Well what a day. Yesterday when we arrived this place seemed pretty dismal. Hot, dusty, remote. Today I have seen it from a new perspective - namely 17,500ft! Cloudbase was way higher - probably 20,000 - and the lift was insane. I haven't flown a day like this for at least 10 years.
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| Climbing out of Air Sailing - Airfield in distance |
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| Diamond Lake |
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| 16,500, vario pegged, and still nowhere near cloudbase |
One little hickup - I was gliding along at 14,000 when I realised that my oxy wasn't flowing and was not producing its normal audio alarm. I don't know how long I had been without it, and I'd just done a long glide down from 17.500. So I had to descend to 10,000 and finish the flight at that height. Pretty scary.
We are very close to Reno airspace here, and I was listening to Reno Approach most of the flight. Almost every inbound flight was being vectored around one, two or even three gliders. And that was just the gliders with transponders. Made me a bit paranoid about lookout, although you can't see the one coming from behind!
Flew over Barron Hilton Ranch too - though it didn't look much from this altitude...
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| Barron Hilton Ranch - middle left of photo |
Really looking forward to the competition now - day 1 tomorrow.
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