Great stuff. I've only mountain biked around that area and a little bit along or below that ridge.

If you ride at all, you don't want to miss Hurricane. Last time we were in Hurricane was a year or two ago and there was a Pawnee at the airport. We watched a glider tow up to Gooseberry Mesa and soar around a bit one afternoon.

Next time we'll bring the Duo if tows can be arranged.


On Tuesday, March 20, 2012 7:09:03 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
On Mar 20, 7:51*pm, T wrote:
On Mar 20, 7:50*am, Bruno
wrote:





A few friends and I had an amazing time last week down at the
Hurricane, Utah airport doing some early spring soaring. I tested out
a new GoPro Hero2 HD video recorder (sorry about being hand held) and
was very pleased with the quality and results. *I have 2 videos from
this trip with this one being the first and another spectacular one
coming out next week - soaring inside of Kolob Canyon below the
rim...

This week's video can be found on my youtube channel. Please make sure
to watch in full screen mode and as high of HD quality as your
computer allows. *Worth the extra time to download clearer video!
It is hard to imagine that gliders could comfortably cruise less than
1,000 feet above the desert floor at ground speeds often over 140
miles per hour for over 20 miles with nowhere to land in sight!

This video shows pilots Bruno Vassel (B4 in an ASW-27B), Tim Taylor
(TT in a Ventus 2a) and Dan Wrobel (DW in a Ventus B) flying high
performance sailplanes along the small ridge southbound from the
Hurricane, Utah airport. We also had a great time soaring with Steve
in an LS3 flying R5. *Note the completely unlandable terrain both
above and below the ridge making for spectacular scenery but scary
flying. This was a very fun day of flying!

http://youtu.be/aob5JxEFTw0?hd=1

Thanks for watching, Bruno (B4)

Great video! Great ridge day? What were the local winds and how was it
on the ground in Hurricane?
Is there always a tow now at Hurricane? JET and his Maule?

T

The winds were about 15 to 20 at the ridge top, just about
perpendicular to the ridge. We landed a few minutes later with about 8
to 10 out of the west on the ground. Cross winds were really not a
factor. An hour later when DW landed it was down to less than 5 on the
ground.

We arranged with John about a month in advance to come down for the
weekend to tow. Hurricane is about 2700 feet lower than Parowan so
Spring comes six to eight weeks earlier there. We planned to fly
three days but Saturday was forecast to be blown out with 30+ winds.
With the ridge about 1/2 mile from the runway you could get away with
1000 to 1200 foot tows most days. Would be a great place for reverse
auto tows.