Kagel

Despite living in Los Angeles I rarely fly Kagel. Even before Bari was born, when I was flying every weekend, I only made it there two or three times a year. Because I learned in Santa Barbara, most of the pilots that I met and became friends with didn't live nearby and weren't inclined to make the drive south. It's not like I didn't meet anyone down here, but the Topa crew that I eventually fell into were like family. For me, besides spending time with my real family, there are only two things better than flying a hang glider: flying a hang glider cross country; and flying a hang glider cross country with a few of my closest friends. Kagel couldn't compete in that regard so it became a place of convenience instead; somewhere to go at the last minute when I just wanted to get some airtime in. Having said that, I have always wanted to fly from Kagel to Crestline.

I see the San Gabriel Mountains looming over the L.A. basin almost everyday; they have been calling my name for a long time now. If it's soarable in Sylmar and soarable at Crestline, why wouldn't it be soarable above the points in between? Of course, the flight has been done a number of times, just not that often. Because of the convenience more than anything, most of the flying at Kagel is "fiish bowl" in nature where the locals chase each other around chosen turnpoints. But the forecast for this past Saturday indicated that the flight to Crestline might be possible. I called ex-Topaflyer, and local pilot, Jeff Chipman on Thursday to see what he thought. He hadn't really looked at the forecast but was willing to give it a go. He'd put a crew together and leave a slot open for me. Everything would be in place, except for the fact that my son had a softball tournament that morning.

Huh-oh, another sporting event scheduled on a potentially good flying day. Luckily, the games would start at 8:30 leaving time to get to Kagel within a reasonable period. That is, if my son's team didn't make it to the finals. No one on his team played Little League baseball; they looked like the Bad News Bears at the start of their season. The chance of getting to the finals looked rather slim. However, the other teams were even worse. They looked like the Bad News Bears at their very first practice. Counting the week before, my son's team would win all five of their games and make it to the finals. I was there for all of his games the week before, and would be there most of the morning on Saturday. Surely he wouldn't mind if I left a tad early to go flying. After all, this was just an informal after school program. More like gym than anything else. And just like with my daughter and her lacrosse game, that is what I kept telling myself to help allay the guilt.

I met Jeff, Rob Burgis, Ron Weiner and Driver Dana at the Kagel LZ at 11:00. I had convinced Crestline pilots Dan DeWeese and Bruce Barmakian that a flight back home would be possible; they were there too. All together there were nine pilots that attempted the flight. Rounding out the group was Andy Pryciak, Sebastion Lutges and videographer, Jonathan Dietch. Andy and Sebastian would leave from the Kagel launch, while the rest of us opted for Towers.

By the time that we got to the Towers there were a number of people already set up over at Kagel. A few got airborne as we were setting up; they didn't do very well. Because of that I took my time -- probably too much time, but you know the drill with me by now: I don't like wasting non-airsick time bobbing up and down near launch in marginal lift. Things opened up, however, once our first pilot (Ron) got airborne.

*Most photos were taken off of Cal State University Long Beach's web site: http://www.cnsm.csulb.edu/departments/geology/

The earlier launchers had to fish around a bit before getting up and out, but by the time that I launched it had turned on completely allowing an immediate climb out. After topping out near 5k I made my way over to Kagel, getting passed by Bruce Barmakian along the way. There wasn't much near launch so I B-lined to Trash where a number of pilots seemed to be doing well. I must have caught the tail-end of the lift, because as you can see, I had to hang out a bit before the next pulse came through. Once it did I had a nice climb to 5400 ft. -- along with 4 or 5 other pilots in close proximity, including Dan and Bruce on their Atoses. After another little climb above the beehives I made my way over to Big T where Team Atos was already skying out. I was now officially bringing up the rear.




A slow steady climb at Big T turned into a ratty screamer once I drifted above the high point. I left for Lukens with 5800 ft coming into the west spine just behind Sebastian. Up to that point my climbs were getting higher and higher and the trend continued at Lukens. I climbed to 6800 ft but the reports from the earlier pilots indicated that I would expect to get above 8k once I moved over to near the towers. As I made my way there I was surprised to see Dan and Bruce just starting their climbs (Sebastian was also with them). I figured that they would be long gone. All three Atoses quickly skyed out. But when I eventually made my way under them I could only find light lift. I missed whatever propelled them skyward. Soon frustration set in as kept hitting a ceiling just below 7,000 ft. Eventually, I just gave up on the towers and made my way east. I would end up flying off the east end of Lukens with 6,000 ft.




