Twentynine Palms 2006: Well...It's over
Last Update 07/23/2008
Link to the Pre-TNP event info
Soarfari#2 for 2006 is over with mixed results.
Attendees for the Twentynine Palms Soarafari May 20&21, 2006 were: Larry Forqueran, Dan Gonzales, John Medley, Rick Leffingwell, and Rick Barber. As with the IYK April Soarfari nobody brought a crew! John Heater flew over from Torrance with his beautiful new towplane for the weekend and provided tow services for us.
Everyone arrived at the airport by 9:30 Saturday morning and conditions Saturday morning looked promising. Everyone launched within a half hour after 12:00 with low tows into strong lift which took everyone right up to 9,000 ft. But by the time the last pilot launched and was making his way up to 10Kft, three sailplanes which headed for the mountains had gotten shot out of the air by heavy downwash off the mountains and had landed back at TNP! At that same time the wind conditions changed drastically and no further launches were attempted for the day. Two pilots, John Medley and Rick Leffingwell, somehow avoided the huge sink hole that formed around the airport and managed flights over four hours long, up to 15,000 ft and around 300km scoring for the OLC.
Sunday broke with a high thin cloud layer due to the approaching rainstorm from the north but flying looked good. The wind was out of the East this time and necessitated dragging our planes down to the other end for launch. John Medley opted for a self-launch in his DG-500M and took off into immediate strong lift over the airport, and reported back good conditions for soaring. The wind started to shift again but Larry Forqueran got off the ground and climbed out. Then the wind got BAAADDD. Rick Barber, Dan Gonzalez, and Rick Leffingwell were forced to abandon their flying for the day. Larry started to get the dreaded downwash again but found lift over the airport and got up to join John. John and Larry found sustainable conditions which included altitudes up to 12,000 ft and some weak clear wave caused by the approaching winter weather-type front flowing over the mountains. We had to listen all day on 123.3 to the Warner Center flying crowd talking about the great wave day they were having over there. After about three or four hours John landed on the cross runway 17 into strong winds gusting to 28 knots, resulting in a long return to the ramp. Larry made a beautiful landing on runway 8 in the strong crosswinds and ended up right next to the ramp. Everyone was packed up by around 5PM and headed home.
Some pictures from the weekend:
Photo Rick Leffingwell
Ramping up to go on Saturday. Photo John Medley
Somewhere around Cadiz. Great afternoon Cu streets formed, if you could get off the ground. Photo John Medley
Following photos by Rick Leffingwell:
Dan and Rick "help" Larry put his plane away. Photo John Medley
Heading Home. Photo John Medley
Huge Wave in the Mojave Desert on the way home. Photo John Medley
