11/24, Sunday Swarm

[sd]

Link to Tom's flight log for Sunday
Skyport to Painted Cave to Top Land at Chiefs Launch to Fillmore
http://paraglide.net/log/13/13_11-24/1_skyport_painted_cave_fillmore.htm
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Sunday morning update: Calm at the Peak, Montecito, Ojai, and mid channel, so we don't need to wait for it to block. Recommend an early go, but I can't get to Parma before 9. Both the Eagle Van and the Fly Above All Vans are meeting at 9:30. EJ Bowl should be launchable, but the lapse rate is good down low (but not quite as good Saturday), so no need to launch high. Expect some early OD, and hopefully lifting and clearing in the afternoon. Still expecting lower level flow from the west in the afternoon. It is still draining offshore down the Santa Clara River and light offshore across all the buoys, but not as strong as Saturday. We may run into some east wind probing the east end of the course toward Santa Paula Ridge. A little warmer at altitude than Saturday, and a little flow from the north up at 6K.
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Saturday night guesstimate for Sunday.
The day has the potential to be better than Saturday. I'd recommend an early start, but it may work good in the afternoon also. I'll likely be at Parma by 9ish and expect to be airborne by 10. It will likely be soarable by 9:30 down lower, but we may need to let the overnight north wind block up higher.

As the center of a tightly spinning low moves east from the southern tip of Nevada, the flow should have less east and more north. The air mass should continue to dry, so hopefully will get more sun. The air mass is still cold post frontal, so expect possible over development early, but possibly lifting and more sun in the afternoon. With flow from the north, we continue to have the possibility of overdevelopment in the backcountry pushing out front, which may result in several iterations of OD followed by clearing and successive rounds of OD. In SB, expect the lower level afternoon wind to be from the west, north above the ridge, and higher up from the NNE, with more of an east component further east. Expect we should be able to plug eastbound if cloudbase permits, but don't expect a tailwind at altitude. We may run into east wind at altitude if we reach the far side of Ojai.

[Aaron]

today if you didnt go up, then you weren't in the air. cherry pie goodness everywhere! i had a small family window so hitched up with howser in AirBears truck to get a little piece. it was 10:30 and people were up all over the place high so we pinned it up the hill! one noob told me he got 6k. i dont think i got above 46ish today, because had my eyes glued on the view and jaw wide open. hucked skyport and putted with bobA to painted cave into tasty marshmellow after tasty marshmellow with views galore. did i mention the views were spectacular we have quite the gift here in sb!! light tailwind back to parma with more of the same and home by 12:40 to put the kid down for a nap. perfect morning! i heard marty at whiteledge, truax at noon, and lots of happy folk at padaro. hope they all share a story.

yesterday seemed amazing too. hammer made it to lizards mouth and back, and bobA floated to painted cave, romero, then the beach. lots of flyers at the beach. great flying lately!!

[pengoquin]

Wow, what a day, paragliders everywhere you looked! Chad pulled up first at EJ, he just went up and over Cathedral. I heard him say something about, 44 hundred, cold, no gloves, on glide to Elingings. It was just to good to follow him, so it was an easy glide to the RnR. Never saw so many gliders climbing over every trigger and so many happy voices anouncing everything from, 44 hundred over blah blah West bound to 49 hundred over blah blah East bound. It was a blast bouncing down range with so many pilots and then taking the easiest glide to the beach at Padaro. Arrived with 22 hundred, cruised around with Magic Mike and enjoyed the spectacular view on one of the clearest days I can remember. The flight ended just as smoothly as it started. I've never seen so many pilots at Padaro, all happy campers on an awesome day! P.S.Thank you Dilly for the retrieve .

[gracecab]

Below I post a link to my facebook album of todays launch at EJ Bowl:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 6b4183fab0

It was quite a spectacular, if not solemn, time. There is a quiet excitement in the air, it was beautiful, maybe that is what it was, everyone was just soaking it in... the light onshore, defined small coulds, and lots of sun.

[gracecab]

It was quite a clear day.

That's Aaron in the red canopy, who is the other?

[NMERider]

A typical taste of the day for many pilots...

[DeVietti_Marty]

Boy that was a fun day. Bob P, you hit the nail on the head: Lots of happy chatter on the radio. Lots of successes and fun for all. The gravitational pull of Padaro was strong, but I managed to continue East after many turned South to land there. Brendan, Andy and Tom Truax landed on top of Chiefs Launch right after me, and we all took a minute to warm up, rest room break, and take photos before giving one last push. Dave B. made it through the pass for the first time! Nice. A couple others did the route as well. I launched first from Chiefs, followed by Tom, then Brendan and Andy. Tom and I got established near the VOR, I got a lucky climb while Tom earned his tour of the Topa Topa Bluffs the hard way. Andy and Brendan eventually landed back at NHS. Nice day boys! Tom and I both got stupid high (7840' for me) at times over the Topas, and the commute to Santa Paula Ridge was the easiest ever for me today. The glide out to Vons was smooth and the landing was windy but easy (12mph wind). We packed up, grabbed some Burger King, caught our first bus and were off to Ventura. Hiked a mile, caught a 2nd bus and were dropped in Carp, picked up by Tom's lovely wife, and I was later boosted to my car at Padaro. Bob, happy housewarming! Had to get back to the family. Nice flying with you today! If a picture is worth a 1000 words, here is a novel from today:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110871143058661933036/albums/5950067766457266161?authkey=CJvOzKnhi_GxNQ

Super stoked to see so many happy pilots today…gotta be some kinda local record? Let's hear the stories!?

