We had about 14-ish? pilots going up from 9:30am Wednesday in 3 cars. (1 tandem?)
Wind: slightly E higher, and W in the LZ. Small thermals forming already...birds up (er, include chad there
)Chad launched first, and toolied around high/launch level for awhile, didn't seem to get much higher than launch, which meant that I was going to be about 50-75% of that height... and so it was....
I launched next.
I guess I was used to having my wing ready to pop up from beach flying, maybe that's why so quickly, and I'm learning to pack simpler / lighter... plus all the kiting time has paid off for me in that I have pretty much no trepidation in hoisting my wing up and getting her filled with that sweet Santa Barbara gold oxygen... (not to mention it was within my personal skill range too, and I had to get back to work to clock back in for the rest of the work day ;-) ... and so it was.
Good timing on my launch cycle which was a good thing since this dropoff is the most dramatic I've been on yet, in terms of a 'point of no return- WTF- holy hell don't f-up affair' ... but it's amazing how fear subsides when you feel your wing above you fat and happy and wanting to bring you up into the air... it's hard to describe the feeling, but we who know it can testify that there is little more exhilerating thing than being solidly lifted up over the trees below, and up-up-upward toward a long safe flight in good potential conditions. Having a group of pilots staring at my launch run step-for-step, semi-circle Roman coliseum-like, whom most I don't know, didn't help... or maybe it made me not as self-conscious, i'm not sure exactly.
I approached the 'right big spine that you are supposed to go over' kind of low, so missed my opportuinty to collect up-heat from any in-line collectors on this mini-mtn., and actually ended up being wafted to the right side far enough to hear on my radio... 'yeah, a little too far right... stay on the sunny side (left), and on the spine'
and so I pointed back over the ridge... following it basically all the way back home.Thermals: Maybe it was too early, maybe it was just me. I tried to convince myself it was the twig wedging itself between my A and B riser at the cascade connector... nahhh, it was just me. I have no experience with big thermals, much less little baby ones being born this morning. I was way out of my league to pick these off... plus the next call to me is 'hey you're probably low enough to head back now' which I hear as, "shit... make a bee line, hands up, no turning, straight to the landing strip'... well, that's how noobs like me think anyhoo.
... and so it wasAll in all it was successful. That's how I'm rating it. I got up and down safely, and to the landing zone even... bonus points. Maybe I should set my own bar higher, I don't know. Did I want to go higher? Yes. Wish I stay up longer, lots longer? Uh, duh! Did I want to write a long article of how I got all the way to Taft and back, complete with moving 3-D tracking? Of course, don't you?
But right now I'm just so stoked on building up my chops to remember my radio everytime, be safe, and maybe, maybe maybe, when that bigger atmospheric upwelling comes along and I happen to be right over it, I'll have the pieces in place to trim down into-over it and catch the air-wave to my flying future.
