Boutique Fish Bowl / Saturday 10/4

[sd]

Links to Sundowner's Archive for Saturday 10/4/2014
Nordhoff Peak (Ojai) to the RnR (Santa Barbara) then back Eastbound to Casitas Pass and OTB NW bound along the Divide Convergence over Old Man Mountain and Monte Arido before angling NE to Pine Mountain Launch. Got to 12,350 feet over the Pine Mountain South Side launch and flew back to Upper Ojai.
Flight Article: http://paraglide.net/log/14/10-04/1_boutique_fish_bowl.htm
Weather Archive: http://paraglide.net/log/14/10-04/2_weather.htm
Photo Set: http://paraglide.net/log/14/10-04/photo
and Google Earth 3D Track Path:
http://paraglide.net/log/14/10-04/2014_10-04_sd_flight.kmz
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Preflight Posting Updates

Logistics:
9 AM Saturday for the FlyAboveAll Bus from Nordhoff High School to Chiefs or Nordhoff. There is no designated LZ in Ojai, so Chris is not encouraging Pilots to fly Ojai unless they intend to get on course. We want to avoid a group of pilots landing at propeller field.

FlyAboveAll will also be running an afternoon bus from Nordhoff to Pine on Saturday at 2:30 (rsvp with http://flyaboveall.com).

Edward Skow has an additional 2 permits for Nordhoff, but he won't be able for crew. Contact Edward if you are running another truck and need a permit.
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Saturday Morning Update
The forecast is mostly persistent from earlier evaluations, but a few notes from dawn on Saturday.

The high clouds are a spin off from Hurricane Simon. They are moving from the south and will hopefully pass through shortly, but we may get another batch by the end of the day and likely tomorrow.

Less morning east wind than expected down low. It is calm across the Oxnard Plain, and Piru is only blowing 10 to 15 from the ENE. The Piru offshore winds have been increasing through noon over the past couple of days, but Oxnard is light onshore from the west this morning and it was offshore on Friday.

With the 6K temperature running around 70 degrees F, you can likely fly in shorts, but I recommend carrying long pants in your luggage in case you need to hike, and a jacket if you might need to overnight somewhere.
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Friday Night Update for Saturday:
I'm on the 9 am FlyAboveAll bus out of Nordhoff High School. Meeting Ron Faoro at my house at a quarter past 8, then Ash Street in Ventura at 8:35. Not sure if we'll launch from Chiefs or Nordhoff Peak. Expect to reach launch by 10:30 or sooner. We will go early if we are at Nordhoff, but may not launch until 11:30 if we go to Chiefs. It should work good late in the day, but there are some high clouds that might thicken later in the afternoon.

There is a plausible argument for launching from Santa Barbara to achieve max open distance. Everything is east in the morning, but the west pushes through from the west. Santa Barbara should start to turn about mid day at the upper altitudes, and earlier down lower. Expect an East/West convergence running north from Casitas Pass.

Ojai stays east until later in the afternoon when it dies down. It was SW down lower in Ojai on Friday, and I expect lower level SW on Saturday also. The strategy is to try and stay high in the east wind on the westbound leg. Max altitudes in Ojai look like 6K early, rising to 7 or 8K later in the day.

It blows east all day down the Santa Clara River at altitude, but the onshore pushes upriver at the lower altitudes. On Friday, the SW pushed in at the Oxnard Airport by noon, and progressively later up river, reaching Piru about 4 pm.

Not sure the river convergence thing will work with ENE up higher and SW down lower. It may be more of a laminar sheer about 2 to 3K than a convergence, but it will likely be safe to fly out toward Santa Paula later in the afternoon without the risk of getting swept away by strong offshore flow.

The late day trip to Pine should work. Pine is forecasted to be a tad windy from the NE in the morning, but backing down in the afternoon with light and variable by launch time at launch altitude. The max altitude gets better later in the day, and it is still NE up at 11K, so if you get high it should be downwind back to the front range.
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Thursday Night Update:
Our first Santa Anna event of the season is producing near record temperatures. Downtown Santa Barbara is forecasted to reach 90 degrees, but it will likely be warmer in the foothills behind the Riviera. Ojai is forecasted to hit 105 on both Friday and Saturday. The 6K temperature is forecasted to be in the upper 60s, so the temperature spread should be ballistic up through 6 or 7K in Ojai, and strong in Santa Barbara.

