Bruno Vassel's video: First Time 29 Years Flying in Mountains I Got Scared

Sorry I didn't have my video camera running the 2 minutes before this video started but I was flying for my life. I was flying my high performance glider (sailplane) in the Salt River Mountains near Afton, Wyoming when I hit an extreme pocket of descending air that made me fly for my life out through a side canyon. Unfortunately the down air was also in the canyon so I didn't know if I would make it out for a little while. Luckily, my ASW27 is a very capable and high performance machine and I was able to fly to the safety of the valley below. I have several thousand hours flying gliders and planes in the mountains and this was a good reminder to not get complacent and remember that if you fly enough, you will encounter more extreme lift and sink at some point and to keep your margins plenty wide to handle any situation you encounter. Thanks for watching! Bruno