Todays weather was not quite as good as I was thinking it would be last night, and not quite as bad as some ridge rats thought it would be this morning.
Art and Andy were at NHS when I arrived at 10 this am. We loaded up our gear and picked up Fast Eddie and headed up the 33. We stoped at the north launch to check on Rhonda (perfect!) and headed for the south side. Eddie brought some equipment to use on the HG launch area, and I decided I can always use some extra space when launching so I used it on the PG launch. With house keeping out of the way we stood under the pine tree fighting the urge to launch too soon. Rhonda reported N at 16 in the morning, was down to 8 when we left NHS and was 1-3 when we stopped at the north launch. Light cycles were coming in when Art looked, I blinked, and we were suddenly moving gear and getting ready.
Or so I thought! Once I had my gear out, my fleece and jacket on, my helmet on and was ready to test my new PTT I looked up and saw I was the only one actually ready. (wind) Dummy!
I had a clean launch and headed for the spine. There was rocketing lift, but I just couldn't manage to get the whole wing in it connect. I began to feel like I was at Chiefs on an early spring, high-pressure day, bullets wizzing by and knocking me around. I managed to latch onto something going up and got to 9k, then hit the 1,000 down and decided going east to Reyes might be better than throwing up on the bonzi tree.
An 8 mph east wind made progress slow, and if it wern't for that east wind I would have been sure I was being rotered by the north wind. I was trying to do my best active pilot, but the surges and deflations were a bit much. Reyes didn't work any better, and I went back to the spine noting how comfortable everyone looked on launch. Andy's wing laid out, but no big rush to join me and show that I was just being a wuss.
Since they wern't going to join me, I decided I was getting rotored and any place along the 33 would be more fun than what I was doing. I headed out and about half way to the 33 Eddie got on the radio that they were packing up and would pick me up on the way to Chiefs. Then my vario started talking. It had been talking most of the flight, but it was trash talk: you know, sounds only bats and marine mammals can hear. Now it had decided to be polite and since I had time to kill I turned circles while it talked to me. When it talked me to 8k the boys on the hill started to notice; at 8500 I announced that if I could make 9k I'd go to cal trans. At 10k I thought "I've made the HS with 10.3" At 11.4k I decided it was time to beat feet!
When I left the thermal I had already drifted south of the 33 and was over the first ridge in no time. Eddie called for an update and I looked at my instruments: ground speed 32 mph, good; glide ratio 4:1, not good; sink rate 800 fpm, crap! I flew like a piano until I was past dry-lakes ridge, and then things settled down. I had a 10 mph tail wind the whole way to Ojai where I arrived over the dam with ~6,500. I spent some time sightseeing from OJ's house to the fire station and back to land at NHS.
Flight time: 1:45
Max alt: 11,417
Rise: 2382
Sink: 2303
Art launched some time after I caught that thermal and got out, Andy did not fly. If I had been on the ground seeing me in the air, I would have put my gear back into the car. It was a washing machine along the top of Pine today. On the other hand, seeing someone take one thermal 4,700 feet would have made me want to join the fun. No injuries, so all's well.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/topapilot/SLi3M20HnLI/AAAAAAAABfg/tCvIVD3B_0E/Friday%20flight.JPG?imgmax=800
Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:15 pm