SCPA & SBSA Discussion Board

very fun flying day w/ lots of pg pilots and possibilities. my first forray over to ej bowl got me so low i needed to remember how marty got out of there and finally got back to alternator counting squirrels. hooked a nice low thermal out front that eventually drifted doug and i up over the road. round 2 past ej's was better and i got up to 43 at the rr. art and doug pealed off to e.beach. left tfactory w/ 3950 to shadow, got up ok enroute to montecito peak. rode up and over to romero where the thermals were animalistic. very fun, punchy but corable; happily racking up the alt. romero is consistenly interesting. connected thermic castle ridge and left w/ 39. was over santa claus beach w/ 1250.

Today was a good day for sure. I didn't get a head count but with two full school vans and another truck following it was crowded on launch.

I held back for quite a while and watched some of the noobs get their fun. I'm glad I did as there was some close-quarter flying going on and I didn't want any part of it. There was decent lift right over launch, half-way to West Bowl, and just on the front side of WB so there was plenty of places to look for lift.

After thirty minutes or so I saw Jim Maddox sneaking off to the East, following the back ridge. With a couple hundred feet more than him I cut directly across to La Cumbre from West Bowl, coming in just behind him at the same altitude. Parma Chris saw my line and did the same thing. Pajama Man was already down by Romero, and Art and Doug G reported they were at East Beach.

A Red Tail on the East side of La Cumbre showed me a good thermal and with that I had the RR on a straight glide. Parma Chris caught me there and we teamed up to find the cores which were suddenly not so abundant.

Jim again took the high line, going behind the RR headed for the Thermal Factory. Chris followed him but I was ready to bail. Up until this month I have only visited the Snake Pit once in nine years of flying. In the last three weeks I've managed to bump that number up to three, including yesterday.

So with a green light from the gps saying the beach was a go, I went. As always, a nice glide to the ocean where Jim and Chris joined me a few minutes later.

Vario Log: 600 fpm up, 600 dn, max alt. 4370, 1 hr. 6 minutes.