Fillmore Saturday 1/5/27

[Nitrous]

Oat to Thomas Aquinas College, 2 and a quarter hours.
I've always enjoyed reading the write ups of the flights on the SCPA, so I will try to write up some.
Launched about 11am into a light SE. lost 2 or 3 hundred feet looking for lift and only finding sink. Light tail wind with massive sink until I crossed the Sespe. Flow was already going upstream as I crossed the river. arrived at ridge with 1500feet. I have never been able to make it to Santa Paula peak with that low of a crossing. Very weak bubbles off of several rocky ledges. I felt like I was a new born piglet hanging on to its mothers tit. My Trango 2XC can sure suck up those small light thermals. I felt like I just learning to fly all over again. Stuck for about 30 min before I could climb the ridge and get across the small saddle that goes up the back of San Cayetano peak. Overcast sky making climbs very slow and narrow. Finally got even with the peak and maintained altitude until the ridge before Santa Paula Peak. Lots of sink and practice using the speed bar. Bubbles over the oil Fields at 3.3k got me to almost to the ridge line with 4K. I always chicken out at this point and turn around and go home, except for the one time I was way high and had a tail wind. My options. 1. head to boyd's, a long into the wind glide. 2. head up the ridge line to pucker's, with no good LZ if I have to crawl back. 3. follow the ridge down and try to get established on the sulfer mountain ridge. I tried option #3 and found no lift and had to come back to the collage to land. It was a day of watching my wingtips and feet just clearing the bushes. I love my new Trango 2 XC, I would have not been able to get out of Fillmore without it. I think the mistake that I made was giving up, I should have stayed as high on the ridge behind the college as I could and waited for the light clouds to thin, If I could have gotten another 5 hundred feet may have been able to make the crossing to the puckers ridge. Can't wait until I learn how to fly my new glider.

[andy dainsberg]

Great xc post. West from Oat is such a cool flight.

[sd]

Mark, congratulations for the best local PG flight of the day Saturday? It’s been 10 years since you flew from Oat Mountain to Nordhoff High School.
http://paraglide.net/log/amigo/mark_pratt/03_02-09_oat_to_ojai.htm
Sounds like you’ve made the connection from Oat to Santa Paula a number of times.

[Nitrous]

Getting out of the draw from the Sespe is the hardest part. The second hardest is from Santa Paula peak to where the end of the ridge breaks and goes down to the college, if you don't find a convergence . Have you ever heard of any landing reports back in the creek behind the college.

[sd]

I don't recall landing back behind Santa Paula Ridge, but I do recollect trying to cross back to the Topa's low. Can't remember where I ended up. The Santa Paula Creek north of the college looks landable. Sounds like you are considering running NW from Santa Paula Ridge trying to connect on one of the SE facing spines that run up to Puckers or the back side of the Topa Bluffs?

I added a graphic of the gap and the USGS Topo map to the Fillmore Site Index at:
http://scpa.info/sites/fillmore
the direct link to the graphic is
http://scpa.info/sites/fillmore/maps/santa_paula_peak_to_topa.jpg

[Nitrous]

One of the spines that runs up to puckers looks a little closer. I'm usually not very high when I get to the end of the ridge, Seems like there is a thermal trigger about a third of the way down the ridge to the college. I think I might try to make it that far before turning and trying to cross the creek. Even when it is east in Fillmore it I always seems to be coming from the SW when I get to the end of the ridge. I'm afraid of being in sink and gliding into a headwind during the crossing. The back of the Topa Bluffs scares the hell out of me.
I just put a porta potty next to the storage containers at the Fillmore launch. All pilots are welcome to use it.

[Mark Miyahara]

Did you fly solo on this endeavor? Wish I would have been available...family and I were in Yosemite Valley ...wishing they would allow paragliding off Glacier Point.