Fillmore, 12/28

[Nitrous]

There may be a chance for a flight fix Tuesday 12/28. Hope for sun in the AM and SW wind in the PM. It might be fun on a speed wing late. Arrive by XC and be a sky god. Call so that we can carpool.

Mark Pratt
805-208-1345

[Chris G]

I might be game Mark. Nuthouse has a decent lapse but the N at Montecito is still raging. Keep us posted on conditions.

[Mark Miyahara]

I'm packing my bag so I can leave from work and be at the LZ in 15 minutes. I'll be keeping an eye on conditions from Santa Paula.

[Nitrous]

The east is slowly giving way as the ridge is breaking down. A good site to check is the Wiley Ridge weather station. I don't think that it thermal blocks as well as oat, but is a good E-W flag. Whitaker Peak is good for the N-S, but many times the onshore and the thermal pressers will overcome it at the lower altitudes. It sort of reminds me of a mini pine. A strong thermal at launch that is pushed to Oat, that sometimes will have a cloud on it, that will hit the north and pushes back over Fillmore. Allen King uses this on his flight home to his ranch on Guiberson road as we do to get to Ojai.
The problem is the East, will it yield to the thermal block, and at what time?

[Mark Miyahara]

UPDATE: Meet time is at 1:00 at Goodenough LZ.
11:45 looks like offshore has stopped here in Santa Paula. See how ever wants to come at 1.
My cell 8057944576

[Nitrous]

Great to see all the bird in the air on the way to launch, I really liked the ones that specked out right above us as we were getting the gliders out of the truck. Off the hill at 1:30 in glass smooth lift. Played around right at launch watching two deer not more than100 feet directly in front of Mark as he was
getting ready to take off. Then thermal ed up to 4grand. Fell back to Oat as the air was more textured and wanted so see if it would get more so, and it did, as I dropped to mid 3's. Backed to top land and return a few calls. Pulled up and just had enough time to turn around as I was pulled offthe hill. More wind, had to be patient working the ridge lift until I dove off into a nice one to about 4 grand. Tried to make a play for the power line ridge, but found no lift and turned back with 2 grand. I worked all my favorite points but could not get above launch. Landed at Goodenought LZ with lots of wind and just cleared the trees, feeling like I was going strait down. 1.5 hours flight time. A slow retreat of the east made for an late start. Above 3 grand it was beautiful easy and fun. Below 2.7 it was difficult to get back up and realized that I need to work on my skills.

[secretary]

A good site to check is the Wiley Ridge weather station. I don't think that it thermal blocks as well as oat, but is a good E-W flag.

Added Wiley Ridge to the SCPA Weather Page under Observations. Named it Fillmore SE because most pilots won't know where Wiley Ridge is.
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobe ... banner=off

Also added the MesoWest Map to the bottom of the Observations List, showing the location of Wiley Ridge SE of Fillmore
http://mesowest.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman ... ate=LOXfwz

[dteal]

Is the Filmore site hang glider compatible? How big is the LZ? I live in Moorpark and have wondered about this site for a few years. How about GPS coordinates for the launch and LZ so I can look it up in Google Earth.
DT

[John Fritsche]

I flew my hg at Oat once about two years ago. Easy slope launch, and the LZ that I was shown and used is fine for hgs, but I have no idea if it's still cool to land there. This is really a private site with a very kind and generous host; you'll need to get contact info. (I don't have that info.; it was all arranged by someone else when I went there). A PG pilot owns the launch and negotiates access to it, and his friends owned the LZ that I landed in.

[bb_secretary]

Is the Filmore site hang glider compatible? How big is the LZ? I live in Moorpark and have wondered about this site for a few years. DT

Launch is owned by foot launch pilots Ron Gruell and Mark Pratt. Ron used to fly HGs and both are currently active PG pilots. Oat used to be a HG site many years prior to PG innovation, and pilots often come in low on the transition downrange from Santa Barbara.

The SCPA website has only limited information posted about Oat.
http://scpa.info/sites/fillmore

We don’t have any information listed on protocol
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1799
but I think flying is by general invitation. Mark will typically post an open invitation when he knows he is planning to fly. I’ll send Mark an email and ask him to clarify the protocol.

[Nitrous]

HG are well come at Oat. LZ's are directly proportional to altitude. If you think that you may need to land in the fields north of the Santa Clara river, I would like to give the property owners a call before hand. They have always been very hospitable to our presence and I would like to keep it that way. Call for a site intro 208-1345