Giving Thanks Downrange

[faoro]

Saturday dawned clear, crisp and beautiful. Finally, there's a bit of autumn color in the Sycamores. The morning air was cool and a cold airmass aloft made it look like a fine day for flying. The winds yesterday blew out the inversion and we had a decent spread of over 20 degrees for the lapse rate. But it looked like everyone still might have Thanksgiving commitments. Bob Hurlbett was headed to Pasadena for a wedding (missing pilots almost always make for good flying days). Benson was hiking up to Montecito Peak - his sacred grotto to offer small sacrifices to the gods who torment his twisted soul - before a quick flight to the beach.

So Doctor Air and I left the stylin' ride at East Beach and wound our way up to Parma. Art and I discussed the propensity for brief flights lately - up and out to the beach in a half hour. With delicate little cumulus in embryo form already making an appearance over the mountain tops east of Montecito Peak and out front, we promised ourselves a trip to Carpinteria, even if we had to scrape by the whole way at minimal altitudes. We glanced down Rockwood and saw two lonely pilots, OJ and Robb, looking like they had planned to meet us all along. We piled into my car and the four of us would be together for the next four hours.

The air was cool at Skyport. Many hang gliders. It was good to see Diablo and Fast Eddy out on the prowl once again. Even more of a surprise was to see Andy Dainsberg suited up ready to go at launch. Jim and Trifko were there as well and one paraglider was in the sky. He was going straight up, so we scrambled to get dressed and lay out. Trifko left right before me. He circled below launch for a brief time - then disappeared! We stood on the edge looking for him, wondering what he was doing. Suddenly, we heard: "I'm all right!" He had planted his wing in tall chaparral directly below take-off about 100-150 feet. When I got in the air ten minutes later at 11:30, I understood why. Never have I felt the bottom drop out so suddenly in the house thermal. It happened several times to Art and I. It took us ten minutes to get established, much to the disappointment of the hangies waiting to leave Eliminator. It looked like Trifko spent the better part of the day extricating his wing: his car was still on Rockwood at 4:30 PM when Benson and I went back up the hill to get my Subaru.

Art and I got up at the R&R. Robb Milley was a short way behind, matching our altitude of 4,500 feet. From there we bounced over to the Thermal Factory and on to Montecito Peak, where we watched Benson inching his way up the trail. Art and I spun around in the same thermals, did S-turns in the convective lift along the hillsides and were never more than a few hundred yards apart going downrange. Robb Milley dutifully followed; we could always see his bright yellow wing just behind us. John Kloer got stuck down at the Antenna Farm and ended bringing up the rear. Some pilots launched Alternator. We heard Kevin and Bo on the radio and I spun lazy circles above Montecito Peak with Andy Palmer when he caught up with us. Cloudbase was about 4K to 4,200 feet. You could always find good lift if you were patient. I watched Diablo sail out of sight over Castle Ridge when I left Montecito Peak to cross San Ysidro Canyon.

Art and I crossed Romero Canyon in some trashy air and struggled on the far side to maintain our altitude - about 3,000 feet. But the boomers eventually rolled through and we pushed up to 4K once again and continued eastbound with our five to ten mph tailwind. It started to darken up in places along Castle Ridge. Art dipped out front to catch the sunny hills and shot straight up into the clouds. I hopped across the dark ridges and tried to capitalize on the sunny slopes. It was a grand day to float downwind and soak up the sights of the first downrange event of the fall. Art left for Santa Claus Lane. Robb soon followed. I bobbed and weaved and hit the front points in the sun to keep me at 4,000 feet so I could tag the Powerlines. The glide out to the Padaro Grill was magnificent. The clouds out front provided a bouyant guide. We buzzed the dining crowd before settling on the beach. Susan Kloer came from Santa Barbara to pick us up. We drank a couple of pitchers of Hefeweisen and enjoyed the sunshine. Then, it was off to retrieve the five vehicles - all parked in different locations, from Cold Springs Trailhead to East Beach to Skyport. As we sat outdoors, the Pass seemed to open up and look doable. Cloudbase was at the top of White Ledge when I left the mountains. Now it looked to be about five and a half thousand feet.

Benson, not content to only hike UP a trail to fly, hiked from his landing on Padaro Lane to the grill - what had to be another two miles of exercise. We got our exercise munching onion rings and enjoying the camaraderie.

Two hours. Nine and a quarter miles.

[Trifco]

Hello guys! I'll make a short post latter to explain what happened. I'm 110% OK!

[andy]

Yesterday was the appetizer for today. It was nice to fly the friendly confines with the usual suspects scattered about at cloudbase. Launched alternator about 11:30 and went straight up through the tandem gaggle and off to the east. It was good abundant lift with base lowering from 5k to 4.3k alt-Monticito. I wanted to try some upwind xing so after downwinding it to Monticito I headed back and was doing well into the headwind until I got to Westbowl and started the cross to noname when I hit the wicked rotor of the NW spilling over. I felt like Pinocchio on a string. So it was out to cieniguitas. Arriving there with 2200 I found a nice little bubble that boosted me up to 3100 so it was off to the training hill. I had 2100 there, I almost headed for east beach, but didn't.
Packed up among all the trainees and caught a ride with Bob P. and Marion-her first high flight in 2 years today, good job- and went for lunch.

Ron F. looks good on that Trango, kudos to Kevin H. on his first trip from Alt.-SP-East Beach.

Anyone go through the pass??

