More great flying at Chief's this past weekend

[robinc]

As usual, flying was great at Chief's this weekend. On Saturday the temp spread was moderate but not spectacular, with a touch of north wind, and Andy and I flew. Upon arriving at launch, there was a cloud shading the sun, so we proceeded to enjoy numerous para-waiting games with our esteemed driver, John K, while waiting for it to pass. We were finally able to launch about 12:45, Andy first. Andy was hoping to make the trip over to land at Nordhoff high school, but waiting for me to get up high enough to go too, ended up losing his window of opportunity. I ended up more or less stuck between 4400 and 4600 about half way down the ridge, without being able to get back up the ridge to the hairpin in the road, where the lift sufficient to head west is generally found. A very nice day nonetheless – both of us enjoyed it.

Sunday was a very good day - the forecast was calm up to 12K, with a 19 degree temp spread between the ground and 6000. The intrepid adventurers were Bob H, Rich, Brendan, Brent, Robin, and Texan Phillip – three of us relatively low airtime pilots, the rest P4s with significant time and experience. Bob P drove and served as advisor, as he was working with Phillip. We arrived at launch at 10:30ish, and Rich launched right away, then Brent, then Bob H, Brendan, Philip, and I was last – we were all gone by 11:30 I think. The lift looked light at first, but by the time I got out there there was plenty and I was able to get up to 5900 (above the top of the peak behind launch - about 1100 ft over launch) relatively soon. Bob had gotten up at the usual hairpin turn in the road and headed west to Three Stooges, Bruce's, Nordhoff Ridge and landed at Nordhoff High School – the usual XC route at Chief’s. Brendan was kind enough to work with me to head in that direction too – I made the transition to Three Stooges but didn’t find enough lift there to get up high enough to make the jump to Bruce’s – next time! After I peeled off Brendan made it to the high school as well, as usual. The rest of us landed in the standard LZ, the propeller field, very pleased with the day. I'm looking forward to next weekend so I can do it all again!