SOARFARI 2011 Event Record
Updates
02/11/2012
Event 3 (Bishop) Pictures and report
Event 4 (King Mountain) Pictures and report
Event 5 Tehachapi Mountain Valley Airport report
Past event Reports:
Event 1 Report: Inyokern Memorial Day weekend Friday May 27 through Monday May 30 Originally signed up: Stan Foat, Rick Leffingwell, Bill McClellan, Paul Robinson, Rick Barber, Wayne Walker, Larry Forqueran, Thomas Coussens, John Medley, Britton Bluedorn
Well...the webmaster was on a business trip and could not go until Saturday, and it was apparent that Saturday was blown out, so he did not go at all. Need a report from the honcho on what happened. I heard several pilots went to the Indian Wells Brewery Springfest on Saturday
Tom
Coussens' first-hand report on the IYK Soarfari:
Kudos to honcho Stan Foat for sticking it out the whole weekend. This newbie
arrived on Friday and assembled, but the wind just blew gales out of the west
before I was ready to fly, so Stan and a another crew helped me disassemble and
box up the PIK. I tied the trailer down and left and did other things the rest
of the weekend, but Monday looked like a window in the middle of the gales, so I
shanghai'd my wife Denise and my best friend and his wife, and we arrived at IYK
at 10:30 to find warm, calm conditions and 7 ships already assembled. Cool!
I was so intent on assembling that I didn't get much of a chance to talk to the
locals to get the lay of the land, so by the time I was ready, only the Cypress
Discus (4T) was left to tow. Nobody was relighting, so conditions seemed OK. So
we tow up and we're heading for Five Fingers and I'm thinking, "he wants me to
release before he gets to the rocks, doesn't he?", so I released just east of
Sierra Hwy in a strong thermal (I thought) and started back for it. of course
it wasn't there, so I banzai'd to Five Fingers and was well below them, looking
up at them as I worked the swoopy narrow thermals and ridge stuff. Found out
later that the regulars didn't think much of Monday, but for me, having done
virtually all my soaring on the flatlands or well above the San Bernardino
mountains, swooping around well below Five Fingers and managing to save it, and
then ridge running to Mt Owens was fantastic. Basically low-risk mountain
soaring with IYK an easy glide away if you really get low. At one point I was
so stoked by the rocks flashing by my canopy that I yelled at the top of my
lungs, "This is so bitchin'!". The funny part was later watching the towplane
fly directly over Five Fingers with the L-23 in tow...Once the conditions
improved and I circled lazily above 10K, I realized just how low I really had
been! Flew south about 20 miles to some cu's and actually contemplated a final
glide to Mojave, but decided to scoot back to IYK. Landed after 3 1/2 hrs and
enjoyed a post-flight afternoon party with my wife and friends. You live for
these days...
So one Soarfari guy had one day, and didn't really go anywhere, but hey, it's
soaring! Really looking forward to Bishop!
Tom Coussens
Zulu Niner
Event 2 Report: Parowan, UT - Tuesday June 14 through Sunday June 19
Honcho Tom Bjork - Attended: Tom Bjork, Daryl Kinney, Bill McClellan, Scott Lance, John Medley
First-hand report from the John Medley and Tom Bjork:
Parowan is famous for fine soaring and fine scenery, and this year's trip did not disappoint! Bill McClellan, Daryl Kinney, and Tom Bjork arrived Monday night to a sky full of over-development and worried about Tuesday's forecast. But, not to worry, Tuesday all three of us had fun soaring together, flying over Brian Head to the South and North past Beaver. They were about the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sailplane flights at Parowan this year, so they really started the sailplane season at Parowan this year. John showed up Tuesday night.
Wednesday Tom, John, Bill, and Daryl flew in near-perfect soaring conditions. John, Tom, and Bill flew north, with Bill reaching almost to Nephi and John reaching a personal best distance from Parowan at Gunnison, although all THREE (yes 3,including a new Nano) independent flight logging devices failed to record a valid IGC file for his ~500 OLC point flight. Tom flew out toward Fillmore and almost got trapped in the Fillmore sink hole. Daryl flew East, then North, then West and had a great time. Scott showed up Wednesday night and rigged his plane. Everyone made it back in time to head out for dinner at the Mexican restaurant (there is only one in Parowan).
