Tuesday April 24th, I flew my first XC flight of the season. Lisa V and I went to the Short Divide along with our driver, Sharon L. The conditions were strong at launch with the wind crossing a bit from the west. Along the route to the north were developing cloud streets with the potential for over-development. Lisa was off first and thanks to Sharon, I followed. Within a few minutes I was circling and drifting to the back ridge. I wasn't surprised to find minimum lift because of the west cross in the wind. I slowly traversed the ridge until I came to a more westerly aspect, at which point I started going up. Soon I was above the ridge and heading west to Gunsight peak. Lisa had a nice side hill landing out front after battling the conditions for 40 min. The lift wasn't that great over Gunsight. After several minutes a large cloud moved overhead, consequently shutting down any thermal production. With a strong southwesterly flow, my usual LZ was going to be hard to reach. I decided to fly to the northwest and land along I-15 where there are plenty of possible LZ's. Once over I-15 I found some light lift and began circling. I burbled my way north drifting with the light lift until I found a substantial thermal that landed me at 10 grand. I was able to continue north, and after a few more climbs to around 10g I reached Malad, Idaho. I safely landed and about two minutes later a gust front from a cell that had been developing from the west hit with winds around 30 mph. 1:45 flight / 23 miles.

A Little Vid For You

Just a quick vid of yesterday morning. Includes a real nice slider by Dan M..