Saturday, 10am, NHS for Cheifs

[Robb]

OK everyone, this is going to be a big day. So far I've been contacted by seven pilots with little to no experience flying in Ojai, and six experienced Topa pilots. I'd like to get two more experienced pilots so that we can all buddy up, so if your comfortable launching and landing in Ojai, reply here or send me a note.

* Pilots new to Ojai will be paired with experienced pilots to mentor and watch out for each other
* We have four permits and two suburbans; hopefully we can all fit into two trucks
* Fast Eddie is driving one truck, I'm driving the other ==>Drivers welcome!<==
* ==>put these numbers in your cell and charge it: Eddie: 805-302-9449 Robb: 805-797-6590
* Fast Eddie will find you, no matter where you land. He's like a terrier on a pork chop. But land in the main LZ anyway.
* Meet location is Nordof High School at 10 am. NHS is located just past Vons on the 33 in Ojai
* If there is an event at NHS we will be across the street at the church
* Bring water, sunscreen, and water. Make sure your radio and cell phones are charged. Bring water.
* We will want to leave a car at the propeller field after we walk the LZ. This way anyone who sinks out early won't have to wait too long for retrieve.
* $20 pays for the ride to launch and the driver to pick you up in Ojai. If you fly to Oat Mt. or East Beach, you'll be happy to tip your retrieve driver (strawberry milkshakes at summit burger are an excellent start)
* This is all fun, as long as we're all safe. Impatient experienced pilots will be chucked off first to wind dummy for the rest of us. This is all part of your site intro, no extra charge.
* The plan is for a cookout at Lake Casitas after flying; bring lawn games and something for the grill.
* Bring lots of water, and have fun

Your cruise director,
Robb

[MikeP]

Have Permit for Nordhoff Ridge, Subaru, Will Travel.
Room For 3.
MikeP 805-625-3561

[Robb]

Cookout was canceled due to the heat.

[andy dainsberg]

beautiful skies. cheers to mini Mike! early, (i launched first) the lift and wind were predictable and after an hour of boating over chief peak then over to puckers and back i lured Chip into a drive east w/ me. however, i was left to fend for myself. probably a good call because the lift east of and above puckers by this time was not consolidated. i cut between the topa ridge and the repeaters to intersect boyds~ found nothing and set up for st. thomas. but got oddly lifted ( the tips were fluttering ) over to santa paula ridge. obnoxious turbulence notwithstanding i got over sp peak and left for the 5.36 mile glide to filmore at 39 mph. w/ 2 miles to go i hit the big west wind and had to crab at a backwards angle to eventually land going straight down on 1/2 bar at the shopping center. Marge picked me up ((thank you)) and (to add a Truaxian flair) we stopped at summit burger for shakes and i was home by 6.

[oj]

Like a child acting up in front of company, the Ojai decided to show her mischievous side to the visiting pilots that were flying Chiefs for the first time. Conditions were mellow for the first part of the day, but when she decided to add some excitement for the late launchers, it became the type of day I was content to bake in the lz rather than experience it from the air. I think Robb and Bob A. got the worst of it, getting stuck to sky in very gusty conditions. While most of us sat in the Windmill lz watching dust and tumbleweeds scoot across the ground, Robb and Bob parked out above Dennison grade trying to figure out how and where to land. I took the crew back to the high school where Marge was gracious enough to volunteer to run the final retrieve.

Got home and jumped in the cool-tub with the Mrs. and some beer in order to escape the oppressive heat. It's usually blowing 6-10 at that time of the day but Saturday it was gusting over 20, hard enough to snap a six inch diameter branch from one of my trees.

Vario Log: 840 fpm up, 1040 down, max alt. 6103, 1 hr. 3 min.

[BobA]

Congrats to Diablo who flew 207 miles from Pine to Twentynine palms yesterday ! Hammer to Victorville and Southside to Fremont Buttes.

My first thermal flight on a paraglider proved I know just enough to make it exciting or in over my head...overall it was quite enjoyable.