Thursday dawned with strong winds. John and Tom flew with the strong winds down the runway, and hoping it would stay that way until landing. Scott opted to fly with John in his 2-place DG-500M to get familiar with the Parowan area. It was turbulent aloft and the 40 kt winds kept us from going too far downwind (North). John and Scott made a few upwind and downwind runs and after about an hour on one run working South past Cedar City, enjoyed a 145 kt ground-speed 10 minute run to the North before landing. Tom went a bit further East and enjoyed a beautiful tour of Bryce Canyon and points East, and although he had final glide to Parowan there was a mountain range with lee-side sink in the way and the thermals remaining wouldn't get him over them. So he landed on a like-new runway at the deserted, except for a VERY friendly cat, Panguitch Airport. Luckily the airport is protected from terrorists by a pass-code operated gate, so there was a little difficulty with the ground retrieve. His crew retrieved him but he left his sailplane, and he and John Templeton would take Maule Tow over on Friday morning to do an aero retrieve. They had lots of rain and lightning on the drive back to Parowan.
Friday was solid overcast at about 10,000 feet (Parowan altitude is 5930). Only Tom flew , and really only in his retrieval flight from Panguitch. He landed back at Parowan and disassembled. Tom and Daryl decided to go to Ely as the Saturday forecast was projected to be another non-flying day. Bill also left, and Scott decided to visit a friend in Salt Lake. Tom Coussens, who flew at IYK, stopped in before everyone left Friday in a Blue C7 Corvette to say hi on his way to visit relatives in Colorado. I don't think even John Templeton's Maule would be able to get that airborne. Perhaps the C7 could be enlisted for auto tows next year at Jean? John took the no-fly day to fix a small annoying fuel leak in his motorglider that would not otherwise have gotten fixed until Christmas. After the fuel leak fix at the end of the day the forecast for Saturday had improved enormously so John opted to stay and fly on Saturday. By now about 8 Auxiliary-Powered Sailplane Association guys had shown up and started to crowd the ramp, cautiously eyeing John's choice tie-down spot.
Tom flew the FIRST tow out of Ely for the season on Saturday and the operators came out to take pictures of it. So Soarfari actually opened the soaring season at both Ely and Parowan this year! There was wave to the north and south as far as you could see, but just out of reach without a LONG tow. John and all the ASA guys flew Parowan on Saturday. There was a solid cirrus overcast, but there were ample Cu, although the thermals were more like 6 kts instead of 10! Several of them flew well over 500 km and I heard some had gone as far East as Hanksville. John got his personal best distance to the East from Parowan at Bryce Canyon airport. Although the area is beautiful to fly over I still feel a bit intimidated by the terrain, and continue to fly very conservatively at Parowan. So I am looking forward to another visit here next year to maybe finally get comfortable flying in this great place.
- Tom Bjork and John Medley...see you at Bishop!
Event 3 at Bishop was July 2 through July 5
Honcho Rick Barber
Tow Pilots: Isaac Warner from Sierra Soaring Club and Mike Vogel from Tom King Aerial Enterprises
Attending Pilots: Rick Barber, Tom Bjork, Daryl Kinney, Paul Robinson, Rick Leffingwell, Gen Shibayama, Danny Gonzalez, John Medley, Doug Levy, Bill McClellan, Carl Czech, Scott Lance, Tom Coussens, Larry Forqueran, Josh Knerr, Larry Tuohino, Mike Ziaskas, Hans Van Weersch, Ken Ward, Dirk Darling,Wayne Walker, and David Plucinski,
Also showing up: Rob Morgan in his Ximango, Don Buman, Walter Quitt
Report by Rick Barber
Due to the early pilot interest (probably based on last year’s great results) and the commitments of two tow pilots, we had 23 pilots and gliders and two tow planes for this year’s event. At least 5 pilots were first timers to a Soarfari event. Unfortunately two of our pilots did not get a chance to fly. Wayne Walker found a damaged landing gear and Daryl Kinney arrived to some unfavorable weather and decided not to fly. Our tow pilots were Isaac Warner from the Sierra Soaring Club and Mike Vogel from Tom King Aerial Inc. Flying was scheduled to be Saturday through Tuesday but Isaac decided to come up a day early and volunteered to tow Friday.
Friday was forecast as the weakest day of the event. We had 7 pilots launch and Dan Gonzales led the day with a 510 km flight that went north of Basalt and south to Mt Inyo. Although altitudes were under 15,000 feet everyone had good flights.
Saturday’s forecast was for higher altitudes and we were not let down. All 21 gliders launched and most flights were in the 400 to 700 km range and from 16,000 to 17,000 feet. Carl Czech led the day with a 714 km flight that went north of Walker Lake and then south to Cerro Gordo. The few CU’s that popped were to the north nearer Hawthorne, so north is the way most went. There were a few that went to the Sierras but they did not seem to work as well, especially early. Saturday was a strong day that just got stronger as the day went on. A number of pilots did not land until just before sunset.
