SCPA & SBSA Discussion Board

ron, bob h, art and i hit skyport today. it started coming up well @ 11:15. (before alternator pilots could fly over us this time!) i got up at launch and headed for the r&r where a flock of turkey v's were specking out over the east end and way over the back ridge as well. smooth conditions at the r&r~ got up to 4700 after half an hour. over at the thermal factory there was a moderate East kicking. i tanked up to 4300 and had a nice easy glide out to freshly cloudfree east beach; over the water w/@ 1200. bob h's flight took him to la cumbre and cathedral. back at launch to get my truck over an hour later, pg pilots (from alternator i believe) were still well above the r&r. hard to argue w/alternator this year huh? i still dig skyport tho!

Arrived at Alternator at 11:05 with many others. Greeted by smooth, light, and consistent SSE cycles. Launched at 11:25 to get the day going. Didn't feel anything obvious at launch, so went toward the slide area of West Bowl. Consistent there, but just couldn't find 'the one.' Topped out at 3900 ft over West Bowl, so moved out searching for something more over the south rock face. Nothing doing, so a pleasant glide to the 'T' ensued. Max lift 530 ft/min, max sink 520, 43 minutes--very mellow, and better next time, of course ;-)

Paragliding is fun - when you're in the air. After Andy, Art and Bob left, I struggled with the launch hiccups as Double D watched the painful process and patiently carried my wing back up the launch after each fiasco. But the hour delay served me well because the day seemed to only get better after noontime. I made a few loops with Dean and Bo, who were reporting getting up to 5K. Using the east tailwind, I cruised over to the R&R and LaCumbre Peak before coming back to the Thermal Factory. Tanked up one last time at the R&R and then pushed out to my house across from LaCumbre Junior High, just as Marge was reporting the start of her big adventure. It looked like the Training Hill was within reach, but I opted for the help of my daughter on the fold-up and the short walk home. One hour airtime in beautiful skies over Santa Barbara.

Nice flying day. Later was better off of Alternator. We found nice climbs to the right of launch to 4200', it was pulsing thru. La Cumbre was working, from the Saddle below the peak, to 4700'. Noname and VOR were like launch with climbs to 4200'. The lift was smooth, with light winds, which made it quite fun. Sooo, anyone looking to go on a hike to above Seven Falls tomorrow morning for a little LZ work ?...seems there is a tree right in the sweet spot that needs trimming...'course then maybe it'll give up the wing it has captured...

Oh yes, I saw that tree from Cathederal, and was afraid to get any closer. That tree is a menace and has to go!


I looks to me as though only the best of the best could survive an encounter with that tree and live to tell the tale. Full image here: http://www.pbase.com/randr_resort/image/108737907

What a DAY !!! Best I've seen in a year. No winds was the key, although there was a light east push. Alternator was looking good from the time we arrived, but I thought we might need some more heating so I didn't launch first. Everyone was making it look pretty good though, especially at the Slide and in front of West Bowl.

I found some love just off launch on the way to the main spine. It was nice, but slow lift. Eventually got high enough to take a stab at LaCumbre Peak. The Skyporters were showing great promise at LaCumbre and further east and they were getting high over the Thermal Factory. I headed back to Alternator to see if Dean would come out and play. Once he took off, he was on the move and eventually I followed his lead over to LaCumbre and the RR. We took it on over to the Thermal Factory, climbed up slowly and just enough to make a glide back to RR. Dean connected, I didn't. We knew from the forecast that getting below 3K might be a tricky deal to get back up, so it hurt when I didn't connect on the R&R spine.

Down the staircase, past the Tit, and eventually worked the Holy Hills with Jim Maddox. We tried repeatedly to reach for the heavens where Dean was sitting pretty on top of the R&R. On my 3rd or 4th attempt back to the R&R spine, I finally clawed my way up the ladder. When I got to the rocky part, it was like a rocket ride to 5K. Dean took me on a tour to see where Marge landed safely in the ravine and we waved. By then she was making tracks down the canyon without her glider.

