Pine Mountain, Wednesday, April 22
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:44 pmAlthough Tony Deleo takes the honors for the best flight of the week (see his post below), I thought Pine Mountain had one more good day to squeeze out of the recent unusual weather. Bob Peloquin took his Suzuki with me and an unnamed paraglider pilot - who may be a yellow-bellied coward, but who was unafraid to fly the backcountry in the face of towering thunderheads - as driver up to check out Pine for the inaugural flight of the year. The weather page had 9900's all the way up through 12,000 feet with a stellar lapse rate. The only problem might be the below-zero temperatures we would feel if we ascended to the BLIPMAPS' predictions of 16K. Well, the monster anvil-cloud that rose up over Lockwood Valley at 10 AM led to some pointed debate and hyperbole in the vehicle as we wound our way back up the 33 toward launch. Mammatus clouds added to the excitement. The aforementioned unnamed pilot demonstrated no fear as he calmly related stories of unbelievable horror that befell earlier, naive pilots in similar situations.
The thunderhead had dissipated to a wide, black overcast blotting out the sun by the time we arrived at the 7,000 foot launch. Someone had kindly put up lots of streamers and the cycles were blowing in a bit on the weak side due to overdevelopment. It was quite dark out toward Lockwood with visible virga below the clouds. But the sun popped out a few minutes later and the cycles seemed adequate for laying out a wing, and so I did. I launched at 12:30 PM, too late for any hope of the elusive hundred miler, but adventure was in the air. Unfortunately, the lift was anemic, despite the big cumulus to the west and north of Pine. To the east, there was no sunshine all the way to the Antelope Valley, except for a little bit leaking into Dry Canyon from the west. But the west and south were in sunshine, if a bit hazy with some cirrus streaks. I climbed at a few hundred feet a minute, gazing down at the remaining snow on the north side of Pine, expecting to get yanked skyward at any moment as I drifted west down the spine. (By the time Bob P. landed on the 33, there was booming thunder and lightning as the whole west end of Pine went off.) It never happened. I almost reached 11K, a few thousand below cloudbase, before the thermals petered out - despite being beneath the large cumis. The clouds stretched out a mile toward Santa Barbara and northwest a few miles toward Plowshares. Before I knew it, I had squandered two thousand feet looking for another thermal. At 9,700 I decided it was time to bolt for Ojai. By now, I was way west over the 33, but I was getting a nice 15 mph tailwind with my GPS saying I had a 7:1 glide to reach Ojai. Looked good in theory, so I flew over Ortega Ridge and was below seven thousand feet when I had crossed Dry Lakes Ridge. Ojai was shaded in and I swung in from the west, seeing Matilija off to my right hand side.
Cleared the ridge over the Nuthouse launch west of Nordhoff Peak with minimal altitude, around 4K. I thought I could catch some lift off Spine One, but there was nothing working in the dark in Ojai. Now, I had lost hope for the high school, so I settled for Pipkin's Meadow, about 800 yards short of a decent LZ. But I didn't make that either and ended up landing in Reese Witherspoon's back yard. Nice house, nice LZ. No one home for a tandem, so I packed up and walked back toward my car at the high school.
One hour flight.
The thunderhead had dissipated to a wide, black overcast blotting out the sun by the time we arrived at the 7,000 foot launch. Someone had kindly put up lots of streamers and the cycles were blowing in a bit on the weak side due to overdevelopment. It was quite dark out toward Lockwood with visible virga below the clouds. But the sun popped out a few minutes later and the cycles seemed adequate for laying out a wing, and so I did. I launched at 12:30 PM, too late for any hope of the elusive hundred miler, but adventure was in the air. Unfortunately, the lift was anemic, despite the big cumulus to the west and north of Pine. To the east, there was no sunshine all the way to the Antelope Valley, except for a little bit leaking into Dry Canyon from the west. But the west and south were in sunshine, if a bit hazy with some cirrus streaks. I climbed at a few hundred feet a minute, gazing down at the remaining snow on the north side of Pine, expecting to get yanked skyward at any moment as I drifted west down the spine. (By the time Bob P. landed on the 33, there was booming thunder and lightning as the whole west end of Pine went off.) It never happened. I almost reached 11K, a few thousand below cloudbase, before the thermals petered out - despite being beneath the large cumis. The clouds stretched out a mile toward Santa Barbara and northwest a few miles toward Plowshares. Before I knew it, I had squandered two thousand feet looking for another thermal. At 9,700 I decided it was time to bolt for Ojai. By now, I was way west over the 33, but I was getting a nice 15 mph tailwind with my GPS saying I had a 7:1 glide to reach Ojai. Looked good in theory, so I flew over Ortega Ridge and was below seven thousand feet when I had crossed Dry Lakes Ridge. Ojai was shaded in and I swung in from the west, seeing Matilija off to my right hand side.
Cleared the ridge over the Nuthouse launch west of Nordhoff Peak with minimal altitude, around 4K. I thought I could catch some lift off Spine One, but there was nothing working in the dark in Ojai. Now, I had lost hope for the high school, so I settled for Pipkin's Meadow, about 800 yards short of a decent LZ. But I didn't make that either and ended up landing in Reese Witherspoon's back yard. Nice house, nice LZ. No one home for a tandem, so I packed up and walked back toward my car at the high school.
One hour flight.