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Thread : Parowan 2009
Started at 17th-June-2009 02:01 AM by Admin
Visit at http://forum.xopa.org/showthread.php?t=28
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Author : Admin
Date : 17th-June-2009 02:01 AM
Thread Title : Parowan 2009
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Author : Ron Snedecor
Date : 18th-June-2009 05:58 AM
Thread Title : Parowan 2009
Wednesday June 17th
Finally escaped the ìJune Gloomî marine layer stratus clouds in the Los Angeles basin, packed solidly against the mountains for almost two weeks, on Monday the 15th at 1400 PDT. VFR climbout to 15,500ft (AMT-300) to capture the winds and top the weather in the Vegas area using my new Mountain High oxygen system. Cruised for 2 hours 45 minutes to Parowan Utah for the 2009 Auxiliary-Powered Sailplane Association meet. As I was letting down at 1745 MDT into the beautiful valley containing Parowan at the base of very majestic and colorful mountains that hold the Bryce/Zion National Parks, it became obvious that there was lift in the area. However I was to late in the day to take advantage of it as the last of the days fortunate glider pilots were returning from their days adventures. At the smoked ham and turkey dinner that evening, served in a hangar, the consensus of opinions was that it was a good day but not quite a ìParowan Dayî, even though, one pilot managed a 650 km day and another a 450 km day. Parowan is located on Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City just north of Cedar City.
That was Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday have been a washout as a cool winter pattern of storms with rain have been moving through the area driven by the Jetstream which is very far south. Very unusual for this time of year. Two guys launched today but returned fairly soon with little lift and lightning in the area. Thursday appears promising if the front moves through as predicted. Friday looks like we could return to the normally great Parowan soaring weather for this time of year. Tuesday night was smoker chicken and pork served in the hangar with great company and hangar flying. Quite a few people had made up for the unfriendly weather by taking tours in the area as there is a lot to see from the ground also. Tonight is a highlight evening dinner at Victoriaís B&B where their famous pulled pork BBQ and home made ice cream sandwiches will be served with a band playing.
We have about 40 aircraft and about 50 people that have traveled in from all over the U.S. and beyond. Folks have come from as far as Florida, Minneapolis, Dallas, Toronto, Puerto Vallarta, Germany, and South Africa and a number coming from points along the West Coast, Nevada and Arizona. So far there are two Stemmes and my Ximango representing touring motorgliders. The rest are either pure gliders or mostly self launching gliders. Iím expecting Tom Muller with his Ximango from Georgia to arrive Thursday or Friday. If Steve Sliwa can escape his day job and his computer long enough to travel from Washington State to Florida to pick up his brand new Ximango at XimangoUSA his plans are to arrive here in Parowan around next Monday or Tuesday. What a sight, three Ximangos in a row on the flight line!
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Author : Admin
Date : 18th-June-2009 07:06 AM
I hope I make it there in a few days. I am curious. Do they have a pilot's meeting in the morning to give weather briefs and/or do the set tasks?
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Author : Ron Snedecor
Date : 20th-June-2009 05:34 AM
Thread Title : Parowan 2009
Thursday, June18th
Awoke this morning to a beautiful day finally. Forecast showing little wind with some cloud formation and a slight chance of rain in the afternoon. Yesterday two intrepid sky sailors, the two from South Africa, ventured out in their non-powered gliders on a day where the weather was changing rapidly from bad to worse. Lots of spotty showers and thunderstorms rapidly forming and dissipating but total sky cover with no sun. They left at 1430 with one managing 390 km and the other 340 km. Both of them made it back here with one saying he almost had to land 3 km short of the airport but got lucky.
Just about everyone launched today between 1200 and 1300. After two bad days everybody was itching to ply the skies again. I was up for 3 Ω hours and could have easily stayed up longer. Cloud bases were low for Parowan at 12,000 ft. Tried the mountains first but with no wind nothing was happening there. The best for the local area was around the airport, along the front range of the mountains and over the dry lake bed about 10 miles west of the airport. Worked mostly between 10,000 and 11,500 with occasional trips to the cloud base at 12,000 ft.
Tom Muller arrived here at 1800 this evening flying his Ximango 200. He started out from southern Georgia flying for over 17 hours and a little over 2 days. A long time in that seat against headwinds. Tomorrow morning at the pilot meeting we’ll find out how today was for everyone. I heard some chatter on the radio talking about Page AZ, Kanab and Moab UT.
