The Grade on Sunday

From: Bob Hurlbett
Activity_Date: 4/29/01
Remote Name: 4.35.216.246

Comments

Benson, Ron, Walter Fontana, Art and I headed for the Grade Sunday afternoon, arriving a little after 2:00. Art was in the air but fighting strong, gusty conditions and not liking it. He soon landed and joined us at the first launch where we waited for conditions to calm down. Seeing little change after 30 minutes or so, we hiked the rest of the way to launch two, Tom Beidler arrived, and the Spin Doctor was first to sample active but very flyable air, a welcome break from our experiences yesterday at Plowshares. For the next hour+ we enjoyed an interesting combination of ridge lift and thermal flying near the top of the ridge at 1900 to 2000.'

Around 5:00 or so, a new pilot joined us and immediately connected to a huge thermal out front. Walter and I joined him to gain an additional 300+' or so before heading west toward the grass fold-up area. Over the next 20 minutes, Walter, Tom, Ron and I landed on the lawn, closely followed by the new guy in a cool military aviator's helmet who turned out to be Mark Stuckey, the good samaritan who very likely saved James Victor's life on the back side over a year ago. Welcome, Mark, it was a pleasure to fly with you and we hope you'll join us at the next SCPA meeting in Ojai.