529 km in Owens

No, it's not a single flight, but still 529 km in 3 days quite impressive result for our annual Memorial Day weekend in Owens.

Hang glider launching from Walt's point

Saturday May 27, 2017. Still a lot of north wind in the morning, pretty late start at 12:51 and difficult turbulent conditions. I flew to Bishop, mediocre, warm up 101 km flight in 4:35 hours.
Track: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1637056

Flying over Sierra Nevada mountains

Sunday May 28, 2018. Conditions improved, prevailing SE wind whole day, no switch to SW even for Mammoth Lakes, so we decided to stay on Sierra side and it worked out. Started at 10:34, uneventful flight to Big Pine (by 1:30) and then transition toward Aspendell. This is first time I flew this line, so looking for landings, triggers and terrain in general. I followed not very distinct ridge, which worked out just fine.

Sailplane over Coyote Flat

By 2:30 I'm at Mt. Tom, no problems with lift, topping at 17K or so. At this point I'm making mistake, which cost me time and almost put me to the ground. Instead of going directly over Wheeler Crest (usually very unpleasant place), I'm going around. After one more climb at Crowley Lake I'm almost landed just before Mammoth Lakes.

Crowley Lake

Low save put me back in the game and I'm also in the convergence now, following highway 395. After almost 30 miles without turning (final glide) I landed at 5:07 at Lee Vining airport. I had some issues with blur vision during last hour of flight, one of the symptoms of hypoxia. Open distance 187 km in 6:33 hours.
Track: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1637060

Mono Lake

Lee Vining airport

Monday May 29, 2018. Potential for thunderstorms later in the day, wind direction changed to more south and it's also much stronger all the way to Nevada, potential for a record flight. I'm starting right after Dave Turner at 9:46 and with good tail wind speed is amazing. By 11:30 I'm starting to cross near Big Pine, Dave will stay on Sierra side entire day. Getting few small climbs in the valley, but my main problem is wind direction is still SE, so I'm in the lee of White Mountains. Typically cloud street (which marks convergence) is right over the crest, but today it's pushed all the way to foothills on the west side. I connect, but trying to stay in foothills or even valley, slowly getting into convergence. By 2:00 I'm at Boundary Peak, realizing this could be a record day. This is a key point where I made mistake by going NE toward Mina. Wind is still from SE and strong, which means I'm flying 90 degree to wind, wasting time and energy, clouds directly to the north also looks much better. I'm having my blur vision issue again and landing at Mina at 4:20, open distance 213 km. Dave flew to Tahoe, but got suck into thunderstorm and it's unclear what happened to his GPS track (device malfunction or he broke 18K limit?). For me ideal line after Boundary Peak was NNW toward Hawthorne staying under cloud street, directly downwind. My decision to jump to Whites was risky, since I could land early, but payed off later because I avoided thunderstorms over Sierra (from Mammoth to Tahoe).
Track: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1637070

Gym in Mina, Wow!

Our Crew

McGee to Lee Vining flight, 32 miles

There was few pilots looking for the big flight from 9-Mile this weekend, but weather did not cooperate with mostly east wind and north after Boundary peak. Since big flight was not in the cards I decided to do some exploration to the north of Bishop and joined Kia, Will and Dave who was camping at Rock Creek Lake campground with a big group of climbers. We launched from McGee:

McGee paragliding launch

Launch is small grassy hillside just below the road, you need to sort all the gear on the road, so strong cycles does not pick up your wing. I launched at 11:05 right after Dave. Original plan was to fly south toward Bishop, but wind was already from south east, so after we established above McGee we headed north west toward Mammoth Lakes. Will and Kia flew locally. Big thanks to Nadia (Kia's friend) for driving the car from the launch. After Mammoth Lakes there is a 10 miles "no landing" section until June lake. Dave was leading and reporting some head wind over this section and potential of top landing and long hike out, but this is his home site and he was confident. On another hand it was my first flight in this area and I had no idea where nearest roads may be if I land out. I try my best to gain some altitude over Mammoth Mountain and it was only 13K with surface altitude around 9-10K, so I bailed and decided to fly around. "Flats" covered with forest as well, but there're few landable fields along highway 395. It took awhile to push upwind toward 395, but when I got there things improved significantly. I finally got to the cloud base at almost 17K and was coursing at 70 km/h with nice tail wind. Dave made it through the tough section and landed near Grant lake. I enjoyed the view of Mono lake during a long flats crossing toward the Lee Vining. I had an option to cross slightly more to the west to connect with mountains sooner, but it was a longer route and I choose direct line. I did not get any good thermals near Lee Vining and wind changed to north east, so I landed at the small airport. All the crew was there already waiting for me.
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/764968

After lunch we went for glass off flight from Bazooka (also called Lee Vining on Leonardo). Excellent grassy launch overseeing Mono lake. Here is Dave soaring on his Ice Peak 6:

Bazooka (Lee Vining) paragliding launch

We try to fly back, wind was already from the north, but flight was only 30 minutes, pretty mellow conditions. We did not even get over the ridge. Kia and Will landed at the airport. Dave attempted to jump back to the mountains where most of the clouds was with some starting to overdevelop and I try slightly more front line, but we both landed near Grant lake.

Clouds over Grant lake

Waiting for retrieve on highway 158