Friday, Saturday June 19th, 20th
Friday turned out to be a good soaring day but still not a Parowan Day. At the morning meeting couldn’t get much on weather or what kind of distances had been done on Thursday as the town has been having trouble with its broadband internet connection. Did find out that one pilot had managed to do 500 km flying south to Mesquite NV as well as back to Parowan and then quite a way north towards Salt Lake City.
Friday’s weather was scattered clouds with cloud streets, developing the most lift late in the day along the western face of the mountains and out in the valley to the west. Cloud base was still low at 14,000 ft. Tom Muller and I launched about 1230 each in our own Ximango. It took some scratching to begin with but finally made it to 11,500 and then headed southeast for Zion National Park. Beautiful soaring over the park with its many varying colors of beige browns, tans, reds and whites in deep eroded sandstone canyons. We managed to get up to cloud base so headed southwest towards St. George UT. We could see that there was quite a blue hole down by St. George so we went as far as Hurricane UT stayed in that area for a bit and then headed back north. Tom headed out into the valley over the dry lake west of Parowan and got up to 15,000 ft. I porpoised back north along the west mountain face at about 11,500 arriving over Parowan at 8,500 thinking I might be done. A house thermal had developed just east of the airport and in 12 minutes I was back at 13,500. With this good fortune I ventured east over the mountains and found very little lift but managed one ridge run to Brian Head Peak at 10,500. Waved to the folks at the peaks viewpoint and then had to peel off back down canyon towards Parowan as there was no lift available in the area. Tom and I had stayed up for 4 Ω hours and covered about 390 km.
Saturday dawned a bad day. A front was coming in from the northwest and was meeting a moist southern air mass right over us. At the morning meeting we learned a number of pilots had stayed up for 7 to 8 hours on Friday. Thorston from Germany had done 933 km, Bella from Hungary 780 km and Manny from South Africa 706 km. These were all in non-powered gliders. Saturday’s weather developed slowly. At about 1400 conditions looked so good a number of us were considering launching, but this was the calm before the storm. About an hour later things had completely deteriorated to thunderstorms and heavy rain. We all were glad we didn’t go. At last nights dinner one of our members gave an hours slide show on his soaring tour around the western half of Australia in a Stemme accompanied by a Ximango. It included soaring the Morning Glory wave in northwestern Australia and also a sidelight of soaring in southern New Zealand.
Sunday looks promising if the forecast 25 to 35 mph winds don’t materialize.
Sunday, Monday June 21st, 22nd
Sunday turned out to be to windy. All but one intrepid aviator stayed on the ground. Our leader, Rick Howell, decided to take a tow and try it. He made it to 14,000 on the first thermal and did a fair distance to the north but cut it off early as there was quite a bit of turbulence in the wind.
Monday looked promising but high pressure with dry air has now moved into the area. Just about everyone launched around 1200 to 1300 but about 1/3 returned within an hour. The rest including Tom Muller and myself scratched on. We both gave up around 1430. The others that managed to stay up found conditions improving somewhat after 1530. No great distances were done as most of the flying was just working to stay up. There was one land out at the Fillmore Airport and a number of engine restarts on the motorgliders. One guy, Eric Greenwall, managed to find an area of convergence over Richland and got up to 17,000 but the rest could only manage 12,000 to 14,000 ft occasionally. As one guy said, “there were these little ratty clouds that would form drawing you like a Sirens Song to them but by the time you could get under them they would disappear”.
It’s Tuesday morning at 1130 and the briefing looks promising for late afternoon. We’ll see. I’m going to be taking up Lisa Marie the gal that runs the B&B we’re staying in and Tom will be taking up Martin Tyner who is the gentleman that runs the Southwest Wildlife Foundation, an animal rehabilitation clinic in the area. Martin specializes in hawks, eagles and condors and knows where to go to observe them and sometimes fly with them. Steve Sliwa, on his way from Florida, has Spot showing him over Kanab Utah which should put him in here around 1215 today.
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Author : Ron Snedecor
Date : 20th-June-2009 10:23 PM
Hi Steve,
There is a non-mandatory pilot meeting each morning at 0930 where safety, weather, the previous days flying and the current days activities are discussed. For the pilots that want to compete there is max distance, triangle, and out and back that are recorded on OLC.
Ron
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