First Flight of 2009

Do you have to include a flight to your flying statistics if the only reason that you threw the glider on the truck was because you were going to participate in a contest, and that if you were just free flying on our own you would have stayed home because the conditions looked less than ideal? Aah, what the heck, even with that extended sled ride, 2008 was still probably my best year. I set a PB with the 107 mile flight from Blackhawk in the spring, and I also had my longest flight from Santa Barbara to start the year off. That flight was the longest flight from Santa Barbara by anyone last year. So here are my final stats for 2008:

Flights: 9

Distance: 472.45
Hours: 22:08

The last two years started out like gang busters; I flew over 60 miles in each of my first flights of the year. What would the first flight of this year be like? There was a dying front coming though on Saturday, but I wasn’t expecting much in the way of post-frontal conditions. To my pleasant surprise, Friday’s forecast for Sunday actually showed some potential. Tony was still out of action so I called Owen Morse to see if he would like to join me. Owen participated (actually won) in the XC League Meet but Santa Barbara didn’t really cooperate with great conditions; this would be a good chance for him to fly it when it was on. Then on Saturday Tony called to say that No Cal pilot, Scot Huber, was in town and was looking for someone to show him around. Scot holds numerous site records so I looked forward to flying with him. Well, family obligations got in the away of Owen’s plans so it would be just Scot and me with the plan being to meet at Bailard on Sunday morning.

Although the lapse rate looked good there was the matter of a fairly strong NE wind that we would have to contend with out in the Santa Clara river basin. Because of that, I had my sights set on perhaps setting a new Out and Return record. We didn’t have a driver so if anything if we made it back to at least Divide Peak we would be able to land next to one of our vehicles. We would still have to retrieve the other truck from launch, but it would better than hitchhiking from points unknown. But as luck would have it Tony accepted my request when I called him in the morning to give us a ride up the hill. He also volunteered to pick us up wherever we landed at the end of the day.

If I was pleasantly surprised by the forecast, I was doubly so when Cus started popping over the range on the way up to launch; with a prevailing NE flow I was expecting a blue day. Despite our bit later than normal start, Scot and I were the only HGs at launch. The PGs, however, were out in force. That would end up being good and bad: good, because no matter how fast you set up your glider they are always faster and so they provided nice wind dummies; bad, because at first conditions weren’t as good as they looked making things awfully crowded above the Thermal Factory with pilots just trying to stay in the air. I would end up having a mid-air with one of them. More later, but both of us were able to continue our flights.

Scot and I launched a little after 11:00 (the local HGs were still nowhere to be seen). The early launching PGs were all doing great with some high above the RR and others already on course from the Thermal Factory. Personally, I don’t like to hang around launch and when it’s crowded less so. Launch was working great, but when I had the altitude to make it above the first bump of the Thermal Factory I pulled out of the lift and went on my glide.

A slow, and as it would turn out, eventful start.

When I first got to the TF I had to share the air with just 1 or 2 PGs. That soon became what seemed like dozens as more pilots got in the air and others began sinking out from the higher elevations. Scot and I would spend the next 40 + minutes bobbing up and down atop TF doing our best to dodge the PGs (and they, us). As it turned out I wasn’t very successful.

If the PGs have it over us in their ability to slow down and cut a sharper turn, we have the advantage in sink rate. On Sunday the better sink rate seemed to have won out as one by one the PGs dropped out of the sky leaving only a few of the later launchers to contend with. That didn’t stop me from getting up close and personal with one of them.

Rather than write again about the incident here I will just repost what I submitted to the South Coast PG forum:

“I had a near mid-air with someone on a blue paraglider and I just want to tell my side of the story and apologize for my contribution to the incident. I was working some light lift in front of the Thermal Factory when the paraglider came in from the Skyport to join me. After turning one or two circles together it looked to me like the PG was getting the best of it so I widen my circle to let him climb through and then I dove in behind and below him after he banked up inside of me. The PG continued to crank and bank...right over the nose of my glider. Whether it was from the turbulence from my glider or caused by his evasive action the PG then had a very scary looking collapse. Luckily the pilot pulled out of it and continued flying on.”

