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#1
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
How I spent my summer vacation!
By CH It started out as a week of racing and then a week of long flights in my venerable Ventus B intermixed with some hiking and movies. Well just as the week of racing was ending up the with a respectable 6th place in region 9 at Parowan, considering a land out on day 5 at Filmore, the weather started to really turn on for the great basin area. I headed out on Sunday for a leisurely flight from Parowan to Ely with my more than wonderful crew Rose (as you'll see later) and our 'girls'(Yorkies) Jodie and Jenny, running happily around the motor home driving far below. As cloud base was above 18K, I was able to stay well ahead of my crew and soon lost radio contact. I flew past Ely and followed super cloud streets out past Eureka about 20 miles and thought I should stay close to Ely to get in touch with my crew. This proved to be difficult as I had heard nothing from the girls for about 3 hours now and I was approaching a 500k with lots of clouds and plenty of day left to fly. Being the optimist, I figured that they had stopped for a little shopping (they have prior's for this) so I flew over toward Garrison and Lincoln and then back again to round out a 750k when I heard from Rose that she was pulling into Ely. When I landed she still wasn't at the airport and I began to worry that she had problems. Oh, just about then I remembered that I had a cell phone and it would probably work. I called her just as she was pulling in. It turns out that she had broken down in the motor home twice with fuel problems and was delayed and hour each time. This led to Monday being a get the motor home repaired day and after a quick trip to Napa, fuel pump in hand I approached a repair station and thought I was lucky enough to be able to get the pump replaced the same day. A few hundred dollars later, (motor homes are more like airplanes than most know) the pump was installed and we were back in business. Ok TS1 was arriving tonight and tomorrow we were going to try some 1000 K's, I was getting psyched up. I got up early on Tuesday to lay out some possibilities and work out a declaration for my as of yet not proved new EW Microrecorder. I picked Jackpot, Hudson and Geyser as TP's putting Ely on the mid leg for a 1028 declared FAI triangle. I managed to get out of Ely early and had 7kts at 11:00am and hardly a turn for the first 125miles. Someone turned off the switch 35 miles out of Jackpot and I had very poor visibility and no lift above 10k all the way into and out of Jackpot which was really slowing down the flight. I had figured on 8 hours of flight time max to get in the 1000k and this was not helping. I finally got above 11k when I got back to Mary's river and worked south to get to the really good clouds and another 100+ miles with little turning. I ran into the same problem the last 40 miles into Hudson as over development had set in and was chasing the sun back eastward. As I had a glide to Austin AP and the sun was on the ground just east of there, I throttled back to 40:1 and flew a 2 kt Macready to 1200 agl and 2 kts lift to try and stay afloat. I don't think I have ever circled as much low as I couldn't get above 10k for the next 100 miles with the terrain at 6K and 30 miles between landing spots. Every time I would see a little development below the overcast, I would head east get low and take 1-2kts for a 1k gain and move on. I kept trying to get to the sun but the ground kept getting n the way! TS1 was still flying near Ely and confirmed that there was sun on the ground and still good lift out there. Well after 7+ hours in the air my last ditch effort to get home, I had abandoned the last turn point by this time, I was diving and leaving the safety of Eureka AP going for the dark bottomed Cu under total overcast on the east side of Long Valley dry lake using the lake bed as a alternate if it didn't work. I guess this wouldn't be as good of a story if the Cu had been working but it wasn't and trying to pick out a patch to land on became my new priority. Having arrived under the cu at 1000 agl and 3 miles east of the dry lake, I turned back, put down the gear and began to assess the landing options. The tp in the GPS looked very far from the barely visible road /goat path that went into the lake bed. It also looked very soft and, as I found out later from Carl Herold that would have been a very difficult retrieve. Anyway I chose a small circular patch that looked lower and the very bottom of the lake bed and closer to the road I thought was there. I had little time with one circle over the landing spot before pulling the spoilers and landing. As I set up I saw that it was quite a bit lower and bowl shaped which put me touching down in the middle of a 500 foot diameter bowl. It was very soft which was good as the density altitude of about 9k