Monday Skyport?

[Dean S]

I have a surprise hall pass today and SB is looking good, who's in? According to yesterdays temps it looks like it'll be soarable after 11:00 - 11:30. How about 10:30 parma for those who are interested. I'm out the door, see you there.

[faoro]

Well, I thought most responsible people worked on Mondays. At least I dutifully showed up. But when the weather looked good at my wishful 8 AM purview, the scheming started. Bob Hurlbett called me at 9 AM and wasn't going to let a little anesthetic and medical procedure this morning keep him on his backside (unless it was in a harness). So I grabbed a humble employee for a tandem and we snuck out of the clinic shortly before noon.

As soon as we were on the road to leave a car at East Beach, we saw a slew of wings all over the hills and on their way toward Montecito Peak. That got the adrenaline flowing. We hustled into some warm clothes and headed up the hill with Bob. The cycles were ripping at launch, but we had trouble getting high in the house thermal and headed over to the Thermal Factory. It took about ten minutes, but we were soon at 4K and thinking about a run to the beach so we could get back to work.

The glide out was beautiful; a quickie at lunchtime is almost always a good idea.

[Kabir]

We did meet at 10:30 at Parma
Loaded the eagle van almost to the max (always room for one more! )

Once we got to Skyport everyone was rearing to launch.
Bob launched first and Dean right after.
At first it seemed not quite as good as we had thought.
But then Dean hooked a nice one and that is all it took

Everyone launched preety quickly after that.

Lee was next and hooked it right at launch.
Then Kevin M showed how to re-launch like a rockstar.
I launched then and found it right at the house thermal and climbed over launch and then took it to the RR where the rest where climbing already.

That is when someone started keying and it did not stop untill After i landed(SO anoying man!)

Dean stated signaling to go downrange so off we go!

Let me tell you how depressing it is too see all them dudes on their comp wing things just take off!
NO sink and going sooo fast!

Before i could say anythig they are all 2 peaks ahead.

MAn! So much for flying with them.

At least i could not begg tham to slow down since we had no Comm

I decided to stay local and maybe join a second effort that never materialized...

I cliimbed to 54 or 5500 between the Thermal factory and the upper ridge. (thanks Greg for showing us how its done!)
It was awesome to see some mountain waayyyy downrange covered in snow.

I think that Irene, Greg B, Bo, Dean of course, Doug, Kevin M and someone else whent down range.

Pauline and Jim M went to the beach and got picked up by Andy.

Magic went to get the downrange gang.

Special shout out for Rob that stayed behind ensuring that the visiting pilots (Wayne, Josh and MArk) made it out front ( day had some edgines to it.)

BY the time he got to launch the west had kicked in and kinda blew it all away.

Its so awesome to have someone that takes such great care of any pilot even if that means not getting to "go"

Thanks to Barbara who drove the Van!

It sure was nice to fly with everyone!

[Mark Miyahara]

So glad to finally fly from the Santa Barbara Mnts. Got shutdown with conditions at Alternator 3 previous attempts.
I normally fly in Fillmore (Oat Mnt area) with Dr. Mark Pratt (Nitrous), when he so kindly invites me and the conditions allow.

Many thanks to SA (Rob Sporrer) from Eagle Paragliding for the flight path instructions and in flight talk through to landing. You always seem to go the extra mile...what a great instructor. So glad to have schooled with Eagle Paragliding!

I was next to last to launch (around 12pm) and basically was a sled ride. Was good to meet some of the pilots and put a face to the many names I see on this site.

Good Flying to all the pilots at Valle De Bravo next year...wish I could go.

[Bo Criss]

Pretty sweet day!

It was really nice getting a small gaggle together over the RR. I think Dean, Kevin, Kabir, Lee, and I got some circles in together there. I know Greg and Doug were in the area as well. Then the Rabbit came out to play. Irene climbed well over the Thermal Factory and headed East. Game ON!

I think I felt a bit of Dean slobber drizzling down through the sky as took to the Race. He of course was higher and ahead leading the gaggle eastward. It was a beautiful site seeing all my friends up high.

Super impressed with Doug and Greg as they made some nice climbs and pushed strong downrange. I watched as Dean made an amazing glide from the RR to the ridge past Montecito peak without a turn - unbelievable.

Irene was in charge and going large. Right when you thought you might catch her, she would jump ahead. We all did OK getting to the powerlines, but I think we all noticed the higher you got the more NE influence you felt. The top ridge wasn't as friendly or working as well as the front points. So as we pushed towards White Ledge we started to gradually get lower and lower. Luckily the lowest front points were working and a sigh of relief was had with Chismahoo road within reach.

I was able to catch something low and take it all the way up above White Ledge. Dean was playing it more conservative and getting a little higher before pushing on and Irene was with him. That being said, we were all low getting to White Ledge. Irene was the lowest and made a safe landing on the Chismahoo. Dean tanked up and gave chase to my evaporating lead. Dean's conservative approach of getting stinking high was really working. Up high we would get pushed around, and it was rigid cold, but the climbs were faster. I opted to play the middle part of the sky to avoid the cold and turbulence and would get low on the long glides through Ojai. As we approached lower Chiefs area, Dean climbed like a rocket. I got to my middle sky area and pushed on to Santa Paula Ridge. Dean took that thermal so high he ended up over the Peak on his glide. I worked the spine and the convection of the front part of the mountain and turned the corner for Fillmore. Dean was over the ridge shaking his hands out due to the cold conditions, but I didn't feel too sorry for him as he again had an incredible glide over to Fillmore arriving high over Oat Mountain. I barely made the first topography of Fillmore after the glide across. Dean was high and ahead of me and I was searching. I caught a descent one low and started to climb as I noticed the abundant amount of powerlines Fillmore and Hwy 126 provides. It's a little crazy. One more big glide over the dish towers on the east side of Fillmore and then I felt the East wind push. Dean had set it down in a nice green field and I joined him.

We packed up and quickly hiked back to Senior Center in Fillmore to catch the Vista Bus. $1 will get you to Ventura and $2 more will get you to Santa Barbara. Their phone number is 800-438-1112.

Jim Madox picked us up at the Bus Station and took us back to Parma. Thanks amigo!

Great flying everyone, let's do it again soon.

Bo

[BobA]

damn, don't you guys work ?!

[Dean S]

Work?????? It's funny because that's all I've been doing lately. As luck would have it my work schedule got severely screwed up this week and I've been blessed with a few days off. What are the odds that those days would just happen to have good flying weather - 2 damn lucky. In fact, I've got tomorrow off too and it looks like tomorrow will be really good again in SB - GAME ON!

Yesterdays flight was alot of fun. We all tried to gaggle up to run the range but it wasn't too long before the congo line spead out and we all went our separate ways. The only sticky part, as Bo pointed out, was getting through the pass. It was a nail-biter to put it mildly. Things worked great all the way to Fillmore but the sharks were lurking just on the other side of the foothills that separate Fillmore and Piru. In Fillmore the winds were SW 5-10, in Piru they were ENE 10-15. I guess that accounts for the unbelievable glide I got from Santa Paula Peak to Fillmore - love that convergence. Unfortunately, it slammed the door shut on the flight for Bo and I so we put it down next to 126 and began our next adventure exploring the transit system back to SB. Believe it or not those buses are very comfortable. Great day, I hope the last couple weeks of good flying is a jump start for a great flying season that's long overdue.

For those who are interested, Wednesday looks really good as of tonights projected forecast. I'm planning on getting to Parma around 10:00. The proverbial question is, "Are you a Man or a Mouse". I'll see the Men at launch Wednesday morning, for the rest of you - break out the CHEESE!