Skyport Monday 3/3/08
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:33 pmUsually on Monday's most of us suffer from the "going back to work on Monday blues..."I've got a solution - SCREW WORK - GO FLY! Some of us decided to test that idea today and it worked out sweeeeet!
On paper it looked like we would get to around 4500 without any problem with higher NW winds expected above that and that's pretty much what we got. Most of the get-up spots were putting us around 4300' +/- where you definitely started to feel the tickle of the NW winds. If you wanted to get higher you had go deep over the main ridge-line, tighten up your belt, and jump into the convergence washing machine. The lift was somewhat broken and you had to play a little tip fold "whack-a-mole", but if you stayed with it you were able to get up to around 5800' at the peak of the day. It was definitely a day for bump-tolerance maintenance. Launch timing seemed to be critical today as well. If you launched on a down cycle or took the wrong path out to the front points there was a good chance you’d find yourself on the deck early. I saw several gliders go down at St. Mary’s and saw another in the Snake Pit.
The North winds were just strong enough to prevent anyone from straying to far down range in either direction which kept us somewhat in a fish bowl holding pattern. Bo, Ben, I and a few others ran laps between the Thermal Factory and La Cumbre Peak and then pushed out to East Beach. VERY FUN DAY!
Just a handful of shots from today:
http://www.pbase.com/fllspdahd/santa_barbara_3308
On paper it looked like we would get to around 4500 without any problem with higher NW winds expected above that and that's pretty much what we got. Most of the get-up spots were putting us around 4300' +/- where you definitely started to feel the tickle of the NW winds. If you wanted to get higher you had go deep over the main ridge-line, tighten up your belt, and jump into the convergence washing machine. The lift was somewhat broken and you had to play a little tip fold "whack-a-mole", but if you stayed with it you were able to get up to around 5800' at the peak of the day. It was definitely a day for bump-tolerance maintenance. Launch timing seemed to be critical today as well. If you launched on a down cycle or took the wrong path out to the front points there was a good chance you’d find yourself on the deck early. I saw several gliders go down at St. Mary’s and saw another in the Snake Pit.
The North winds were just strong enough to prevent anyone from straying to far down range in either direction which kept us somewhat in a fish bowl holding pattern. Bo, Ben, I and a few others ran laps between the Thermal Factory and La Cumbre Peak and then pushed out to East Beach. VERY FUN DAY!
Just a handful of shots from today:
http://www.pbase.com/fllspdahd/santa_barbara_3308