While other pilots reported reaching Brown Mt. above 6,000, I limped in to its west flank at 4,800 ft. In my mind I was going to treat it like flying into West Divide in Santa Barbara: if I didn't find something right away I'd call it a day and head out to a landing field. Fortunately, the spine heading up to Brown worked and I was soon back bumping up against the 7K ceiling. From Brown I stepped back to Mt Lowe, but after not really finding anything to hang around for I made my way over to Mt Wilson.





I didn't have the altitude to fly over Wilson itself, so I headed to Mount Harvard. There was nothing above the peak, but when I slid out to the front points I found another nice climb to the high 6s, which was plenty high enough for me to head directly to Monrovia Peak, where at 7200 ft I had the highest climb of the day.




From Monrovia I angled directly over the dam of the San Gabriel Reservoir on my way to Glendora Mountain and San Dimas. Reports on the radio indicated that Andy and Sebastian were about to land at a golf course nearby. As I crossed over Glendora I spotted a glider climbing out with a hawk out on the flats near San Dimas Canyon. To my surprise it was Jonathan. The last time that I heard his name mentioned he was leading the pack to Mt Wilson. Anyway, after climbing out together -- kinda -- I made my way over to Johnstone Mountain while Jonathan took a more southerly route. Johnstone was only good for one or two 360s and so I soon found myself heading in Jonathan's direction again. But before I could reach the flats I had a change of heart and decided to take what altitude I had left and head directly for Frankish Peak, the far west front point of Cucamonga Peak. There Jonathan and I teamed up again, and played a bit of leap frog for the next couple of spines.

Me & Southside - 3/28/2009 from NMERider on Vimeo.

At that point the west wind had really pushed through. East of San Dimas the air was pretty buoyant, but nothing seemed to be going up-slope, just sideways. From Johnstone Peak on I never got above 5,000 ft. I'd hit a point, do one or two 360s across its face and then move to the next one down the line. And continued to do so until I ran out of mountain.




After flying off of the San Gabriels I did something, or I should say, didn't do something that I'm still regretting today. I was so intent on making it to Andy Jackson that I only thought of the most direct route to get there once I crossed the 15. After crossing the freeway with just 3k, I picked up a low slow leaner just south of the foothills near Glen Helen. I had visions of it drifting me right to goal. However, once I got on the other side of the hills the lift petered out -- or I zigged when I should have zagged. Either way at 3400 ft I didn't have the altitude to make it to Andy Jackson on a glide. But like I said, I was so fixated on goal I didn't even think about deviating due north instead to get to the much closer foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains. It would have been very close. From the top of my last thermal it was 2.5 miles to where I landed and only 2 miles to the foothills; the extra 1/2mile might have translated into enough altitude to play with. And it wouldn't have taken much of a boost to make it in from there.

Although I'm kicking myself for not trying for the San Bernardino foothills, I have to say that I'm stilled satisfied with my flight. At just over a mile from goal, I'm going say that I came close enough for it to count. Out of the nine pilots that attempted the flight; four made it in (Ron, Rob, Bruce and Dan); two within 2 miles (Jeff and me); one landed at the base of Cuc (Jonathan); and two near San Dimas (Andy and Sebastian).

Distance: 61.09 Miles
Duration: 3:28 Hours
Max Altitude: 7,250 ft.

So Cal XC sites

Plowshare Peak

Located in the Los Padres National Forest, Plowshare Peak overlooks the western end of the Cuyama Valley. The site record (Tom Truax) is 110 miles to Palmdale. This is a classic seabreeze front site flown mostly in late spring and early summer. Typically, the desert air drains west toward the ocean early in the morning. However, once heating occurs inland and the air becomes relatively less dense the flow reverses. As the cooler more dense marine air moves its way inland it dives in below the lighter desert air causing it to lift, often times higher than what it would just by convection alone. Plowshare Peak is in a perfect position for pilots to take advantage of this converging air.

