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SOARFARI! Completed Events for 2009 Bishop August 23-28, 2009 The Sierra Soaring Club Towplane from Inyokern was arranged to tow for us at Bishop We would like to thank Larry Tuohino for organizing the Bishop Soarfari event this year. It was the hardest event to organize this year due to lack of an on-site tow plane. We also thank the Sierra Soaring club out of Inyokern for graciously flying up to Bishop daily and towing for us every day during this event. Pilots who attended: Larry Forqueran, Larry Tuohino, Rick Leffingwell, John Medley, Stan Foat, Doug Levi, Tom Bjork, Wayne Walker, Bill McClellan, Paul Robinson, and one other??? Due to late arrivals, early departures, and Montezuma's Revenge during the week, only Monday August 24 had eleven pilots flying. Plus some took off early (hangman), before the official grid time, so the rotating grid launch sequence did not really result in too long of a wait for anyone during the week. Short description of the week: Saturday and Sunday August 22-23 were weak days but several pilots flew. Monday August 24 turned out to be the best day of the week with Cumulus cloud streets on both the White/Inyos and Sierras with the cloud base up to 16,000 ft. Lots of long flights that day, down to at least Cerro Gordo and to up north past Boundary Peak. Paul Robinson flew for over 650 OLC kilometers that day, and several pilots flew until just before official sunset. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday dawned well but were 100% blue days. Several pilots had relights on each of these days with difficulty getting up on the Whites. After getting up though the flying was good, but not up to Bishop expectations. Even then, Doug Levy flew for over OLC 430 km on Tuesday in his 1-26. Rick Leffingwell flew over 450 OLC km Wednesday, and Stan Foat flew over 550 OLC km on Thursday. Friday dawned with what looked like 100% cirrus cloud cover over the valley and Sierras and it was moving toward the Whites. Paul Robinson and John Medley towed out anyway since the tow plane was already there. Paul worked the lift for a while but decided to land back at Bishop and head home early. John somehow found enough natural lift to get up on top at Schulmann Grove and work up to White Mtn., down to Westgard Pass and then crossed over to Coyote Flats on the Sierra side. By mid-day the cirrus looked more like a solid cumulus-like layer and lift was strong in all the normal expected places. John got into the high areas behind Sabrina Lake and went north to near Mammoth then down to near Independence on the Sierras and back to Bishop, for a pretty decent 4hr 50min flight under solid cloud cover the whole day, with heights up to 16,000ft. All in all Bishop was a good event and we'll probably go back if possible. It is sad that regular tow service is no longer available there.
May 15-17 Inyokern (KIYK),CA.
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Confirmed. Click this link for Inyokern event Info. Daily flight reports: Friday May 15: Warm day! Uncharacteristically calm winds, strong lift everywhere. Six Pilots flew and all had good flights. First launch was around 11:45, last landing was about 5:30 PM. Rick Leffingwell crossed over to the Inyos and got up to Waucoba. Saturday goal for most is Boundary Peak. Saturday May 16: Saturday dawned with more characteristic Inyokern winds. Five pilots launched and opinions varied from "as good as Friday" to "Better than Friday". Nobody went over to the Inyos and flights were good with OLC scores in the 300 pt range Sunday May 17: Well...Sunday dawned calm again. Sunday was talked about ahead of time with phrases like" I've never seen a soaring prediction for this area as good as this", and "it will be epic". Sunday did not disappoint. Almost everyone launched on Sunday. All Soarfari members who wanted to went at least to Boundary Peak and back. Most went much further counting extra legs. Six Soarfari members had flights in the TOP 20 OF THE WORLD for Sunday May 17. Average OLC score for Sunday's flights from Soarfari was around 650 pts or 700km. John Medley achieved his personal best furthest and longest flight to-date. You should have been there!!! Up next..Parowan, known for long flights... Possible THIS LINK will take you to the Worldwide OLC page for May 17. If not try typing in the following in your web browser http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/daily.html?st=olc&rt=olc&c=C0&sc=&df=2009-05-17&sp=2009 That makes 4 out of 5 IYK Soarfari events as being good to great. Only one was blown out...in 2007. With the gracious Sierra Soaring Club as our hosts, we'll go back again! June 5-11 Parowan, Utah (1L9) . << Click this link for Parowan Info. Added a list of local potential good outlanding spots and bad outlanding spots to the link above on 6/4.
Honcho: John Medley We will use existing on-site towplane RV parking will cost $5.00/day or $15.00/day of you want electrical hookups...pay Dave/Becky at the airport Hangar 3 will be available for us to hang out and charge electrical equipment, and is securable when we're out.
July 3-10 Ely, NV (KELY). <<
Click this link for Ely Info.
Click the Soarfari Schedule link for event info.
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