Cycles were strong and intimidating but a lull came thru and I committed to one with as much composure as I could muster. Found easy soaring lift first bump down the spine to the right from launch. Climbed over launch a few times occasionally venturing towards Chiefs peak but out in front drifting from SW to NE. Best lift over the spine just up from the bump, lift up over 800’/min. Later headed to Stooges, got drilled in strong sink and head wind, came back into Twin Peaks, spotty lift. Went out front to find sweet 100-200’/min everywhere from base of foothills back to Twin peaks. Climbed to 7998’, sweet view of cloudstreets over Pine mtn ridge. Followed Robb to Propeller field but no quick headway, we flew across to the Summit, parked into the wind and very slowly climbed, 5900-6300’. Pushed out to just above propeller field only to find stronger wind and backwards flight at 2700’. I bailed out to crab to the Summit again. Things got exciting. Robb took a good collapse in front of me, over Dennison ridge. It was rock and roll and I took a good collapse (left side folded under right side, right side still flying, diagonal fold near middle), recovered by itself, and crabbed down the ridge not able to penetrate out over the plateau. Settled for a rock-strung field on a ranch NW of the summit. Robb landing in the better field a few hundred yards NW. Lots of sideways flying in turbulent air made for an exciting ride, and then flying backwards into a spot without obstruction was tricky, fortunately ranchland between orchards was available when we needed it. I landed with only one wrap, once on my back I realized I needed three, doh. It was about 7-20 on the deck. We hiked to the road, where Christa and her Bo picked us up and took us to the Summit resturaunt for mist and Milk Shakes, where Marge and Andy were quite content waiting for us. Considering the amount of development lurking just behind Chiefs and extending out into the dessert one way and Plowshares the other, it was no surprise to me that the breeze on the ground would pick up to over 20. In retrospect, we could have made the 126 in Santa Paula on glide and tailwind, found bigger LZs, and not dealt with LZ anxiety, but we would have still landed backwards...first thermal flight in PG, first collapse in a PG, first backwards landing, 2 hour 48 minute flight, 972 up, 968 down, 27 max airspeed.

Cheers,

[Don F]

I just wanted to give a big thanks to the Ojai crew for a great time on my first flight from Chiefs. Andy and Art made the right call and launched early before it got interesting at launch and fiesty in the air. I went straight up to 5700 over launch, took my altitude and ran for the windmill LZ. The west wind was filling in and I had a slow, long duration glide making only about 8mph over ground. I'm glad I did head out, because we all got to watch Bob and Robb parked at 6000ft for at least 45 minutes. I'm not sure how it turned out for them. How about a recap Robb?

Cheers,
Don Frick

[Robb]

Was that a record? I made it 18 pilots launching, which I think is a record. If not, it's certainly a record for attempted launches. Benson, as usual, made it look easy, pulling up in the middle of a lawn sale and making a perfect launch. It was not an easy day to get your wing up w/o overshooting, and watching others struggle is probably a bigger impediment than the actual conditions. I was last off, and just couldn't get the whole wing to come up even; each time the middle seemed to lag and sink. I finally convinced Benson (who top landed, another amazing feat) to take the 12lb boulder out of the center cell and off I went.

Bob was the only other wing in the sky as I climbed out at the spine. I decided not to keep people waiting at the propeller field and started down the spine - - at 6mph ground speed. That's never happened before, but I finally got to twin peaks and Bob came over to join me. I got to 8,000' there and figured I'd have an easy glide to the propeller field and headed out.



