First Attempt at Villager Peak
Actually this is my second attempt, the first being 2 years ago when Glenn and I turned around halfway after the winds got to strong to fly down. This time however I was going to fly to the top instead of from the top. At 5755 ft Villager is far from the tallest mountain I have flown over but it sure is intimidating, towering above Clark Dry Lake at a mere 500 ft. Rockhouse Canyon creates a huge bowl connecting in the far back with Toro Peak. As I have discovered during the last couple of weeks, the wind can howl through this valley and it is important to choose your conditions carefully if you want to play on the big desert mountains. Today the winds aloft were forecast to be light from the South up to 9000ft – perfect! Normally I would launch right next to the RV, but at 10 am the surface winds were light and variable (difficult launch) and I had no desire to tangle with that bush again, so I loaded the Ass-Fan in my truck and navigated the sandy roads down to the edge of Clark Lake. Soon after launch I hooked into my first thermal which took me to 2500 ft in short order. After snapping some pictures from my grand viewpoint I aimed towards the peak but it soon became apparent that the winds were really more southeast and parallel to the ridge. Not wanting to deal with any rotors I decided to fly south to the end of the long ridge running up towards Villager Peak. I topped up in several thermals establishing me way above the foot of this ridge at 3500 ft. Normally once established I would kill the engine and just use the thermals as I do when free flying – after all that is why I got a PAP motor which gives a lot of feedback from the wing for improved thermalling. However it was already past noon and I could not afford to loose much height and therefore time on the transitions, so I used some power whenever I found myself in heavy sink. At the edge of the valley the wind was almost due east as the valley behind draws it in around the corner. This situation put me in the lee of the bigger foothills stretching out to the Salton Sea, and I promptly encountered some lee-side turbulence. Had I been free flying it would be an easy decision to jump right onto the ridge and battle it out with the mix of turbulence and thermals, but with the motor on my back I am loaded above the wing’s upper weight limit and wing collapses are usually more dynamic and severe in this configuration. I decided to can my original plan and flew out over the Borrego Salton Seaway. It was still quite bumpy and I struggled to take pictures while holding the brakes and being pushed around in the air. I changed course and headed for Coyote Mountain instead. With the prevailing wind direction this is a much better option and I thermalled my way up from Peg Leg Smith at the South end of that ridge, all the way back to 4000 ft well above Coyote Peak. From here I flew back to the RV for a total airtime of 2 hours and 10 minutes. I am leaving for the Mecca Hills tomorrow but if the weather cooperates next week I might have a 2nd attempt at Villager.
