Wolcott/ September 2, 2008

So, it seemed it was going to be an epic day at Wolcott. The masses, all six pilots, met at the LZ at 2:30 pm hoping to get a long xc flight, maybe jumping over the Gore Range into Summit County. In the LZ the conditions looked quite favorable. Light cycles from the west and south west at about 5 to 12 mph. Optimistically, we loaded up headed to launch.

Once at launch, conditions looked similar to what the LZ was doing; however, we noticed cumulus clouds in the distance all around us with a big blue hole over us. Cycles were consistent, but many of them cold, so we anticipated a lot of sinking air. Tomas, (Czech militia), got ready and launched. If anyone could climb out it would be Tomas. He worked hard, but unfortunately found sink, and ended up flying toward the paragliding LZ. Low, it seemed he was finding some small bubbles that may get him to climb out, but there was just too much sink and ended up in the LZ. Karel (Czech militia) was next. The lulls on launch, between cycles, were getting longer, but the cycles that came through launch were consistent and stronger. Karel launched right into a thermal and began to climb out. Karel flew in front of launch for about 5 minutes, and then to the north, of launch hooked a nice thermal and began to climb out. The thermals were there after all. Alex was next and had the same fate as Tomas. Timing seemed to be the issue. Bobby then launched and sunk out not making it to the LZ.

After Karel was in the air for about 20 minutes the valley started to show signs of wind, and the prevailing wind seemed to be kicking in. This should make it easier to soar in the ridge lift while waiting for a descent thermal to climb out.

Flynn, a new local pilot, was kind enough to pick up the pilots that sunk, so they were on their way back up to hopefully have another stab at it.

Once I noticed the ponds in the valley showing texture, I decided to suit up and hopefully be lucky to get up with Karel. By this time Tomas was back on launch and willing to give another go.

I got a descent cycle and launched into a thermal and began to climb in broken lift. The air felt broken, with holes in the lift and it wasn't easy to stick in the thermal. It felt like right off launch you were climbing through an inversion. Tomas came up to join me and with a little help from each other we found the climb to take us above the broken lift. At 9,500 msl the lift smoothed out, got broad, and was easier to core. We topped out at 14,500 msl. You could really see where the inversion layer was as you could see the top of the brown haze.

Not getting high enough to think about hoping the Gore Range. We all decided to hang around the valley. Up high there was tons of lift and it was easy to stay up. Bobby had come back up and was now soaring. Flight times ranged in the hour to two hour range. It was another great night.