I came to find out later that the collapse was caused by my wing nicking one of his lines. If you want to read more about the incident you can click this link and scroll down to the start of my posts: http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1189

As things would have it, that same thermal finally got me high enough to head out on course to Montecito Peak. I was supposed to be showing Scot the way down range, but he had actually gotten ahead of me after climbing out from Parkers. Going to and leaving from there was something that he did on his own. And it ended up not being the last time that he would take the less than conventional route, completely ignoring my advice in the process. Please note that I write that with a sense of intrigue and in no way mean it to be insulting.

Anyway, east of Montecito all the normal spots were working just fine. We started playing with cloud base (roughly 4,500 ft) just east of Castle Ridge. It took awhile but I finally caught up with Scot just west of the power line crossing. Just in time to, ahem, guide him through the Pass. I arrived at Noon with Scot in tow below the main point so I continued on to the eastern spine. Whereas I tried to hold the high ground Scot stepped a little more out front. There were clouds to Whiteledge but Ojai was completely blue making me believe that the NE was scouring things out. Because of that, I wanted to step directly back from Noon to get on the back ridge line before continuing on. But while I was sitting there trying to make things work close to the main point, Scot was busy enjoying a ride to cloud base. Seeing that I changed my plans and stepped out front to join him.

As I made my way to cloud base Scot made his way to Divide Peak – has never been down range before and there he was leading the way through the Casitas Pass. Seeing him go on his glide I got on the radio to tell him not to go any further than Divide until he could climb out above the peak. Soon after that I was at cloud base and on a glide to join him. Only he was nowhere to be found. That is until I looked east. There was Scot at about 3500 ft at the base of East Divide. The only thing I could do was to tell him to keep me informed of his progress.

A view at Whiteledge from the NW. Some advice: always climb out on the front points first; don't just fly up the face.

For myself, after having a slow but steady climb above Divide, I headed for Whiteledge. I arrived comfortably and had another good climb at my usual go to spot in front of Whiteledge’s namesake. Scot had managed to pull it off and was now climbing out above Whiteledge, but further out front. As we sat at cloud base the thought was to perhaps turn back for an out and return (spending so much time at the Thermal Factory put the Kibosh on an OR record attempt) But the reports coming over the radio about the strong west near launch persuaded us to take a chance and continue east despite the blue skies. As it turned out we had a west wind all the way through the Ojai Valley.

The Ojai Valley looking south. Photo by Marty DeVietti on a different day.

From Whiteledge I angled toward Bump Three while Scot took a straighter line to the 33. He was rewarded with a nice climb to the base of the last cloud that we would see for the rest of the day. Bump Three was good for a few 360s but that was about it. However, I had a pretty good glide and ended up crossing 33 at about 3,500 ft. Scot was slightly ahead now starting to climb up the Nuthouse spine. I had the height to continue on to the Pyramid, but as I was crossing out front of the Nuthouse spine I hit some nice solid lift. After topping out I headed for the Pyramid, but found nothing worth stopping for so I continued on toward the front points of Nordoff. At that point I got on the radio to tell Scot that there was no reason to step back to the higher back range through Ojai as the front points work perfectly fine. Two seconds later he came back over the radio to say that he was taking his altitude and stepping back to the back range. Oh well, you try.

The Ojai Valley looking east (photo: Marty DeVietti)

At Nordoff I climbed out to 5,400 ft above the high point behind the front ridges and then went on my glide to Twin Peaks. The lift there was smooth and steady if not particularly high there. But I had my best climb of the day above the front point of East Repeater. There I climbed to just under 6k in strong and steady lift. Afterwards I made a play for Puckers for one last boost before heading over to Santa Paula ridge. Puckers, on the other hand, didn’t cooperate and I had to bail all the way back to just below the front point of Boyds. There I picked up a low leaner that drifted me back to Puckers again where I had an eventual climb out to 4800 ft. Not as high as I would have liked, but it seemed like the day was shutting down so I left with that. Meanwhile, Scot had come low into Boyds at about the time that I was half-way through my climb above Puckers. After topping out I looked back to see how he was doing only to see him continue east low. This time he didn’t pull off and ended up putting it down on the side of a hill near the Thomas Aquinas College.

