Thursday Pre-Dawn Update / Carpinteria at 8:15 for the Nuthouse
Dress Warm. The midday freezing level is below 5K
Good soaring conditions in the mountains today with a progressively fading lapse rate toward the weekend. Light wind at altitude clocking around to come from the NE this afternoon should assist the glide out to Elings.
The La Cumbre Peak reporting station continues to be out of service, but the Montecito reporting station was reporting light drainage at 5:47 and the channel buoys are all showing light wind. For max distance it may be possible to launch in Santa Barbara and do an early eastbound leg into a light NE headwind and then return in the afternoon with a slightly stronger NE tailwind as the NE flow increases through early afternoon before tapering off later in the day and swinging around to come from the WNW on Friday. As typical, the east wind is stronger toward the east.
A few of us (SD, flychild, and the Spin Doctor) are heading to the Nuthouse because? I guess we like the punishment, but are also drawn to the novelty of flying into the Elings New Year gathering from Ojai. Elizabeth will drop us off at the bottom so we won't have to do a vehicle retrieve back to Ojai. The SB pilots are leaving around 8 am to be in Carpinteria at 8:15, to be at the base of the Nuthouse by 9ish. The younger pilots can likely start hiking an hour later, but us slow pokes need to start early.
Expecting adequate altitude to get over Casitas Pass, but not stellar. Hoping to launch about 11ish, but might need to wait until 11:30. It should be launchable earlier in Santa Barbara because the ocean influence is moderating the surface cooling overnight resulting in less of an early morning surface inversion (it got colder in Ojai last night).
As noted previously, the mid altitude lapse rate above 3K fades on Friday, and even more so over the weekend, but it should still be soarable down lower.
An initial discussion was posted on Monday at:
http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3119