[oj]

What a day! That was the largest turnout I've seen. 50+ pg's and 15 or so hg's (didn't get a good look at the Eliminator launch). I tried to catch Brendan by burning through 2k feet of altitude by gliding from RR to Montecito Pk. He was part of a good gaggle over the top but I was way low coming in and despite a non-stop climb with a 1500 ft. gain they were all gone by the time I hit the wispies. Bounced east for a while debating whether to push on or take the ride from Padaro. Opted for the ride with Magic and Dilly to Parma, then drove to Ojai and picked up Susan before scooping up the Spin Doctor and his tandem passenger Barb at East Beach on the way to Ron's open house. Delicious home-made tamales and endless beverages capped off a perfect day.

[NMERider]

Here's the short version.....

Before, After, In-between

The 5-minute version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1bz_GMXncM

The aversion version: I had been watching the weather since Monday with an eye for post-frontal XC. I also got pretty sick and the heat went out at home. Got that sorted mid-week then started watching the NAM updates. Saturday evening I looked at Dizzy and BobA's nice images posted on FB and figured it might be worth a shot. Called Sundowner late in the evening and the plan was for me to pick him up en route from Long Beach and go straight to launch as early as I could get it in gear.

Got up at 330 and 545hrs checking La Cumbre and Montecito winds each time and the day looked to be worth the drive. Picked up sd at 905 then BobH at the beach then RonF at Parma and bee-lined for Skyport. It was nice arriving early and being able to relax while setting up. I needed extra time to re-rig my tethered camera. By this time all available hang glider assembly room was in full overlap mode. I hucked off at 1048 probably 20 minutes after my 3 PG fares were under wing. The Sylmar gang headed farther up the road to get their 4 or 5 wings assembled thanks to Fast Eddy's fast thinking.

I launched straight into a nice fat one to 38 and catching a few quick vignettes. By this time I saw about 6 PG in the low 4s above me and joined the lift to base at 43 then pulled the 'let's-go-East' string. We had no chase driver and I did not want to deal with a long out-landing cluster-f*ck with my HG gear so I opted for plan B. See how far East I could go while shooting tethered video and then make it back to the beach. I played leap-frog with 3 PGs along the way and noted that the conditions were not very robust although not marginal. I opted to linger in same lift for up to 3 generations of pulsing rather than pushing on as soon as the first pulse petered out.

Erring on the side of conservative worked well for me in spite of having a T2C and fairly clean cocoon harness. I eventually lost my inflatable companions (any Lars and the Real Girl fans here?) and came in under Sundowner at West Divide. The camera battery life in the cold is pretty short so I saved my last tranche of tether recording for the most scenic climb I figured I'd get a few miles before Whiteledge. It was a nice and rowdy spinning bull of a climb to 61 and my fingers were pretty numb by the top.

I did also manage a few nice scenes with the ace in view by hand holding the tether device. The camera died before Whiteledge but I lingered around waiting to see what sd was up to and making a Dirty Harry/Scorpio decision. No I did not feel like a lucky punk. By this time I was in need of a full tank before heading back and the nearest fresh cotton candy was another half-mile past the giant shark's tooth. That got me into the low 5s and positioned for the upwind beat back to launch.

After 45 minutes of lee-side rotor thrashing and much ravine exploration and geologic sightseeing I finally arrived at the Roundhouse 300 below. The spine was only giving up bubble fragments but I did have a modest epiphany over the monastery which carried me to 500 over Parma. You know the place where I tore my right arm out of the shoulder socket back in February? From 11-ish MSL I headed for the plateau of houses looking for a windward low-save. Oddly enough I caught a gentle climb on the leeward edge from the low 11s to the mid 16s and was a made man.

The glide out over the ocean was very pleasant and relaxing. On approach I recorded Hammer's landing with my warmed up and rejuvenated camera. AdamN from Sylmar was lined up with camera in hand on my approach. I gave him a nice buzz-cut touch-up although next time I need to remember I'm dragging a 1/64" diameter suspension line with a 100# breaking strength. Can you say "garote"?. The grass area was a busy place and I met MaxH in person and swapped tales while breaking down. We got a very generously donated ride back to Parma and Max carried me the rest of the way to launch.

On the way down I got a call from Sundowner who was just boarding the bus in Fillmore. He mentioned RonF's housewarming (previously mentioned by OJ) and we would rendez vous there. I touched base after my 5th delicious tamale (Thank you Mrs F) and sd had missed his 531 connecting bus in Ventura and ETA got pushed back for a 3rd time. Eventually I had to bugger out for my 2-hour schlep back to dreary Long Beach. The phone rang en route downhill and it was sd in-bound. We drove right past each other in one of the micro-roundabouts while yacking.

I'm looking forward to the Truax-story as I really don't recall very much from my any of my own flights which is part of the reason I have to record them.

[BobA]

Saturday Dark But Soarable!

Painted Cave

Marshmellos

What a weekend!!! Nice flying everyone!!! And great pics everyone! - including Magic's. ' had a great time cruising the clouds on the local lap circuit and out to the beach Saturday and Sunday.

[Southside]

There will always be another day. There will always be another day. Right?

[Magic]

Here's a link to my photos Great flying with everyone!
https://picasaweb.google.com/forbesmagi ... warm112413

[Dilly]

I know, Southside. I missed it, too. Sacrificed to drive retrieve. I'm sure the sky gods will reward me greatly one day.

Dilly