From my glide from Puckers I came in fairly low on the west flank of Santa Paula Peak. But as soon as I got over the ridge I hit a strong thermal. Unfortunately, it didn't take me very high. If I had to guess I'd say that the top was being sheared off by the same strong east that I would eventually encounter when I got around the corner. And the same east wind that began knocking me down after I did, making me think that I was going to have to land up on the plateau. But it was also the same wind that allowed me to ridge soar an east facing cliff that gave me the altitude to make it out to the 126.

Once on the ground I gave Tony a call and by the time I finished breaking down he was there to pick me up; soon after that we had Scot with us after a nice property owner gave him a ride to the 150 for an easier retrieve. Thanks again Tony. And Scot if you’re reading this it was a blast flying with you. You don’t hold all of those site records by playing follow the leader – here’s to you.

Distance: 38.33 miles

Duration: 3:31

Max Altitude: 5,926 ft

Family Vacation

We got an unexpected visit from my father for the holidays so we packed everyone up and headed over to the Grand Canyon for few days. But first a couple of Christmas shots:

I had no problem getting reservation so I didn't think there would be much of a crowd but the place was packed. Luckily we got an early start on Saturday and were able to gain access to most of the vistas before the crowds took over. They had a nice dumping of snow during the preceding week so the views were even more spectacular.

In case you hadn't already guessed that is my 85 year old father on the left. It was -4 degrees F on Saturday morning when we headed up to the park. My father lives in Florida now; a bit of a change I would say.

I believe this shot was from Mather Point. All the vistas were awe inspiring, but if I had to choose the best spots I would say that Yavapai and Lipan Points offered the most spectacular views.

"The oldest building in the park?" "That's nice." "I want one of those icicles!" Forget the Grand Canyon; the kids would have been just as satisfied just playing in the snow the whole weekend. Dad did plan ahead though and packed the sleds. There was a nice hill across the street from the hotel to be put to use -- and use they did.

So Cal XC League Meet (Called)

Dean Stratton has been running a contest modeled after the Northern California XC League Meet called, well, the Southern California XC League Meet. Once a month, during a weekend, an XC contest is held at designated site in Southern California. The first two contests were held at Marshall and the last two in Santa Barbara. I didn’t attend the Marshall events but I had planned to participate in Santa Barbara during at least one of the weekends. I hadn’t flown since Blackhawk, so I had a couple of extra kitchen passes in the bank. However, in the morning of the first event in November I awoke to high clouds, a lousy 6k 7 degrees Celsius lapse rate and a splitting headache; I opted to crawl back in bed with Lauren instead of making the trek. But, despite the conditions they managed to get in a half-way decent task. I regret not going – although that Sunday’s task was cancelled.

The forecast for the December event wasn’t much better than November’s, but I decided that I would go no matter what, if for no other reason than to show some support. Anyway, RUC was actually showing the possibility of a pretty good day, albeit a bit breezy out of the east at the top of the lift band. Good, that is, if the predicted high clouds held off until everyone was on the ground. They didn’t.

One of the problems with a somewhat loose contest like this is getting everyone herded to together to get the ball rolling. Normally, during this time of year, Tony and I would be on our way to launch by 9:00 so that we would be set up ready to go by 10:00 at the latest. Well, the pilot meeting wasn’t scheduled to start until nine; in reality things didn’t start clicking until sometime near ten. The delay caused us to miss an opportunity to take advantage of the mid-morning clear skies before the high clouds rolled in – for the HGs anyway; the PGs got skunked outright.

It was decided at the pilots’ meeting that the PGs would use the Altinator launch and the HGs would take off from the Eliminator. Both groups were greeted with east winds. Despite the iffy launch conditions at the Eliminator a task was called: RR to the VOR then east to Romero and then out to the beach (I was hoping for at least a 35 miles task to put me over 500 miles for the year). But with the east wind a few of us were clamoring to head up to the Back of the Rack launch - named, btw, by yours truly. Some pilots, however, wanted to stay where they were to wait out the conditions. I argued that since the RR was going to be used as the start it didn’t matter where we launched from; those that wanted to stay, could. After some hemming and hawing my argument won out. Only when we got up to the backrange it wasn’t exactly the same launch that Tom Truax and I discovered many moons ago. We had taken off from a turn-out just east of where we would launch, but that area was now blocked with vegetation. At the original spot there are a number of places to set up, but at the new launch we were required to set up in the middle of the road. It ended up not being a problem as only 2-3 cars had to maneuver around us.