had my ground speed up there and I went through the other side of the bowl, and I do mean through as it launched me up and into the bank on the other side. It turned out OK and I came to rest on the side of the bank with the gear buried in about 10 inches of soft sand. As I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself I heard water running. It suddenly dawned on me that I was almost out of drinking water and that trickle I heard was what was left of my ballast. I jumped out and refilled my camelbak with what was left. I was amazed to find that I had cell phone coverage and called my crew to start getting ready for the retrieve. I mentioned to her that I was going to need help getting the plane out to grab someone and bring them along. Well, when I started hiking toward what I thought was the road coming in I never found it and walked 3 miles out and up to the mountain foothills before I contacted the pavement. I could have sworn that the goat path I saw from the air should have been where I walked but I must have gotten mixed up. It was well after dark when Tony, Paval (visiting Ely from Czechoslovakia) and Rose showed up in the motor home and found me lying down on the road awaiting them. Now this is a nice paved road and in the 3 hours or so it took them to get to me from Ely I did not once see or hear another human or vehicle for 50 miles in any direction. After dark there was not a single light anywhere and although I had cell coverage, I was starting to get nervous because my crew’s was spotty and I thought that they might have taken a wrong turn. As it turned out I was just a long way up the valley from the main road and all of the suicidal jack rabbits (I think they had never seen a vehicle before) were proof of that. Deciding that it was too dark and that I would be needing a 4 wheel drive vehicle, I opted to wait until the next day to retrieve the glider. So Wednesday started out with me begging for a four wheel drive vehicle. As there is no car rental places in Ely James at the FBO was extremely kind in letting me use the airport Nissan 4 wheel drive truck. He urged me to take a extra 5 gallons of gas as the tank is quite small in the truck (Charlie clarified this by telling me that it was really for if I got it stuck I was to pour it on the outside and----well you get the idea) Tony, Paval and myself headed out to retrieve the glider and as luck had it after getting back to where I found the road we went a little further and there was the goat path I had seen from the air. I left the trailer on the pavement for the first run in case I had to turn around or got stuck. But after three miles and a couple of missed turns we came up over a hill and there it was less than 50 feet from the road. I still can’t figure how I missed it the night before. So I turned around to go get the trailer and about half way back out I came across a large piece of tailpipe in the path and Tony says “I think that came off us” and I says I think your right! Thanks to James and Charlie for being so understanding, especially when I had to order the parts and did not have time to install them. So the rest of the retrieve went without incident. We carried the wings and fuselage up the hill and into the trailer with little effort and were on our way back to Ely. A nice La Fiesta dinner for the crew and planning for another long flight tomorrow. Thursday brought us a little closer to the ground for cloud base was only 14k I started out going south past Caliente to a peak southwest by about 10miles. Then turned north as the lift was very broken up and only averaging about 3-4kts. Much more of the same as I headed north until later in the day when after turning Peak 8828 west of Wendover and a 110 miles north of Ely it started to really turn on and I was able to fly fast down to about 30 miles past Currant 80 miles out of Ely. I turned for home and had plenty to spare as I flew 10miles past Ely to the north in for an OLC 1039km flight. After landing Steve Fossett and Terry Delore came by and did a low pass in the ASH25Mi that they had just done a new 1250k speed triangle world record. Both guys had an infectious smile (besides wearing beer instead of champagne) for the record they had just achieved. Beer, food and great company as 711, TS1, and our crews joined us in one of the most magnificent sunsets I have ever seen. Friday, I decided to give my crew a break and fly down to Jean so we could spend some quality time in Vegas that evening. So we set out on the same XC I tried last year and only made it to Currant. This year was going to be different, after all I had just flown a 1000k! Well the clouds ended about 30 miles south of Ely and as I flew further SW towards Tonapah the top of the lift kept going down and got further apart. As I turned the corner careful to stay out of the Nevada Test site restricted air space and got to Beatty the top of the lift was around 8K with an occasional