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Birds of a Feather-Part 2

Part 2 - Jeff Shapiro heads out on the road to learn more about what's possible

By KAVU

June 20^th, 2017

Owens

The next day, I loaded up the Sprinter and headed to meet my good friends, Cody and Cherise Tuttle in the Owens Valley, on the eastern side of the Sierra. California was starting to get hot but, there was still a lot of snow in the mountains. The Owens is notorious for it's big air and big flight potential so, I was super psyched to saddle up and have an adventure. I'd flown a hang glider here close to 20 years ago and the memories were of strong thermals and high altitudes. We had no idea how far we'd go which......is exactly the point.

Birds of a Feather-Part 2

Birds of a Feather-Part 2

Good climbs

Sometimes the strong thermals can get a touch "pushy" and this day, the sky was high pressure and a light south-west wind was "capping" the thermals on the lower side (altitude) of what pilots often find in the Sierra in June. It also created a little added turbulence when leaving on glide after topping out. Mostly, very easy to manage but.... I took a couple whacks that required catching. I'm learning that it's important to catch and fix a problem "before" it becomes a problem. So much fun!!

7.5 hrs in the air, 130 miles of adventure

At the end of the day, Cody, our friend Reavis Sutphin-Gray and I, all landed after getting exactly what we had wanted. We team flew for much of the day and Reavis, being an ace pilot and flying a hot wing, got to the end of the White Mountains and like a boss, turned around and flew back to Bishop to get the truck for retrieve. But, as Cody and I approached the Nevada state line, Cody called our good friend Matt Segal who was on his way to meet us that evening. Unbelievably, Matt was literally right below us and agreed to chase us in his car! Cody landed after breaking his personal best at 120 miles and having snuck in a few climbs and finding a bit of convergence, I landed just past Mina as the sun got lower, 130 miles from launch. It was a perfect KAVU adventure.

Birds of a Feather-Part 2

Hike and fly

Cody, Matt and I are preparing for a unique expedition to Nepal this Fall so, while Cody and Cherise spent the day together, Matt and I went for a morning hike and fly up Flynns- one of the popular launch spots in the Whites, opposite of the Sierra range.

Birds of a Feather-Part 2

Birds of a Feather-Part 2

Yuuuussssss!!

There's something magical about hiking up to the top of a mountain or to a nice launch site and unpacking your wing off you back, pulling it up and flying off! It still amazes me that we can fit an entire aircraft in a small back pack! Matty and I left the landing zone and headed off to Pine Creek for an afternoon of climbing on perfect Sierra Granite. Matt is one of the strongest and best rock climbers in the world. I was psyched to tie in and climb some classics with him, for sure.

The next day, my last before heading back home to Montana, it was Matt's turn to have a go at the big air over the mountains. A crew from Tahoe came down to fly which, added a lot of good vibes. They're all super good pilots and sharing climbs with those boys was epic! Reavis was also there, showing us all how it's done and best of all, my homie and KAVU athlete, Nick Greece made the drive down to share some air time with us. Nick is an ace and any time I get to fly with him, I consider myself lucky!

At the end of the day, Reavis and a few of the Tahoe crew (with Tyler Bradford goin big) worked down the Whites and made it toward or, into Nevada while most of the rest of the group made the run to Bishop, about 100k's from launch. Matt had his PB with a 110k flight, landing with stories to tell. Apparently, he'd broken some lines while recovering from a collapse and then wore through the sheath of one of his break lines from thermalling one way mostly. We joked with him that he's like Zoolander for turning only one way but it was obvious that we were all super stoked to have flown over such an epic mountain range together. I had landed on the South edge of town and as I was walking into Bishop proper, seeing Matt circling down to land had me nothing but psyched!! Another unreal KAVU day......

Birds of a Feather-Part 2

Birds of a Feather-Part 2

Birds of a Feather-Part 2

Footnotes

Follow Jeff Shapiro’s adventures as he, Matt Segal and Cody Tuttle prepare for a unique KAVU adventure in central Nepal this coming September!

FootNotes

Follow Jeff Shapiro’s adventures as he, Matt Segal and Cody Tuttle prepare for a unique KAVU adventure in central Nepal this coming September!

© 2026 KAVU

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