I finally got to the mountains for some XC flying. A cold front passed through Utah on Thursday and second day post frontal is usually THE day for good XC conditions. Peter, Bill, Cliff, myself and about 30 other pilots showed up on Inspo launch in Provo. This was the biggest contingent of pilots I had seen on Inspo at one time since we had the US Nationals there several years ago. Obviously, everyone else thought it was going to be a stellar day also.
I arrived pretty early to huck some mountain newbies off early but they decided that the restricted LZs were a little too much for them. Good call. After an hour of waiting boredom set in and I had to do something so Peter and I flew off tandem. We didn't hit a single piece of rising air all the way to the LZ. Not a good sign. The inversion layer was just above launch and our flight confirmed that it was going to be a pretty stable day.
The boys arrived in the LZ and we hitched a ride back up to launch. When we arrived the thermal cycles were building and I got ready quick. I launched into a good cycle at 2PM and grabbed a steady but choppy 300' up thermal that took me to the top of the inversion layer at 8,500'. I bounced off of that for 15 minutes or so and decided to drift North and see if anything was happening across Provo Canyon. Down to 6,200' and I found another 400' climb that was drifting quickly to the North. Back up to 8,500' I drifted over to Mahogany and found a long stretch of zero sink and I hit the speed and kept heading North.
As I approached American Fork I was finding nothing but sink and at 500' I hit some of the roughest air I have encountered in the past 6 or 7 years. 1,500' up - 1,500' down every 2 seconds for several minutes. I pushed away from the hillside. Ground speed heading North 12 MPH, groundspeed heading South 12 MPH. Then I realized I had just hit the convergence and at 400' AGL, it was not fun. I landed safely and quite happy to be on the ground.
A big thanks to Pedro for driving and retrieving me.
