chief sun

[andy dainsberg]

another fun day at chief. pilots all snagging mid 6s. 4 to the prop field and 4 out to nhs. appreciate f.a.a. posting meet times and transport all week for chief and oj offering delivery skills too. congrats to robin for pushing it out to the high school with great flying-... -it can take some guts to connect those dots initially!

[robinc]

Yet another spectacular day at Chief’s with the Fly Above All crew! The group consisted of our very-much-appreciated driver John K, and eight pilots: Chris G, Andy D, Otis, Jeff, Stan, Annie (P2), Robin (new P3), and Bob P. We got up there earlier today, not knowing if strong conditions might re-appear as they have over the past few days. We arrived a bit before 10:00, and it was lighter than it has been, so we were a little more leisurely in getting ourselves organized. Stan launched first, a bit after 10:00, and ended up needing go to about half-way down the Chief’s spine to find substantial lift, but did find it there, and worked his way back up to launch altitude and the hairpin in the road just to the west of launch pretty quickly. Next was Annie, who also found significant lift about ½ way down the spine, and got up above launch altitude quickly. I think Andy launched in there somewhere, then me, and then the rest of the crew got in the air in very comfortable launch conditions. We all got up above launch pretty easily and into the 6000’s – very respectable for Chief’s, and everyone agreed that conditions up around the peak were quite smooth. Four of us ultimately headed for the propeller field LZ, and four of us headed west to Nordhoff ridge with the high school as destination. I was the last to head out to the high school – I had hoped to get up to 6500’ first, and did get to 6250’ but didn’t run with it, so had to settle for 6000’ about 10 minutes later. I headed over to Three Stooges with a good glide, but no lift over it once I was there, but left for Bruce’s with about 4000’. I got to Bruce’s high enough to avoid most of the unpleasantness sometimes found there, and was able to get up above the top of Bruce’s after working the south and southwest faces a bit. Conditions in general seemed much more manageable today than yesterday, and I was better able to focus on the different places along the route that I knew I needed to get a certain altitude at, or to work a certain way, and do that. I was able to fly right about at Nordhoff ridge altitude most of the way west, and got up to 4100’ over the final knob, and then 4200’ a bit out front of it. In contrast to yesterday I had a great glide – between 7:1 and 7.5:1 most of the way out to the LZ – arriving at 2200’ – plenty to boat around and check things out with before landing in the slightly poppy LZ. I must say, though, key to my endeavor and success (first time making it to the high school!) was the lots of great encouragement and helpful information and suggestions on and off the radio from pretty much everyone in the crew that was in the general vicinity, which made it even more fun!!

[Rich]

Congrats making the high school, Robin! You'd wanted to do that... Thanks for the interesting write up. Hearing about everyone's Ojai flight success (almost) has me kicking myself for tearing up the Dunlap skies this weekend... Driving back today, it occurs to me that we have such great flying potential close to home that it is great for the community to have available Chief's and Pine for weekly enjoyment... Thanks to Chris G. for being the catalyst for this. SB flying will get even better once our mountain season starts, but we'll not be seeing 11k over downtown the way Ojai seems to reasonably often deliver.