SCPA & SBSA Discussion Board

Went up to pine with Marty, Arizona Glen, Randall, and lovely Carmen as our driver for what we thought would be an epic day. Blips up to 17 k, some wind forcasted, but as the day before the forecast didn't equal reality, I think this is due to the upper level high pressure that the regional forcaster stated in his forecast discussion that it was hard to predict winds and possiblity for TS due to the phenomenon. WJF had been reporting SSE winds much lower than SBA which is what we found.

We arrived on launch about 11:10, lite thermals no wind and hot! Marty was off and scratched all the way out to the sand pile then up to 9k so I was off scratched for 15 minutes then it started perking and we were all up to the inversion at 9k for a couple hour flight, we all landed in the grass field just uphill from the sandpile good day.

Looked like the north side of the ridge was starting to develop as we were landing then it started developing right over our head as we were leaving and base looked to be about 14k.

Wonder what happened out at blackhawk.

Randall and I are thinking of pine or blackhawk tomorrow, give a call if interested 805-705-4678

"Wonder what happened out at blackhawk"

Well, let's just that the "home team" didn't put in that great of a showing; the Kagel boys, kicked our arses. They put one pilot back at Kagel, another in Aqua Dolce and at least two others near the 14.

The lower level wind was already flowing through the Cajon Pass when we met for breakfast in Hisperia at 8:00 am. It would end up putting most of our crew on the ground at around the 30 mile mark.

I was the fourth pilot off and after bit of yoyoing 100 over/below launch I climbed out nicely in snaky thermal with Phill Bloom to just over 15k. Up to about 8k or so we had drifted to the east of launch, but by the time that we had topped out we were about 3 miles to the southwest of it. Phill (Litespeed with all of the bells and whistles) and I (Fusion SP) left at the same altitude and at the same time; in about 5 minutes he was about a mile ahead and 2k above me. And that would be the last that I would see of him (he would end up landing near Ave S).

On my way to Ord I ran into a number of pockets of lift, but nothing it seemed, big enough to stop and work. Reached Ord at about 11k. Out front on course there was a beautiful cloud street marking the shear line; the only problem was that it was about 20 miles away on the west side of the Cajon Pass. But there were also some smaller clouds to the north and NW of me. It became obvious that I would have to try and go around the lower level stuff seeping in through the Pass. But, rather than go due north, I tried to cut the corner and aim for a cloud to the NW. I chased the cloud all the way down to just under 6k just west of the wash at about the 25 mile mark. Found something above a golf course and lake that got me just above 7k. But then I ended up committing the most common mistake in XC flying: leaving marginal lift for something better where if you don't connect you have no other options but to land. In this case I saw a nice dust devil a little over 5 miles away. I knew it was going be hit or miss whether or not I would make it there high enough to take advantage of the lift, but I went for it anyway. Well, I wasn't. I landed in due south winds.

Jeff Chipman, one of the Kagel pilots, reported going all the way out to the old George AFB before running into the convergence. From there he cut back to fly over El Mirage and back toward the San Gabriels.

John

I think that a more apt description of what transpired at Blackhawk was this: I took off first at 12:30 or so after the high cloud coverage had disappated. Bruce Barmakian took off second and he and I flew above takeoff with the 10 other pilots on the ground watching, Bruce was to later land back at the Crestline area. Our expressed goal was to fly north into The Owens Valley with the idea of going the max. distance. The Kagel crew showed up with the idea of flying west which for max. distance is questionable at best. With Saturday being nearly the "longest" day of the year and with cloud base being advertised at 15K+ it seemed like a waste of the day, the altitude and an "under" call. Barmakian and I were in the air for at least 1+ hours prior to the Kagel gang even taking off with the conditions getting better. Given the "slightly" less than advertised conditions theirs was the better choice, with us heading northwest and them heading west. As far as an "arse" kicking, had we all had the same goal and taken off at relatively the same time I might agree. Hopefully they will show up more often, it was nice to see them. Saturday there were 12 pilots at Black Hawk which is nearly triple what we see if we see anyone.

Sorry Tony, but I think it is hard to make that argument when all of those guys basically did fly the "Owens route" until they hit the convergence near the old George AFB. And if anything I would think that stuff flowing in from the Cajon Pass would have seeped in even farther later in the day making those pilots take an even more circuitous route.

The Owens route? maybe with the intent on flying back home. No mention of flying anywhere but west at takeoff. Were you headed up to the Owens also?

Not sure what you are arguing here. The point is whether or not you were trying to fly up into the Owens or head west you still had to somehow get around the lower level stuff flowing in from the Cajon Pass; they managed to do it, we didn't.

Barmakian and I were in the air for at least 1+ hours prior to the Kagel gang even taking off with the conditions getting better. Given the "slightly" less than advertised conditions theirs was the better choice, with us heading northwest and them heading west. As far as an "arse" kicking, had we all had the same goal and taken off at relatively the same time I might agree.

I don't think it took us an hour to get into the air after you launched (more like 30 minutes). But it must have seemed like an eternity to you when you were WAAAY out there in front of launch. Nice job pulling it up off what seemed like the deck from our vantage point.

Also Bruce started heading south pretty quick (seemingly) after joining you in the first thermal. I didn't seem him after that but going NW right away didn't look like it would have played out.

I believe we had the intention of going home even right from the start. BlipMaps showed a fairly consistent (although light) easterly flow at altitude. We did entertain the notion of flying to SB if possible. But your early struggle seemed to show that the climbs out front were agonizingly slow. With early conditions like we were seeing it didn't look like any record flights were going to be made.

Getting "arses kicked" might imply some sort of race which can allow for pilots to start later but get somewhere "faster". Not our intention, although I'd like to think that as a group (even though I was bringing up the rear) the Kagelites did a fair job of navigating the southwesterly flow coming through the pass. Moving out to the NW, in hindsight, was a pretty good move to escape the low level winds.

I had a great time.

Full posts on the day found here.

Jeff Chipman, aka Chippy

Amen! and now off to The Owens for the 4th 701-3619