Today I declared a 500km O/R up to Dry Mountain, near Salt Lake City and back. At 11am the sky was almost cloudless, but by midday it was already starting to look stormy. I launched full of water and struggled to climb under the overcast but eventually found 7kt and started straight away. Only a few km into the flight I had to divert to the east of a large rainshower - and then had to thread my way through the mountains, between two more storms, to get back on the western side of the overdevelopment (the east was forecast to storm completely). The rest of the flight up to Dry Mountain was a process of avoiding the storms, and I got the turn just before the heavens opened. A direct route back to Parowan was clearly impossible, and I got pushed further and further west into the desert, as the storms spread. Eventually I could see a route home, and as you can see the task looks more like an FAI triangle than an O/R. Very rough, strong, small thermals - almost impossible to center. I got closer today than ever before to opening my brakes to avoid being sucked into cloud.
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| The wackiest Out and Return trace ever |
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| Looking North to Salt Lake City from Dry Mountain |
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| The Western Desert of the Great Basin, with its 9000ft peaks |
Reviewing these photos I can sympathise with anyone who thinks it looks like a great day - well it was, but very difficult. I just didn't take any photos of the storms, that's all.
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