Drivers report

[Chip Bartley]

Saturday proved to be awesome in the air and on the ground. I got the call at about 0800 from OJ and headed out to meet him and Milley at the Rite Aid on the avenue in Ventura. We headed to Parma and arrived at 1015 to pick up the usual suspects. Bob H., Art, Andy and Dave were waiting and we loaded up to head to the Sky port. Got to launch and no one new what to do????? With Faoro not there it was hard to figure out who would go first. Bob pony’d up and got set to launch about 1100. He launched and went straight up smooth as silk. Soon after OJ launched with the same result. Art was next and ended up quite a bit below launch and had to work for his ultimate save and sky out in the house thermal. Dave, Robb and Andy were off with out incident and the fun began. By the time everyone launched Bob was at 4200 headed east and OJ and Art were working the Thermal factory chasing him. I headed toward Carp as things seemed to be heading that way. Got to Montecito and heard on the radio that Bob and OJ weren’t having the best of luck and that I should head toward san ysidro. so i hung for a bit and finally saw OJ lining up for a landing at the Montecito union school right behind Bob. As I pulled up they were having a spot landing clinic at the school yard that unless you have been there you won’t understand. Rob lost altitude as well so we lead him in to the same lz. Meanwhile we would get spotted radio traffic from Art and a very little bit from Andy. We new they had made it a bit further but couldn’t get a good position on them. Finally, got a hold of Art who landed at a golf course and was hiking out to get cross streets. In the mean time we got in touch with Andy on the phone and found out his radio failed but being the sky captain that he is, he had the record on the day as he made it to the grill in Carp. We went and picked him up and then circled back to get Art. Great day for all and it was good to get out of the house for me.

chip