Sunday turned out to be a difficult day for some of us. The monsoonal moisture started coming in and we had strong down drafts coming over the Whites which caused a large number of pilots to return to the airport. Some pilots tried the Sierras but they weren’t working too well early either. With all the land backs and the remaining pilots still trying to get launched, it caused a bit of a traffic jam at the airport. Some pilots re-launched and others called it a day. Isaac was kept busy towing until 4:00 and had 13 tows that day! For those pilots that got up and away, it turned out to be the best soaring day of the Soarfari! Doug Levy led the day with 847 OLC points but there were other great flights as well. Carl Czech led the list in kilometers with an 804 km flight, Paul Robinson had a 708 km flight and Hans Van Weersch had his person best flight of 689 km! Gen Shibayama also had a personal best photography flight over the Sierras and Mt Whitney. His up close and personal shot of the cabin and hikers at the peak is here on the website! Thanks to Wayne Walker for working so hard running the launch on this very long and hectic day!
On Monday the 4th the clouds started forming early and it looked like it would OD early. Even so, we had around 10 pilots launched that day. Unfortunately it did shut down early and most pilots were on the ground by 4:00. Even so, we had flights in the 300 to 450 km range. The nice thing is that the weather improved for that night’s festivities! We had a very large group show up for the BBQ and fireworks. Ken, the airport manager, graciously let us use his BBQ again this year and all types of meats were cooked up. As usual, there was a band in the large hangar so we did a lot of listening to the music, eating, drinking and talking! The topper was when Tom Bjork and Daryl Kinney came back from the store with lots of ice cream, toppings and fruits to make the Sunday of our choice. Thanks guys, that was awesome! The finale was the fireworks and they were very good with some I have never seen before!
Tuesday looked like a repeat of Monday but with maybe an even shorter day. Everyone but Doug Levy decided not to fly. Doug’s plan, since he had Laurie to crew for him, was to fly as far as possible back toward home. He went north to Boundary Peak first and then headed south landing in Independence. Maybe not a great day, but definitely soarable.
Event 4 Report: King Mountain Glider Park, Moore, Idaho, North of Arco, yeah that tells you a lot. In the Lost River valley West of Yellowstone.
Event was Saturday August 13 through Thursday August 18, Honcho John Medley
Attending pilots were: John Medley, Bill McClellan, Tom Bjork, Wayne Walker
by John Medley
I heard about King Mountain from Dale Masters at Crystal. He said there was this place that at certain times of the year should have the best soaring in the world. I asked where it was and he said Idaho. I never really associated Idaho with world-class soaring conditions. He said Bill McClellan had been there a couple times already, so I called Bill and got some info and then looked at their web site. It looked promising so I promoted it at the Soarfari planning meeting for a 2011 event. I was going to go try it out anyway, but it would be more fun if some other pilots I knew would go to.
John Kangas, the instigator/owner of the King Mountain Glider Park, has big plans for this place. Right now it's just a mowed turf field with an altitude of 5500 MSL. There will be buildings, RV hook ups, tow planes, a fishing pond, and two-acre airport housing lots within the next few years. Right now he only gets a tow plane for the couple of special events he holds each year. The house thermal is a close 2000 foot tow from the field on the SE side of King Mountain and about 7 tows can be made in an hour, per tow plane, to get everyone going. This year there were about 17 motorgliders, 15 regular gliders, 15 hang gliders and 7 or so paragliders expected to attend over the length of the event. One ASW-28 pilot towed his rig from Minnesota for this event, his first exposure to mountain flying. One paraglider pilot drove 4 days (3000 miles) from Alaska for this event. I only had a measly 1000 miles from my home in Thousand Oaks, CA. The tow plane arrived a few days early so people who arrived early flew early too. Bill McClellan was there early and flew. Saturday was my first day flying there and I promised myself it would be just to get familiar with the local area and King Mountain itself. The conditions were not the greatest anyway so I took a couple short local flights with passengers. The longest OLC-recorded flight was almost 200points and about 3.5 hours. Tom Bjork arrived Saturday evening. Sunday was a better day and most pilots launched and went North until a front came in and shut the place down. Bill went somewhere up around Butte, Mt but got caught and landed at Dillon, Mt. Tom had a nice 300 km flight but also landed at Dillon. I lazed around conservatively exploring the Sierra-like mountain range north of King and returned back to King with a 200km flight. Flights ranged from 200 to 650 OLC points. Wayne Walker arrived Sunday also. Monday was forecast to be the best day of the week but dawned with a solid high cirrus and an additional low cloud layer that kept anyone from flying. Almost everyone went hiking to a very large spring which comes out of a hole in the side of a mountain and once supplied electricity to the town of Mackay, ID. Once we got there it cleared up and looked like it would have been a good flying day. But it was an excellent hike anyway! Tuesday cleared up nicely and by 10AM Cu were popping everywhere north of the airport. Everyone flew and flights ranged from 154 to nearly 500 OLC points. I made a fairly nice 335 point triangle flight exploring north then west and then back toward King getting a good view of Sun Valley along the way. Wednesday was even better and flights ranged from 150 to 634 OLC points and cloud base near 18kft. Bill McClellan went up to Helena, MT and back successfully. This day, though, almost caught a large number of pilots at Salmon, ID. About 8 of the pilots were near Salmon when the lift apparently shut down due to excess cloud coverage. Many were resigned to landing there before most found enough latent lift to get out and back to King. Tom was on his last day at King and had planned for a one-way flight and opted to land at Salmon with his crew only 20 miles behind him anyway. My 496 OLC point flight this day was also my last so I packed up the plane for my Thursday morning departure. I never got a report from Wayne before my departure on any flight he may have had. The 15 hour drive home seemed easier than the drive up so I opted to do it all in one day and save a day of vacation for other things.
