NEW WORLD RECORD

Dennis Noland flying a 65" span Velocity designed by Mickey Crawley and built by Ken Gregory goes 279 MPH at Castle Ridge!

Dennis and the guys are still out there with a Storm 2M and a couple of Carbon Opuses, we'll see what happens!

Dan

Holy thats bloody amazeing, is there a video, or pictures.

That is seriously insane speed. I just worked it out, 446.4km/h!

Congrats to Dennis Noland, good job buddy!

And All with a 65'' plane! AHHHHHHHHH insane! Insane!

Congratulations!

It's about time NOR CAL to show those guys what's really up!!!

Awesome!

Where's Castle Ridge?
Pauly

Originally Posted by paulywood

Where's Castle Ridge?
Pauly

Directions?

Wow! Now I definitely need to find a 10,000 foot site here in Wyoming ...

279 mph with a 65" plane! Dennis must have superhuman reflexes. That's so cool.

Dan

Originally Posted by paulywood

Where's Castle Ridge?
Pauly

Credit to Rob Crockett on the now defunct site:

http://www.ncws.com/rcrock/

_____________________________________________-

Castle Ridge Soaring Site

Boreal, CA

Description: This alpine site is located north of Interstate 80 between Sacramento and Truckee in the Tahoe National Forest, near the Pacific Crest Trail. An enormous high altitude bowl facing the prevailing SW wind guarentees the best lift around, but access requires a ride on a bumpy dirt road and hiking in a mile and up 1000 feet.

Location: Heading west on Interstate 80, drive about 14 miles beyond the junction with Highway 20, and turn off at the Boreal/Castle Peak exit. Turn left/north at the stop sign and go under the freeway. Set your odometer here, and continue up the hill to the right/east. Follow the paved road as it turns back north, through the dirt parking area and onto the dirt road through the green gate, and veer right at the fork at 0.2 miles. At 0.7 miles, veer left up the hill. There are other small spurs, but stick to the main road. At 1.7 miles, park at the cul-de-sac, and gather up your gear. Begin the hike by taking the broad trail up the hill on the NW side of the parking area. Keep to the main trail (not taking the right spur that doubles back to Donner Summit/I-80) until you get to the saddle in the low ridge a short distance in. Here, turn right/east onto the more primative but well traveled trail following the spine of the ridge toward Castle Peak. Follow this rocky trail beyond the exposed area, back into the forest near the top, to the junction of Castle Ridge with Castle Peak. Make your way NW along the ridge and pick a spot to fly.

Flying and Cautions: In the afternoon, the "delta breeze" from the SW in the valley is a 40mph gale directly facing this slope. At an altitude of 8700 feet ASL, the lift at this site is strong and smooth, and this site has an absolutely huge lift band. The site is an enormous bowl about a mile long that concentrates the lift, and towers over Round Valley and the Pacific Crest Trail below. This is the finest, smoothest, biggest, fastest lift (hands down) that I have ever seen. The gradient on the back side is well defined, and there is little turbulence to mess with tracking at ballistic speeds under the wind. At this altitude, the air seems smooth as a baby’s backside, and I find I need much less ballast than I would expect given the wind and flight speeds. I can crank up speeds dymanic soaring on the back side as high as I dare, and the gradient position is very stable. In the morning (10:00 am to 1:00 pm), the air is very smooth, but the heat on the slope in the afternoon makes the lift cycle a little later in the day, with peak winds around 2:00 pm.

The dirt road in is rough in places. To drive all the way in, I'd say the higher ground clearance of a truck or SUV is required, though I don't think 4WD would be. I am continually surprised though to see less equiped vehicles on this sort of road, maybe with a more patient driver than I am.

This is not a official Forest Service trail, and it shows--the trail is steep and rocky, though reasonably well marked, and with a little panting, not too bad. I recommend good boots, with the usual things for an alpine hike (water, food, first-aid kit, sun protection lotion, etc). Be careful with your footing—you will be checking out he scenery one second and brushing the gravel off of your elbos the next otherwise. A lesiurely hike in takes an hour and forty minutes to the primary site near the base of Basin peak, and back down about half that. You can instead take the Pacific crest trail to the west side of Basin Peak, then follow a jeep trail up over the top of Basin Peak, but the hike is longer and footing maybe not as good.

As with any hike in the mountains, check the weather forcasts carefully before you go. In particular, if the forcasts call for higher humidity and thunderstorms in the afternoon, forget it. You definitely don’t want to be on a mountain ridge sporting an antennae with any electrical storms in the area.

Remember that you are an ambassidor of R/C soaring while you are there. It is great fun flying with the eagles there, but people can see you flying from miles away, so go easy on the wildlife. Say hello to the many hikers you will see, and make very sure you don’t hit any of them with your plane. Pack out everything, and try to stay on the trails.

GPS coordinates: You don’t need them, but if you have a GPS unit, a little guidence can add to your confidence. The 100 yard wooded area near the juction of Castle ridge with Castle peak has many short small trails, but the coordinates below detail the most direct route with the best trail.

Rob Crockett, 8/17/2000

Dan:
I shot a congrat mail to Dennis.

He finally got what he was after! And well deserved.....


Good Air!
Bob

WOW AMAZING! How fast was the wind blowing? You guys get it on video?

Dan

I talked with Dennis at 1 p.m. They had gotten to the parking area and headed up to 8600 feet by foot. Now these guys are in shape and it still took an hour or more to get there. D said they were at the top of the world. Beautiful up there. 50 mph winds coming straight up the bowl. As they were checking it out, a "dust devil rotor" came right thru the bowl carrying dirt and leaves up to 100 feet agl. Kinda scary. D said if his plane goes down, (he took 4) that it would stay where it crashed because of extreme inaccessability. He chucked out one Opus and got flutter at 150 mph. Landed okay.

Second call an hour and a half later. Dennis all pumped up. Norm Mertke of Tuffplanes just cranked 167 with his "Supertron". Next call in 10 minutes Norm did 184, 197, and they radared him at 207 with a KABLAM! (KUNG FU CHICKEN) Only foam dust in the air.

Third call. Dennis totally pumped! He yells 279 with the Velocity!!!!!! Hello? Hello? He says. I couldn't speak. Just friggin unbelievable. I didn't go because of the 3 hour drive and 1 1/2 hour hike. Now I can kick myself in the foot for not going.

I have called him a few times to see how Vernon did but I'm sure they're out of range. They won't get back to the Bay Area until 11 p.m.

I'm sure Dennis will tell his story.
Congrats to Dennis Noland ("topgun") and Norm Mertke. And I hope Vernon Anderson for going over 200 for the first time.

Joe Manor, are you all packed up ready to head up there???

Way to go Dennis, that 300 MPH is getting close !!!

Steve
http://www.californiasailplanes.com

Dan