Yet another great weekend at Chief!

[robinc]

Saturday
We started off on Saturday morning with a good temperature spread (22 degrees difference between ground in Ojai and temperature aloft for 6000 feet), and just a bit of wind predicted. The day turned out to be good, although a bit textured. The crew consisted of Jamie - a P2 student doing her first high flight, me, Otis, Chris G, John K (getting back into flying after a bit of a hiatus), Dave B, and our esteemed driver for the day was Mark, a current student that couldn’t do his thing at Elings as it was closed that day.

John launched first, and had to work a bit to get up, but also was the first to head west. Chris and Dave headed over soon after. I made an attempt, but only got about ½ way down Nordhoff Ridge before getting lower than I felt comfortable with there and turning back to the Propeller LZ. Otis worked on his transitions too, with the high school as his goal as well. Jamie had a great first high flight – given the good lift she got to thermal a bit, and got up over launch altitude about ½ way down the Chief spine. A great day for everyone!


Sunday
On Sunday the crew consisted of Andy D, Brendan, Jeff from Yosemite, me, and we had Chris G’s dad Jesse as our esteemed driver for the day. It was a hot day down in Ojai, and knowing it was going to be lifty, Andy launched relatively early after we arrived at launch – about 10:30. There was a bit of east wind, which we thought would be helpful for flying west, so we all were pretty optimistic at launch. The day turned out to be less solidly lifty, and depending on timing, some had great glides over to Three Stooges - 25:1! – however others found it exceptionally sinky in places. I was one of the lucky ones in terms of glide – I left Chief Peak at about 6300, and made it all the way to Bruce’s arriving well over it. I got up over Nordhoff Ridge just past the next spine down, and managed to find lift all the way down the ridge, leaving it down at the end with 4200’. I think I made only one turn after leaving Chief Peak until I came in over the high school LZ, with about 2000 – my second time making it to the high school! Once there I had to really work to get down below 1000’, as there was a lot of lift right over the LZ. Brendan and Andy followed soon after, also landing at the high school, and on Jeff’s second flight at Chief he got all the way over to Bruce’s, but had to turn back to the Propeller LZ due to exceptionally sinky areas encountered. Andy was originally hoping to head further west, but found the lift capped over Nordhoff Peak at about 6300, so decided to call it a day at the high school.

Looks like we’re headed to Pine tomorrow (Monday) afternoon!