Tuesday, 11/25 / Big Turnout / Skyport to Fillmore

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Tuesday, 11/25 / Big Turnout / Skyport to Fillmore

Postby sd » Tue Nov 25, 2014 9:08 am

Link to Sundown's Flight log for Tuesday
http://paraglide.net/log/14/11-25/1_skyport_vor_fillmore.htm
Big turnout for a Tuesday
The Eagle Van made multiple trips to launch. The 10 am bus was full
Numerous pilots on course with flights from the Skyport to;
Carpinteria, Power Line Ridge and back, and multiple pilots landed in Fillmore
Several tandem flights plus some visiting pilots. I suspect pilots also flew to East Beach ?
Peter's video pending... (please share your recollections, emotions, and perceptions)
Last edited by sd on Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tuesday, 11/25 / Big Turnout / Skyport to Fillmore

Postby timobarker » Wed Nov 26, 2014 8:28 am

I was as stoked as a two year old at Christmas to see Eagle post for a 10 am meet time this morning. A full Eagle van left shortly after 10 am for Skyport. The cycles were wafting in rather mildly when we got there, but started becoming more regular and stronger as we set up.
SD was off first, followed by Kevin and me. Each of us found lift directly out front and climbed out quickly. I followed SD toward RR, while Kev headed East to Thermal Factory.
Neither SD or I could connect the dots at RR to get above ridge line to continue West, which I wanted to do, as I wasn't sure I'd have time to go East. But, as that wasn't happening, I joined Neal and Kevin at TF. We were all interestedly watching SD try to top land Skyport.
RIght after SD's attempt Neal scored a great climb above 4000 and was off to Montecito. I had, at that point, decided it was too good a day to hang out and that it was early enough to head east and get home early. So at 3700, I headed to Montecito, finding sweet, strong lift on the West side of the ridge, just above the trees. In 3 circles I was established above Montecito and chasing Neal down range. I caught up to Neal at Romero. He was established high and I decided on the low route. I never really got above the ridge line the rest of the way to the powerlines. As soon as I was even with the ridge I was heading east. The tailwind really helped our glides. We made the powerlines in less than an hour. Neal reported crossing at 4700, while I was still wallowing at ridge line trying to find a connection to the upper levels.
I wish I could have chased Neal east, but had a date with Thanksgiving later that day. I usually fly out at this point, but have had difficulty with retrieve almost every time. I also wasn't done flying, as it was still early. So, I decided to try to fly back.
It was pretty easy going along Powerline and Castle Ridge. I came in low to each spine, after swinging out and around the prominences, to avoid rotor. I was lucky that the lapse rate was top to bottom today. I got as low as 2500 a couple of times and was able to climb back up to ridge line or above. I was never able to find the 4s today.
The hardest, scariest crossings for me were from Castle to Romero and from Layer Cake to Montecito. I thought it was scary because I thought I had to cross over the canyons to avoid rotor, but in so doing, I was in large areas of sink. My L/D was often 2 or 3. On top of that, my ground speed was ranging from 5 or 6 with gusts of wind and as fast as 19 with full speed bar pulled.
At Romero, I intersected the west spine 2 - 3 hundred feet below the road cut, but found great lift right away. At Montecito I did much better.
The other issue that kept me wary was the North Wind. On occasion I could feel it spilling over the back ridge.

Reflections:
Overall, I think it was possible to go all the way, with such wind because there was no inversion and lift was everywhere above 2000.

I think it's possible with less wind and less lapse. It seems to me that if the wind is stronger, we'd want more lapse. If the direction of wind was more south, we'd need less lapse rate because we could intersect the ridges higher, as in we have less headwind to push through.

Either way, I'm addicted to this idea of returning to my car. It makes far more sense for my time crunch fly days. I'm going to try this again and again. Which means I better start looking at all the alternate LZs in the area, as I don't know if it's always possible to return once we've headed East.
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Re: Tuesday, 11/25 / Big Turnout / Skyport to Fillmore