After a while I realized there was no way we were going to get to the main LZ (thats happened before, but not with 8k) so we decided to head to upper Ojai. However, moving south was just a tough as it was at Cheifs and I saw Bob heading back to the propeller field, so I went too. Boy was that slow. Really slow. Like watching grass grow. Or paint dry. I had to watch the "distance to next" field on my gps to know I was actually making progress. Thats never happened before. Gave me time to take pictures of Bob's brand new wing:



I got to the east end of the propellor field and decided to continue to the west end, spiral down, and land. I looked around one more time and noticed I was now further east, not west. I was being blown backwards! That's never happened before. Looking east there was one strip at the bottom of the ridge behind Bocolli that had room and so I started moving south to get there. No way - by the time I was south enough I was too far east and running out of room. I'd never studied the way the Ojai valley ends at the east end before, but it is like the bow of a boat; the ground slopes up on the north and south sides and comes together at the east end. The slopes are prickly, rocky, nasty looking things I didn't want anything to do with, but at this point I thought that was where I was going to end up.

I turned down wind and shot off like a rocket. I came to the end of the valley with 50mph ground speed and prepared to spin around and try to stick a rocky patch of dirt. Instead I caught ridge lift that gave me another hundred feet and a chance to find something else. I found myself thinking of Sundowners post of backing into the beach and spotted a open field with an orchard upwind of it. I set up over the orchard and started backing towards the field. As I got closer and lower the wind lessened and I did some back and forth moves right above the last row of trees. I let the wind push me back a bit more and made a perfect landing. Took five wraps and killed the wing. Piece of cake, do it all the time. No problem.

I looked up in time to see Bob fly past and drop behind a row of trees. We connnected on the radio and hiked out. I didn't realize at this point that this was Bob's first thermal flight. If that had been my first thermal flight, it probably would have been my last. That was one crazy flight; wild on launch, no penetration, lift everywhere, and a wild landing. Can't wait to take Bob to Pine...

Flight time: 1:40, vario said 3800 up, 3900 down, max 8007 feet

[Simon]

This was my first time flying in Ojai. My only regret was that I was the first pilot to touch down at the LZ. I suppose I was better off landing seeing as the conditions were less than ideal. Thanks again Robb for putting that together. I am looking forward to flying Ojai again when the conditions are right. If you need a driver sometime or would like a wing-man, feel free to email me.

[Mark Miyahara]

Special thanks to Robb, Benson, Krystin Pratt.
I was second to last to FINALLY get my launch right. 4 attempts with the fifth being the charm. Robb and Benson did a great job of helping some of us newbies at launch.
My fourth attempt was close but I thought I was carrying too much brake on my right side in a attempt to get better foward penetration , I let up off the brake some. ( I should have kept it where it was) The right tip overshot & collapsed. ( I believe this to be what was happening ,but it happened pretty quickly). I recontacted ground about 10 feet below launch. Krystin and Benson were kind enough to help with getting my wing and I back to launch.
More ground handling practice with high wind conditions needed for me again.
Flew to right of launch and found a couple of lift areas but they seem to peter out on me or got blown apart.
Continued on down to Twin Peaks with lots of sinking air. My 5030 said LZ was a -200ft by the time I hit the front of Twin Peaks ...where was my lift?! Searched a bit before I deciding to strike out for LZ...hopeing to find some lift zones on the way. NOT my luck. My 5030 kept making that depressing sink tone alarm. Had to land short of LZ in orchard that I saw had a patch of recently planted smaller trees. Lined up on the row while turning slightly right...took a quick wrap about 3 ft up and landed great with 2 lines in a tree, that I was able to reach up and lift off of it. Packed up my wind just in time to see Fast Eddie and Mike Preston driving up the road in OJ's Suburban searching for another pilot that landed out. They picked me. Back at the LZ we all watched Robb and Bob A become a fixture hanging over the Ojai valley.
It's great that all the experienced pilots shared their site and knowledge with us out of towners.
Thanks Robb for getting it together.
Looking foward to trying that again.

[wblamb]

Mark, the canopy never deflated. When you got airborn you were heavy in the brakes and drifting to the east. When you turned right to head for the main spine, you were 15 feet in front of launch and the same off the deck. By this time you were very deep in your brakes. Then you dumped both brakes and the canopy shot in front of you and hit the ground as you dropped straight down.

Glad you are ok.

Benson