Is in a class of all its own. Big and very serious air. Famous for tumbling gliders. Scares off the best of pilots from flying there during its most volatile unstable period of the year, the summer. This XC site where the worlds record distance record was held by Larry Tudor for over a decade is spectacular. Words though do a poor job describing it. The scale of it though is probably what shocks the sences the most.

Located between the east side of the Sierras Nevada Mountains and the West side of Inyo Mounain Range the the valley floor drops roughly two mile to a hot desert floor at 4000 ft AGL. With extreme difference of temperatures between the floor(80° - 100°+ F ) and cloud base (10° - 40°) , unstable air occurs more often than not, providing some some of the best flying lapse rates in the world with almost consistent idealic cloud streets forming atop the two mountian ridges between Memorial Weekend and Labor day weekend.

Though there are roughly a dozen or so launches by far the most favored is Walts Point. Located just a few miles south of Whitney Portal alongside the town of Lone Pine. There are many reasons for it being preferred. Horseshoe Meadows road that Walts Point is on first of all is paved. It is also high(9000ft) and sits atop two mountain fingers that help siphon the thermals that have been been brewing below at the dry bed of Owens Lake.

Though flyable year round, the psuedo opening weekend of the Owens Valley is Memorial weekend, and its here at Walts Point where you'll find hundreds of pilots setting up their gliders. The pilots come from all over the world to fly here but the majority are from clubs in California. Typically composed of 5 -10 advanced rated pilots with a driver in tow. Though hang glider pilots are typically a gregarious bunch the atmoshere here can often be described as reserved. Little time is wasted socializing as each individual preps their gear. Additional layers of clothing, oxygen systems, radio checks increase the complexity of the average pilots setup routine. With the ideal launch window also being compromised by a long wait in line being efficient is of importance. Of course because of its altitude and the air being that much less dense launches often run long and offer they're fair share of excitement and concern.

Once up, the standard approach to flying the site is to get up and go over the back heading north at around 12 to 13k. Of course more is better and reaching altitudes as high as 18k are not uncommon. Flying around 16k gives you a comfortable altitude to clear the top of Mnt Whitney(14,491' ), the tallest mountain in the "lower 48" states. But Whitney's grandeur and height is simply part of the immense range you'll be flying within. There are many points while flying near it that you feel almost certain that there are higher peaks. Looking over the back to the west and the snowed covered range of Sierras ......

Because of this and the possibility of landing miles from easy road access it is suggested that pilots apply a a layered approach to wearing cloths. You launch with it all on. If you land up high in the mountaines you can shed a layer. If you land in the valley you shed more layers. If you land up high in and need to sleep overnight you apply your parachute as a layer.

Owens Lake	Flying North	Looking at Mnt Whitney
Looking back	Town of Bishop	Oops..Bishop Airport

Launches:

• Black Eagle: H4+ launch site, afternoon; stepp dirt road access; aka easter
• Flyne: good low elevation launches, 4x4 required
• Gunter: good high elevation launches, poor steep dirt road, site of comps
• Mazurka: Falt slope launch for afternoon; 4x4 dirt road
• Piute: High launch; 4x4 access

Towns

• Lone Pine
• Independence
• Bishop
  • BishopWeb
  • BLM office
  • Weather

Links:

• Owens Site description
• Mnt Whitney
• The Eastern Sierra WebPage
• Inyo National Forest
• Mike Kutanamis panorama
• Oxygen systems
• Owens Valley History
• Kari Castle
• 395.com
• SonomaWings Club trip back in 1986
• Larry Tudor break the 200 mile barrier
• Weather to fly winning XC miles with
• http://www.flyaboveall.com/psowens.htm
• http://www.flyaboveall.com/ovoct2000.htm
• http://www.flyaboveall.com/ovsept99.htm
• http://mhga.ca/stories/BeyondWhiskey.html
• http://www.sonomawings.com/story/ov97/owens.html
• http://www.sonomawings.com/story/story1.html