Postby flychild » Sat Nov 29, 2014 8:13 am

Great day of flying with lots of pilots. Always fun to have a good crew on launch. I was hoping for a flight to Fillmore, at least that was a goal I had in mind the night before while thinking about the upcoming day. But you never know until you are in the air and see what the day really is like. With Fillmore as a goal and the short window of soarability this time of year I opted to head east directly after climbing off skyport and followed SD to TF as he was coming back from the RR. He headed back to the west again shortly after we got to the TF and I was wondering what he was up to. Tim came over a moment later and while sharing a thermal he yelled over to me that SD was going to try and top land Skyport. Rubbernecking for a view of the action I lost the thermal for a moment. After that I started to focus on the climbing and the task at hand and got a good one to set me up for the first transition to Montecito. Tim followed shortly after and I was happy to have a partner for the flight. Taking the lower route Tim passed me up while I was filling the tank with a sporty climb. I connected to the back ridge and leapfrogged ahead of him on the high route. We reconnected around power lines. Tim came over the radio to let me know that he had obligations and had to get back to SB. SD had decided to head westbound first so I was on my own heading over the pass. I got high enough at Divide Peak to go for the glide behind Whiteledge Peak and into the Ojai valley. From there it is a long way downhill toward the crossing over the 33 and onto the Nordhoff ridge system. I knew all I really needed was to arrive on the Nordhoff side of the 33 at or above the Nuthouse launch and it should work from there. I made a few turns twice before the crossing of the 33 just to make sure I arrived reasonably high, tanked up just a bit, but no reason to waste too much time grabbing altitude that I didn't need. I connected with the ridge up above the nuthouse a ways and turned in a few thermals before gliding across the front points to get over to the Nordhoff ridge where I got a good climb that set me up for the next transition to twin peaks. I didn't really know that names of all these spots during the flight but have looked it up since. Twin Peaks is one of the obvious low trigger points out front on the chiefs spine. It worked immediately upon arrival and set me up to head east into what was for me some new terrain, having never made it this far before. I checked wind alert while on glide to see what the winds were doing ahead at Santa Paula and Fillmore. I know it can flow east through the santa clara river valley and we had been in a santa ana flow recently. The last thing I want to deal with is a flying in santa anas. I know Dave Turner had done it last season and was flying backwards on speed bar in east wind through Santa Paula. He has the skills for it but I am not sure that I want to find out if I do. I really DO NOT want to be in that situation if I can avoid it. Wind Alert is a great tool that I have just started using for checking what's ahead while on transition and it confirmed what I wanted to see, flowing up the valley. Onward! I glided to the front point below east repeater and got stuck stuck there scratching for a bit, probably no more than 50 feet over. Took a phone call briefly but decided to hangup and focus on finding a thermal. All the obvious triggers had been working good all day and there was no reason this one would be any different, just got to focus and find the ride back up and on course again. Got a little climb that enabled me to track back up the spine to east repeater where I found a real climb releasing off the true trigger point for a gain that set me up for the next transition over to puckers. Flying new terrain is so fun since you are kinda on-sighting the flight, seeing the obvious spots ahead and taking it just one section at a time. It's mostly problem solving the immediate task at hand, which is one of two things, climbing or gliding. Puckers gave me another nice climb. They had been getting a bit smoother as the day progressed. The next glide would take me onto the Santa Paula ridge for the final leg into Fillmore. Peter called somewhere during this part of the flight and confirmed that he could retrieve me. He had been chasing SD who was on course about 45 minutes behind me, having made his westbound leg to VOR first before heading east. I got another long glide across the front of santa paula ridge and santa paula peak, made a couple of turns at the end of it and set off on final into Fillmore, scouting out the landing options below. Thought about possibly crossing behind Fillmore a bit and onto the low hills east of town to extend the flight. But the probability of those really working this late in the day seemed quite low, so I opted to land one of the fields at the high school, nice and green. Peter called and offered to come get me then return for SD who was still flying in the upper Ojai Valley. I told Peter to wait and watch SD. I was happy waiting in the sun and drying out, my pee tube had come loose during the last part of the flight and while relieving myself I ended up making quite a mess. SD unsurprisingly managed to make it to Fillmore landing right next to me at the school. What a day! First SB to Fillmore flight for me. SD's encouragement and great knowledge has been a great help with these flights. Thanks Tom!
Attachments
whitledge.JPG
whiteledge
final glide to Filllmore.jpg
final glide to fillmore
fillmore High.jpg
Fillmore High
Last edited by flychild on Sun Dec 28, 2014 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Crossing Ramero Upwind Westbound

Postby sd » Wed Dec 03, 2014 12:00 pm

timobarker wrote:The hardest, scariest crossings for me were from Castle to Romero and from Layer Cake to Montecito. I thought it was scary because I thought I had to cross over the canyons to avoid rotor, but in so doing, I was in large areas of sink. My L/D was often 2 or 3... The other issue that kept me wary was the North Wind. On occasion I could feel it spilling over the back ridge.

In Response to Tim's notes about his Ramero Canyon Crossing Westbound, and the north wind spilling OTB, I posted some comments at http://paraglide.net/comment/14/ramero_westbound.htm
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Re: Launch Video Clip

Postby sd » Fri Dec 05, 2014 6:37 pm

Added launch video clip shot by Peter Richner
http://paraglide.net/log/14/11-25/video.htm
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Re: Tuesday, 11/25 / Big Turnout / Skyport to Fillmore

Postby flychild » Sun Dec 28, 2014 4:31 pm

posted a few new photos from the day.
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