We came, We soared and We Conquered (a bit.)

When in New Zealand last year (2006), on holiday with Heather, we went to Omarama as part of our touring holiday.  We met with Don Howard, which was good, and had a couple of mediocre days flying which was frankly, disappointing given its reputation and the distance we were from home.  Heather sensing my disappointment at just a couple of flights said ‘why not do something for your 60th birthday’.  So two weeks at  Minden in Nevada it was then.

I e-mailed round a few mates, as well as asking round at NVGC to see if anyone wanted to join us and my mate Dave Champion from Southdown said he had been before and would like to go again so we set the date for early May and made the arrangements.  Geoff Weston who flies at Southdown joined us; he also had been to Minden previously.

I will not bore you here all with the things that went wrong, perhaps later and one at a time would be better. No seriously, several things happened which should not have done and we plan to write these up for S&G under Salutary Soaring. So, on this occasion just some of the good bits.

We met up with three or four of the resident flyers who were most helpful and friendly, offering advice on the local milk runs etc., over a meal and beers in the Taildragger pub. Geoff Loyns moved from Wales for the flying conditions, first in Hang gliders and then Sailplanes (look him up on the internet for his world record flights).  He has a Ventus turbo and a Discuss and flies Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday each week.  One year he recorded 49 flights averaging 500+ kms.  Sam Whiteside moved from Ulster and is a Real estate agent, he flies a Nimbus 3dt a couple of days each weekend (check him out on the rear cover of Platypus book). Hippy Mike in his Ventus we did not find out much about him.  None of these guys have partners; now there is a surprise.

Mike Whiteside restores vintage bikes as a hobby and my mate Dave works for Piaggio as their technical sorter for warranty claims.  Mike is currently working on a Vincent Black Shadow and has sent parts to England for re-machining and Dave was able to offer help sorting this out when we went round one evening for a BBQ. Geoff W had also helped last year with sourcing parts.

Now, because of the problems I had with getting insurance due to the accident with the PIK, my mate Dave and I had been flying dual in a Grob 103. (thanks again mate) We had done a fair bit of exploring and even managed a wave flight up to inversion at 18,000.  On the middle Saturday we were late starting for some reason and were hanging around when Sam returned for a flight with his syndicate partner who had to work for the afternoon.  ‘Do you want to try the Nimbus with me’ he asked, ‘yes’…’Please’ said I.  The light wind was from the east so we went ridge soaring on the Sierras to the west.  Rock polishing with 26m of span is demanding, and Sam did the close work but to be fair he gave me a good shot at it.  We crossed the Carson valley to the Pinenut Mountains being careful of the commercial traffic on let down to Reno airport and then travelled north in company with Geoff L in his Discus to the north of Carson Lake. By the time we got back to Minden with the wind behind us we had completed a 360km triangle.

On the following Tuesday when we arrived at Soar Minden in the morning there was a call for me from Sam.  He was taking the day off and did I want to take a longer flight with him?  This time we loaded up with more oxygen, food, lots of water and several pee bags.  Three people were attempting 500k flights that day, amongst them my mate Dave and a chap, Dave Keith from Biscester so the plan was to fly the first leg with them. I foolishly lent my logger to Dave as a backup for his badge attempt.  Sam and I launched early and worked hard for the first 3 hours making our way south, passing Mono Lake, Bishop Airbase and onto the White Mountains where we arrived below ridge height.  Sam flew the ridges and we followed the mountains to the next main valley crossing alongside the now dry Owens Lake. Here we turned for home. Condition were cycling and by the time we got to the north of the Whites we picked a thermal of Boundry Peak at 12,000ft and rode it to 18,000 at one a hell of a lick.  We almost straight lined it back by dolphin flight under the clouds to Carson Valley and despite hanging around over the Pinenuts to relay messages from the airfield to a glider in the mountain’s shadow we made it back in 6hrs 15 mins.  Measured on the map we had achieved 720km out and return. We flew with ASI, Altimeter and a Sage mechanical vario each.  No electronic instruments, no GPS, no averager or flight computer.  Thermal strengths varied from 2 up for the first thermal to 18 up (off the clock).  The biggest average lift we reckon was at better than 15 up to the 18,000 ft.  The downs were almost as strong. This was a brilliant experience and I am deeply indebted to Sam for taking me and for sharing the flying, I reckon I spent more time on the controls that him, but he did the difficult mountain flying and without his local knowledge we could not have done it.  Check out the photographs.

All together we did plenty of flying over the holiday, even though I took time out for some sightseeing, but if you were to ask me if I would go again I would qualify the answer by saying, yes, the local guys are great and the conditions excellent, but I would not want to go with the outfit we booked with unless there are radical changes in their attitude and their aircraft. Perhaps we will check it out in a couple of years.

How much did it cost I hear you ask,  I have not dared to add it up is the honest answer, but probably not more than one would have spent on a two week foreign holiday almost anywhere else.

Tony Walker