We connected with LaCumbre Peak again, then Alternator, back to LaCumbre. Dean zigged and I zagged. He headed to Westbowl and I took it over to the R&R, we met back at Cathedral, headed to Westbowl and then we took a nice buoyant glide to the T, where I whipped old Dean at the spot landing contest.

Great flying with Deano! 3.5 hours of a Santa Barbara air feast!

Well, how come no one ever told me about 7 falls? What an awesome place, not a bad place to be forced to hike down through.

So I got up at launch but couldn't seem to get more than 200 over and every time I started to make a move I'd hit some major sink. After about 25 minutes of looking around and trying to find it, I finally had about 4200 and saw wings getting up at Lacumbre and pilots going on glide from launch and not losing too much on the way. I started toward LaCumbre, staying near the ridge. Once I hit the rock ledge face and got enough incentive from my vario, I started to make a couple of figure 8s and ended up lower and farther away from the ridge. Continuing on, i still saw glider ahead of me getting up, however, I was going down, that awful sink noise. "Mistake number 1."

I got to the ridge pretty low but with great anticipation of getting something as I approached. Nothing, nothing, more of nothing. The winds were so light and the sun was hitting the rock ledge on the other side. I thought of a lot of the cross country pilots I've spoke to who told me that you need to look for the signs and know the area, and believe. Well, I thought I knew a good sign, I knew I could believe, and I know Santa Barbara. I went through the saddle pretty low and was really woken up to the fact that I don't know Santa Barbara at all. Mistake number 2

At first my vario seemed to be telling me, I'd be rewarded by my new found cross country knowledge, but once again I got "suckered in". I guess I must have had sucker written on my wing today. Mistake Number 3

Really low now, I didn't think I could go back to the saddle and I didn't think it would be a good idea to go into EJ bowl. I searched a bit and milked it for quite a while, but was having a difficult time even maintaining what little height I had.

Near the tree tops with no signs of even a schetchy LZ in sight, I made my way down the revine and looked for an area to land. I settled on a treed area towards the bottom of the ravine. I chose this spot because I could see a clear space or two under the trees so it was not too thick of an area and it looked like I could get the wing out because the trees were lower. I was into what little wind I had and kicked a branch out of the way as the wing landed in the tree and I gently dropped to about a foot off the ground.

I tried to get the wing out but the ledge it was near was shale and it kept breaking under my feet. I decided to leave the wing for later and hike out. After bouldering down for about 1/2 hour, I ran into a bunch of people at this outrageous water fall and pool. I had to roll my backpack down a ledge to them. A bunch of guys volunteered to carry the bag down for me. I was very grateful, it would have been difficult to do parts of the trail with the pack alone. Bob came up and met us at the bottom of the creek and took the pack the rest of the way.

Lessons One
Don't turn in sucker pop and don't think you know an area unless you really know an area (I think that proably takes a million hours of flying an area).

Hammer said he saw the whole thing and I think his first thought was "why is she ridge soaring there, it's only a sucker pop".
Little John said to me "oh yeah, I haven't stopped there in years".
Double D said, something about the sucker pop there.
"Yeah, I never stop and turn there we just dolphin through", Bob told me after he met me hiking down.).

Lesson Two

Ask a lot of questions. If I had asked about that area before I made my first attempt I might had learned about the sucker pop (I don't think that would have made a major difference but it might have helped).

Lesson Three - A Santa Barbara Lesson -

Don't fly out the East side of Cathedral if you're low. Stay at LaCumbre Peak Saddle in zeros until something comes through, apparently it eventually does.

Post Incident Good Decisions -

Being Prepared - Remembering water, charged cell phone and fully changed radio battery (Dean has a great article in this month's USHPA magazine about being prepared).

Don't take unnecessary risks - Initially, I thought I should have worked harder to get the wing out but risking getting hurt retrieving a wing when you were lucky enough to land unharmed in a tree is not too smart.

