1,633 km (1,015 sm) Sierra Wave Flight

Last Thursday, March 25, the Sierra wave was in prime form. I took off from
the Minden, Nevada airport at 6:46am in my ASH-26E and flew a Free 3 TP task
landing at California City at 5:03pm for an estimated distance of 1,633 km.
This flight was similar to my SOARING magazine article of last year except this
year I started earlier and was able to extend all legs. The first turn was at
Frenchman's Lake (north of Reno), the second turn was near Dunmovin (just North
of Inyokern) and the last turn was near Herlong. The record claim will be for
the US National Motorglider 3 TP distance.

From my limited experience with the Sierra wave, that Thursday was one of the
best, well marked days I'd seen.* The winds at altitude were modest (35 to 65
knots). There was some difficulty at the start as the wave was not marked in
the valley on launch, but showed up soon thereafter. From then on, lennies or
rotor clouds were present most of the way, so there were few slow spots. Even
the north bound transition from Bishop to Mono Lake was done at top speed.
Like most US wave cross country flight, I operated with an 18,000 ft. ceiling.
The best part is just the experience of zooming along for hours at 110knots
indicated with the incredible cloudscapes and Sierras in view.* Magnificent.

The flight trace will be public soon along with a full write up and lots of
pictures.

Kemp
9J