LONE PINE, CA

There is not enough info out there about this event, so I figured I'd make a video with the content I collected on May 20th and 21st 2017 during my first time attending the Lone Pine Time Trials!
If you're looking for a fun weekend, the Lone Pine Time Trials is a great opportunity to try pushing your car to the limits (yours too) while having fun and meeting other enthusiasts. This is in between an autox and a full on track day, so expect lots of speed and maneuvering around cones!
There is a small time trial event that happens every year in California called the Lone Pine Time Trials. For many, they've never heard of this event, and stick to the typical autocross or track day events at more well known locations such as California Speedway, Buttonwillow, Willow Springs, or Laguna Seca. However, the Lone Pine Time Trials is an exciting event which invites visitors of the event to experience friendly competition, a challenging course, and gorgeous views.

Nestled between the snow capped Sierras and Mount Whitney to the west, and the Inyo Mountain range on the east, the Lone Pine time trials takes place right off Highway 395, across from the infamous Manzanar War Relocation Center. If you live in southern California and have ever driven to mammoth, you most likely drove right past the Manzanar airfield where the time trials takes place without even realizing. That isn't really your fault, however, The Manzanar airfield in Owens Valley was built in 1939 primarily for military training purposes, but has since been abandoned. Although it sees occasional use for military activities, tv commercials, and special Motorsport events, the airfield runway and taxiway become subject to mother nature and is quickly overgrown with plants, debris, and even cattle. Luckily the Lone Pine organizers know this and participants and volunteers meet up to help clean up the track and get it ready for racers weeks before time trial weekend is scheduled. This isn't the typical, "we're just gonna sort of sweep up" kind of deal either, clean up participants deal with shrubs, bushes, weeds, and grass that hide the entire runway track. Even after cleanup, small debris litters the track which is blown away and cleaned up during the warm up laps each morning. The saying, "leave a place you visit nicer than when you arrived" describes this group to a tee. This isn't a new event either, 2017 marked the 47th anniversary and has attracted drivers of all ages, driving skill, and vehicles of every type.

Now on to the fun part of the Lone Pine Time Trials, the driving. Split up into classes, drivers for 2017 were split up into three run groups on Saturday, and two run groups on Sunday. Everyone takes turns driving and working cones-which gives you a great opportunity to see the course, learn from others mistakes, help identify the driving line you want to take, and get some time behind the wheel! The whole course is over two miles long with lots of opportunity to push yourself and your car as hard or as easy as you want. Filled with slaloms, chicanes, slow turns, fast turns, and straightaways, this high speed time trial course will test nearly every aspect of your driving ability. Most of the time you'll be in 3rd and 4th gear, if that gives you an idea of the speeds for this event! Earlier in the day, you'll hear lots of little pebbles as you navigate the course, but shortly after you'll have a pretty clean track to drive on, plus as the course cleans up you'll have a very clear visual on where the driving line is that most drivers have been taking.

When it comes to lodging, you can either stay in the nearby town of Lone Pine or pick one of the many campgrounds and spend the evenings with nature. I chose to stay at the Portagee Joe campground which was less than 15 minutes away from the airstrip making for a cheap and easy campout. While at the time trial event itself there was a food truck, available air compressors, and fancy bathrooms...okay, porta pottys, but still-No crouching behind bushes for this group. If you come out, be sure to bring lots of water, snacks, food, sunscreen, and more water!

There is a good mix of competitors who drive their cars up, and plenty who bring their cars on trailers. In between racing and run groups, drivers and spectators socialize talking about their cars, thoughts on the course, and plans for next time.The mix of cars in attendance is pretty cool too, with daily driven cars all the way to track prepped racing machines. At the end of the day, everyone there is to turn out fast lap times, and have fun.

Proceeds from the Lone Pine Time Trials go to support the Braille Institute, and with extremely affordable registration costs, going for the whole weekend is well worth it. Be sure to check out www.lonepinetimetrials.com for more information on the event and to register for driving, you won't regret it!

We hope to see you out at the Lone Pine Time Trials!

The antenna on the wing is to pick up radio signals and help locate fish with radio tags.

This video captures an exciting flight that explores the fascinating and diverse land of extremes between Mt. Whitney and Death Valley. Overflights include the movie-famous Alabama Hills, the Cerro Gordo Silver Mines, the extreme slopes of the Inyo Mountains, the Saline and Panamint Valleys, Star Wars Canyon (aka Rainbow Canyon) and the Panamint Sand Dunes. Close approaches to terrain are enhanced with glorious QHD video. Geographic features are labeled for the pleasure of learning about the region.

Starting from Lone Pine Airport, we climb out over the Alabama Hills, then along the Inyo Mountains to the Cerro Gordo Mines, then from Saline Valley to the Malpais Mesa Wilderness. We then descend into jet-training-central Star Wars Canyon on our way to the Panamint Valley Dunes. Finally, we take one last jog back to the Saline Valley to point out the famous Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park.

This is shot in glorious, multi-camera 2.7K HD, so be sure to use the highest resolution setting you can for your maximum enjoyment.

And don’t forget - please subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss what’s next!

Hello everyone, Tony Arbini here from Landing patterns bringing you another in-depth video, guiding you on our landing into the Mojave Airport (KMHV) down in Mojave, California. Our landing into the Mojave Airport provide you with lots of information on charts, weights, altitudes, and airport information for pilots to plan for a safe landing!

