O2 systems

[Steve Sliwa]

You will enjoy the west coast soaring.

[John Lawton]

Hey Steve,

Definitely looking forward to it!

Another question, do you guys usually fly with parachutes in the big air? I'm debating whether or not to bring my reserve rig. I don't ordinarily fly with it around here unless I know it's going to be crowded.

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135

[Webmaster]

I haven't been flying with one at Parowan. But I haven't been an official entrant. I believe that for all SSA sanctioned contests you need to fly with a parachute.

[Ron Snedecor]

John,

The Parowan meet is mostly just a get together of folks with a common interest in motorgliders. They have a contest but it's optional and about a quarter to a third of the pilots join in on the contest. Not sure if the contest portion is SSA sanctioned. ASA is a member of the SSA. You would have to ask the folks at the ASA website: Disclaimer (Auxiliary-powered Sailplane Association).

I've never brought a parachute but I've never participated in the competition either. When are you coming out west and how long are you going to be in the area? I've moved my Ximango to KMEV Minden NV where I'm permanently basing it now.

Ron Snedecor

[John Lawton]

Hey Ron,

I'm not remotely interested in participating in the contest. I gave up on the SSA 6 years ago after some less than palatable dealings with them over the soaring club we used to run out of my strip. Long story, but one that should be told to anyone who is interested so the real motivations behind the SSA be known. It was made abundantly clear to me that the SSA isn't what they appear to be. I haven't been an SSA member in over 5 years and have no intention of ever joining the SSA again.

My question regarding parachutes was more related to the conditions, as opposed to the competition. I've heard that the lift can get pretty strong in the Owens. We don't get that strong of conditions around here. I don't ordinarily fly with my reserve around here unless I know there's going to be a crowd. It's one of those "I'd rather have it and not need it" things.

In regard to my arrival date, none set yet. It will depend on when I get a weather window to get out of here and across the plains, hopefully avoiding bad storms entirely. Late June my area usually gets storms mid day every day on both plateaus. They tend to build quickly and it OD's, usually by 1:00PM every day. We also can be foggy in the early morning if the dew point is up. I'd like to be wheels up at dawn on the first day to get me as far west as possible before it OD's. Fog in the morning, delaying my departure, could mean that I would only make it to Memphis or Little Rock before it storms. So the timing on my departure is somewhat critical for the first 500 miles or so.

I'm planning to leave sometime during the week of June 21st, hoping to arrive in Minden around the 22nd or 23rd. Unless I'm running late I'm planning to stop in Durango, CO, for a day or so on the way out if the weather is good for some photo flights over the San Juans (one of my favorite haunts). Then, move on from there. If I'm late I'll meet you guys in Parowan. If I'm early I'll go to Minden and hang around and fly. I've thought about flying out to the west coast north of San Francisco for some photos, too, if I have time.

Depending on the weather along the route, particularly in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, etc., I might pull a marathon on the first day and try to make it all the way to Durango. It's about 10-11 hours flight time from my strip, but I've done flights like that before. They get pretty wicked storms in the plains area that time of year, i.e., massive gust fronts, baseball sized hail, etc, and if it's anything like past experience going through that area VFR in early summer it'll be like threading a needle trying to avoid the storms. Maybe I'll get lucky and have a big high pressure system sitting on them, but you just never know.

We've had some awesome soaring here for the past week. 7 days in a row of 10-12 knot lift with bases over 10,000' agl. We don't get conditions like that here very often. I've been flying my ass off all week. So, I'm tuned up and rarin' to go west! Very much looking forward to meeting and flying with all ya'll.

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135

[Webmaster]

You wrote:

We've had some awesome soaring here for the past week. 7 days in a row of 10-12 knot lift with bases over 10,000' agl. We don't get conditions like that here very often.

Awesome week. That competes with the west!

[John Lawton]

Today wasn't bad, either. Not quite as high as last week, but I saw 9.5 kts on the averager a couple of times today. It was only going to about 8000' agl, though. We had one pretty good low save from about 2000' agl to just over 8000' agl. Best thermal of the day, too.

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135