Monday, May 05, 2008

Dog Mountain and Elk Mountain Soaring

..
Scott and I ran down to Dog today.. The forecast was for North winds and sunshine.. With my limited experience at Dog the conditions sounded good.. But to be honest, I really had no idea..
..
At 1:30 the conditions on top were less than inspiring.. One impatient pilot bailed off the launch and made short work of what looked like a frustrating fly-down.. Not long after, a number of others launched and a large percentage of them also grovelled their way down to the lake bed.. Some of that group however was able to hang on and stay in the game until the lake started to show signs of wind turning on for the afternoon..
..
Scott launched off of the north side and actually made some thermalling turns to get over the top while the guys out front started to climb a little bit.. By the time I decided to jump, the conditions had improved considerably..
....
The wind eventually turned north-northwest and the whole north side was lit up with decent ridge/thermal air that kept improving as the evening settled in.. The lake had filled-in from the north and a couple of pilots had already jumped across to Elk and disappeared to who-knows-where.. Scott said that he flew from Elk climbing all the way across the lake towards Peterman; 5000 feet directly over the lake..
....
My little trip over to Elk was my first.. I don't fly Dog that often so I took my time and enjoyed it..


..


..


..

No comments: