Springtime at Skyport - Easter Sunday, March 23

[faoro]

After celebrating my birthday last week backpacking in the Grand Canyon, I drove the 600 miles home yesterday - hoping as we always do - that maybe Sunday would be soarable. With a lot of folks up at Big Sur this weekend, some old venerables managed to get together. Tom Pipkin, Ojai John, Brendan Pegg (with tandem passenger Brad), El Presidente Robb Milley, Bob Hurlbett and myself arranged to go up and check out the surprisingly good forecast for today. It was predicted to be very warm for March with adequately cold air aloft. We were all anxious for the first springtime flight - and rusty from not flying the mountains much in the last two months.

Balmy air blew in the windows; the sky was blue with a little haze and there were lupine and other flowers starting to bust out all along the roadside up to launch. I got off at 11:20 AM and the day turned on ten minutes later - giving me some time to examine the flora closely way below launch. Once I rose up above old friends watching from Skyport, the day was eminently soarable and there was never another moment of doubt that this was a very special day. Robb set a simple little task of cruising the range on a short out and back to Alternator and then out to the beach. The R&R was working, but there was a mini-ceiling at 4,500 feet. After poking through, I took 5,000 feet of altitude with a slight east tailwind and arrived at La Cumbre Peak only 600 feet lower. I passed Diablo setting up at EJ's Bowl with Fast Eddy helping him. It was choppy on the east side and over the top of the peak, so I circled above the big satellite dishes on the West side, looking for lift and enjoying the bright, purple-pink prickly phlox (confirmation of the spring season) growing all around the tower and picnic table. The wing made that uneasy motion when you know you're close to a big thermal (that happened a lot today) and soon enough it sucked me up and took me for a ride. It just kept going and going. It topped out at 6,600 feet and the view was surrealistic. Green covered every slope except for the 240,000 acres of barren, brown slopes from last summer's Zaca fire. The devastation goes as far as the eye can see. To the east, I could see Gibraltar reservoir spilling, Pine Mountain and snow on Mt. Pinos. To the west, I could see Bo Criss' route acroos no-man's land and out toward Santa Ynez. (From this altitude it looked easy, like strtetching for Ojai from Pine. But as I drifted west in the sink, it resumed its intimidating nature.) I turned around at No Name, hoping to get back to some bigger stuff to the east. Bob Hurlbett cruised along the back ridge over the shooting range at 6K, looking impossibly high.

We visited the usual points eastbound. I had to get to the family Easter picnic at Skofield Park. I passed over the park at 5,000 feet before flying over downtown and out to the harbor. Back over Stearn's Wharf and on to East Beach. But the day still had one big magic trick left in it. John Kloer and I passed over the palm trees, getting into position to land. On the ground, I could see Brendan and his tandem passenger. Suddenly, the vario went off. Slowly, but steadily it beeped as I passed over the trees just west of Milpas. I got on the radio and shouted, "I'm going up!" Unheard of! I circled and paused facing the west wind with gentle lift until it diminished. Then I whipped around to find it again. On the second pass, I hit an incredibly cold air pocket directly over the intersection of Milpas and Cabrillo. Once west of the cold pocket, the vario chirped again and I gained a hundred feet or so over the palm trees. OJ and I got in perfect sync and worked that little ridge of air in tight circles for fifteen minutes. Even Bob, who was lower and preparing to land, got caught up in it and circled for another ten minutes. People on the bike path and the beach started to stare and a crowd developed. We were putting on a show and loving it. With three wings, it was a bit tight and I turned out of it and landed after twenty minutes. OJ worked it for half an hour. I'm convinced that it was the warm west wind riding up and over the palm trees and that amazingly stable and resistant cold pocket that made it work. I have never experienced that before and I don't know if I ever will again.

What a magical springtime flight! Two hours swooning in the ether.

[Southside]

Tough sledding, but Tony and I managed to get 50 miles in. Got stuck at East Montecito, Noon, and because I left Divide below the top, Whiteledge. Whereas Tony turned around at 50 miles, landing back near Fillmore, I continued on to just short Of Piru. If we didn't launch from EJ bowl I wouldn't have made 50 miles. We hit an east wind at about 45 miles. Max altitude: just over 7700ft. Full write up here:
http://socalxc.blogspot.com/2008/03/eas ... ht_20.html
John