Owens Valley

[E. Douglas Whitehead]

Ted,

If you can, check out one or several of John
Joss's books written in the '70's, I believe.

You will find a lot of infomation on that subject.

If you wish to borrow my copies, just let me
know.

Douglas

[Rick Culbertson]

Hey Tuno,
Yes, I agree the Owens Valley is an amazing and yet very humbling
place. I suspect you can get many, many Owens Valley stories from this
group! I began flying Hangliders at the 9,00 ft Cerro Gordo launch
site in the Inyos adjacent to Lone Pine in the summer of 1978, it was
affectionately known as "scary your gourd off". I and others can back
that statement up with a few stories of convergence zone / dust devil
carnage occurring at launch that summer, five HGs still on the ground
and one Bird flying in front the launch was destroyed that day!. My
Owens experiences over the years ranged from Joy to Terror often
moments apart. I learned the phrase "It's far better to be on the
ground wishing you were in the air than be in the air wishing you were
on the ground". I continued flying our low wing loading / tailless HGs
in the "valley" for many years but I've never flown a Sailplane in the
valley, an experience I truly look forward to someday doing. I had
the unique experience in the early 80s to be on the 9,000 ft Gunther
launch site on the White Mountains adjacent to Bishop when the Mammoth
Mountain earthquakes began rumbling for a few years. That late morning
I actually watched the effects of an earthquake rolling across the
valley while setting up my Hang Glider. Just north of Bishop are a
series of low lying but steep faced hills, as the shock wave from the
quake rolled past this area the faces of some ½ dozen of the cliffs
sheared away creating a rolling wall of dust. A few moments later the
5.? Quake rolled on to the Whites, it was quite something to see and
experience. The Owens stories are many, I'll bet we could start a
subject line of "Tales of the Owens Valley" and write a book when all
is said and done.
RC-21

p.s. Many of the So Cal pilots are currently flying out of the the
Owens (see the OLC) so I'm certain a tow service must be active either
in Lone Pine or Bishop


On Aug 20, 9:27 pm, E. Douglas Whitehead
> wrote:
> Ted,
>
> If you can, check out one or several of John
> Joss's books written in the '70's, I believe.
>
> You will find a lot of infomation on that subject.
>
> If you wish to borrow my copies, just let me
> know.
>
> Douglas