When timed correctly pilots will stay with the seabreeze front either out above the Cuyama Valley or atop the Sierra Madre mountains as it makes its way eastward. However, more often than not progress is stalled just east of New Cuyama by air flowing in from the Central Valley, which seeps in through the canyons near Maricopa and meets the seabreeze front head on. However, if a pilot can get around the corner near Santa Barbara Canyon they can get back into a NW flow and be able to extend their flights.

When the record was broken pilots were getting as high as 12,000 ft and were able to fly over the trouble spot near New Cuyama. From Santa Barbara canyon they continued southeast toward Pine. From Pine they headed NE to Frazier Mountain and then out into the Antelope Valley

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is at its best during the post-frontal days of winter and spring. The site record is 100 miles (Craig Warren) to Palmdale. Since the Santa Ynez range is so close to the ocean it is very much influenced by the cool marine air especially in early summer when there is such a drastic difference in ocean and inland temperatures. But even in the winter when ocean and land temperature differences aren't as great, thermal killing inversion layers are still common. However, when cold fronts come through they steepen the lapse rate creating unstable soaring conditions. Its not uncommon to see temperatures below freezing at the top of the boundary layer. Couple that with residual moisture that leads to the formation of thermal marking cumulus clouds and you have the makings of a great soaring day. Having said that, its not uncommon on post-frontal days for the winds to be too strong and or cloudbase too low to fly. But when conditions are just right there aren't too many other places that can compare.

Pilots sometimes do out and returns to the west but going XC here means heading due east along the the Santa Ynez mountain range toward Ojai and the Topa Topa Mountains. From the east end of the Topas pilots make their way to Santa Paula Ridge and the Santa Clara river basin. And it's the Santa Clara river basin where the flight really starts. If cloudbase isn't too low it is relatively easy to make it to Santa Paula from Santa Barbara. But further east the terrain drops to just a series of low foothills. Couple that with the seabreeze flowing up the basin and it becomes tough sledding to continue on. Even on great days there are a lot of 50+ mile flights but few 60+. Most people land somewhere along Rte 126 west of Interstate 5

On the day the Craig broke the record he was getting to 10,000 feet, about 3,000 ft higher than what is common on even the best of days. With that altitude he was able to fly up the backside of the San Gabriel Mountains east of the Interstate before angling out into the Antelope Valley where he landed.

Bates Beach

Bates Beach is a coastal ridge soaring site located just north of Rincon Point. But Bates isn't just a ridge soaring site. When it turns on pilots are able to hop over the PCH to connect with and ridge soar the coastal range that extends down to Ventura about 12 miles away. At the end of the coastal range pilots can either fly out to the beach to land or head over to another ridge know as the Avenue. From the Avenue flights out the Oxnard Plain are common. Rumor has it that Tom Truax was able to continue on and make it to Malibu one day.

Bates is generally the place to go on post-frontal days when the mountains in Santa Barbara are blown out. However, it's not uncommon for pilots to get on course in the mountains and have the winds pick up forcing them out toward the coast. If they happen to be in the right position they can make it out to Bates on a glide and then continue on from there.

Ojai

Ojai (Topa Topa Mountains) is known as the place to go on Santa Ana days. It is best flown in the fall. The site FW record (Robert Millington) is 85 miles to Santa Maria and the RW record (Tony Deleo) is 133 miles to the Lucerne Valley. Santa Anas are down slope winds that filter through NE to SW oriented canyons. Because of the protection of the San Rafael Mountains that sit directly north and the way that the Topa range aligns, Ojai is generally not affected by them. It can be gusting up to 60 MPH offshore in the nearby Santa Clara river basin and still be dead calm in Ojai.

Flights to Santa Barbara are common. Typical days produce 6k thermal tops; on the day that Robert flew to Santa Maria they were getting to 10k in Ojai. On the very next day three of us went in the opposite direction out into the Antelope Valley using Pine and Frazier mountains as stepping stones. On a non-Santa Ana day Tony jumped over the back and got under a cloud street (13k) above the Sespe wilderness area that extended east to Interstate 5 between Lake Castaic and Lake Pyramid. From I 5 he angled NE to fly along the Leibre mountains before dropping down into the Antelope Valley and points east.