Every night there was an inviting camp fire with good fellowship and flying stories. Every morning there was a pilot's briefing with stories of the previous day's flights and a weather outlook. The field is very large and hopefully the turf will fill in a little more evenly by next year. The mountains are great with no surprises and the flying is very similar to fly the Eastern Sierra (but with highest peak around 12.6kft) and there are multiple valleys and parallel mountain ranges with possibilities of flying East and South past Yellowstone, although the weather pattern during this year's event was not conducive to that. There are a multitude of road-accessible, sailplane-landable airports around, over a wide area, due to Idaho's penchant to keep a lot of turf backcountry airports(~150" feet wide!) open for access to remote areas. I think that I may go back there next year, assuming that John Kangas continues to promote and hold these events. The early plan for 2012 was for the 3rd week of August starting around 8/17/2012, but some of his ground help will be back in school at that time so he may have to adjust the dates a bit earlier.
Event 5
Report:
Tehachapi, CA, Mountain Valley
Airport home of Skylark North Gliderport, on Labor Day weekend Saturday September 3
through Monday September
5, Honcho Rob Morgan
Attendees: Thomas Coussens, John Medley, Rob Morgan
Report by John Medley
Although we decided to stay closer to home for the Labor Day weekend. A large number of pilots decided to try Bishop again for the labor day weekend, so only a few pilots made it to Tehachapi. John Medley arrived Friday and flew a decent flight up past Olancha. The Holiday weekend was also a meet of the Experimental Sailplane Association at Tehachapi, but with seminars all day long they generally did not fly. But man, they know how to hold a pot-luck BBQ. So with only a little effort to get some meat and maybe a side dish to share, everyone was well fed Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Our own Rob Morgan hosted the main event BBQ on Saturday night in his spacious hangar at Mountain Valley. Tom arrived Friday night and rigged for Saturday flying.
Saturday weather was predicted to be near epic conditions, and a lot of local pilots showed up to fly. It seemed that only those who launched early enough were really able to make it north past Kelso Valley. Those who did launch early and made it past Kelso were on the radio scraping all the way North and looking for lift to get back. Some did not get back and landed at various places like IYK and Cal City. John, Rob (in his Ximango) and Tom flew and had fun. What more can you really ask for from this sport/hobby/passion? Sunday morning dawned with better looking clouds but John Medley's kitchen pass was only for two days and he headed out for home. That was sort of fortuitous since shortly thereafter a small power plane crashed south of Mountain Valley sparking an enormous forest fire which promptly resulted in a TFR which closed both Mountain Valley and Tehachapi Municipal airports pretty much the entire following week. Anyone who had launched before the TFR was forced to land elsewhere. Needless to say the Soarfari ended abruptly. Also the Dust Devil Dash the following weekend was squelched due to that fire and yet another TFR in the Tehachapi Valley and severe monsoonal flow which resulted in huge areas of thunderstorms in Southern California. The guys at Bishop appeared to have much better flying over the Labor Day weekend. but they missed some great BBQ and fellowship with the ESA group.
Strange weather this year...everyone seems to agree. Not the best year for sailplane flying.
2011 Planning Meeting
Approximately 23 Soarfari pilots, crew and guests showed up at Graziano's Pizza in Corona on Saturday March 5, 2011 to socialize and help determine where Soarfari would like to go for 2011
