New Respect for Chief Peak, 9/3/2007

[faoro]

What timing. My first chance at a decent mountain flight and I wrenched my back simply winding up a garden hose one hour before meeting Bob Hurlbett to drive to Ojai. Three ibuprofen and a 1-2 glider later, I'm set to launch Chief Peak with Ojai predicted to hit 107 degrees and a thirty degree plus lapse rate staring us in the face. Hey, no problem. We fly Ojai all the time in these conditions. Maybe I'm just rusty from a lot of time out of the saddle, but the thermals got my attention very quickly. There were both moments of getting yanked straight up when you couldn't even initiate a turn and there were moments of absolute freefall when you fell out the edges. It was the strongest conditions I had ever felt in the Ojai Valley. Midsummer day mayhem with beautiful cloud streets lining up from Pine Mountain eastbound, then out into the Antelope Valley and south toward Simi Valley and off to the horizon toward Mojave. Later on, the cloud street extended toward Plowshares and from Thorn Point south toward Chief Peak. If landing out didn't mean perishing in the heat, it would have been a grand day to go over the back. The thermals were even sucking back toward Pine. At one point, I was about a half mile behind Chief Peak heading straight south going 4 mph and the vario screaming up - all without me turning. Assuming you had a good back, lots of water, adequate supplies and some Percocets for good measure, this was the day for daredevil northern adventure.

I reached 7,915 feet in the first go around. There was a 5-10 mph east wind so I thought about an out and back to Nordhoff and on toward Fillmore. But I hit a headwind high on the back ridge behind Stooges and decided to go eastbound with the boys. By that time, Art and Andy D. and Bob were already working West Repeater and Chip was skying out over the middle of the main ridge. I tanked back up to 7,500 feet and put a little speed bar to hit West Repeater at the antennas. Bob was working low on the ridge top, Art was on his way to East Repeater and Andy was getting established to follow Art. Chip decided to take the scenic cruise of the Ojai Valley with his 7K of altitude.

My comfort in the 1-2 Sport soon turned back to that familiar feeling of regret over performance as I watched the horizon zoom up to meet me. Our driver, Darrell, had already hit the road. Walking was difficult for me, so landing out was not an option and I listened to my cautious conscience and turned around at 6K to head back for Chief. Art and Andy made it work and sailed along above 5K the whole way to Fillmore along Santa Paula Ridge. Andy did make a good save at St. Thomas Aquinas College and Art temporarily turned around at Boyd's before pushing on eastward. After refueling over launch, I left with 7K for a brief tour of the valley out to Soule Park golf course before I spiralled down to join Bob at the car at Propeller Field. It was smokin' hot on the ground and we packed up quickly and enjoyed some refreshments at Boccali's (it's been quite some time since I had strawberry shortcake!) before we rounded up the long-distance travelers in Fillmore.

One and a half hour flight.