Andy

[Chip Bartley]

well I'm STOKED I picked a dog of a day to sit out "::',>> (uugghhh!!).

Just joking, its great to hear the excitment in the air. Can't wait to link up for the trip down range soon.

Maybe tomorrow... See ya'll there

chip

[Trifco]

Saturday, November 25

This is the report how I (crash l)ended up in the bushes . After successful takeoff I have turned left to get into the house thermal. I did hit some weak lift but I wasn't far enough from the ridge spine to make a full 360. I turned back toward the launch to do some fig 8. Went back to visit the house thermal again, but nobody was home. Turned back toward the launch and hit some sinking air (I guess the edge of the passing house thermal).... I sunk down and started to glide about 4-5ft above the bushes ... 2 - 3 seconds latter I scratched the top of the chaparral, and finally the hungriest bush in the crowd totally bites my Barney's butt (purple airbag harness)...good enough to make me and my wing a nice noon lunch. I ended up almost standing on the ground .... good .... I'm not hurt, not even a scratch. Since I didn't have radio with me, I climbed on the bush as high as possible and yelled toward the launch “I am alright!”. I saw one pilot (I'm sorry I don't know his name) looking down at me. I Showed him “thumb up” and switched in self-rescue mode. 3 steps....

1 - get yourself organized
2 - Extract the wing from the hungry bush and beat the bush in to the bloody pulp
3 - Crawl in 4x4 style up the hill trough dense chaparral with the my gear (O, boy)

So, the step 1...
It was quick about 5 min... I have gathered all my gear in my rucksack (vario, car keys, etc).

Step 2; about hour and 15 min
I knew that I will be stuck there for a potentially long time if don't free my wing as fast as possible... so I did what has to be done - I have disconnected every single line from the harness raisers... yes you've read it right; not the raiser from the harness but the lines from the raisers. After whacking, kicking and braking some more branches all in high-wire act style, I got the wing tip in my hand and started to stuff my paraglider bag like a thanksgiving turkey. The bushes resisted as much as possible, but the resistance was futile. Wing in the bag – done. After that I've made a simple tow line by attaching my harness stirrup to the very top of my rucksack.

Step 3; about 1 hour.
First I peaked from the top of the bushes to see the launch position. It was about 45 degrees left from my location. So I made a projection in my mind in which direction to crawl up the steep hill side... the technique is very simple; choose the path of less resistance and clear the path in front of you by breaking any dry branches in my way... the first signs of “civilization” showed up in the form of beer cans and bottles and I knew that I was close to my goal. I also heard some conversation up on the launch. About 45 ft away from the top I saw some people and shouted “Hello! Don't worry it's not a bear...it's me!”. Four guys and a girl; local people that decided not to go to hot springs that day but to pay a visit to beautiful vista point – the Sky Port. They offered to help me out with my hike but I told them that I want to cross the finish line on my own. It was 2 pm when I declared victory. I spent next 2 hours in a friendly conversation and some cold beer. It turned out to be a nice day after all. They gave me a ride back down to my car. On our way down I think that we passed by Benson's red Nissan (He was driving up the hill).


So what went wrong?

I think two things:
1 - I didn't have a clear flight plan in my mind.... like “what if I don't get up in the house thermal...”
2 - I got “object (bush) fixated”... I kept staring at the bushes below and that's where I've ended up. I'm 100% sure that if I did look to my left I would turn in that direction soon enough to gain some clearance from the hill side.

Conclusion:
Have a clear flight plan before you even strap yourself into the harness and always look where you want to go. Simple, ha?

Things that I would strongly recommend to have in your gear:

1 – foldable tree saw. It will save you a tons of time!
2 – wire saw... just in case you manage to break the foldable one.
3 – LED flash light... it lasts much longer than a regular flash light, just in case if the time flies by.
4 – emergency whistle... at least you can whistle SOS ( ... _ _ _ ...) if the radio is smashed up.
5 – basic first aid kit to patch minor cuts and scratches.
6 – leather gloves... my very durable “Mechanics” gloves started to gave up after the hour of serious torture (I got the hole on the tip of my left index finger).
7 – some water container like “camel back”; minimum ½ gal capacity... I had only 1 Liter with me ... barely enough.
8 – energy packed snack.
9 – The best hiking/paragliding boots you can afford ... I was in my Nike running shoes. Not so good for 4x4 self rescue

Thats all from me... I know that some of the stuff I have mentioned above is "common sense"... but it never hurts to mention it again. Live and learn. I will see you all soon at the Sky Port!

Sincerely,
Dragisa Trifkovic – Trifco (formerly known as Trifko )

[Ramey]

3 steps....

0 - have a radio if you're going to fly the mountains.

If you had been a little farther from launch - its possible that no one could verify that every thing was ok - thereby resulting in a false alarm to search and rescue.

So what went wrong?

0 - didn't have a radio

Conclusion: carry a radio. Even if you don't use it the air the rest of us need to know that we don't have to have you extracted. I suppose a cell phone qualifies for this. I'm not sure.

Things that I would strongly recommend to have in your gear:
0 - a radio (or maybe cell phone)

Robert Ramey

[Trifco]

Point taken...
I always have my cell phone with me. If I didn't succeed in my effort to be heard over at launch, at that point I would definitely use my cellphone to inform other pilots that I'm OK.

Trifco

[irene]

Thanks for this post. It is very well written, and well analyzed. Great educative tool for new pilots and visiting pilots.