Pine Mountain

Pine is located just north of the of the Topa Topa Mountain range. The site FW record (Robert Millington) is 186 miles to Furnace Creek and the RW record (Tony Deleo) is 212 miles to the base of White Mountain in the Owens Valley. Pine is generally at its best when "Four Corners Highs" set up in late summer, which pump monsoonal moisture into the area. Lift is better when there is moisture in the air because a moist parcel of rising air retains heat longer than a dry parcel. Of course, there is also the added bonus of having thermal marking cumulus clouds present. But one of the drawbacks of this infusion of moisture is the chance of thunderstorms. However, Pine generally doesn't see the overdevelopment that some of the other desert sites to the SE do when the monsoonal flow sets up.

Another drawback on monsoonal days is that they are accompanied by SE winds and all of the long XC flights from Pine are toward the east. However, when the SE flow is light pilots can easily fly upwind; and if they're lucky enough to make it around the corner of the Tehachapis near Mojave the wind direction is perfect for a push up into the Owens Valley. Often times, though, a west wind will push through in the afternoon forcing pilots to angle over to the Panamint Valley instead.

Pine can work on other days well in the summer; the old FW record of 180 miles to Ludlow was set on a "blue" west day. On the same day that the Kagel record was broken Tony Deleo flew over 200 miles landing east of Twentynine Palms. Also on a west day.

Kagel

Kagel is located in the San Gabriel Mountains above Sylmar. Although arguably the most consistent site in Southern California, it is not known for it's XC -- although the site record for both FW (Jeff Chipman and Ron Wiener) and RW (Sebastian Lutges) is a very respectable 141 miles to just east of Twentynine Palms. The building density of Los Angeles County makes XC flying problematic. Having said that, the XC flying can be very good on light Santa Ana days, for example, when the seabreeze is able to push back against the NE to set up a nice convergence over the mountain range. Flights to Crestline and beyond are possible. The old site record (Ted Boyes) was to the Palm Springs area. The new site record, however, took place on one of those magical days where pilots were able to get high enough to cross directly over the San Gabriel Mountains into the desert. And during another great flight, Adam Stone dropped over the back to Acton and then flew east along the north side of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains before dropping back over to the front range again near Yucca Valley to land in Palm Springs area.

Marshall/Crestline

Crestline for short. Crestline is located in the San Bernardino Mountains just a few miles east of the Cajon Pass. Although not as consistent as Kagel due to its exposure to northerly winds, it is a reliable place to fly. Like Kagel it not known as an XC site. But on the right day Crestline has the potential to produce exceptionally long flights. The site RW record (Bruce Barmakian) is 168 miles to Lone Pine.

The problem with XC here is timing. The desert works best in the summer, but during this same period the front range is susceptible to low inversion layers brought on by the marine air flowing east through the L.A. Basin. Generally speaking, pilots simply can't get high enough to go over the back into the desert when the prevailing SW flow sets up. A SE wind in the summer keeps the marine air away, but it also leaves the possibility of thundershowers. Still, for XC a SE wind is preferable. It was SE when Bruce set his record. On that day a number of us were able to climb to over 13k on the front range before heading out into the desert toward Hesperia and points north. The rather paltry FW record (John Scott) of 80 miles was set on the same day (later broken by Zac Majors with a 96.8 mile flight to Santa Paula).

Another notable XC flight (Dan DeWeese) was to the Mexican border (116 miles). The prevailing wind was north near launch but an east/west convergence set up further south along the course line. After first flying east to San Gorgonio, where he climbed out to 14,000 ft., Dan found a nice cloud street heading south set up over the town of Soboba. From Soboba Dan flew over Palomar Mountain then Laguna and finally Campo before turning back to land on Hwy 8.

Blackhawk

Blackhawk is located on the northside of the San Bernardino Mountains not far from Big Bear and overlooks the Lucerne Valley. The site FW record (Rick Culbertson) is 161 miles to the north side of Las Vegas and the RW record (Bruce Barmakian) is 221 miles to Mesquite, NV. Although it is sometimes tough to get out of the Lucerne Valley, Blackhawk is probably the most consistent XC site in Southern California. Because it is open desert flying, there aren't a lot of obstacles and pilots can land practically anywhere. Also, despite having two launches that face NE and NW respectively, pilots, for the most part, can get off the hill in any wind direction. It just seems to always convect up slope.