The Back of the Rack is located on the back ridgeline directly behind the Thermal Factory. It’s only used in an east wind and the flying is mostly ridge soaring, that is, until you get out to the normal trigger spots on the front range. When we first arrived it was still sunny but the high clouds were closing in fast. By the time the first pilot (John Greynald) got in the air, they were pretty much on top of us – although it was still sunny west of the RR. Meanwhile, the PGs had thrown in the towel after giving up on the Altinator and later the Skyport, because of the east wind. And not long after that, the day was called for the HGs too. John had gotten on course, but the day was deteriorating and he soon found himself low over the Holy Hills. As part of the task committee, I’m not sure if it was he or Dean who called it, but it was called none the less. Since there was no task everyone decided to play around a bit and then cop a glide out to the beach.

However, I wanted to see if I could still do the task (plus our truck was parked at the T LZ) so after a few runs back and forth near launch – I’m still kicking myself for not taking pictures of launch and the back country behind it – I headed out on course.

High clouds rolling in.

Normally I would cut straight over to the RR but I noticed Aaron LaPlante climbing out above the Thermal Factory so I headed there instead. I didn’t get the best glide and didn’t find the same cohesive lift. After turning a few circles I decided to give up the high ground and try my luck out front. I found something just over the road behind the power lines.

As you can see by my track there was definitely some east influence. I thought the drift would take me right over the RR, but the lift gave out about half-way there. No worries, because I had plenty of altitude to reach the RR comfortably. Unfortunately, the RR wasn't working. Not one beep. Discouraged, I basically gave up on the day and decided to head out to the T LZ to retreive our truck. If I had to do it all over I would have at least tried flying directly over the Tit to see if I might have found some lift there. As it was I angled too far west to give it the proper shot. Anyway, after a long glide I made it to the T pretty easily.

If you look at my track you'll see a not so straight line where the green turns into yellow. Since buying the LightSpeed I've never really tried to air the thing out to see how fast it can go. The air was pretty calm and I had some altitude to play with so I thought what the heck let's give it a go. I pulled the VG full on and stuff the bar. Only as soon as I did it my left wing dropped which led to some PIO. At full VG I was experiencing negative bar pressure making it hard to slow the glider down to correct the situation -- of course I should have just popped the VG. After getting the glider to fly straight I made a second attempt with the exact same results. Either I have to work on my racing skills or perhaps make some adjustments to the dive sticks. I say perhaps because I had Kraig Coomber test fly the glider when I first bought it and according to him it flies fast and straight.

Random Family Photos

Halloween



Our 13th wedding anniversary.



Lauren's parents' 50th.

Lauren's 46th birthday.

A vacation to Montana without dad.

Poppy season near Gorman.

First day of school.

More La Costa shots.

Blackhawk 9/14

I actually hadn’t planned on flying. Lauren had a conference at the La Costa Spa and Resort in Carlsbad Thursday-Friday and we had decided that she’d keep the hotel room an extra night and that the kids and I would drive down to meet her for a little poolside relaxation. There was some talk of staying even one more night but dad nixed that for a number of reasons, none of which, ahem, had to do with getting back in order to go flying – I hadn’t even looked at the forecast :-) But out of the blue (I tell you) both RebarDan and Tony called Saturday to say that they were heading over to Blackhawk on Sunday and wanted to know whether or not I wanted to join them, with Dan indicating that it looked like that there was going to be a pretty good turnout. I had to tell them that I would have to get back to them. “So, you want to go flying?” was Lauren’s response after over hearing one of the conversations. “I wasn’t even thinking about it, but…”

However, even with a kitchen pass in hand I wasn’t sure if I was going to go anyway as the logistics would be a problem for me. It’s a long drive out there and even a longer drive home when the prevailing SW winds set up. On long days that means I’m home close to midnight. On Sunday the winds were supposed to be ESE, meaning we would be flying toward home. Great, except that Tony was already out near Blackhawk camping out and Dan’s and John's crew would be heading back to San Bernardino at the end of the day. I could have left my truck out that way, but that would have meant another late night getting home and I just wasn’t in the mood for that. My ace in the hole was Jonathan Dietch.

