southeast sunday

[Aaron]

two overfilled vans headed up the hill to altenator. faoro jumped out there and showed us it was soarable and easty(p.s. awesome write up yesterday faoro!). dainsberg and i flung off and ridge soared around a bit and accuvet took off west so i followed with 4200. got a nice one at vor to 4400 for my high of the day. came over andy at painted cave as he was scratchin for a bit on the bluffs before connecting. Didnt feel nuttin but a tailwind, so with 3800 crossed the pass. bumped along low way out front and below camino cielo in weird stuff on the flat terrain until andy and i hung up on a ridge just before lizards mouth for a bit. finally got one to 3800 and headed westbound. andy was lower and taking awesome bold lines in no mans land. floated up and down a bit to condor point where we just got lower and lower on the front ridge. i think i bailed to hunt for an lz at 2500 and andy hung in a bit longer and lower... on the way out got a dribbler back to 2500 with lots of east which got me to a nice big grassy field next to the 101 a few miles short of el capitan. beautiful spot! andy put it down safely west of winchester canyon area. once we landed we see albatross bo come in right where we flushed on condor point, beam out, glide to santa ynez peak then over the back AGAIN!!!. albotrosses are starting to piss me off, he is way too good. he landed in los olivos. thanks to chris mckeller for the retrieve after his killer flight over 6k all over town. heard that wasnt uncommon today! awesome adventure and day!! fun flying with you andy! and amazing flying once again bo(#@!$%^#!)

gaviota coast

[Dizzy]

I made it to condor point as well. Launched Skyport around 12:00, good climbs all the way to 6K, so I went west. When I was near VOR I can see albatross Bo crossing 154 few miles ahead of me, but I can't catch up. I start getting low after lizards mouth and by the time I made to condor point I was not confident enough to commit toward Santa Ynez peak alone. Terrain is kinda shallow out there, and wind also pick up considerably. So, I take altitude I have ~2500 to push out (very slow) to the last good lading spot.
Thanks to Chris VV for the retrieve and to Aaron P. for letting me try his Advance Lightness harness.

[Rich]

Sunday at the Alternator was the best flying day that I've had there. Squeaked across the slide after launch, like a lot of people that day, but got up in front of Westbowl. Flew around for an hour and a half and got to 6000' briefly back over launch. I thought about going downrange but was busy enough doing what I was doing. There were lots pf people in the air as far as the eye could see in any direction.
Later in the afternoon, I was on glide toward the training hill, or so I thought, until I heard Cormac on the radio mention a wall of east wind so, with a lot of altitude, I headed back to the T and then heard Jim Maddox radio "15MPH east wind at the LZ". By then, I was setting up over the orchard and at 2500' had little to no penetration, so eventually smoothly landed back behind some bathtub which I had long seen from the air and had no reason to be visit.
Seemed like quite a few people ended up at the training edge of the LZ due to the East wind which came and went. Fun day!

[NMERider]

removed by author

[andy dainsberg]

luv the vid posts! ~ A-Ron was saying we dont get a lot of good pg opps to explore W. of course, that statement is arguable if u are albatross or sd... i was excited to try to fly Westbound w/ bo and a-ron and steal a few of their riffs. got off too early to scam off bo but learned a lot from aaron. weirdly, i've never been past no name that way in 10+ years of flying sb! condor seems to me like its a make/break where experience would be nice. its a spine system that gives you 3 choices: high back ridge, mid level ledge, and front points... i had to push out pretty low to the front to ensure an open lz. nothing inspiring to hang onto. landed big eared in a decent fallow field bordered by power lines. scenic country hike out to a gate. thanks for the guide A-Ron! and chris m for the retrieve.