Bishop XC, Day Three

Flight 112

On the last day of the clinic Kari guided us to the McGee launch, near Mammoth. This launch has a venturi which made for some tumbles and false starts. When I first took off it wasn’t clear that I was going to penetrate to the south side where everyone else had gotten their lift. I did. All was well. Very well in fact.


The McGee launch.

I know what the edges of a thermal feel like now. I know how my glider handles them. I know what to look for as I do my 360s. This is different.

Right off of the launch I got about 500 feet from a thermal right in front. Awesome. I turned with the wind looking for more. I’m such an expert now (tongue firmly in cheek). In fact, it looked like I was going to bomb out right in front of Convict Lake Road (I love that name). I headed for a spine where I thought there might be some lift. There were bubbles. I started looking for a safe place to land. Then I found another bubble. And another. Then I found a screamer. It pulled me straight up well over Convict Lake. I got about 2000 feet out of this one. Awesome.


Up and more up over Lake Crowley.

I continued over the next field where thermals were abounding. I took it up to 12K and starting heading up 395 toward Mammoth. I could swear I could see Mammoth, but I wasn’t quite sure.

I started climbing another thermal that for certain was going to take me over some forest. Here’s where I met my limits. I did not want to land in the forest and I wasn’t sure the lift was going to get me high enough to get over it. In fact it all looked pretty forested to me.

I radioed Gabe and asked him what to do. He said, “Stay out of the forest.” Meagan was about 2 miles ahead of me at that moment. I wished I could see here. I just didn’t feel good about going in there by myself. I bagged it.

I turned back to the open field and started heading for a landing. In fact, everyone had landed except for me and Meagan. As I started losing altitude I just kept on hitting thermal after thermal, some of them huge. I can’t wait until I get back up here at Owens to push this further. If only I had more experience or perhaps Kari within sight I would have kept going.
Finally I landed by choice. I felt great, tingly. I make some real breakthroughs on this trip and this flight was the icing on the cake: pure joy from top to limit to finish.


A satisfying end to an awesome trip.

We collected each other and hand lunch at a small store near Toms Place. I was starting to prepare mentally for the 5 hour drive back. No big deal. It was well worth it for this experience.