Zion from above, and an O/R Blast

Today I decided to try to get down to Zion National Park, which I hadn't seen from the air before. Cloudbase was about 13,000, just enough, given the high terrain and lack of landing options. To always have an airstrip within glide, I had to basically take every decent thermal. Working band was about 11-13,000. Here are a couple of shots of Zion. It really is spectacular country.

Zion National Park from above

Looking down Zion Canyon

 After checking out Zion, I ran a cloudstreet north and back south again. Some spectacular statistics - from memory I did 169 miles without turning with a glide of 120:1! Here's the street looking back to the North at the end of the day. Shortly after this it started producing some spectacular fireworks.

Coming home - Airfield just beyond town

Arty Pics

From Grand Teton (the lake view) and Bryce Canyon. And Crater Lake

I'm in a black n white mood...

Two days in the air

Finally, after a week of waiting (and sightseeing) I got in the air yesterday and today.

Yesterday was a great day - and the first flight with my new V7 vario. A lot of tweaking still required there. But the day was good enough to get across to Bryce Canyon and review the sights we saw a few days ago from the ground. The perspective is certainly different!

This shot is from about 16,000ft. You can hardly tell there is a canyon there at all. Max cloudbase was about 17,000 but it varied a lot from place to place - with some areas being as low as 12,000. Believe me, that feels low when the ground is between 8 and 10,000!

Today I tweaked the vario (added a cruise climb switch and changed some settings) and it is a big improvement but I still don't trust the speed commander. The day started very weak because the wind was blowing down over the ridge to the east of the airfield.

Although the sky looked great, none of the climbs on our side of the ridge were connecting with the clouds. The other two pilots gave it away after being unable to get any higher than 11,000 (scratching the slopes) but I took a gamble and a long glide to the western side of the valley and was rewarded with a climb straight to 15,000. I then raced a cloud street to the south and back, and played chicken with the storms until being outmaneuvered by one which set itself up over the airfield. As  I glided in to land a bolt of lightning made me revise my plans and I turned tail, heading for the airfield at Cedar City, clear of any nasty weather. But I changed my mind again and decided to wait it out. While I was waiting I snapped this shot of Cedar Breaks, the amazing natural amphitheatre that we visited a couple of days ago.



In the end I landed at 6:30 after the storm had drifted away, dropping the wheel and pulling full brakes from 15,000ft.

Sunset over the fuel bowsers Parowan.

Wildlife in the Canyons

A small yellow bird about wren size; still don't know what it is but there were quite a few in Zion National Park. The ground squirrel eating the leaves was there too.

The other picture is the main amphitheatre in Bryce Canyon with stormy weather in the background.

Oh and the checkerboard rock is just after leaving Zion Canyon through the tunnel.

Who needs to chase storms

They just keep chasing us!

Sat at the airfield after cleaning RV...

Cedar Breaks, and another rest day

After leaving Bryce Canyon we headed back towards Parowan, and sure enough there was another huge canyon enroute, so we had to stop to get a few shots and take another hike... this one would have been stunning if we had not just been to Bryce. Cedar is deeper but not as broad, and with fewer Hoodoos. A ranger gave us a talk about how a cougar can jump 45 feet onto its prey and that there are plenty of them around - so many that there is an open hunting season. We didn't spot any. The sky might look good but just out of shot is another huge thudercloud.

Today has been another stormy day and the pattern is expected to continue. I almost decided to rig, but this was the sky behind the camper... so instead we went to Cedar City for the weekly dose of Walmart and a pizza dinner. That Urban Spoon app is great!