Pine/Chief doubleshot

[andy dainsberg]

ron, art and i conjured up our driver tc and headed up to pine. ron blasted off and was over 10k in minutes. he left to explore and get thrashed around reyes and meanwhile art and i were up over launch. i topped out at 11500 and headed out ~ meeting some south and some sink. art and i wound up landing at the rotor-y sand pile after a short but heart pumping flight and ron was a few hundred feet from joining us. when we looked up a second later he had gained~ saved it, and was off to land at caltrans right where two squad cars had detained some motorcylists. we fled without incident for flight # 2 at chief where the spread had looked good as well.

about 3/4 up the one-lane dirt road to launch we nearly got in a head-on with an unseen truck that came around a blind turn going probably 30mph. i braked, he slid~ and our trucks stopped about 4 inches from each other grill 2 grill. if we'd been going any faster or had less reaction time the potential collision trajectory could have easily sent our truck over the edge at one of the steepest drop-off curves on the way up~ into a real infinite tumble; going end over end for thousands of feet in a pickup. no harm no foul but that was an alternate universe moment for sure.

at launch it was blowing hard enough in to turn tc's sun umbrella inside out, switching from east to west~ close to ballistic for the first 15 minutes while ron cleared his lines undaunted. as time passed, acceptable lulls wandered in. ron topped at 7400 and headed out way high toward bruces. art followed and as i got the cheat sheet from them that lift @ nordhoff ridge was weak, i stayed back for a bit and left chief w/ 7000 on a straight glide over stooges to the high school. ron got pinned in sink and landed by pratt trail and art made the golf course. generous tom pipkin helped by retrieving ron, art hitched a ride and tc got the truck back down safely.