Jonathan is back in the sport after a 20 year absence. He emailed earlier in the week to find out some information about Pine Mountain because he was thinking of heading up there on Sunday. I told him that I probably wouldn’t be flying, but Blackhawk would be a better call weather wise, and that for someone who is just getting started flying XC would be a better choice than Pine anyway (launch itself can prove to be tricky but once you get on course you can practically land anywhere). But I told him that if things changed I would call him on Saturday night to see if he wanted to throw on board. If the plan came together we would meet at my house in the morning and either hook up with Tony or Dan in Hisperia leaving my truck there for retrieval later in the day. Jon would fly to somewhere near the truck and then drive chase after that and we all would be home at a reasonable hour at the end of the day. Well, when I called him to let him know that my plans had indeed changed, he told me that he wasn’t feeling all that well and that he had decided to stay home and rest. “Well, if you just want to drive for me you can sleep in the truck all the way out to the Lucerne Valley” I sheepishly said in response. Jon was at the house at 7:00 and we were loaded up on Tony’s truck in Lucerne for the ride up the hill at 9:00. Dan and another crew from Crestline, including John Wright, would meet us at launch a bit later. All told I think we had at least 8 pilots up there.



Despite the predicted SE winds it was blowing straight up the NE facing launch when we arrived. Other than a few clouds over the mountains it was supposed to be a blue day with the thermal tops in the 12-13k range. At just before noon Tony was off first as is usually the case; he likes to be in the air when things turn on rather than on the ground waiting for them to. I would like to be able to do the same, but I don’t like wasting my non-sick air time bobbing up and down near take off so I always tend to go for a little later launch.

Anyway, once Tony started climbing out I got suited up and headed to launch. One last radio check and I would be on my way. UGH!! More radio problems. I just purchased a whole new set-up to take care of this crap and I wasn’t transmitting. While Jon and I jerked around with that, Owen Morse took my place in line. Eventually we got the problem fixed, but once I got into the air at about 20 after 12 another problem arose: the radio got wedged against my harness which engaged the PTT on the radio itself causing a constant high-pitched beeping noise. I couldn’t get at the radio where I had it mounted, but if I changed my body position a bit the noise briefly stopped. But after awhile that didn’t even help. I had climbed out a bit by then, but I couldn’t hear my vario and after no longer able to take the sound I decided to go out and land.

I couldn’t access the radio but I was able to grab the antenna. Even after a few yanks I still couldn’t free it up enough for the noise to stop. That is until I was well clear of the mountain and down to about 5k. With on last pull I could hear the Velcro coming undone and the noise suddenly stopped.

Once clear of the mountain the winds were as predicted out of the SE. My normal last chance thermal was nowhere to be found so I pointed the glider NW and blundered downwind. Luckily, it didn’t take too long to find something and after a slow climb I was back in the game drifting toward the 18 at just over 9k feet. Tony, at that point, was already in Apple Valley, Owen, a couple of miles ahead but still in the mountains and Dan, just getting off the mountain. Unfortunately, everyone else got caught in the SE flow and apparently barely made out to a landing area. There was also one blown launch.

After topping out at just above 10k just west of the 18 I continued on toward Apple Valley. As I pulled even with Rabbit Dry Lake Bed I opted to angle over to the Granite Mountains to give them I try. I wasn’t high enough to reach the spine that angles down to the SE and directly into the wind. I had to settle for a spine coming off to the south. The problem was that if the spine didn’t work I would find myself low on the leeside when I angled back downwind. And although I might have gained 100 ft or so I didn’t find anything cohesive and that is the situation I found myself in. Thinking that I made a big mistake I set my sights on a small rocky hill near the Bear Valley Cutoff. Down to about 5k again I started to pick up some scraps of lift before I reached the hill. It was another slow go at first, but it all came together for another climb out to 10k. From there I headed right down the 18 in very buoyant air.

Tony had called Joshua Approach in the morning to see whether or not R2515 would be cold. It was going to be so as long as we stayed above 6k we could fly up 395 toward the Owens Valley. But before I got in position to even consider that I had to first clear the Class-D airspace of the So Cal Logistical Airport. It ended up not being a problem as I crossed over the airport with about 5,000 ft to spare. However, by the time that I reached the 395 I was down below 8k. Couple that with the fact that Tony was struggling a bit up ahead and that there seemed to be more of an east push than south, I opted to head due west toward Palmdale and Lancaster rather than up 395 toward Ridgecrest.