Having written about the lack of terrain obtacles, there is restricted airspace (Twentynine Palms) just to the NE of launch. It is easily avoided, however. In a west wind pilots fly east along the mountains before angling out over Landers and then Joshua Tree. From Joshua Tree they only have to stay over Rte 62 to avoid the airspace to the south.

Even when the prevailing SW sets up it is pretty easy to stay west of the airspace from launch. During SW winds pilots either head up Rte 247 before dropping into the valley east of Daggett or they take a more direct route north over the Ord Mountains. Either way their destination is Intersate 15 where the SW provides a nice downwind shot to the Nevada border.

Tony Deleo had the most notable flight to the west when he landed just short of Santa Maria for 204 miles. Bruce Barmakian went 183 miles on the same day.

Ord Mountain

Located just east of Hisperia the XC pontential here is not that much different than Blackhawk's. One drawback, though, is it's proximity to the Cajone Pass, which makes it susceptible to the marine air that will often seep in from the L.A. Basin. Another problem is that it only has a north facing launch, but unlike Blackhawk, doesn't have a mountain range behind it to protect it from anything blowing from the south. But that didn't stop having both the FW record (Larry Tudor 173 miles) and the RW record (Bruce Barmakian 306 miles) occur on SE days. Both pilots on separate days flew up into the Owens Valley with Bruce contunuing on to Gabbs Nevada. At the time Bruce's flight was an unofficial "foot-launched" world record.

Lake Elsinore

Like Plowshare Elsinore is a convergence site. Located in the Santa Ana Mountains Elsinore faces east overlooking, well, Lake Elsinore. The site FW record (Randy Haney) is 167 miles to the Needles area. Just like Plowhare the early morning east flow reverses and comes onshore once it starts heating up inland. Pilots try to time their launches to coincide with this west/east convergence as it passes through. However, because of the terrain, the seabreeze also wraps around the north and south ends of the Santa Ana Mountains only to meet up again in what is known as the Elsinore Convergence Zone (see above) east of launch. Once across the lake pilots will follow this shear line to Hemet and points east. That is, if they can get up and over San Jacinto Mountain. Randy was able to do that on his record flight out to Needles. When San Jacinto proves too much of an obstacle "Out and Return" flights are common.

But, because of the surrounding terrain, seperate and localized convergence zones are also present, which pave the way for long flghts in different directions. One day Bill Soderquist and Bill Rear flew to Barstow after crossing over the San Bernardino Mountains via San Gorgonio.

Cont'd...

Valentine's Day

Luckily Lauren isn't too sentimental. I didn't have to worry about hurt feelings by going flying on Valentine's Day. Now me, I am sentimental so normally I wouldn't think about flying but the forecast was just too good to pass up. It had been raining off and on all week and the pattern was supposed to continue into the early part of this week. However, we were due for a brief break in the weather on Saturday before the another storm was forecast to roll into town later that night. That was what they were calling for in the middle of the week, but as we got closer to Saturday the forecast delayed the arrival of the second storm until late Sunday.

If I didn't have to worry about Lauren being upset about not being home for Valentine's day, there was the matter of missing my daughter's lacrosse games. But as it so happened the games were to be played in Santa Barbara. I've never missed a single sports event that either of my kids have participated in. What was one day, especially considering the fact that these type of conditions only come around every so often and there would be another game to attend the following day? At least we would be driving up to Santa Barbara together and meeting later in the day. She, her brother and one of her best friends and teammates could even watch me launch before heading over to the games; that should more than make up for me not being there. Well, that's what I kept telling myself to help allay my guilt.


As mentioned a number of times, Santa Barbara is at its best when it is post-frontal, but more often than not the winds are too strong out of the NW and or cloudbase is too low to fly. As you can see the winds were forecast to be perfect with regard to direction and velocity. Dampness would be another matter and low cloudbase did prove problematic for a number of pilots. But a couple of us managed to get by the most difficult spots; a lot had to do with timing.

Unfortunately, my family had to leave for my daughter's first game before seeing me take off. They did, however, get a chance to see a few PGs and Tony's Atos take flight. It seemed a bit early to me. There were clouds forming overhead, but they had a grey, blah look to them. But the early launchers made it work and were soon making their way down range.

