Planning for Minden

I'll be in the Tahoe area in late July, so I'm planning to fly at Minden one day (more if I can work it out). So I'm doing some planning and preparation:

• Soar Minden has some great on-line prep material. I've read it and need to study it in more detail.
• I've previewed the area in Google Earth to get an idea of the terrain.
• I ordered a sectional chart of the area. It just arrived today, so I need to spend some time with it.
• I've flown Sailors of the Sky a number of times, and it's based on Minden (at least the basic map that comes with it is). In the past, I just used it for basic soaring, spin, and landing practice, never paying attention to the terrain. Recently I've done a couple of sim flights looking to go places. It's useful to get some idea of the mountain heights and distances, but the terrain graphics are not all that great, so it's not good for familiarization. GE is more helpful. I may try it again.
• I've emailed SM to start talking about what kind of instruction and field checkout I should get.

Since I have just a few hours in mountain soaring (to 12,300' over Tehachapi) and never solo in high terrain, I may end up just getting instruction and maybe soaring over the valley. We'll have to see.

Any readers have any advice or feedback about Minden and the mountains?