If I had found a nice buoyant seam on my way to the airport it was just the opposite on my glide from it. After starting my glide well over 11k I didn’t find another thermal until I was down below 5k a mile or so east of Lake El Mirage. But, again, after a slow start I had an eventual climb out to the mid 10k. And just like before, I found a great seam of buoyant air. After climbing out to the mid 11s on the east side of the lake, I B-lined to a large dust devil set up about half-way across it near its southern edge. Since the dusty was drifting away from me toward the SW it took surprisingly long to catch up with. But once I did I had the highest climb of the day to just over 13k. Looking down on the swirling dust I could see a number of circling crows and Owen screaming in from the east. Pretty neat.

Once topped out I continued heading west fully expecting to run into the SW sea breeze at any time. I was flying in another buoyant seam. There seemed to be pockets of lift everywhere along my course line, but when I stopped to work them they never panned out. I was content to just dolphin fly my way to the 14. Unfortunately, at about the 70 mile mark my motion sickness kicked in. After that I let Jon know that I would be on final, but that I would try to at least make it to the 138/14 junction.

Up to that point, Jon had been reporting L&V conditions on the ground; it wasn’t until he made it to the 14 that he hit the sea breeze. I was at about 4k when I reached the 14 but at that height I was still seeing an east wind. Thinking that I just above the lower level SW I continued my final glide to the west. As I got lower my ground speed numbers did indeed drop, but not enough as I ended up whacking it in going downwind 85.4 miles from launch.

What happened was simple: when Jon was reporting SW winds he was a lot further south on the 14 than I was; I was on the wrong side of the convergence line. If I had been feeling better and made that assessment earlier I may have scooted south to work the shear line. However, the line would have taken me directly into Class-D airspace.

Owen landed at Avenue H and 20th street for just over 81 miles, a personal best for him. There is a good chance that he might have flown farther. Not being familiar with the area, when I indicated that I was heading for the 138/14 junction he thought that I meant the one on the south end of Palmdale, not the one on the north end of Lancaster. The deviation cost him some mileage.

Tony and Dan both headed up the 395 and landed in the area of Ridgecrest.

Labor Day Weekend

I guess before I post an entry about a pretty nice flight from Blackhawk on the 14th I should do one on a not so great flight from Pine Mountain over the Labor Day weekend. To be honest the main reason I hadn’t posted the write up earlier was because I was going through one of my, maybe it’s time to give the sport up, phases and just wasn’t in the mood. I get that way every once in awhile, especially after a so so flight. In this case it was that and the fact that they had another fatality at Kagel, making it two in the last two or three months; when you have kids that stuff weighs on you. You think, is it all worth it? After such a short flight the answer at that time was no. But like every other time I started thinking this way the feeling past with time and I was right back poring over the weather forecasts for the next opportunity to fly.

Anyway, here is quick recap of my 15 mile flight from Pine over the Labor Day weekend:

On Wednesday the forecast looked perfect: 14-15k tops with cloud development and light SW winds. It looked so good that tried to shame the Santa Barbara crew to come out and join Tony and me for a day of flying. They were supposed to head up to the Owens, but I happily pointed out that other than Saturday the forecast was saying that it wouldn’t be worth the trip and that they would do better by staying home and flying Pine. It worked. Five of them showed up at launch.

By Saturday morning the forecast wasn’t quite as good as the tops lowered to 12-13k with an added 20 % chance of thundershowers. We also had to contend with an upper level north until we got out into the Antelope Valley. Once out in the valley each model seemed to predict a different wind direction, from SSW to due west.

Despite the chance for overdevelopment the sky was completely blue when we stopped by the north launch to check the wind direction (light north). However, by the time that we got to the south launch a towering cloud had formed just east of the Chute. The cloud formed so fast I thought that the day would be over before we even finish setting up our gliders. But after the initial burst of activity things stabilized a bit.

I launched first. As you can see by my tracklog it took awhile to latch on to something. Tony launched right after, and after an initial climb out found himself down in the same position. It was, of course blowing south at launch altitude, but once I got above the ridge there was a pretty good north push. Despite the abrupt wind shift I had a fairly smooth climb to the mid tens. From launch I took a glide to the backside of Reyes where I tanked up to the mid 11s and headed for the Chute.

