Chief's 5/9
Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 5:52 amJumped in the FAA Suburban with Chris, three students, Matt, Bob P, and Randall. Arrived to find nice cycles blowing 5-8 straight up the front so people started launching right away, with me going last around 11. The whole spine was working well, Matt looked like he was knocking on the door of 6K and Chris' student Kristen (who vowed to take a sledder straight to the LZ) was turning circles at 5K over Twin Peaks.
I went West with 5300, pulling a normal glide to Stooges, but struggled beyond that trying to get to Bruce's with single-digit ground speeds and a 1-1 glide. Was hoping for some smooth convective lift surfing through the Nordhoff bowls but only found the kind where you point the glider South while getting hoovered upwards. Bob had a much better line with his spiffy new Delta 2 and watched my low/slow progress from the top of the ridge before veering off for the high school.
Found some organized lift at the West end of Nordhoff and headed out, leaving with 4200. Pulled a decent glide out over town and was surprised to find myself rapidly gaining on Bob who had a big head start. Then I found out why. My ground speed became less and less while the vario chirped 100 up. I was at 2500 and within a half-mile of the lz but only showing 1-2 mph on the gps. Taking a line-of-sight on an object below, it appeared the ground speed was actually a negative 1-2. The flags at the school didn't show anything too strong on the ground so we were just dealing with something at altitude.
Bob veered right and was making good headway West of the Ojai Preserve so I followed suit. We cored sink to a few hundred agl before taking a quick downwind glide back to the lz in active conditions all the way to the ground.
Vario log: 960 up, 680 dn, max alt. 5350, 1 hr 10 minutes.
I went West with 5300, pulling a normal glide to Stooges, but struggled beyond that trying to get to Bruce's with single-digit ground speeds and a 1-1 glide. Was hoping for some smooth convective lift surfing through the Nordhoff bowls but only found the kind where you point the glider South while getting hoovered upwards. Bob had a much better line with his spiffy new Delta 2 and watched my low/slow progress from the top of the ridge before veering off for the high school.
Found some organized lift at the West end of Nordhoff and headed out, leaving with 4200. Pulled a decent glide out over town and was surprised to find myself rapidly gaining on Bob who had a big head start. Then I found out why. My ground speed became less and less while the vario chirped 100 up. I was at 2500 and within a half-mile of the lz but only showing 1-2 mph on the gps. Taking a line-of-sight on an object below, it appeared the ground speed was actually a negative 1-2. The flags at the school didn't show anything too strong on the ground so we were just dealing with something at altitude.
Bob veered right and was making good headway West of the Ojai Preserve so I followed suit. We cored sink to a few hundred agl before taking a quick downwind glide back to the lz in active conditions all the way to the ground.
Vario log: 960 up, 680 dn, max alt. 5350, 1 hr 10 minutes.