Inspo 4.30.09

On a whim, I packed up and drove down to Inspo this afternoon. I had actually been watching the weather this morning diligently. It looked really strong from 12,ooo up - around 30 to 45 with upper winds predicted to be as strong as 65 knots. After I got a little work done I figured I'd at least go check out the road and possibly work in the bail out LZ. On my way out, and looking south, linticular clouds were stacked up like pancakes - verifying the upper wind forecast.

I arrived at launch around 2pm. The wind was coming in at 12-15mph, with nice thermal cycles every 5-10min. As if on auto pilot, I grabbed my glider and set up. In 30min I was off the hill and into a sweet cycle. The wind was somewhat more south than it appeared on launch, and only broken trash was found along the primary ridge. (typically the more south the wind is at Inspo, the air tends to be more textured). I drifted to the north with some marginal lift, and close to Provo Canyon that lift petered out - and it was drillology 101 lesson #36289. I encountered some pretty strong sink. I really didn't think I would make the bailout LZ. I had a low save at around 400ft and worked broken lift until it consolidated a few hundred feet up. The lift turned into a nice solid thermal that landed me at 9000asl and back in the canyon. I had no problem penetrating forward, and as soon as I was even with the mouth of the canyon, I hit some abnormally strong lift. The surface wind forecast for the day called for SW switching to the WNW at about 3pm. Can you say sheer line?

I followed a very defined line of lift west and just past I-15, topping out around 10,000asl. Not that high, but very strong and consistant. The rest? Just played in the air for a while and had a nice landing in the big green LZ. Great season starter. One observation - Jeff your missed man!


Some nice Inspo cloud pics from early fall 08'