As you can see by the track of the thermal that I picked up just short of the Chute we had pretty strong NW wind at altitude. By the time that I topped out in the mid 12s I was back above the front range just east of Haddock Peak.

Up until then I was in the sun, but to the east the whole area north of the Chute was shaded in with development. A while back Tony got caught in some cloud suck to 19k (from a 13k base – yes you read that right) in the same area so I was a bit wary of taking a glide toward Grade Valley under the darken skies that extended out into the middle of Lockwood Valley. Because of my worries I flew through some lift in the beginning of my glide because I wanted to maintain a safe cushion between me and cloudbase. That ended up being a mistake because I didn’t hit any lift at all along my course line. As I write above, the shaded area extended well into Lockwood Valley. However, the southern edge of the sun line was just a mile or two off my right wing. From my position just short of Grade Valley I had a choice of either eking a glide to the sunny side of Lockwood or save some altitude by veering off to the south for the sun there. The problem with heading south is that there is only one area to land in. I would have to keep the LZ within reach while searching for lift. The terrain wouldn’t allow me to just drift downwind. Because I didn’t think that I had the horse power to make it to the sunny side of Lockwood high enough to search for lift I opted to head south. Besides, there was a line of wispies that extended from the back side of Thorn Point (the east end of Pine) to Alamo Mountain.

Well, the decision didn’t pay off and I was soon on the ground less than 15 miles from launch.

Back To Pine

The east end of Pine Mountain

Sometimes the short flights can be more rewarding than the long ones; Sunday was a good example of that. I headed back to Pine after not flying for over a month. This time it was just me and Tony with Fast Eddie driving. Depending on the weather model the day was supposed to be either very good...or not. Great above the mountains but absolutely terrible on the south end of the Antelope Valley. The difference in the predicted lift tops between the Tehachapis and the valley floor near Lancaster was a whopping 10,000 ft. Never to such an extent, but you often see that kind of variation with strong SW winds; the sea breeze gets sucked right up through Soledad Canyon and spills out onto the desert floor.

The game plan going into the day was simple: get up at launch; head over to Frazier where we expected to get above 15k; fly up the Tehachapis; and either head up the Panamint or Owens Valley depending on how much west wind we encountered when we got to the Garlock area (since my motion sickness would be kicking in at about that time that last part would be Tony's game plan, not mine). Well, the first part worked out. I did get up at launch and I did start making my way to Frazier.

I write in my last post that once you leave launch and head east you have to cross over about 8 miles of unretrievable terrain. Now there's more than one way to make the crossing. One way is to stay on the front side of Pine and then go over the back from the east end of the range where the glide to Grade Valley, the next retrievable LZ, is relatively short. The problem with this route is that as you get further east on Pine the closer you get to Wheeler Gorge and the marine air that seeps through it.

The second route is to go over the back at launch or Reyes Peak, which located just east of take-off, and head over to a long connecting spine on the north side of the mountain known as the Chute. The LZs are on the west end of the Chute so the idea is to probe as far east as you can up the spine while at the same time leaving yourself enough altitude to make it back to the landing areas in case you can't find any lift. However, the winds on the north side of Pine are generally NW so you have to make sure that you don't probe too far east because you will be bucking a head wind on your way back. From the Chute you have a choice of either gliding to Grade Valley or San Guillermo Mtn. If I have the altitude I prefer Grade Valley. There always seems to be thermal just on the east side of the valley, but mostly because it sets you up nicely for a nice down wind shot to Frazier Mtn. Guillermo pumps out the lift too, but flying there puts you a tad north of the thermal generating foothills south of Lockwood Valley.

The third route is to go over the back at launch and head to Dry Canyon, the last landable LZ before the "Badlands." I loathe this route. Mostly because it hardly ever works (for me anyway). But by taking this route you are really only giving yourself one chance to find the lift needed to make the crossing. I recommend that you always try the Chute first. If it doesn't work you can always peel off to Dry Canyon for that one last chance of finding something. That's exactly what happened to me on Sunday.

