Three Flights for Three-Hill

Looking west from Three-Hill as the sun sets behind Gunsight Peak and Short Divide.

Friday's forecast was good to very good - both for the winds and thermals, so Cody & I went out to 3-Hill, (a trio of small 300' ridges) to hopefully get high over the Cache Valley. At about 3:30 we launched into a 12-16 mph gusty, thermally wind, and found very punchy, sharp-edged bullet thermals. We both worked them in earnest, but soon were flushed out to land in the bailout LZ below. With plenty of daylight left, we decided to hike our set-up gliders back up the small front ridge to re-launch. By the time of my second launch, the air had filled in and mellowed, allowing me to circle and figure-8 in more cohesive thermals. I managed to get high enough to drift north to Cedar Mountain, which I quickly climbed, and then started looking for lift to take me back to the upper mountain range. I found a nice, big 550 fpm thermal right over Hyde Park Canyon, and stayed with it as I drifted farther back. Although I was climbing, I didn't like the fact that I was drifting deeper into the canyon,

as I approached the headwall to the east. Instead of drifting in the sure lift, I pointed south to try to get to the foothills east of launch and climb the mountain range that way. In hindsight it was a tactical error, but one based on increasing my glide to LZ safety cushion. As a result I was just too low against the foothills, and ended up top-landing in a nice, wide open alfalfa field. So I walked my glider down to launch from there, and relaunched again, into obviously lighter conditions, resulting in a nice late-day sled ride. Although I went home very tired from more leg-work than usual, and didn't get as high as I wanted, it was still a great-fun (and safe) day of flying with Cody, a couple of red-tails, and four turkey vultures!

Flights: 3

Airtime: 1 hour (total)