Labor Day SB Season Opener

[SA]

We had some eaglets that have been putting in their time at the training hill ready for high flights, and were blessed with a nice little lapse rate for the Labor Day season opener. I posted a 10am meet time on Sunday night, although the forecast called for a significant marine layer depth and north winds at 6K. Kabir called in the morning saying “dude its kind of chilly up here”. The lapse rate looked good above 3100.

Magic and Dilly loaded up with Marty and Carmen. They headed up just before the Eagle Van. Ottis worked the door for the ride up the hill as people piled in the van (Thanks Ottis) collecting the $5 tariff. We had the van fully loaded and rolling at 10 after 10. Kelly Scoggins showed up a little late, we took mercy and loaded him up and headed up the 154. We picked up Kabir and said howdy to Cory and the kids then headed for the Alternator. We could feel the coolness in the air coming through the windows on the way up.

We found nice cycles at launch when we arrived. Doug was the first to launch and let us know it was on as he made his way out and promptly got up above west bowl. Everyone got in the cue and began hucking themselves. Nice launches by every single pilot. We had one pilot get a 50% deflation just before lift off, but the pilot managed his heading well, and got the wing to inflate before lifting off. Remember its better to be carrying a little too much brake when launching instead of carrying too little brake.

Kabir was the eye in the sky. He kept a good watch on everyone as we continued to get the 20 some odd pilots we had up there launched. Kabir reminded people about challenging themselves to hit a spot landing even if the LZ is huge. The LZ was very buoyant and people were thermaling over the “T” for 45 minutes.

Hang Glider pilots Aaron La Plante and Tim Barker had their first flights from the Alternator on paragliders. They both did great and will surely be dialing up cores this season. Eaglet Christian Spanhoff had his first high flight as well, and actually got to thermal on his first ever mountain flight.

I was lucky enough to find some new students who have booked lessons for next week exploring the SB Mountains. I handed them the keys and they were happy to drive down Eagle Chase so I could get up in the air. I had a fun flight getting up above west bowl. The cores weren’t too big, but they weren’t the super tiny high pressure bullets we see most of the time in the summer months. They were big enough to work and get up in. The highest I got was 3850. I found a head wind as I made my glide east to Cathedral. I got low at Cathedral and was stuck a bit there until a little of the west began to push through. I got up to 3600 and headed to Tunnel Tit where I found my best climb of the day (750 fpm). I got up to 3700 there and put it on glide for the beach. I ran into Todd Bibler who was biking by as I folded up on the Grass. Maureen is taking classes at SBCC, and he was down visiting from the Owens Valley.

Big thanks to Ty and Kabir for grabbing me and helping me fold up. We woofed down some burgers at the Habit and headed home. This year’s season opener came 2 weeks earlier than last years. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come.

[Kabir]

Dude!!!!!
It was sooo fun today

SA already told the tale,
But man!
Did I say how fun it was.

After everyone went through i tagged cathedral
but headed back because i did not have the glideey feeling on the demo wing
I got one ripper over WB
It felt good to be in real lift after all this time.
Almost 3 months....

Consistent lift all over the place

The T was going off!!!

I had to put effort to dodge the lift to able to get back down.

It is always great to fly with all of you!
Cheers!

And the almanac calls for a longer and colder winter!

YEAH!

[Kelly S]

A sincere thank you for the mercy on the late comer.
It was an amazing day!