Wave Flight to 24,000'

After a morning of windy landing practice in the Phoenix with Dave, the winds came on very strong, gusting to 30 on the ground. Wave conditions were supposed to be pretty good with 50kt winds at high altitude, but a little too southerly for excellent wave conditions. With limited wave experience, I sought the help of the fine folks at Soaring NV. Laurie Hardin hooked me up with instructor Jeffrey Hazlegrove in a Duo Discus, and Gabe Bourbeau towed us up. Gabe had to hunt around, finally taking us near Carson City before we hooked into good conditions due to the extreme south winds blowing. It was easy with Jeffrey's fine instructions to climb past the rotor clouds into smooth wave and we were quickly approaching 18 grand. The established wave window was back over Minden so we had to bail out of the wave and head for Minden. Laurie opened the window for us, and up we went.

Heading south from Carson City towards rotor clouds over Minden. The weak looking wave cloud is visible up above.

Cannulas were used up to 18 grand, then masks were used above that.

Hunting around the rotor clouds to reconnect with the wave over Minden.

We finally connected with weak wave ( 4-8kts) which took us to 24 grand, but petered out to less than a knot as we got to 24.

View of Lake Tahoe and Heavenly Valley ski area from 24,000'. What a fabulous learning experiece for me under the excellent guidance from Jeffrey. I highly recommend Soaring NV. They have high performance gliders, a nice facility and you won't find friendlier folks anywhere!

Training Dave in Minden NV

After the delivery flight from Florida, Dave started training in his new plane. First of all, he was happy that this was a motorglider which easily fit in his 40 foot hangar without the extended wingtips on. Plus, at a little over 700lbs, it is easy to roll in and out of the hangar.


One interesting way to get in some landing practice is by circling Lake Tahoe and landing at Carson City, Reno-Stead, Truckee, Lake Tahoe, and then back to Minden. Here we are passing by Emerald Lake.

Practice shot by holding the camera outside the window. I had the camera strap around my wrist.

Passing by Heavenly Valley ski area on the way back to Minden. This whole area is out of this world beautiful. Thanks for taking me on this little tour Dave, and making me wonder why we live in Florida instead of here!