one to 11k. I was moving excruciatingly slow and think this has to be the worlds slowest 500k to date. I had just enough glide fighting a 20kt head wind most of the way to get to Jackass where I tried to tank up to get up into the Pahrump valley and Calavada Meadows for the next alternate. Unfortunately the day was getting late and my crew was getting tired so I looked for a convenient place to land on the way to Vegas. Searching the Garmin196 database I found what appeared to be just the right ticket. Red Rock 7 miles south of the restricted air space listed as private and 122.8 as CTAF. A town a few miles away and only a mile off of 95 just where it turns to a four lane hwy. Perfect right? Well, I directed my crew into the completely abandoned airport with the altitude I had left (I told you I was going slow). And proceeded to set up a low pass to check the wind ( and get some thrill from this frustrating flight) when I noticed some “vehicles with lights”coming in the way my crew did. As I flew overhead I could see machine guns and flak vest on about 6 men that looked serious. I pulled up and landed and rolled up to the ramp about 50 feet from where they were surrounding Rose and the motor home. Now this was quite a picture. If you have ever met Rose she is 4'11' blonde and has 6 guys standing around her like she was Saddam himself. I opened the canopy and yelled “Please guys don’t scare her” and all I could here was Rose laughing (she does that when she gets nervous). They weren’t laughing and promptly came over to escort me over to see there Lieutenant and explain what I was doing there! Well now, I work for the government and understand what a hassle they can be IF they want to be. So I spent the next 2 hours trying to make them, the Nye county sheriff’s dept and the Mercury duty officer (Nevada test site Dept of Energy test facility) believing that I had not landed there intentionally or with any intention of blowing up their facility. And although there is no doubt in my mind that I was completely legal, especially from a aviation stand point, I didn’t want to have to prove that in court! And after much sucking up, letting them search everything from cell phones, camera’s and motor home to detailed pictures of my panel and GPS systems and assuring them that I did not overfly Mercury (even though its not in the restricted air space) they escorted me to the freeway with the warning “Don’t come back”. And we were on our way to Vegas. We got to Vegas just after dark and finding that the RV park at the Circus Circus had raised there rates to $70+ a night we decided to drive on to Laughlin and more reasonable rates. We got there around midnight and set up and got to sleep. We spent the next day and a half there enjoying the river and casino’s night life and movies giving my crew a well deserved break As we prepared to leave on Sunday morning for the short drive back to Prescott, the money pit I so affectionately call the motor home decided that the fuel pump we put in was not installed right and quit running before we got out of the park. Now I’m sitting here, glad to be back at work (if for no other reason than to pay for the money pit) with another bill for 400+ and planning a trip back to Laughlin to pick it up. Having used Rose’s parents for the retrieve from there, I guess I ll be hitching it back to get the hulk back to Prescott! All in all some absolutely wonderful soaring flights, some absolutely hard soaring flights and some absolutely wonderful friends to spend time with. I guess we will just have to try it again next year! Some acknowledgments in order of appearance, thanks go out to the following, without whom this could not have happened: Tony Smolder, Tom and Jodie Dukerich (yea your as good as married), Harry, Barb, Mikey and Heather Smith, Randy Acre, Tom Kelly, Pam Ted and Riley Wagner, John and Brenda Seaborn, Rick and Joanna Culbertson, Pavel, Charlie Hayes, James, Carl Herold, the wonderful ex marines mercenaries at Mercury and all of the mechanics that have treated my money pit with such care! Thanks All Hope to see MOST of you next year!) |
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
Thanks for sharing this, Cliff! We were sorry we couldn't join you and
da girlZ in Ely after Parowan, but you know how it is with a new sled on the way and another bun in the crew oven. Let's do Uvalde together next year! I will find a way to convince the map that Ely is midway between Phoenix and Uvalde. ~tuno |
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
Interestingly, there were no gates, fences or signs
