Another possible slope site - Novato

[Wayne]

I was out walking my dog on Sunday and spotted some birds having a good time in some slope lift a little further than the first site I had spotted near my house. I'll have to give these slopes a try, I suspect they may be more manageable in the bigger wind days, but they may be a bit bumpy. Anyhow, some photos to share:

This slope looks to have pretty clean lift even though we had prtty big winds this day. Easy grass landing, but a little hike from the road. Better suited for small gliders.

This is just a little further down the trail and maybe a little more bumpy, but would be great for larger planes, and should be very easy to land on. Might be an interesting Summer Slermal site on those lazy days with a floater. Might have DS potential and could be flown on reverse wind direction also, but may be bumpy due to all of the hills on the other side.

If it is windy in Novato, one the the slopes in this area for sure will be windy!

 

[Wayne]

Link to the new slope:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.110032,-122.6303105,430m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

[thesteam]

Link to the new slope:
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.110032,-122.6303105,430m/data=!3m1!1e3

Are you saying this "955 Ukiah Street, Mendocino, CA" is another place to slope soar?

 

[Rotozuk]

Nope - Is that what the link pulls up for you? This is in Novato, CA. Link seems to work fine for me..

 

[Wayne]

I finally flew the slope that is just beyond my house. I have been wanting to fly this spot since moving in over a year ago. The wind was high, but lift was light. If I slipped to far back on the slope there was no coming forward again as the Ahi just could not penetrate. But it was perfect for low and slow passes. Lots of fun, and good low energy aerobatics practice. Should be a ton of fun.

On Sunday headed over to larger hill in the same area. This rewarded me with better lift even though the winds were down, but some trees down on the golf course set up some bumps on the left. No issues with keep the Ahi in the air. Was a little tricky to land as there is no flat spot, and the top of the hill is massive oaks. Would be easier with a flapped plane.

Very excited to have a local slope I can just walk to. I flew until well after sunset, then walked back down on the trail and found myself surrounded by 5 deer. Normally they would all run away, but they didn't seem to mind me much at all. That was pretty sweet.

Still need to try the higher slope, but I suspect it will be rough air there. The BIG slope in the area is a big HIKE, I will do that for sure one of these days, it should be very good.

Oh yeah, I also Flew down at Davenport on Saturday afternoon. Good times and ran into 2 other pilots there, one from Sonoma.

My old flying buddies from So Cal ask if I miss the slopes down there.. While I do miss some of those slopes, I am sure not complaining about the spots we have up here!!

-Wayne

 

[Konrad]

Those first two photos (Sept 10) look like the cover of some rock albums from the 70's

 

[thenated0g]

Speaking of spots, the wind looks pretty great this week and already told my boss im taking Wed off to go fly my planes. Im trying to pick between the spots you guys have been sharing and what i have found online. So for my first time coming down with what looks like winds from the west and or wnw, what would you guys suggest? North of GG bridge.

 

[Wayne]

Easy - Tic Point if it is not foggy. Closer to you are the many slopes at Goat Rock (I think there are 5 or so that people tend to fly from.) Beyond that I will suggest checking out slople.com for a map of possibles. If you know of any slopes near you, please add them to their site. It is a handy resource I like to use when visiting a new area.

 

[thenated0g]

I have been to goat rock so tick point is on the top already....gives me an excuse to stop at the shop
I would like to use slople, i have had an account for a while, but it will not allow me to zoom in close enough to accurately mark spots. I zoom in and it immediately kicks me way back out. I have tried IE and chrome and it does the same thing to me.

 

[Wayne]

Send them an email. they usually respond pretty quick.

 

[Wayne]

Let me know if you go to Tic, maybe I can sneak out of here..