skyport friday the 7th

[andy dainsberg]

lets fly skyport. parma @ 10.

[andy dainsberg]

the stealth flight squad of art, p-chris and i got to skyport and perfect cycles were coming up. i got up to 4150 (my max flight alt.) at launch and headed east. minor w tailwind was helpful. very dicey conditions for us at romero where art reported a full frontal w/ decent of 80ft to @ 150 over. played around castle for 10 minutes then cruised in to corona~ville at the padaro beach grill.

[Robb]

Such a life we live in Santa Barbara! I'm so glad I dragged my wife to California, unlike Grantham who is chasing a girl to Florida or someplace flat, humid and full of mosquitoes. I met up with the Eagle crew at the T and enjoyed the new road to Alternator. The streamers were all blowing down, so I put up new ones and that took care of that! The day was clear and the views were beautiful. Today was the first time I've seen Catalina from Launch in SB.

I launched fourth or fifth and was pretty pleased with myself for maintaining out front until Doug, an Eaglet having his first mountain flight on his fourth day of training(KevDog was sooo proud!), came along and took me to school. We were all scampering around under him trying to get into the lift he was in, until SA sent him to West Bowl and we all had to do our own work.

I managed to get a couple hundred over launch and pushed east along the ridge, going slow as I had seen Kabir get flushed off to Cathederal a few minutes earlier. Lacumbra was working and I got high enough for the run to the R+R, but it was as dead as I've ever seen it. As I was in flush mode, Andy D announced he was on glide for Padero, and soon after Art was on the radio saying the same thing. I was feeling lonely at the tit while the rest of the gang was skying out over launch, so I made a play for Cathederal. As I was pushing into the west wind, I watched a white Nivuik doing the lawn dart thing from LaCumbra towards the tit and I figured he'd be lucky to make St Marys. KevDog had already made the play for the R+R and was finding some love out front so I U-turned and pimped off him.

The Nivuik turned out not to be some inexperienced new pilot, but Kevin Howe, who only lacks experience charging his radio and was flying silent. Be sure to give him grief when you see him.

I got out of the hole I was in at the Holy Hills, and ran back to Skyport where it was working but just barely. After a while watching DD lay out his paraglider (hang pilots must be conditioned to spending a half hour setting up...) I headed off to the thermal factory to join up with Parma Chris. The Kevins joined us, and immediatly Howe went on east but turned back before having to hike. We were maintaining at 36-37; but I've never gone east below 4 so I kept waiting for something better. Obviously Kevin Howe had had two bowls of wheaties for breakfast as he pushed east and intercepted Monticeto peak so low I was sure he was going to get a ride from the UPS delivery truck.

Kevin is the man though, and got up and continued down range to land at a park in Carp. I headed to the beach with KevDog on my tail. We landed in time to watch the Armada parade in, led by SA's unmistakeable green and red wing. That was the first time I'd seen five pilots arrive in formation over the beach and it was pretty cool.

While folding up we saw DD on his way out, but he must have hit some serious car-suck over Parma as he never made the beach. We all enjoyed the views until Ty arrived with Eagle chase and picked us up. We ended up having lunch at the (brown pelican, new owners, forget the name) and enjoying those views.

UP: a bunch
DOWN: a bunch more
TIME: a while
FUN: you bet!

See you all tomorrow night at the SCPA meeting. Too bad about Grantham though, he'll still be in Alabama or whereever and not here...

[Chris G]

Yeah yeah, rub it in. But when I get home for X-Mas I expect everyone to be in top form because we're goin' HUGE!

[ravenclaw]

Fun day of flying on the clearest day I've ever seen in SB. No time to babble cause I'ma goin' flyin
kevdog http://picasaweb.google.com/ravenclawpa ... xX8Vtd-QA#

[Cormac]

Had a great day as well with the large crew up at alternator.. My first trek from west bowl over to the skyport hitting a few sweet spots with magic along the way... When I saw SA sending it I had to follow! heres a few shots... please disregard the gratuitous party pics from the night before! Also, if anyone finds a black UP flight suit that was left in the eagle van last season let me know!!! C 8055709652

http://picasaweb.google.com/CormacPara/Sbluvin#