Hero of the Day

Dave L. proves that north wind is not a requirement to soar at Saddle Mountain.. Into a light NE wind, he confidently launched first and flew directly to lift out over the Crab Creek Drainage area. Dave turns an obvious fly-down into a great thermal day..

Saddle Launch/Landing Area

Excellent climbs to near 5,500 feet well away from the mountain; some cores were around 800 fpm... To get to the lift required a blind faith dive into the Beverly Dunes area... Top landing was interesting in light east conditions... I found a nice little uphill slope to land on and still had to run pretty fast...

Johann and his ATOS

I had to throw in this shot of Johann... I'm not sure how many times I'll be able to actually see the top of his sail... The ATOS climbs very well...

October at Saddle Mountain

Today's flight was a pure delight... Smooth solid thermals were a bonus considering that we expected a fly-down in such light conditions at launch.. I heard a happy comment in the LZ at the end of the day, "That was the best fly-down I've had all year"...