When I did my gold, I released at 2000AGL, which was
2800MSL, and the thermals in Central Valley CA went
above 14k.

At my airport, it may be possible to get a thermal
at
700AGL (1500MSL) and then if it was a smokin' day,
ride a thermal to 18k over the Mountains near Panoche.
That would be quite an accomplishment...

I suspect there are airports near Tehachapi (Bakersfield?)
which might be able to do this too. A climb out of
there up into Big Bear or over Tehachapi would be pretty
neat.

Any of you Calif. desert guys done something like this
and just ain't tellin'?

I got 10k+ gain this way, but had no oxygen or thermal
tops to take me to 17,999...wouldn't have mattered
anyway since the
low point was only 2800 too...

But it would be nice to not need a wave window

At 19:30 19 July 2005, Bill Daniels wrote:

'Shawn' wrote in message
...
Gary Emerson wrote:
Just curious if there are any commercial operations
in the US where you
can obtain diamond altitude via thermals. I'm aware
of the wave options
at places like Minden.

Many thanks,

Mark

Wouldn't be surprised if it could be done on the right
day out of
Minden, or Boulder. You'd still need to open the
wave window and get a
low release. E.g. from Boulder, release at 6500 ft
(1200 ft AGL) and
work west to the continental divide catching a thermal
from there to
diamond height (23,000 ft or so). You might find
yourself in wave
anyway. I did last month.

Shawn


It could be done in the Boulder wave window all right.
I've seen Cu bases
near 24,000 ft.

Another possibility is Alamogordo, NM. They have a
huge wave window that is
easy to open and very good thermals.

Bill Daniels


Mark J. Boyd