Bruno Vassel's video: Glider Playing on Smokey Ridge of Utah s Skyline Drive

What do you do when it's too smokey to fly your glider cross country? Go play on a mountain ridge flying a few feet off the tree line and say hi to everyone on the ground! I was hoping to fly a state record flight attempt, but the California wild fire smoke was just too think and up at cruising altitude it was almost IFR conditions. The winds were from the west so I thought it would be fun to take off from Nephi, Utah and head over to the Skyline Drive area of the Wasatch Plateau near Manti, Utah. This area is just gorgeous from the air and has lots of great 4 wheeling and ATV trails. When the wind is from the west, it is a large area of great lift and lots of fun to play above these mountains. That said, this kind of flying is VERY technical and any mess ups can quickly turn into a tragedy. I do not recommend any newer pilots or pilots without extensive mountain flying experience to try to emulate this kind of aggressive flying near the high terrain. The glider is an ASW27 and was fully ballasted to max gross weight during this flight. I hope you enjoy! Bruno -B4