It's been a while since I have post some text, and that's because I haven't had anything exciting going on. I have skied a few days on the white ribbon of fun at Breckenridge and Loveland, but not much above and beyond that. Now we have something going on, back in the paragliding arena.
Mingus Mountain, just outside of Cottonwood, Arizona, is not far from Sedona. Sedona is a place known as having harmonic convergence, and energy centers everywhere. The valley in Cottonwood, not known for much, is at 3,500 feet msl. Launch on Mingus, 7,800 msl. So, about 4,100 to 4,300 vertical feet. A two wheel drive road to the top, and you have one amazing flying site. Let's put Cottonwood, AZ on the map.
We decided to come down to Mingus to paraglide. We were thinking of going to New Mexico, but their sites face west. High Pressure to the north, and with it's clockwise circulation, the prevailing winds up to 30,000 feet msl were from the east. What made it easy to come down to Arizona was Chuck's Cessna 182. Rather then a 12 hour drive by road, we have a 3 hour flight from Leadville, Colorado. That flight was an adventure in itself for Bobby Blount and I. For Chuck it was like a walk in the park.
So, we loaded up in Leadville on Sunday at noon, and we were off at about 12:40 pm. It was so cool taking off in winds blowing 15 to 25 knots from the northwest. After taking off, we flew south toward Monarch pass east of twin lakes. We had a heavy load with three paragliders, and clothing for 4 nights, weight was definitely an issue. We had 5 hours of fuel, but our climb rate was weaker then normal. We finally climbed out to about 15,000 feet msl, and Chuck decided to try going west over Monarch pass. We were worried about rotor over the big peaks, because winds were strong from the northwest. We finally topped out at 15,500 feet msl and made it over the Pass with no problem. The next step was to fly through the San Juans. So we stayed high and continued south of Telluride, Silverton, and actually flew over Purgatory ski area outside of Durango. It was all downhill from here. Of course at this time I felt the urge to take a bathroom break, and got teased by the boys, but I know Chuck would not have landed if he didn't have to go, so we landed in Cortez, Co near the 4 corners for a quick stop.
15 minutes later we were back in the air. Chuck felt like a bush pilot and we skimmed the ground over Navajo territory checking out the farms in the middle of the Arizona desert. They all have Hogans which is basically a sweat lodge, and are octogon shaped. As we got closer to Flagstaff, AZ we had to climb a little bit to get over a couple of mesas, and as we approached Flagstaff we passed a couple of flying sites called the Craters. Merriam and Sheba craters and low a behold there were three paraglider pilots getting ready to launch. It was about 3:30 pm. So, we buzzed around them a bit and then headed to Sedona to check out the cliffs.
The colors of Sedona were amazing with the setting sun. We encountered a lot of turbulence in the Sedona area as we flew below the cliffs which faces west, and winds were from the east, so we were definitely fighting the rotor. No problem with the Cessna 182.
We approached Cottonwood, AZ as the sun was beginning to set, but we had one more task to fly over Mingus to check out launch and landings. It was definitely strong from the east, but it certainly set up that excitement for the next three days. I will post more in the next couple of days about the awesome flying. Stay tuned.
Mingus Mountain, just outside of Cottonwood, Arizona, is not far from Sedona. Sedona is a place known as having harmonic convergence, and energy centers everywhere. The valley in Cottonwood, not known for much, is at 3,500 feet msl. Launch on Mingus, 7,800 msl. So, about 4,100 to 4,300 vertical feet. A two wheel drive road to the top, and you have one amazing flying site. Let's put Cottonwood, AZ on the map.
We decided to come down to Mingus to paraglide. We were thinking of going to New Mexico, but their sites face west. High Pressure to the north, and with it's clockwise circulation, the prevailing winds up to 30,000 feet msl were from the east. What made it easy to come down to Arizona was Chuck's Cessna 182. Rather then a 12 hour drive by road, we have a 3 hour flight from Leadville, Colorado. That flight was an adventure in itself for Bobby Blount and I. For Chuck it was like a walk in the park.
So, we loaded up in Leadville on Sunday at noon, and we were off at about 12:40 pm. It was so cool taking off in winds blowing 15 to 25 knots from the northwest. After taking off, we flew south toward Monarch pass east of twin lakes. We had a heavy load with three paragliders, and clothing for 4 nights, weight was definitely an issue. We had 5 hours of fuel, but our climb rate was weaker then normal. We finally climbed out to about 15,000 feet msl, and Chuck decided to try going west over Monarch pass. We were worried about rotor over the big peaks, because winds were strong from the northwest. We finally topped out at 15,500 feet msl and made it over the Pass with no problem. The next step was to fly through the San Juans. So we stayed high and continued south of Telluride, Silverton, and actually flew over Purgatory ski area outside of Durango. It was all downhill from here. Of course at this time I felt the urge to take a bathroom break, and got teased by the boys, but I know Chuck would not have landed if he didn't have to go, so we landed in Cortez, Co near the 4 corners for a quick stop.
15 minutes later we were back in the air. Chuck felt like a bush pilot and we skimmed the ground over Navajo territory checking out the farms in the middle of the Arizona desert. They all have Hogans which is basically a sweat lodge, and are octogon shaped. As we got closer to Flagstaff, AZ we had to climb a little bit to get over a couple of mesas, and as we approached Flagstaff we passed a couple of flying sites called the Craters. Merriam and Sheba craters and low a behold there were three paraglider pilots getting ready to launch. It was about 3:30 pm. So, we buzzed around them a bit and then headed to Sedona to check out the cliffs.
The colors of Sedona were amazing with the setting sun. We encountered a lot of turbulence in the Sedona area as we flew below the cliffs which faces west, and winds were from the east, so we were definitely fighting the rotor. No problem with the Cessna 182.
We approached Cottonwood, AZ as the sun was beginning to set, but we had one more task to fly over Mingus to check out launch and landings. It was definitely strong from the east, but it certainly set up that excitement for the next three days. I will post more in the next couple of days about the awesome flying. Stay tuned.