Max altitudes based on the temperature are not super high, around 6K in Ojai, maybe 7K over the higher terrain. Pine looks like 9 to 10K earlier in the period, and maybe higher late in the afternoon on Saturday. With a Santa Anna event, there is the potential to get higher in the convergence zones.

Friday looks like the best day for open distance frying westbound from Ojai. Saturday will be a tad warmer at altitude, and the west flow will start to push through from the west, setting up an East/West convergence over the Divide that runs from Divide Peak north over Old Man Mountain and Mt Arido. Santa Barbara may see the convergence earlier in the day on Saturday, and Pine Mountain may have convergence potential for the afternoon bus with east flow in the morning giving way to NW flow at the end of the day.

It may be hard to go long distance on Saturday, but several variations of boutique flights my be available. Leaving Ojai will likely be upwind all directions, but you might be able to do an out and return towards SB and back if you launch early. Jumping back to Old Man Mountain may also be a possibility, which could yield another 2 or 3 K in max altitude. The max altitudes at Pine aren't super high, but you might be able to snake toward the ocean by following the convergence pushing through from the west. The lapse rate in SB isn't as strong as Ojai, but if you can stay just in front of the west wind pushing through from the west, you might be able to head east.

Fillmore is forecasted to blow east all day, stronger in the morning and fading in the afternoon, but the west should push up the Santa Clara River a ways, so there may be a convergence around Santa Paula offering a bridge across the valley toward South Mountain, to Camarillo and beyond.

With so many options available it is hard to choose. I'll be on the 9 am bus out of Nordhoff and may choose to also take the late bus to Pine for a double header if I can't get out of the Ojai Valley.

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Tuesday night look at Saturday
The last weekend in September was our first post frontal event of the season, and this coming weekend looks like the first Santa Anna event. Saturday is forecasted to be the peak heat day. As of Tuesday night, the Nam is only projecting through Friday, which looks like about 6K in Ojai and a manageable tailwind back to Santa Barbara. Saturday may be better, and the wind at altitude may be light enough for Pine to work also. Chris Grantham was going to try and get a permit for Nordhoff, but it’s hunting season, so they may be booked up.

[NMERider]

Grantham's new rack

What an epic fun adventure day for so many pilots! It's funny to think I flew Nordhoff to East Beach and it was a blown flight.

7600' @ Whiteledge

7600' @ Whiteledge

7600' @ Whiteledge

I have a tremendous amount to learn.

My sad tracks

2014-10-04 Nordhoff Peak - East Beach (corrected).kml.txt

Remove the ",txt" from the end for the Google Earth KML file. I set another PB for low flying.

(370.5 KiB) Downloaded 791 times

The glass-off reports from Pine were incredible and SD pulled off another unprecedented move.
I will defer to SD for the details. I will eventually get my scrappy scratch flight video fully edited.

Can you feel my pucker from 3.6-miles to East Beach?

At least I stuck the landing at East Beach in 4 to 5 mph tailwind.

Flare-gasm

How it came to a stop: http://youtu.be/oMyf-ET63Ek

[Randall]

Damn, I missed another one! Tom, quickly reading over your flight track boggled me so much I had to read it three times to figure out what you had done. Congrats on blazing yet new "boutique flight" trails!

BTW if anyone out there ever gets bored with paragliding, you can always try this...

http://rt.com/news/193060-macaskill-rid ... ish-viral/

[NMERider]

I ran a more detailed edit of my flight with emphasis on how I found myself with so little residual altitude when I arrived at the East end of East Beach. http://youtu.be/GuYrX0LEW-s

Other than failing to double-check my adjusted barometric altitude against my GPS altitude both at launch and during flight for verification of glide slopes needed, I simply was in too big a rush and failed to hold the high ground which cost me the ability to make the return trip to Nordhoff and possibly do much, much more later in the day. If X/C flying wasn't a continual learning experience it wouldn't be nearly as satisfying now would it?

[max hogan]

Oh my, that low skimmer over the city made me squirm. Thanks for sharing the video John.

[DeVietti_Marty]

Boy, I have glanced at this for many days but finally picked it apart and read it all. Very cool flight indeed, and it seems that xc is so "last year" and now Boutique is IN!

Thanks for the detailed write up, Tom.

Cheers,
Marty