Saturday morning meet time??

[Chip Bartley]

So far the following pilots have opted in on the Saturday Ojai run.

Drivers:

Carmen D
Taliban Chris (if needed)

Pilots:

Chip & Truck
Art
Andy
Marty
OJ ??????
Ron ??????
Robb ?????
ANYBODY, BUELLER, ANYONE?

Chief or Pine ?
Tenative meet time depending on the weather 9am. Good luck and good night.

[Chris G]

Updated meet time is 9:30. I think Pine is the better call today. Ojai is cursed with a 15 degree spread but Pine is L&V with a great lapse to 13k.

[faoro]

We had a great big crew: Ojai John, Art, Andy Dainsberg, Marty, Chip, Bob Hurlbett and Taliban Chris - with Carmen and infant riding shotgun - headed to Pine on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately, the Blipmap was saying 10-11K tops and when we saw the incredibly hazy conditions in the backcountry, we figured it might not be stellar. But the cycles were blowing in strong at launch and I got off the hill at 11:15 AM after only two aborted pull-ups instead of the usual three.

It didn't take long to realize the air was as it often is at Pine Mountain in May and June: Uneven and punchy with few organized thermals. I've noticed in past years that this type of air is not unusual at Pine in early summer-type conditions. There was significant southeast flow and it felt as if it would take me over the back if I tried to hold onto the meager thermals as I skimmed the tree-tops.

I gave up on this after about twenty minutes. I did hit one decent thermal to 8,800 feet, but lost it there and never found it again. So I went out front and found lift one bench below the bonzai tree. This consistently got me up to 7,400-7,500 feet - but any foray back toward the spine was futile. Marty launched and had generally similar results.

After an hour, I headed to Wolf's Grill/Pine Mountain Inn. It was easy to stay around 6K there, so I poked around for another half hour. Marty touched down right behind me in front of the restaurant (which has been rehabilitated and is set to open in two weeks). Topa chase with all the pilots that drove down picked us up. Bob and I went to More Mesa where he had a ncie flight to remind him of what it was like to get his feet off the ground.

[Robb]

Rhonda was showing S and SSW 7-15 from about 11:30 on - -how does that match what you saw on launch?

[Chris G]

Sounds about right. Maybe we should have been up there earlier?...;P

[oj]

The speed seems accurate but she should have shown some SE for the direction.

[faoro]

Definitely SE, all the way out to Wolf's Grill, which is west of Rhonda. But I don't see the SW until later in the day. I launched at 11:15 AM and landed at 12:45 PM. Isn't that NE at that time?