by Tim Taylor (TT) and Bruno Vassel IV (B4)
Northern Utah provides a unique opportunity in the USA to truly fly “in” the mountains. Logan has often been compared to Rieti, Italy, Saint-Auban, France and Omarama, New Zealand for the true mountain and ridge flying experiences. The skills and techniques required as well as the potential for long cross-country flights will be explored.
About the Presenters: Bruno Vassel IV (B4) from Draper, Utah started soaring 18 years ago after driving past a gliderporr and stopping to watch skydivers. Bruno has owned a 1967 Phoebus A, an ASW-20BL and two months ago, purchased an ASW-27B. Bruno started experimenting with in-flight video with the Phoebus and has compiled hundreds of hours of video while cross-country soaring across the western states. Bruno started contest flying in 2009 and is hopelessly hooked. He is married with three kids and owns several internet businesses, including iboats.com.
Timothy Taylor, Pd.D. (TT) of Logan, Utah has been flying and racing gliders for twenty-five years and is the current US IS-Meter National Champion. He has been exploring the potential of the unique combination of mountain, ridge and wave flying in Northern Utah for the past twelve years. In addition to flying gliders, Tim is a researcher and teacher in Biological Engineering at Utah State University.
Here’s an exciting video introduction to the thrills of ridge soaring in Northern Utah.
The video links embedded in the following presentation are not active. The two videos corresponding to slide nos. 12 and 15 are embedded in this post below the presentation. Enjoy!
Video for slide #12: Circling Examples. Bruno attempts to demonstrate common circling errors, so don’t assume that the thermaling in this video is necessarily the right way to do it!
Video for slide #15: Thermaling vs. Ridge Running. The message here is: When the ridge is working, don’t waste time thermaling!
