Sonoma Wings Excellent Adventure in the Owens Valley (2001)

Sonoma Wings Excellent Adventure in the Owens Valley

In early August of 1997, a group of 11 Sonoma Wings pilots took a long anticipated trip to the infamous Owens Valley. For many, it was their first Owens experience and they were just a little anxious, to say the least!

The trip involved months of planning: getting the gear just right, finding drivers, studying maps, analyzing the weather, reading everything ever written about flying XC, flying long hours at normal sites to get used to the air, getting physically in shape and mentally prepared.

It all paid off and we were lucky. We all came back filled with a sense of awe and humility after flying one of the most incredible sites on the planet.

The Totals

1274 miles

37 flights

90 hours airtime

The Sites

Black Eagle / Inyo Mts 8-2-1997

Gunter / White Mts 8-3-1997

Walts Point / Sierra Nevada Mts 8-4,5,6-1997

The Carnage

Two broken downtubes

One bent keel

One scraped knee

One torn arm tendon

One cut nose

One transport hole in sail

One glider blown off truck

Two gliders flipped over on launch by dust devils

Ants in harness

Ants in tent at 3 AM

Significant Memories

While thermaling between Kearsarge and Lookout Peak, a Golden Eagle gave me a close look. He came in toward the nose of my glider and flew the length of my right wing a mere foot from the leading edge. Wow! I could see his eyes and he flew in a mild bank the whole way.

Before crossing I invoked the spirits for help. I called on my Dad's spirit because he would like to be with me on this flight and my guardian angels, to help me find lift and make it up onto the Whites. After the flight, whenever I closed my eyes for the next three days there was a picture of me soaring above the White Mountains. I realized later that it wasn't my picture but that of another spirit which I was having a psychic exchange with. I believe that it was my fathers' spirit. The vantage point of the picture was from about 18,000' high seven miles northwest of Bishop. How did a view from there get etched so vividly into my mind? The closest I got to Bishop was ten miles to the southeast!

Larry and I pulled into Tinemaha about a thousand over the top and immediately hit a real boomer. I think it was this one that pushed me into a 90 degree wingover after a few 360s but I felt it coming, just rolled with it and pushed out, finishing off the wingover just as if I had done one in smooth air.

Finally I found one and rapidly climbed to over 15,000. The western edge of this cloud, which I decided would be my escape route, was a ways off but cloud base appeared to still be much higher so I kept circling. But then the lift suddenly pegged my vario so I headed west and pulled on some speed. I was still climbing like crazy and so I stuffed the bar. Cloud suck. After a few hundred yards I was beginning to wonder if I had made a serious error because I was still climbing fast and the edge of the cloud was coming down fast. But the lift finally dropped off so I slowed down, made a big circle to make sure I was in the clear and then headed north again to the next cloud. Only then did I think to look at my altimeter. Just under 17,000.

Flying up and over thousands of feet of sheer granite. Scratching down low over incredibly jagged rock formations. Arriving at Mt Tinemaha's dark, forbidding spires.