could have been me he was talking about at one time. I don't remember the altitude here, but we made it to 16.5Kft with no engine. Had O2 for going higher, but the wave was weak that day and we never could get into the laminar layer. My Bladder was the limiting factor on staying up. This is looking at California City, Edwards is at 2 O'clock. The Viggen from the national test pilot school went screaming by about 1000K feet below us on this flight, we talked to the tower at Edwards....pretty cool. Awesome place for aviation. 

Monty

This was Sat.; about 15:00.  My route was a few miles west of you, going south.  I was at 9500’; planning to climb to 11.5K as I approached the mountains, but after the call, and looking at the terrain and the clouds; I concluded the sail planes would more likely be 11K and up; so I stayed at 9.5 which still gave me OK terrain clearance if I picked a low spot.  The ride was a bumpy, but apparently clear of the traffic.

Al