A Difficult Day at Pine-July 5th

[NMERider]

No great heli-pot-field drama. Just me on my T2C and Fast Eddy driving chase in my RAV4. Launched just before 1PM and struggled. Got up but didn't feel right to go OTB then ended up at 5,700' by the Sand Pile. Made a nice low save only to end up in more or less the same position not long afterward. Finally listened to Eddy who was watching me yo-yo from over by the Sand Bar where I caught a nice one the took me into the low 9s. Went OTB and got flushed all the way back to more or less the same altitude as the first low save. This one took me from 6K to 11.6K just West of San Guillermo after a few phases. I thought I was made to glide over then bench up by the trigger West of Frazier. I ended up stinking low where I had another low save but not enough to get established. I landed South of Lockwood Valley Rd just across from the airport. 2:23hr flight time. Big thanks to Eddy for taking the wheel and giving hints and clues as needed.

[sd]

Excerpt Copied from http://paraglide.net/log/15/07-05/2_summary.htm

Friday and Saturday both worked pretty good along the coast and the training hill. Saturday was a little late clearing, but when it did the ocean air pulled in with gusto. Sunday morning was even thicker with almost a misty drizzle. The Forecast was calling for "likely" clearing to the beaches in the afternoon. By noon it was starting to stir, but was still pretty solid overcast with very little solar heating at the surface. I got to the Training hill around 1:45ish and it was still overcast, but pilots were starting to stay up, getting 50 to 100 over. It was still pretty flat on the ocean, but there was building wind from the west at altitude over the training hill. The thermals and altitude continued to get better for another hour before the wind started to get the upper hand and the thermals became less productive. By 3 PM the wind had pulled in along the cliffs with some whitecaps visible offshore, but the mid channel buoy never blew very hard. I don't think anyone flew the training hill after 3 PM, and by 3:40ish they were all headed out.

Inland (behind the Ojai Range) the lapse rate was good, but there was south wind at altitude. Jonathan Dietch flew Pine in the heat of the day on Sunday and eventually connected over the 50/50 to almost 12K, but fizzled across the south side of Lockwood Valley. His photos show some clouds to the north? The FlyAboveAll crew went to Pine Friday through Monday for the late day air. The were mostly getting about 1500 to 2K over launch. I think the feed line was further north.

Local pilots also went to Marshall and encountered typically good conditions this time of year. Ojai station reports recorded high surface temperatures on Sunday, but the Skew-t charts indicate there may have been an inversion. It blew pretty stiff in Ojai Sunday afternoon.

On the coast, Monday was even calmer that Sunday, but pilots reported good conditions again at the Training Hill. There were a few pilots flying Bates and Wilcox every day from Friday through Monday, and Tuesday looks like it will continue to work down low under the inversion.

[NMERider]

Thanks sd. Always essential reading!

I just completed the video edit: https://youtu.be/2CmjFDC6Qqg