SCPA & SBSA Discussion Board

Posted on Behalf of Mitch Riley
My track and Doarama from today. Fun, challenging flying.
Copied from
http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:mitchriley/9.03.2017/19:01

with altitude adjustments for Take Off and Landing (files below)
IGC Data File: (1 second intervals)
http://paraglide.net/log/amigo/mitch_riley/2017_03-09/2017_03-09_mitch_riley_ej_to_chiefs_to_lake_casitas.igc

Google Earth KMZ File: (need Google Earth to view) (2 second intervals)
http://paraglide.net/log/amigo/mitch_riley/2017_03-09/2017_03-09_mitch_riley_ej_to_chiefs_to_lake_casitas.kmz

Doarama Animation: http://doarama.com/view/1247157
(2 second intervals)

Similar to a flight from December 2014 (the day after my wife served me with a summons and petition for divorce, good reason to go flying?) Almost the same take-off and landing times. Mitch had a bit more altitude to work with on Thursday, but also more headwind up high? And his track indicates he engaged in some meandering exploration? Both flights were tracked by our Ojai monitor John Kloer who provided direct support in 2014.
http://paraglide.net/log/14/12-27/1_skyport_to_puckers_to_the_honor_farm.htm

I find it interesting and informative to overlay the tracks and compare different styles of flying. Mitch does a lot more exploration, so we can all go to school on his discoveries. Not everything we do works. The U-shaped sections of our track logs indicate where we tried (detoured) higher lines for various reasons, but either opted to or had to come back out front.

Mitch is obviously a much stronger athlete, so he doesn’t seem to bother to slow down going over Casitas Pass and will push on with much less altitude. I tend to slow down through Casitas Pass and spend more time groveling for altitude because I can’t hike as far, but I love that I can study Mitch’s tracks to see what worked and what didn’t so the next time I make a mistake and need to pull a rabbit out I can recollect what worked in the past. On my 94-mile flight 2 years ago, http://paraglide.net/log/15/04-04/1_ej_to_painted_cave_to_rosamond.htm I was low at the LA county line and went to a spot that worked for John Scott a few weeks earlier.http://paraglide.net/log/amigo/john_scott/2015_03-15_ej_to_soledad_canyon.htm

We are fortunate that our South Coast attracts talented pilots that assist in our quest to connect the dots and visualize possibilities.