Sierra Nevada Mountain Waypoints:

• Wanoga Peak N36° 28.950', W118° 6.950'
• Owens Point N36° 30.067', W118° 9.333'
• Lone Pine Peak N36° 33.700', W118° 13.450'
• Mount Whitney N36° 34.710', W118° 17.482'
• Mount Williamson N36° 39.367', W118° 18.617'
  
• Mount Keith N36° 42.017', W118° 20.550'
  
• Independence Peak N36° 45.650', W118° 19.883'
• University Peak N36° 44.883', W118° 21.633'
• Onion Valley N36° 46.450', W118° 19.900'
  
• Kearsarge Peak N36° 47.350', W118° 20.783'
• Mount Baxter N36° 51.683', W118° 21.900'
• Lookout Point N36° 53.483', W118° 19.300'
  
• Mount Perkins N36° 55.633', W118° 22.967'
• Goodale Mountain N36° 58.333', W118° 23.250'
• Split Mountain N37° 1.255', W118° 25.287'
• Mount Tinemaha N37° 2.167', W118° 23.783'
• Birch Mountain N37° 3.833', W118° 25.083'
• Round Mountain N37° 12.467', W118° 26.033'
• Mount Tom N37° 20.310', W118° 39.364'

Inyo Mountain WayPoints

• Cerro Gordo Peak 9.1k N36° 32.267', W117° 47.133'
  
• New York Butte 10.6k N36° 38.883', W117° 55.917'
• Keynot Peak N36° 42.450', W117° 57.683'
  
• Mt Inyo 10.9k N36° 44.112', W117° 59.083'
• Mazourka Peak 9..4k N36° 58.512', W118° 7.108'

White Mountains

• Westgard Pass (hwy 168) N37° 18.017', W118° 9.183'
• Black Mountain (9,024') N37° 16.000', W118° 13.483'
• Blanco Mountain 11.2k N37° 27.933', W118° 9.700'
• Campito Mountain 11.5k N37° 29.950', W118° 12.017'
• Piute Mountain (12,500') N37° 32.283', W118° 13.867'
• Mt Barcroft 13k N37° 34.933', W118° 14.867'
• White Mountain Peak 14.2k N37° 38.067', W118° 15.283'
  
• Black Eagle Mine N36° 49.217', W118° 2.467'
• Headley Peak 12.6k N37° 41.317', W118° 17.133'
  
• Mt Hogue 12.7k N37° 43.950', W118° 18.183'
• Mt Dubois N37° 47.017', W118° 20.483'
  
• Boundary Peak N37° 50.768', W118° 21.021'

Valley Floor WayPoints:

• Lone Pine (City/Town) N36° 36.367', W118° 3.717'
  
• Manzanar N36° 44.400', W118° 4.783'
• Aberdeen N36° 59.517', W118° 12.667'
• Independence (City/Town) N36° 48.167', W118° 11.950'
• Red Mountain N37° 1.733', W118° 17.367'
  
• Crater Mountain N37° 6.700', W118° 17.950'
  
• Big Pine (City/Town) N37° 9.900', W118° 17.317'
  
• Bishop (City/Town) 4.15k N37° 21.817', W118° 23.650'
• Chalfant (Town) N37° 31.498', W118° 21.921'
• Benton (Town) N37° 49.150', W118° 28.533'
• Janies N37° 91 W118° 43
  (Closed down ladies parlor and 100miler marker from Walts)
  
  

Just North of the Whites

• Montgomery Pass N37° 58.417', W118° 19.550'
• Basalt (City/Town) N38° 0.450', W118° 16.333'

The women's long distance cross country record of 200 miles from Walt's Point to Austin Nevada was set by Carrie Castle in 199.

Tandem flights, flying clinics and instruction are offered by certified instructor and world champion pilot Keri Castle of Bishop. Call 760.872.2087 for more information.