The Ultralight Trike Odyssey, Top to Bottom
Day One – Taking Off With Stratus Clouds.
It was the beginning of the Trike Odyssey trip and all was in place. The Hawaiian Flying Team of Gerry Charlebois, Andy Doughty, and Armin Engert had arrived in Reno three days ago, assembled their trikes and had agreed to be ready to take off at sunrise May 14. We were all excited about finally leaving on our barnstorming trip over some of the most beautiful and challenging terrain in the continental United States.
Days before, the wind was howling from the west each afternoon which worried me greatly. At 4 AM the morning of our first flight, I checked the upper air which was generally predicted light and variable in the morning with after noon west winds 10 to 20 MPH. However, today it was supposed to be partly cloudy, a new trend not seen for over a week. We were going to takeoff at the Carson City Airport which is around 4700 feet MSL and had to climb over mountain ranges close to 9000 feet high on our first day planned route.
Loretta and I drove down in the dark not being able to see the clouds what ever they might be. As I pulled my trike out of the hanger, preflighted it, checked the cameras, all was well. By this time the clouds were visible. A nice layer of stratus clouds was above us with a horizon of blue sky in the direction of our flight. The nice layer of stratus clouds means minimum vertical air movement. The sky looked like a morning of smooth air.
The complete operation of four instructors plus seven students who would also chase us with gas, sprung into action when I announced "it looks good, let's Fly".
As I expected, the air was completely still, and as smooth as the stratus clouds as we climbed together on our first leg of the journey. We flew out into the sunshine and the skies cleared as we flew into the Nevada desert.
We were all elated at the smooth air and great flying conditions. The students were eager to fly now since the first flight went off without a hitch. The sun was beating down on the desert as we took off with the students at about 10:30 AM from Hawthorne Nevada. We decided to climb up over a 9000 foot range and head straight to Mono Lake California. With the extra weight and high density altitude, we had to use the thermals to help us climb. With the cold nights and the hot days the thermals were booming up out of the desert about 11:00 am. It was bumpy as we climbed to 12,000 to get clearance over the range. We could now see Mono Lake in the distance.
We descended towards Mono Lake which was white around the edges hopefully attracting less heat from the sun to give us some relief from the turbulence we were now in.
As we approached the lake we were rewarded with smooth air as we had hoped. It was approaching high noon. Flying around Mono Lake was magical. The air was smooth and the lake looked like a mirror. After we circled the lake we decided to fly over to the mono craters. Just as we left the water and white beaches, the thermals from the hot desert were booming and it was extremely turbulent. We decided to head straight for the Lee Vining Airport to get out of the turbulence. We had already flown four hours are were tired from our first day. We all fought our way through the bumps to the airport.
Go to Day Two – Waking up to nasty looking stratocumulus.
Pictures
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Paul Hamilton exiting the Carson city airport with the layer of stratus clouds above and the blue sky out in the horizon. |
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Looking out to our goal and heading over the first pass towards Yerington Nevada. |
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The transition from the stratus clouds in back and the blue sky in front as we flew out into the Nevada desert. Walker Lake and Hawthorne airport gas stop ahead. |
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Climbing out of the Nevada desert utilizing thermals with the 9000 foot ridge ahead. There were no cumulus clouds even with the strong thermals because the air was so dry. The smooth looking clouds in the background were higher cirrus clouds (18,000) not really effected by the lower thermals we were in which took us up to 12,000 feet. |
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The magical Mono lake with its white shores and mirror waters providing smooth air and relief from the intense desert thermals. |
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A trike tied down at the Lee Vining Airport with Mono Lake in the background. |
