Tues. 2/22

[Ben H]

Parma 9:30

[sd]

looking out my office window a little after 8 am, CUs popping along the range, more so through Casitas Pass. High cloud base with some drift from the East in concurrence with the winds aloft forecast which indicates the 6K wind should shift more to the north, then NW overnight. Light wind at the Peak. Strong Lapse Rate. Looks like a good day, but I'll need focus on Tuesday obligations.

[Tony de Groot]

So Ben what happened? I saw a group of paragliders going down range. Looked like it took awhile to heat up. Did you go for the brass ring, out and return, lap or just cruise around and enjoy the day off. I can't be there but enjoy the stories.
Tony

[SA]

We decided on a change of pace by heading to the Alternator today. The east in the forecast also had us pointed that way. The Eagle van of the “T” at 10am sharp, we picked up Kabir at the ranch on the way up, and arrived at launch to a very light northwest flow. 15 minutes later we were getting nice SE cycles.

We saw Cracka, Kev Howe, and Bo looking good at La Cumbre Peak as Kabir was spreading out at the Alternator. They had launched the Skyport just after 10am. They looked to be at 5k as they headed our way, and we new it was going to be a great day. Kabir climbed out immediately, and the rest of the posse hucked off as well. We Had Joe Hartley, and John Wolfe from out of town getting their fair share of climbs, and Mitch from Nor Cal flew for over an hour on his first thermal flight.

We hung out at West Bowl. George made a move to Cathedral and came back over to fly with the rest of the crew. Kabir had already started the push east following Kevin Howe, and Malcolm got on that train as well. These guys pushed against a headwind as they made their way down range.

The posse back at West Bowl was getting climbs to base right around 4400. We had a nice gaggle working lift together and everybody was doing their part to find the next best bubble. We saw a huge bald Eagle fly in over West Bowl. Mitch got the closest, and that bird was huge. Franklin, George, Rich, and Mitch headed towards the “T” just as we started to feel the SW push through, while John Wolfe, Peter Williams from Maine, and I got on course east bound.

John Got to cathedral first and wandered a bit before finding a nice core that took him to base. Peter and I climbed to base as well and we all pushed into the factory together. Peter and I pushed out front to a nice cloud and got to 4100 before heading to Montecito. John hung gout and tanked up then headed our way.

Nice climb at Montecito peak, and I sent Peter ahead while I waited for John to get a ripper that got him to base again. We all arrive at Romero and searched for climbs and each eventually got to about 4000. Kabir had landed at Santa Claus, and Malcolm had rolled solo down range on his first XC flight eastbound. I’m pretty sure he went a peak or two past Romero before heading out to join Kabir.

The SW drift had picked up and you could see some smoke in Montecito was laying down pretty good. We decided to take the quartering wind and head out to the Polo fields. We came in nice and high for a tour of the beach at Santa Claus before the three of us put it down at the Polo fields. An excellent first XC flight for Malcolm (all on his own), and Peter and John. Thanks to Franklin for coming down to grab us. Ben will likely post details of his flight soon. Ashley did a stellar job of retrieving him.

Base was too low for us to try to push on and get through the pass. Probably better for most of the crew not to try to get through the pass on their first eastbound XC anyway. Hoping for more tomorrow.

[Ben H]

Well, I got my ass through the pass but not all the way to Ojai. Launched Eliminator around 11 with JR, Willy and Jay. We had to scratch around below the antennae farm for a while but eventually got up to base around 43. Headed east from the RR and it was fun flying to the power lines with light winds aloft. JR was patiently making it work at east divide so I decided to push on from west divide at 47 or so and join him just before he moved on to white ledge. I didn't really find much as I about 500 ft lower than him but thinking back on it now I should have slowed down here like JR had and worked everything I could in order to stick to the high ground. Instead, I pushed on to the west spine of white ledge thinking I could get something there. With no luck, I ran out of options and had to put it down in one of the clearings along the fire road. It wasn't a bad landing back there since the forest service or whoever had done a fair amount of brush clearing. I was bummed to be on the ground but way happier to have made it to the dirt road! JR pushed on into Ojai while I packed up. I left my wing there and started hiking out east towards Ojai. Once I reached a high point on the road about a mile up I called my wife and did some sweet talking to get picked up. I gave her the coordinates and from here I still had about 3 or 4 miles to get to the locked gate. It took another hour and half or so of hiking out and right when I got to the gate Ashley pulled up. Luckily, the gate was already open so I decided to take my car back as far I as I could without getting stuck since it was really muddy. We got to the ridge top and it was too risky to take my 2wd car down the road all the way to my glider so we hiked in almost a mile and carried it back up to my car. Ashley was a trooper and didn't complain once. A few weeks ago we had talked about doing some backpacking in Ojai to which she kindly hinted that this wasn't exactly what she had in mind! All in all, it was a great learning experience and we even made it back in time for a fun night at the Banff film festival.

[Aaron]

WOW! Ashley is bad ass! but we already knew that,, i wont tell her but i remember DD helping Diablo out of there a while back and got free drinks for life at Broafies...i think there was a little poison oak involved though... way to charge it! lets get sum!

aaron

[Ben H]

Yeah, I owe her big time.....

I'm glad we have Parma to keep our approaches sharp for days like this!

Whiteledge Bailout

[pengoquin]

I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home, they're not much bigger than two meters....

[Fast Eddy]

Mr Ben,

So why didnt you walk up to the hugh point at the top. Just about 3/4 of a mile up the hill. You can relaunch off facing the Main LZ at the lake. You may not HAVE ENOUGH GLIDE to get there in your glider. However one thermal and your back in the game. Plus back to cloud base and on into ojai.
There are Landable fields more down to the left along the road that your glider would reach easily. Check it out and keep it in mind. It is a grassy slop well suited and many pilots have done it thru the years.

Fast Eddy

[Ben H]

Hey Fast Eddy,

Dude I would have to take my wife's fitness classes a few more times before I could get my glider up that hill! I'll try that out next time but hopefully there won't be a next time....wait isn't that what I said after I landed my paraglider on top of Chismahoo.

Hey let me know next time your running a crew up in Ojai and have room, I'd love to tag along.

BEN

[Southside]

It's not that far of a hike.

[Ben H]

My LZ to the re-launch = 2+ miles up steep hill . Paraglider no problem but with the HG I would still need to take my wife's fitness class a few more times. If I were in the same situation again, I would not scratch around so much at the white ledge spine and try to at least make it to the meadow because then its an easy hike up like you said.

[BobA]

Also note that many have climbed out from that ridge just SSE of our LZ on your picture...