Have good friends - Thank you all your caring, concern and help.

Beautiful day for a hike!

It did turn out to be a fun day. It was really nice not to have a North or East wind whackin' us like we've had over the past two months. It wasn't an epic day but the light winds made it really fun to hug the terrain, buzz the hikers on top of Cathedral, and enjoy the views. Bo and I flew together most of the time, and we connected with Ron F. on several of the transitions. I don't know how many of you flying saw it, but there must of been 100 people perched at the front of La Cumbre peak. It must have been a tour of some sort. I had a lot of fun buzzing that group. In fact, when Bo and I were thermalling low in front of the peak I was positioned directly over Bo and matching his speed and turning radius to give the tourists a little synchronized thermalling show, I wonder if they even noticed. Yea, Marge dished out some drama with her epic land out, and it was a relief to hear she came out of it without a scratch and had a fairly easy time getting down the mountain - lucky! If you weren't there you missed out on a fun day. If you were there and didn't have fun, then there's something wrong with you

A few shots:

It wasn't an epic day but the light winds made it really fun to hug the terrain, buzz the hikers on top of Cathedral, and enjoy the views.

Be careful out there you still can get bit on light wind days in the mountains flying close to the terrain. Assuming thats what buzzing hikers means.

Gary is right, you can still find yourself in trouble on light wind days and you should always use caution.

...and no Gary, "hugging the terrain" and "buzzing tourists" doesn't mean flying dangerously close to the terrain. Its just a bit of color for the flight report, but thanks for your concern - you can't imagine how much I appreciate it

Glad to hear Dean its just a little storytelling .Lately there is some concern with rules and regulations.I think all is good in SB, just where do we draw the line (forums too)? Could a novice pilot or non- local take this the wrong way?
CYA...have to go put my wingsuit on and huck from a paraglider and buzz a few hikers...nahhh just storytelling, would never do that in SB

Glad to hear Dean its just a little storytelling

Wow Gary, your approval means so much to me - no , really!

This should be attached to the thread "Great Flying Today" where it began, but here it goes. Could a novice pilot or non-local be getting the wrong message when reading this forum? I don't know Gary, what's the message you'd like to be sent? Should it be that it's a free-4-all out here in SB and you can do whatever you like without consequence? Great, Claude Fiset will be elated to hear that. I'd prefer to think that we're sending the message that everyone is welcome as long as they exercise some common sense to help preserve our priveledges to fly in SB?

Gary, you can continue to take shots at me and we'll keep driving down this road, or not - your choice...

rWow Dean...hyper- sensitive...taking shots at you...thats funny.We can not Question the local big doggs?My point on all this debate on forums about safety with new pilots and non locals makes me laugh a little because we all make mistakes as pilots,so if someone once a year shows up and makes a mistake do we really have to hammer away at them or just speak to them with a little humility?You yourself said that you had moments ...me too...but if beginners make mistakes that seems more acceptable then pilots that should know better from past epics.Dont no the stats but wonder how many accidents where caused by non locals without supevision....seems that it is always us locals who end up in trees or bushes.
No wonder people do not take to debates or like to hear another point of view...still always comes down to ego, feeling like we are being attacked by another sorry you feel that way.The approval comment is funny but thats not what it is about Dean Driving down the road...damn where i grew thats a threat...man we are just paragliding.
To answer your Question.No free for all.Things seem pretty well done by schools and pilots.Would i like more rules in place like Torrey pines...no.

I don’t know anybody well and vice versa ~that’s my ‘gift!’ But there aren’t 2 nicer guys than dean and gary. Anyway, (for me)conveying absolute meaning in text is difficult~ as a sortof disclaimer for the future: I probably don’t want my posts to be overanalyzed; whether I’m the cop or the robber (and any of us w/years of experience can be either). When my post is seemingly out of line (maybe this 1 is) just send me an email. or punch me!

Thats funny Andy...thanks.I guess i will just post "there i was"stories because they seem to get alot of views but no posts Hope all is well!