Weekend / Nuthouse to Piru

[sd]

4 pilots flew the Nuthouse Saturday, getting to 8500, landing in Fillmore and Piru.
Link to SD's flight article
http://paraglide.net/log/12/12_04-28/1_nuthouse_to_rancho_sespe.htm
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Saturday Morning Update, 8am: Still on track for the Nuthouse this morning (9:45 @ NHS). Ojai looks like a no brainer and SB may work but needs some alignment and timing. A little more gusto at the Peak this morning compared to yesterday, but the heating should be stronger so I suspect it will back off enough. Plowshares may be doable by Sunday, but the convergence may not pull in until Monday.
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Friday night update: Planning to fly the Nuthouse Saturday. Don't expect to launch before noon, but to mitigate the heat I plan to meet around 9:30ish at the HS and start hiking about 9:45. At my pace, that should put me on launch with an hour to cool off and set up. Expect to reach Fillmore, so it may be worthwhile to carpool from Ventura so we can catch the 126 Vista Bus which leaves from the Senior Center across the street from city hall on the hour through 5 PM. There may be some Santa Anna flow down the Santa Clara River, but the current forecast isn't nasty. The rookies should note that seasoned pilots are leery about venturing eastbound out of the protected Ojai valley into the river flow on Santa Anna days. You can likely start hiking as late as 1PM and still catch the last bus, but plan to power through some Gatorade.

SB might work ok as noted in this morning's post. It looked good for awhile midday today with a cloud street about 4K behind Carpinteria around 11ish that burned off by early afternoon. The wind at ridge line backed down for awhile in the heat of the day. The forecasted afternoon wind didn't pull into the channel coast, but it is gusting to 25 at La Cumbre Peak at sunset. Sunday will likely be ok in Ojai, but surface temperatures are forecasted to peak on Saturday for an apprximate 25 degree spread from the valley floor to 6K.
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Weekend outlook on Friday morning
Sorta post frontal without the cold air on Friday. Building high pressure with some north offshore catabatic flow that is getting a venturi squeeze around Point Conception. Friday's lapse rate looks weak. My be better on Saturday inland (Nuthouse) with a 10 degree temp bump, but possibly worse in SB as the air above heats up but the ocean moderates the coastal temperatures, however, if the north flow is balanced to keep the ocean air out of the foothills, but not too strong, it might heat up enough behind the Riveria for a convergence to set up.

SB may have a window before the forecasted NW wind builds later Friday afternoon, but there is some decreasing ENE wind at ridge line this morning that needs to block and not sure if the weak lapse rate is up to the task (but it does seem to be trending toward blockage). We should know in a couple of hours.
If anyone is looking to give it a try on Friday, I could be easily distracted from my grind.

[Aaron]

sorry Tom, didn't see this post until now. wasnt planning on flying today due to all the forecasted north, but Grant K rang me at 11 all fired up to fly. i asked him if he looked at the weather, and he said he called debbie a couple days ago and it seemed ok(hmmmm), anyways that was good enough for me so i put in my half day notice and met him 20 minutes later at parma. he stashed his dirtbike there for retrieve. the ridgeline was still 5-10 otb but eliminator was coming in nice. climbed slowly at launch to a couple hundy over and putted over to RR. It seemed like ole mother nature was a chained down beast trying to break loose. the air was never scary, but definitively swirly and odd. seemed like the wind was different directions at different layers and spots. kept topping at 3500, probably could have got higher if i would have pushed into the terrain but i wanted to give her room to thrash her pissy head about. after fishbowling around with Grant on his HG i putted over town. Well Tom your forecasted riveria convergence was a day early. not sure how you figure that out, but its a little eerie ;) anyways surfed the seams with grant seeing if we could take it anywhere. it had defined ends at sycamore canyon to the east and the mission to the west, but wide. from parma to the front of the riveria, touching 3000 at times. super fun watching grant speedfly from one side to the other wangin it up. i felt like a paraparker just boatin around twiddlin my thumbs as he ripped around. after a while we both took about 2900 and headed to the training hill. We both arrived at the same time at about 1000 feet. super fun interesting conditions. thanks to Boulder Bob for hucking us back to parma.

[andy dainsberg]

saturday set up with a nice spread in Ojai (and terrifying early winds in SB!) ~chris paul, tom pipkin, sd and i hit the nuthouse. found some great altitudes and really nice flying for 20-some miles. never seen so many swallows in the air so high- viva la nut: usually fun, sometimes funnomenal~!~

[NMERider]

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[Aaron]

Wow! Bitchin! Thanks for the write ups. Nice flyin soldiers!

[Pipkin_Tom]

From launch to landing, Saturday’s Nuthouse flight was truly magical. As expected, the strong lapse in the Ojai Mountains blocked the north winds and the lift was big, smooth and fairly consistent. The highlight was the climb out with SD up the face of the rocky Topa Bluffs. What a view from atop the bluffs with 8600’.It’s a shame it wasn’t captured with a helmet cam.