Sat 9/28, Mild Santa Anna

[sd]

Link to SD's flight article for Saturday
http://paraglide.net/log/13/13_09-28/1_skyport_to_painted_cave_to_fillmore.htm
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Saturday pre dawn perception:
The Santa Anna event seems to be mostly a no show with little flow from the east. Not seeing much offshore flow through the usual paths. Perhaps offshore flow will pick up after dawn, but I don't see anything in place to drive it. The Ojai Valley temperature forecast for Saturday is down a few degrees from the prior prediction Friday night, but the lapse rate below 6K should still be very good in Ojai by midday. The Ojai Valley floor didn't get quite as cold last night as the forecast prediction.

Without a tail wind on course from Ojai to SB, I can't get motivated to hike in the heat, so I'll opt to attend Sam's XC meet at UCSB around 9ish, and hopefully get to Parma around 11ish. Perhaps a half hour behind the optimal meet time.

At 5 am, La Cumbre Peak was already flowing from the SSE rather than OTB from the NE as expected. Montecito had a few gust above 10 from the NNE, but it too is showing light flow from the S.

It may be iffy getting past Carpinteria, but as noted in last night's post, if we can get to Noon Peak, we should be able to reach Fillmore or Piru. The lack of pre-dawn flow from the NE is a bit disappointing. A NE flow can scour out the marine air and aid convergence over La Cumbre Peak.

At 6 am, the 1500 foot Montecito station was reporting 70 degrees, about 6 degrees warmer than La Cumbre Peak which was reporting 64 degrees. The 6K temperature is forecasted to be in the mid to upper 50s and climbing.

Not much onshore flow. Little wind forecast for the Channel. If the wind stays low as forecast, the weak thermals may be able to stay organized and have a reasonable trajectory.
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Friday night look at Saturday: Mild Santa Anna
My preference would be to launch Chiefs as early as possible, but we haven't been able to drum up a driver. I'm leaning toward hiking the nuthouse, starting up around 9ish, but will check the weather in the morning before committing.

The forecast seems to be calling for light flow from the east early, then light from the west in the afternoon at the lower altitudes. Above 6K, the east may persist, but we won't likely spend much time above 6K. There is an inversion around 6K, but the forecasted temperature spread between the Ojai Valley floor and 6K is about 30 degrees, so the thermals should protrude up above the inversion some, maybe to about 7K.

Ojai may offer the best potential for an out and return, heading west early and then turning to run east in the afternoon. Santa Barbara may offer simpler logistics. My son has a XC meet at UCSB at 9am, so I could watch his run and still be on time for the afternoon eastbound leg from SB.

As of Friday night, Ron Faoro and I are considering the Nuthouse. If you know of anyone who might be willing to crew, I think we can launch earlier from Chiefs. With the valley temperatures falling in to the mid 40s, we will need to let it heat awhile to turn over the inversion. I don't expect it to be soarable before 11ish, and the lift will likely be better after noon if the wind doesn't come up and gnaw at the thermals.

If you can get to Noon Peak from SB you should be able to reach Fillmore. Piru blew downriver all day on Friday, but Santa Paula was onshore. Not sure how it will balance out on Saturday, but I suspect there will be an on-shore / off-shore river convergence somewhere in the Santa Clara.

If you want to carpool to Ojai, we should leave vehicles at Ash Street in Ventura so we can take the bus back from Fillmore.

PS: Just got back from the Carpinteria Football game. The Warriors are undefeated at 5 and 0. My daughter Tess went to the Dodger game tonight to watch the boys in blue beat up on the Rockies.

[galleta]

a bunch of cars and a full eagle van at ej bowl and a ton o' pilots more horned up then a blowup doll in handcuffs. it didnt dissappoint. la cumbre wind talker was 12 degrees cooler then monticito talker at 10:30am, pressure was 1019ish and wind was sse. mountains were extremely clear. jumped off after faoro and we seemed about 30 minutes too early for the crackin stuff. we surfed the ridge back and forth between la cumbre and ej until it went BUHHYYYYYAAAA! 4800 everywhere and parapanties were afloat in every direction(bart got 5100 at la cumbre). only two hang danglers today, but they lapped it up. turned at altenator with with colorado neil, toplanded ej, then floated east with neil and faoro while oj was out front pulling some amazing glides on his shiny new toy. that thing can go! we all got stuck evenish with castle ridge from the moto track to the fireroad swithbacks. oj kept going and flushed to padaro a few more bumps down the way short of powerlines. not getting above 3600ish i decided to try to fly back to parma since it was only light sw. neil followed and we bobbed back into the wind. at monticito got to 3800 and tons of happy folks and cars at the beach so we headed there. sundowner launched late, tagged painted cave with 4800 and was coming through monticito when we headed to the beach. it looked like faoro's patience paid off and he hung at castle till he popped through and i imagine truax and him took a shot at the pass. cant wait to hear the stories! super fun day! i had an amazing landing at the beach(humility is a beautiful thang, hopefully blake posts the pic).....see you tomorrow

pic from sbsa.info http://sbsa.info/wp-content/uploads/201 ... -Large.jpg

colorado neil lookin beautiful

lj goin stealth style

[oj]

When I found myself at 5k over the Thermal Factory in the same thermal as SD I was stoked, I thought I was gonna pimp off him and Faoro all the way to Ojai. But SD had other plans, disappearing off to the West, and the Spin Doctor was taking his time to top out in each climb putting me out front to sacrifice myself to the air sharks. It was a mixed bag today, some of the thermals were fat and smooth while others were the kind you just want out of.

