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While in Palm Springs for the aviation expo, since I flew myself there, I took my RC plane and did a few nice flights above Palm Springs. I was hoping to get enough thermals to fly without power, but sadly they were insufficient for my glider's weight: I was able to sustain altitude at times, but not to regain it (then again, Palm Springs is also on the leeward side of a tall mountain, so that probably creates some downdrafts).
Here is a portion of one of my flights:
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And some screenshots from this beautiful scenery to fly over. I did a quick flight across the convention center to get the planes parked i the street, and then mostly stuck by the hills:
City shots:
wind turbines in the background
sadly, the Marilyn Monroe statue had been removed and lots of new construction
Nice mountain shots:
Plenty of places were being terraformed for new houses:
houses being built
another block ready to be built
I was hoping to get to that platform, but access to it was closed, it almost looks like a place to put an expensive home, and you can see parts of the Cactus to Clouds trail, sea level to Mt San Jacinto peak at 10,833ft.
Cactus to Clouds trail
more trails on the opposite side of town
On our last day, we took the tram up the mountain, and I picked a place on that access road with ground that was flat enough for a landing (I had looked for it via google earth beforehand), and did another flight from there. Sadly, the sun was getting low, and the wind was super strong, so I spent a fair amount of time fighting the wind. I suppose there is a reason why all those wind turbine are there :)
another block, ready to be built
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