Dunlap in March

Dave S. (at right)& I (below) headed up to Dunlap to fly on Friday the 9th. We had plans to meet up with flying friends from Springville, Sacramento, and the SFO Bay Area, on Saturday.

As I drove across the San Juaquin Valley, the sky was downright depressing - High Cirrus covered 90% of the sky & the air just "felt" stagnant & inverted. From the bottom, we could see that the launch was shrouded in a thin cloud layer.

We met at the school in Dunlap at 1:30pm & didn't think we'd be flying, but covered our bases & left one vehicle at the school. We grabbed some bad food at the mini-market & drove the 35 minute drive to launch. The road was clear of snow & in very good shape. When we got to the top the WX looked encouraging. We launched & flew in a rather narrow lift band of -200/+500 above launch for the better part of 90 minutes. I kept running into the Dunlap "HOODLEMS" - a group of 7 vultures that tour "their" valley together. They cover quite a bit of territory & are great lift signs. The boaty conditions allowed a bit of a valley tour & confirmed that the weather would be good flying Sat. if the high stuff cleared out.

We had a (relatively) good meal at memories in Dunlap & called it a day at the cabins.