Down towards Padaro the sharks were schooling and my minimum "go" altitude for the pass wasn't being met so I bailed for the beach. I wish I had stayed in it a bit longer, Ron crossed the power lines and appeared to be stuck to the sky all the way into Ojai. SD came along shortly after even higher than Ron, headed for Santa Paula. Looking forward to their flight reports.

Vario Log: 960 fpm up, 640 dn, max alt. 4971, 1hr 34 minutes.

[Faoro_Ron]

Watching the weather this week, I really didn't think this weekend would be so good. All that wind, I suppose. But Sundowner had high hopes - so to speak - when he called me Friday night and I went to bed thinking about bugs and heat on the Nuthouse hike. It was a relief to see conditions looked good for Santa Barbara and the front range this morning. I picked up OJ from the Padaro Grill and we left his car there and Bob Hurlbett's at East Beach and we drove to Parma Park where we saw - no one. I guess we were a bit antsy, arriving 20 minutes early on this beautiful, blue-sky fall day.

By ten there were pilots everywhere and we loaded up the van and another vehicle and unloaded everyone at EJ's Bowl. Off at 11 AM and it was just turning on. Scratched at La Cumbre Peak and then flew back over launch to see that Bob had done his usual misadventure pulling up and was getting help from OJ sorting it out. Back to La Cumbre to limber up and this time got over the top and started downrange. By now there were bright colored wings all over the place, decorating the sky. There was just enough east wind to make it interesting, but the lift was consistent. I flew over Skyport and watched Sundowner flush down toward Antenna Farm and Parker's. But he dialed one in and soon was above me at the Thermal Factory. I watched him float off downwind toward the R&R and the rest of us bounced over Montecito Peak and Romero Canyon. It was fairly easy until the air got all mixed up with the gap behind the Castle and we struggled to get above 4K while OJ zoomed ahead. Just as SD came on the radio from the VOR or Painted Cave or Westbowl and advised "Just keep going," (he was right, as usual) I hooked a good one and got up to 4,400 feet. It drifted me toward the back spine (all the good stuff seemed to be on the back ridge downrange) and I felt comfortable working over to the powerlines. After leading for a half hour, OJ split for Padaro and Aaron and the boys started back westbound. So I was alone and began stepping up: 4,600 at powerlines; 5,100 at Noon Peak and 5,700 at West Divide. There was now a 10 mph tailwind. Skipped East Divide and came up on the face of White Ledge. Not only was the lift getting better, but it was a whole lot smoother and organized.

In front of that big, white face is one of my favorite places to be. But the lift was disappointing or I was between cycles. Worked every side of it and only got up to the top. So I hit the front points, enjoyed the view of Casitas and continued eastbound. Back ridge boomers kept me above 5K all through the bumps and I crossed the 33 comfortably. Bumpy terrain flying until the Pyramid and the vacuum took me up and over Nordhoff Peak. Then I pointed it for Thacher School. This was exciting. Mainly because we have all been told over the last 15 years to NEVER land at Thacher and that was exactly what I intended to do today. You see, my daughter was playing in a tennis match against Thacher and I had the perfect excuse.

Turns out the advice to avoid it would have been helpful today. The low hills in front of Twin Peaks were going off and I was about to get schooled once again about landing in thermic terrain in the heat of the day. In the meantime, it was so buoyant that I flew over the courts for 15 minutes. The lacrosse field to the east had power lines around it, so I had to land on the soccer field next to a football game in progress. With 10-12 mph west winds, stronger gusts and thermals popping off everywhere, I scared myself and everyone on the ground as I demonstrated just how hard it can be to hit a 100 yard long target in a paraglider. Kids scattered, but in the end I touched down softly near midfield.

As I packed up, I watched SD float overhead on his way to Fillmore. We watched all the tennis matches (Thacher girls smoked poor Bishop Diego); drove down the 33 to Ventura; picked up Tom Truax after his bus trip from Fillmore and were home by 7 PM.

Three and one-half hour flight, thirty miles.

[cortfly]

Did you get detention ??

[DeVietti_Marty]

Thanks for the call SD, I got it late as I was spending the weekend in Flagstaff for the Dixon Memorial Fly-In and cell coverage out there where we fly delayed the message. Anyhooz, thanks for the write up, and congrats to you and Ron for going big and OJ for sending it a bit on the new toy. Nice work Aaron, way to reach the beach.

Maybe I'll see you peeps at the meeting Thurs? Gonna bring some yard sale items...

Marty

[gracecab]

I'm not a flyer, but just reading your posts gives me a cathartic enjoyment. I'm with you there in the air, though I'm not. Thanks all for taking time to share the rides, more can appreciate it that way.

[brendanpegg]

Hi Gracecab,

The vicarious enjoyment is even greater from a chase car. Maybe you would be interested in putting your name on the driver list?

[DeVietti_Marty]

Well played, sir.

[gracecab]

Will drive, for lessons and gear! lol

Seriously, Maaaayyyybeee...

[Faoro_Ron]

Will trade tandem flight for retrieval services.