IL2windhawk

I'm hoping to try some slope-soaring this summer. I live in Ogden, Utah
right next to some big mountains, so I'm hoping I can find a nice local
spot to do my flying. I've been scouting out areas that I think might give
me a nice up-draft, and this one seems to fit the mold. I've never sloped
before, so I would appreciate some opinions from those who have. As I
mentioned in another thread, I'm hooked on the real-flight slope sim.


I'm looking at that big clearing on top of the hill. I penciled in an imaginary
windsock to illustrate the general prevailing wind direction. Looks like that
clearing offers me about 60 degrees of choice in the direction I can launch
from it. Thanks.

evan-RCU

Looks good to me, you have some coordinates so I can punch them into google earth?

IL2windhawk

Good idea. Just did so myself

Try:
41°11'41.02"N
111°55'44.00"W

That clearing is one of the few places on these mountains that is not covered in trees.

evan-RCU

Well, it looks like it would work but there are better places around. This site has a gentle slope and is not wide wide fall offs to both sides, especially the left looking at the slope. If you fly a bit further up the hill there is a nice bowl that looks better, you can launch from your spot fly up higher and then come land in your spot. Looks like yo have a bunch of nice hills there....

There is an identified r/c slope site at 40°27'13.69"N 111°54'25.74"W South of Salt Lake City... DO you know anyone else slopeing?

wind junkie

My Feedback: (1)

You must have seen Point of the Mountain in Sandy, right? That is the most popular site by far in your area. Look for all the jellyfish in the sky and the R/C site is closer to I15 looking south. The south side turns on in the morning, and the north side works late afternoon. If you hook up with some locals I know you'll get a better idea of what will work near you.

Up farther north there is Francis Peak (still south of Ogden, I believe it is the Syracuse Exit off I15). It faces Antelope Island and gets pretty good slope/thermal lift every day the sun shines, but it is a long drive up to the top. It's still a nice place to visit though, although it can be intimidating if you've never flown slope before as it's over a mild down to the valley floor.

Antelope Island itself has a really good hill which faces West I believe. I remember flying there right after a big storm. When the lift is good, it smells really bad because the brine shrimp beach "aroma" is carried up to the hill (where the restaurant that serves bison burgers is).

wind junkie

My Feedback: (1)

Soar Utah 2008 will be on Labor Day. They have the event every 2 years. I plan to be there.

Here's the event web site with directions to flying sites:

http://www.soarutah.org/

IL2windhawk

Ahhh...
I can imagine why the fall-offs on each side would effect the wind. I didn't
think about that. And I would have guessed that was plenty steep. Thanks
for your input. That's exactly the kind of feedback I wanted. So do you think
it's still worth a shot? How much wind would I need to fly on a slope like that?
Would something like a Gentle Lady be a good choice?



Indeed, I have seen point-of-the-mountain, but it's about an hour & half
drive from Ogden (on a good traffic day!). Francis Peak is not so far,
and the photos I found looks beautiful, but I was still hoping I could find
something a bit closer where I could go sloping with just a couple of free
hours. I will surely visit SoarUtah on LaborDay. I've put a few lines out
there to contact local slopers but still haven't heard back yet. Maybe
everyone's too busy skiing to think about flying

Thanks for the feedback, gents.
wind_junkie, you must be quite the avid sloper to come this far for SoarUtah.
And you're right, there's nothing that smells quite like the Salt Lake, LOL.
Antelope island is a good idea, thanks.

slopemeno

My Feedback: (2)

What I look for is the steepest, windiest, faces-90-degrees-into-the-wind cliff I can find. You can't have enough. I guess a drive-up spot with a bar and a restaurant would be nice...

If youre going to do some slope exploring, it doesnt hurt to have a plane that will fly in really light air, like a Zagi THL or an Alula. I've had good luck using GoogleEarth and local wind/weather sites to identify potential spots.

IL2windhawk

Yeah this GoogleEarth is really the way to find 'em.
I went ahead and looked up Francis Peak and Point-of-the-Mountain.

I can see the magnitude of difference in steepness from what I was looking at.

Anyone know how to superinpose wind data on the Google Earth (plug-ins, etc?)

Coordinants available

Francis Peak
40°58'27.61"N
111°49'23.58"W

Point-Mountain
40°28'23.05"N
111°52'52.80"W

evan-RCU

The Gentle lady is an excellent exploration ship as long as you're not flying in areas that have rocks and trees for landing areas. You'll find a lot of opinions on what's best for anything. Many times people that have experience with only one plane, or type of plane, will say that they are they best when they don't have experience with anything else. I guess what I'm saying is opinions are opinions so take them in context. Slopemeno and the others who posted here... I am not syaing this about your posts, just posting in general.

I would give it a shot, remember to keep the plane in the lift and not get behind the lift especially if the wind will take your glider where you can't see it, like around the corner of the hill you have. Your hill will be very good with 5-15mph winds straight up the face. If you go to the small bowl to the right in the picture (over the houses on google earth) it'll be good for the wind direction your windsock shows.

An hour and a half is not far to find a good slope, I would happily drive that far. In fact I would happily drive 6 for a good slope, on a good day, where there are other good pilots. In fact I have...