunday morning Cody, Jeff, Steve, Lisa and myself were setting up on launch at Heber as the wind slowly strengthened. 20 to 25 mph with gusts to 35! Jeff was first off then Lisa. Cody, Steve and I soon followed. Cody and Lisa had clean launches, but immediately after, they were rocked like rag dolls for a few seconds. Surprisingly, the air was somewhat smooth once you were a few hundred feet over. It took over an hour before anyone was high enough to attempt flying over the back.



Steve's carbon fiber base tube on his Atos broke in mid-air, forcing him to abort his flight at around 100 miles out.



My Talon at launch


Jeff Obrien on launch after helping Cody and I stuff battens!


Lisa V


Cody Dobson

The clouds looked great for XC. Streets were beginning to form on route and the cloud tops remained relatively low. Cody was first to go over the back at only 10,000 asl. Soon the whole gang was en route with Cody out front. Lisa V landed in the Bail out LZ after determining the conditions were over the line for her. After leaving Heber at 10,000 asl, I was low over the back near the I80 - 40 junction. At 8200 asl I found a solid thermal over the cement plant, the lift topping out at cloud base - 15,000 asl. At Chalk Creek I was low again but managed to thermal out and continue on course. From Chalk Creek I stayed high all the way to Evanston and remained above 12,000 asl until reaching Little America. My flight ended 81.5 miles from launch at Lyman, Wyoming. Cody was 85 miles out when he landed near Highway 189 in Wyoming. Steve's carbon fiber base tube on his Atos broke in mid-air, forcing him to abort his flight at around 100 miles out. Because the Atos doesn't rely on the control frame for structural integrity, Steve managed to bring the glider in from 14,000 asl for an eventless belly landing in a big grassy field. The big news is Jeff broke the state record with a killer 220 miles!!

I'm sure he'll post the flight later on his website - http://hang6.blogspot.com/