I left Reyes Peak at 11.5 and made my way up the Chute where I proceeded to not find any lift at all. If I had kept going I probably could have eked into Grade Valley on a glide. But if I didn't find something along the way I would have gotten there too low to take advantage of anything that I might have stumbled on when I arrived. So instead, I turned around and made my way back down the Chute to the west hoping to find something coming up the spine. When I still didn't find anything I peeled off directly north hoping that I might stumble into the convergence. On the drive up it was blowing north almost all the way to the south launch so I figured it had to be out there somewhere. As I probed north I kept checking my ground speed for signs of the NW wind. I ran into it just short of Dry Canyon so I turned around and headed back the other way. It was obvious that I was in converging air, but I simply could not find any cohesive lift. NAM had predicted a 6k inversion layer and it seemed like that was what I was dealing with. I did manage to break though fleetingly to 8k at one point, but that was nowhere near the height I needed to make the crossing. After a bit more searching I threw in the towel and headed to the Dry Canyon spine for that one last chance effort before putting it down. As I would be north of the convergence zone I wasn't expecting much, but as I flew over the spine at around 5600 ft my vario started singing. Soon I was well over 11,000 ft and on my way to Guillermo. Go figure. At Guillermo I had another climb out to the mid twelves and then it was over to Frazier.

Lockwood Valley. Guillermo is the peak at the bottom right-hand corner.


Looking back at Lockwood from Frazier.


Going into the day I thought the tough spot would be Pine itself because of the marine air influence. I figured that if we made it to Frazier we would be well on our way because all of the models were saying that we should see at least 15k tops and cloud development. There were some clouds but they didn't seem like they were the result of any thermal lift. However, I got to Frazier in perfect position and as I zoomed up the SW spine with 50 mph ground speed I prepared to be yanked to the stratosphere. I'm still waiting. I don't think that I have ever been flushed off of Frazier before. But there I was at 6500 ft on the east end of it floundering out toward Hungry Valley.

Frazier with the Antelope Valley in the distance.


Of course, any time that you have a long glide in front of you it is nice to be as high as possible before leaving; it's especially true for the transition from Frazier to the Antelope Valley. The prevailing surface winds here are north as they funnel up and over the Grape Vine from the Central Valley. The most direct route to the Antelope from Frazier is due east to the Tehachapis Mountains, which make up the valley's northern V-shaped border. The problem is that if you're not high enough you will find yourself blown off the mountains in leeside conditions once you get into the valley. Ironically, the lower you leave Frazier the farther south you have to go, and the longer you have to glide in order to give yourself a chance of getting established in the Antelope. It's north along the Grape Vine, but just a few miles into the valley the prevailing winds turn SW. On Sunday that meant we were right smack in the middle of that thermal killing marine air that I wrote about above. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Looking south down I 5 with Pyramid Lake the distance.

On the ground Eddy was reporting north winds all the way to Quayle Lake, which is located near the start of the Liebre Mountains (the valley's southern border) a few short miles east of Interstate 5. I was hoping to leave the mountains with 15k so that I would be well above all of that lower level north, but instead I was down below 7k and actually flying into a bit of a headwind as the winds were wrapping around the east end of Frazier. Fortunately, the air above Hungry Valley turned out to be be pretty buoyant. Unfortunately, it also wasn't very smooth; my motion sickness problem kicked in a tad earlier than usual. But I fought through it and found myself climbing out to just short of 9k just west of the Interstate near Rte 138, which was actually not that bad of a position to be in in order to drop into Antelope. However, the air just on the other side of the Interstate before the start of the Antelope is generally pretty turbulent; due to the topography it seems like the winds come together here from every direction. This mixing zone usually provides plenty of lift, but because of the way I was feeling I elected to fly through it. That's the thing about feeling lousy: everything becomes half-arse. You would like to fly longer, but you no longer have the motivation to do everything that you can to make it happen; when you fall out of the lift you're working you don't go searching for it again; if lift is turbulent you fly out of it. And that is where my mental state was once I got into the heart of the Antelope. It would have been nice to have flown farther but I was ready to land.

The flight was only 43 miles or so, and of course I was feeling sick at the end of it, but because of the low save at Dry Canyon, and the way I was able to work my way over to the Antelope in relatively good shape from my position at Frazier, it was pretty rewarding none the less.

Tony would end up just short of Mojave.