Stellar Friday

[Cormac]

Thanks for everyone for the great day... I heard that the pilot that landed short of St. Marys made a solid retrieve. Great bunch of skygods to share the air with... NO CLOWNS ON EAST BEACH...

http://picasaweb.google.com/CormacPara/08skyportflappin

[Chris G]

Clearly there's an unemployment problem in SoCal. Great day for it though with strong climbs to 5k for some. I topped at 4300 at the TF but again, wasn't in love the the hard yanks, and sudden drops so headed out. Made the training hill easily on straight glide. Chad grabbed the school van and after scooping me up picked up the 10 or so that had made the beach. Last I heard Bo was 10 miles West of the airport.

[Bo Criss]

Really nice day.

Launched around 12:15 and just went up, maybe the highest I've ever gotten off the Skyport Launch house thermal. Made the glide to RR and came in 200 feet over the top. It was clear that the day was exceptional. Decided to head back in the canyon a bit to check out EJ Bowl, caught little stuff, but as I pushed a spine further, found a really nice one that took me 500 over LaCumbre. Glided over to Alternator Launch and not much working so I went out to West Bowl. Another stellar climb, allowing me to glide over and arrive 500 feet over No Name. Pushed on to the VOR and found a bit, but not much. I had enough to check out Painted Cave. Arrived 200 over the upper town, but nothing was firing. Headed south and finally worked a face over the 154. It helped to push me further west crossing the 154.

Half way across I found another small one giving me some breathing room. The terrain on the other side of the 154 is much more shallow, so the key is not to look out at the long glide to civilization. I focused on any small bump that might produce. It didn't take long to find nice lift here and there as I pushed west.

I set a goal of making it over the highest peak with the antennas. It's a long hard road to get there but the sky was cooperating. Generally I found lift where I'd expect it. If it wasn't there, I'd wait until it produced. It was truly amazing to fly the same range, but never having gone this far before, it was all new to me. Felt like I might be in another place altogether, maybe Brazil, France, Mexico. I worked the front points, instead of pushing deep. The upper portion of the sky was working better but the glide to civilization is intense going west, maybe a better route for hang gliders. It's worse than the Gap to Ojai, and everything was new to me. A couple of times I definitely was wondering why I was so deep and low? But as I said, the sky was working. I eventually got to the front points below the highest peak and just kept benching up to each new layer/spine. It's about 5 layers deep back there. As I reached the top where the big antennas are there were a few ATVs watching my flight which made me feel better, like they would at least know where the body was.

I eventually got 300 feet over the towers and decided to stay on the main spine for another mile or so before diving over the back. As I dove over I got a descent amount of sink and while the terrain is steeper on the backside, civilization is still more than a stones throw away. The terrain tapers slowly at first in this spot and I was able to catch one last nice thermal just on the back of the main spine before the final glide. I had a very smooth glide to the NW over some beautiful grass/treed hills.

I ended up landing at 3:10 on the North side of the Santa Ynez River just off of Refugio Road. It's about a mile WSW of the SY Airport. I hiked into town about a half mile to HWY 246. Jim, a visiting pilot from San Francisco was heading north to Cambria tonight so he swung by and picked me up and took me back to Chumash Casino. 25 minutes later a free bus took me from the casino to Goleta near Costco. Ben swung by and picked me up and took me back to Parma. So retrieve was fantastic. Somehow it always works out.

A few things helped today. I had seen the terrain by helicopter and plane with Ben before. Winds were very light. Thermals were where you thought they would be. I flew for the first time ever with music. I was listening to music with my new iPod shuffle. Thanks James and RaeLynn! I found that it helped me relax.

Google Earth marks my flight distance at 24.75 miles. I'll try to post pictures on my website sometime soon.

Maybe tomorrow will be another great day.

[Tony de Groot]

Congratulations Bo. That is an awesome flight!!!
Tony

[oj]

Excellent flight report Bo, reminds me of the ones SD used to write. Falls in nicely with a thread I've been reading on the International forum.

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=16065

[JimmyZ]

Great Flight Bo! Nice SB range XC'n...

[Cormac]

Seriously sick job Bo... You tend to amaze! Maybe one day I will have the cajones to take the training wheels off...

[Dave Baldwin]

Amazing flight Bo. Thank you for the great story. It is awesome to read the "thermal by thermal" account. More more!!!!