Fillmore

From: Brendan
Activity_Date: 04/16/02
Remote Name: 198.81.16.36

Comments

Initially I was thinking that Tuesday was going to be blown out as the North winds were forecasted to last all week, and Monday had been a howler. But after checking the weather in the morning, it looked pretty good so Mark, Chris, Eddie, and I headed up to Chiefs.

It was real cold when we got out of the car at launch and the valley was still getting lots of sun with only scattered cummis around. It was starting to look really good. Eddie summed it up by somewhat grumbling to himself, “oh, this is NOT going to be a short day!”

I did a pretty poor job of briefing Mark considering it was only his second flight from Chiefs and the first had been just to Boccalis, but I knew he could figure out the flying part and we would figure out XC options once in the air.

With light East in the forecast I was thinking that Nordoff was the likely direction, but the clouds did seem to be moving toward the East, and the Ojai draw can be pretty pervasive, so I didn’t make any decisions until getting in the air.

From launch I climbed quickly up to 6K and the drift was definitely from the West so when I felt like I topped out I headed for East Repeater. Found a few scraps here and there, but it wasn’t long before I was sliding down West Repeater and pretty much getting skunked the whole way. Forger retreated back to the main ridgeline and Chris was doing well over Twin Peaks so I started looking for a ticket back over.

I found a small thermal at a reliable spot low on West Repeater and gained a couple hundred. It wasn’t much, but I basically had a choice of the Horse Pasture or coming in low on Twin Peaks, so I chose to throw the dice.

I came in real low. Well below the second peak, but the thermal coming off of them sucked me up and shot me back into the sky so I barely even had to scratch.

Hit cloud base at 6100, still climbing at 6400 I felt I needed to go somewhere, so it was East again. When I reported my direction Forger asked if I was trying to get somewhere so I said, “uhhh, yeah, Fillmore. If I can get past East Repeater!”

This time, with the extra altitude, it was pretty easy. The lift was smooth and I’m getting familiar with the course after making several trips over there in the last couple months. It was fun flying with Forger because he seemed to be all over the place. It was like he had rockets on his wing. Every time I would look for him he would be about as far away from where I expected him as possible and I would say, “Hey, how did he get way over there?!” It was always a good laugh. He stayed in the game and managed to zip all over the mountains and valley on the way.

Getting to Fillmore was just good fun flying. No big scares, no real low saves, just consistent and fairly smooth lift in all the usual spots. Once in Fillmore I suffered from classic XC ailments. First I had “goal fixation”. Fillmore was the goal, I wasn’t thinking about flying PAST Fillmore, so once I got there I started looking for a place to land. Crossing the Sespe river was challenging. I was about 300-400 AGL and it was blowing hard and gusty. With the speed bar pegged I could get about 10 mph, but I knew I was going to get hit with a big front tuck, and I did. After I recovered, landing appeared imminent, penetration was minimal and all options looked bad. Powerlines were possible, an orchard was maybe even probable, and the rocky riverbed was most likely. I hit that oh-soessful-mode of really wanting to be on the ground safely.

There was a decent brown field just at the mouth of the canyon that I desperately hoped I could make as an LZ. Luckily my penetration improved just enough and I came in about 100’ above the field. Setting up to back into it my vario started beeping consistently. I was pretty much parked, so I just let it beep. Then as I started moving forward, I turned and before I knew it I was climbing out instead of landing. About that time Forger pulled in beside me (from out of no-where, he flies his paraglider like it’s an F16!) and we thermaled up together.

At this point, however, I was suffering from that other XC ailment, “LZ fixation”. Climbing out in a great thermal with plenty of day left, and my only thought was, “hey, this might even get me another half mile to that better LZ over by 126!” As I headed to my LZ, the day kept arguing with me, throwing me more and more options, but I took a couple turns here and there and then kept heading for my predetermined location.

The day wouldn’t let me have it, and as I set up for final on my sweet little LZ my vario started its beeping again and soon I was about 600 over. Forger seemed to be tagging along, keeping an eye on what I was up to, but I assumed he was in the landing mode as well.

Again, since I had the extra altitude I picked a new LZ, further East down the 126 and headed over to it. I was almost cursing the damn thermals for making it so difficult for me to land. (?!!) Finally, after flying through some really nice lift, I dumped it in a field of foxtails a couple miles East of Fillmore and gave Forger a wind report and nearby flag location.

After taking about 20 minutes to fold up I walked across 126 with a huge smile on my face to meet Eddie and Chris. When I got to them Eddie asked, “why didn’t you just keep flying with Forger?” The smile quickly dropped from my face. “WHAT?!!! He’s still in the air?” The thought to continue flying hadn’t occurred to me ever since I hit the head wind over the Sespe river. Even though the conditions had smoothed out and there was still plenty of lift. I convinced myself the flight was over as soon as I got scared and I didn’t even consider the possibility of continuing on.

So I paid for it for the next hour and a half, peering up at Forger through the windshield of Topa Chase while we followed under him along the 126. I had forgotten the first rule of Cross Country, “It aint over ‘till it’s over!”

Anyway, except for the premature landing, I enjoyed the flight and I think I learned a lot about the second half from the car.