Eliminator to Lake Casitas 19-mile XC - 2/14/2009 from NMERider on Vimeo.

I launched around 10:40, just after Jonathan Dietch, who was ready, willing and able to go on his first open distance XC flight. As you will see in Jonathan's video above, launch was working just fine and we were soon making our way east. A quick tank up at the Thermal Factory and we were on our way to Montecito Peak (below).



It was paint by the numbers to Castle Ridge with all the usual spots working like they're supposed to. I would spend most of the day flying with Dean Stratton. Most of the photos are his. The one below is looking back from Castle Ridge toward the west and the road cut on East Romero.



When there is an abundance of moisture, cloudbase is at its lowest and thickest from Castle to the start of the Casitas Pass where things tend to open up a bit. It's never a bad idea to slow down a bit in this section and work whatever lift you can find because the usual spots maybe just too shaded in to work. Saturday wasn't any different, and indeed, once we got past the powerlines things opened up enough to make a play for the Casitas Pass.

West Divide; Whiteledge out in the distance

Generally speaking, you want to have at least 4500 ft of altitude above Noon Peak before heading over to Divide; on Saturday we left from the clouds 300 ft below that. But after another quick climb to cloudbase at Divide we were on our way to Whiteledge. Unfortunately, Jonathan didn't connect at Divide. He did, however, have a fortunate glide to Lake Casitas, otherwise he might still be up there.

East Divide

My normal go to spot didn't work at Whiteledge -- perhaps because I arrived lower than usual -- so I had to eke around the front corner. But each little finger spine got me a bit higher as I progressed eastward; by the time that I rounded the far corner I was back up to cloudbase again. Reports on the radio indicated that Tony had landed at the Diversion Dam, which was just ahead. Since I was starting further south than normal I ended up coming in below the top of Bump Three, my usual go to spot from Whiteledge. Since Tony was on the ground I was bit worried about being low, but as soon as I hit the spine the vario started singing. I didn't climb terribly high but it was enough to go for a glide across the 33.



Coming up to Nordoff Ridge

Up ahead, Dean was skimming the top of the Nuthouse spine. He had gotten ahead of me at Whiteledge. The Nuthouse didn't work for me so I continued on to the Pyramid...low. I've been down at the bottom the Pyramid before and had made it work, so I wasn't too worried about bombing out. But on the other hand, there was Tony down on the ground at the dam. It took awhile for something to came through to set a wingtip into, but once it did I was up and out and giving Dean chase.

Dean making the glide to Twin Peaks

Running down range having to stop at each spine in order to tank up negates a lot of the performance differences between HGs and PGs. Still, I fly a Lightspeed; Dean was just flying more proficiently than I was. We stayed together for most of the flight because he'd out climb me, but then I would get him on the glide, especially the long ones like the one between Nordoff and Twin Peaks (above).

Boyds, Puckers and then Santa Paula Ridge in the distance.

The Rocky Bluffs

As you can see from the photos above, Ojai was gorgeous and as usual worked like a charm. I left Puckers with 6k, my highest point of the flight, for a glide to Santa Paula Ridge where I met up with Dean again. Despite my encounter with a PG during my last flight, Dean and I mixed up pretty good when we shared a thermal together. Still, I was a bit reluctant to get too close and that probably cost me an opportunity to stay with him on the climbs.



At the east end of Santa Paula, Dean angled out to a small cloud forming in the valley while I decided to fly right off the end of the range toward Oat Mountain and the one cumulus cloud sitting above its foothills. Up ahead east of Piru the sky was dotted with clouds. If we could have made it there there would be no telling how far we could have gone. But getting there ended up being the problem.



Dean and I had a nice climb out above the foothills about halfway to Piru, but both of us ended just short of the clouds. I gave it my best in the foothills east of Piru, but I was never able to latch on to anything solid. It was especially hard to do while losing my breakfast in the process.



Because the Lightspeed does have a little more umph, I managed to make it a little further down the 126 than Dean. Judging from the picture taken some time after landing, if we had flown through the area just a tad later we might still be in air.



Distance: 56.66 miles
Duration: 3:27
Max Altitude: 6,062 ft

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.