Hello everyone, Tony Arbini here from Landing patterns bringing you another in-depth video, guiding you on our landing into the Independence Airport (207) down in Independence, California. Our landing into the Independence Airport provides you with lots of information on charts, weights, altitudes, and airport information for pilots to plan for a safe landing!

Shot on a spectacular flight within the High Sierra, this film thoroughly captures the experience of exploring some of California’s most amazing country with a small plane. Includes overflights of Domeland Wilderness in the Kern Plateau, the Sierra Nevada Crest and Whitney Portal. Close approaches to land features are enhanced with glorious QHD video. Major land features are labeled for the pleasure of learning about the region.

Starting from Kern Valley Airport, this flight climbs up into the Domeland Wilderness of the Kern Plateau, then on to Olancha Pass, Cartego Canyon, Whitney Portal, and the Alabama Hills before landing in Lone Pine.

This film is the first segment of a two-part flight. The second film (to be released later) covers the flight from Lone Pine, to Cerro Gordo Mine, Panamint Valley and then Saline Valley.

This is shot in glorious, multi-camera 2.7K HD, so be sure to use the highest resolution setting you can for your maximum enjoyment.

And don’t forget - please subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss what’s next!

Over memorial day weekend, a few of us from bay area headed over to Owen's valley. I had flown Owen's before around 12yrs ago as an early H3 and always wanted to go back to attempt a real XC there. The idea of flying over 14k+ feet tall eastern Sierra mountains was awe inspiring, while extreme weather found in such a place was intimidating at the same time. We were guided by Peter Lawrence, who had explained the ins and outs of flying the 100+ mile course to the north end of the valley, especially how to avoid getting knocked around by the weather. In owen's handling is more important than performance, so I chose to fly Wills Wing T3 over U2.
Several pilots from Reno and Santa Barbara joined in to make it a good pilot turnout. We had 20+ HGs at Walt's point. The day was looking good.
I launched fairly late around 12:20pm. Found a climb right off the launch to climb over Wonoga peak at 12k MSL. This may sound like a lot of altitude, but it is modest for Owens, where getting below 10k means making a run for landing options. The lift was peaking so I headed north along the Sierra range. There was relatively light lift along the range and I was not getting above 13.5k or so. However, the scenery was breathtaking with several mountain lakes, jagged peaks and canyons along the way. I flew right next to Mt. Whitney, which is the tallest mountain peak in contiguous US. I made modest progress along the route while taking in the views and playing with lift along the spines. This consumed a lot of time, but was super fun.
Around 20mi north I encountered turbulence, and realized that I was crossing Onion valley. It didn't last long as I crossed over to Kearsarge peak and climbed up to 15.5k at the next mountain. I felt getting light headed, and that's when I realized that something was wrong with the oxygen supply. It wasn't working at all. F@$%#! But I continued north while maintaining between 12 - 15k and 3.5hrs into the flight reached the cross over point at Mt. Tinemaha. It was well past 3pm and lift over the Sierras was getting weaker. So I was not able to get high there and had to leave the mountain at ~12k.
Andy had landed a bit north around Big Pine, while Soham's location was unknown as his radio malfunctioned. Lionel stayed on Sierra's side and landed near Bishop. I headed towards north end of Big Pine hoping to find a landing option there. There was some lift along the way so I was still at over 9k when reaching the highway. Alex (Lionel's wife) mentioned over the radio that Soham's location showed up on life360 app and he was over White mountains.
I found more lift over the highway which took me to ~13k and now the Black mountain at other end of the valley was within reach. There was a nice landing option right below it. So I headed straight for it and reached there while still being over 10k. There is a canyon just north of it, where people have tumbled before. So I needed more altitude to cross it. Before long I found some strong lift near the peak which took me to 15k.
I headed north towards the White mountain range. There was super strong lift on this path and at times I was climbing 1k+ ft / min while flying at dive speeds without even turning. This was the strongest lift I had ever encountered in my 16 years of hang gliding. Before long I hit 17.5k without even trying. Crossed the White mountain at around 15k and now I really needed to get lower as signs of hypoxia were evident. I was able to get below 13k while continuing on course and soon reached Montgomery peak. Janie's was just around the corner and Peter, driving the chase vehicle, had already reached there. I flew a bit north of Janie's to tag my goal at farmhouse and turned around to find Janie's. It is an abandoned bordello with an airstrip, 103 miles from walt's point. That makes it a perfect goal
It was around 6:30pm. Soham had already landed there more than an hour ago. Andy started a smoke bomb and threw some dirt to show wind direction. The wind had picked up a bit making the landing conditions friendly. However, I had lost my depth perception after 6:18hrs in the air, so I flared a bit too high and belly landed. I was so happy to be on the ground, with the glory of having made the goal on the very first real flight at Owens.

Tracks :
Ayvri: https://ayvri.com/scene/pmkewq3lkx/ckp9ffajo00013f6l49gyu1k4
Xcontest: https://www.xcontest.org/.../detail.../28.5.2021/19:15

I tried something a little different with the bumper cam mount this year. I hope you like it. I think it gives a pretty good idea of how fast and how rough the airstrip is.

Strong winds continued Wednesday night into Thursday causing additional damage to hangars and aircraft at Inyokern airport. Fuel trucks were used to block the wind from further damaging already weakend hangar doors until winds subsided Thursday evening. Southern California Edison crews and Kern County Fire Department station 73 in Inyokern fielded several calls for lines downed due to the high winds.

Video by David Johnson

A unique landing spot in the Panamint Valley of California. Many neat mining ruins in the surrounding hills including the well known Lookout City within hiking distance.