on the airport boundries at all. 2 miles down the road by the freeway there was one sign, black and white that said in large print 'Nevada Test Site' and in Print about 1/10 of the size said 'Trespassing prohibited' but my crew was following my directions from the air and missed the bit about trespassing. And when we looked at it on the way out she said that she would have assumed it meant up by the the town of Mercury a few miles up. Seems pretty suspicious that they have armed guards but not fences or gates of any kind! Could this be a plot by the US Government to trap unsuspecting aviation enthusiasts into a false sense of security?) At 18:06 19 July 2007, Tuno wrote: Interesting airport you landed at Cliff! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Rock_Airport |
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
Thanks CH,
for the wonderful write up of your experiences. It inspires me to do something similar next year. |
#6
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
I've just sent a letter to the US Department of Energy asking if we
can host the Region 11 contest there next year (Hey, that's a 100 foot wide 7200' long runway, paid for by taxpayers, and look at all the RV camping nearby! And you know security won't be a problem) 2NO |
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
On Jul 19, 11:17 am, Cliff Hilty
wrote: Interestingly, there were no gates, fences or signs on the airport boundries at all. 2 miles down the road by the freeway there was one sign, black and white that said in large print 'Nevada Test Site' and in Print about 1/10 of the size said 'Trespassing prohibited' but my crew was following my directions from the air and missed the bit about trespassing. And when we looked at it on the way out she said that she would have assumed it meant up by the the town of Mercury a few miles up. Seems pretty suspicious that they have armed guards but not fences or gates of any kind! Could this be a plot by the US Government to trap unsuspecting aviation enthusiasts into a false sense of security?) At 18:06 19 July 2007, Tuno wrote: Interesting airport you landed at Cliff! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Rock_Airport No - it's just that all interesting places, including DOE facilities and nuclear power plants, have now been removed from the charts. Regulations require you to avoid them, but they don't tell you where they are. Our Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant near Phoenix has also been expunged from the charts, but there is a huge sign on the freeway directing you to it. Kafka would be proud! Mike |
#8
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
Cliff,
Great write up! I loved it! I'll be back next year to join everyone in some flying adventures. Cheers to you, and please give my best to Rose. -EX |
#9
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
Mike the Strike wrote:
On Jul 19, 11:17 am, Cliff Hilty wrote: Interestingly, there were no gates, fences or signs on the airport boundries at all. 2 miles down the road by the freeway there was one sign, black and white that said in large print 'Nevada Test Site' and in Print about 1/10 of the size said 'Trespassing prohibited' but my crew was following my directions from the air and missed the bit about trespassing. And when we looked at it on the way out she said that she would have assumed it meant up by the the town of Mercury a few miles up. Seems pretty suspicious that they have armed guards but not fences or gates of any kind! Could this be a plot by the US Government to trap unsuspecting aviation enthusiasts into a false sense of security?) At 18:06 19 July 2007, Tuno wrote: Interesting airport you landed at Cliff! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Rock_Airport No - it's just that all interesting places, including DOE facilities and nuclear power plants, have now been removed from the charts. Regulations require you to avoid them, but they don't tell you where they are. Our Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant near Phoenix has also been expunged from the charts, but there is a huge sign on the freeway directing you to it. Kafka would be proud! Mike Has paranoia become a job pre-requisite for a US Government post? I thought it was only in the third world where you had this kind of thinking. First decide what you want to conclude, then build circular logic to support your conclusion. Each individual point is supported but there is only one side to the argument - This way you can have an entirely self supporting thesis with out any foundation in fact. The Apartheid government were masters, and to a lesser extent their successors indulge in this. This logic is a little like a Möbius strip (a surface with only one side and only one boundary component). It's only when you try to look at the whole thing that you work out somethings strange... How are you practically supposed to avoid the unknowable? |
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How I spent my summer vacation (long)
Cliff,
Your my hero, that was a great article. Ted's suggestion on hosting a Regionals at the site has my vote but why stop there? It is about time for a USA World Championships right? John |
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