Site Description
Mount Vaca is the highest point in the Vaca Mountains, Napa and Solano counties of Northern California. The site is in the eastern most of the Inner Coast Ranges in north−central California Coast Ranges. The flying site is a mountain thermal, XC site, and is recommended for advanced pilots.
Mt Vaca is an unregulated, very sensitive, and complex site. Please arrange for a site intro ahead of time, don’t just show up and expect to get one. Fly here at your own risk, do not fly alone, and seek an intro from an experienced local pilot. There is no official LZ, the bailouts are on private property and there are land owners that do not like pilots. It is customary to drive retrieve for XC pilots before attempting to fly here. You must fly XC, or top land here.
You should have satellite tracking to fly here. InReach is the preferred instrument for this.
Register with the tracking websites.
Site info
Location | Mt Vaca |
Location Link | Mt Vaca map location |
Rating requirement | Unregulated (recommended for Advanced pilots) |
Club | N/A |
Flying Type | XC, Mountain Thermal |
Launch | Southwest, 38.4003, -122.1061 |
Launch Height | 2800’ (701m) MSL |
Wind Direction | SW-WSW |
# of Launches | 1 Launches |
LZ | No official LZ, request site intro |
Weather Links | Windy.com |
wunderground | |
Cirrus | |
soaringpredictor | |
North California RASP | |
Skysight | |
Webcams | PG&E Axis-MtVaca8 |
PG&E Axis-MtVaca5 | |
hourly Timelapse (last 7 days) | |
Communication | WOR Telegram Access Link |
Site Guide | Request from Local Group |
Location Map
Note: Location shown is of the general area of the site. Refer to official guides or local pilots get more details.