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Blackhawk

From: Southside
Activity_Date: 7/4/01
Remote Name: 63.17.211.31

Comments

With the SE winds predicted for the 4th I decided to head over to Blackhawk in the Lucerne Valley on the north side of Big Bear rather than go to Pine. It is a far drive for the readers of this page, but I thought I would write up a report, because, from what I can see, both launches (NE and NW) can easily be used by PGs -- whether or not you feel comfortible flying in the high desert...well...that's up to you. If you remember the 4th we had a lot of moisture that day, but we lucked out where we were (everything, for the most part, moved to the west of us). There were ominous clouds forming above the mountains above Big Bear when we were setting up, but the valley itself was basically clear. There were only three of us there. Me on a Fusion and the other two pilots, Herb and Russ, on Atoses. Despite the SE flow we had no problem getting off on the NE launch (6k). Herb launched first, and immediately climbed to over 9k and then headed on course to Barstow. By the time I launched 10-15 minutes later, the overdevelopment above Big Bear had bridged out into the desert right along our course line. After getting up at launched, I too, left for Barstow, running down the eastern edge of the clouds(it was raining just a few miles to our west) doing my very best not to get sucked up into them. Cloudbase was probably around 11-12k, but everytime I got above 9500 I pointed the glider to the sunlight. For twenty five miles I didn't have to make one turn. Somewhere around the 20 miles mark I passed Herb(I guess he stopped to turn somewhere); Russ had gained on both of us. At twenty six miles I dropped below 9k for the first time since launch and I was actually happy that I didn't have to contend with the cloud suck...but then I kept on dropping...all the way to the ground. I went from not having to turn in a thermal to not having a thermal to turn in just like that...such is life in this sport.

Anticipating an afternoon SW wind that never came until it was too late, Russ and Herb headed up I 15 toward Las Vegas. To give you an idea of the headwind that they were bucking, it took Herb, the winner of the day, almost 5 hours on his RW to fly 61 miles. It took me just over an hour to fly 31 miles when we were cruising downwind.

For having a lot of potential -- the site record is 161 miles -- not a lot of people go here. There are better roads to launch and even better LZ's at other places, but if you don't mind driving you should consider heading out there.

I've only been there twice myself and so I'm not sure exactly how to direct you to launch. I can say that the gravel road that goes to launch is off of rte 18 on the way up to the backside of Big Bear. The entrance is on the east side of the road near the cement plant.

John

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