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Re: Plowshares/New Cuyama

From: K Dumain
Activity_Date: 5/12/02
Remote Name: 172.160.27.150

Comments

I'll add a few points. The forecast called for a light offshore, with onshore conditions Monday. Sunday looked like the hottest day in the cycle, with Bakersfield projected to go to 90. Weather.com had a barometric pressure difference of + 0.02 inches between Bakersfield and Santa Maria Sunday morning. I figured this would give us a relatively light east wind. Sure enough, that's what we found driving into the valley.

Got to launch about 11:30 as the winds were backing off. Chad lead the first group off in light conditions and they all climbed out over the knob below launch.

As the rest of us waited, the cycles started going west. Evan and Leanne and Eric started sinking out then dialed into some nice valley convergance at the base of the hills.

By now I had launched and had to work broken lift over the knob. Back at launch height it began to get organized and I found myself in some sustained 1000 and 1200 fpm up. It wasn't fat though, and I didn't have any luck pushing back over launch, so I tried to chase the good lift after topping out about 1500 over launch.

Eric stayed close to launch and Chad managed to keep his altitude and work his way east of Plowshare Peak along the mountains then jumped to the convergance down near Spanish Ranch. Jessica had the save of the day from the base of Miranda. The best I could find out front was 0 to 200 up, which I lost patience with too soon. Eric and I tried to run downwind looking for lift, but we were too late. Jessica would later cruise on past both of us about 1500 over.

Set up near a ranch gate, but got caught in a dusty about 50 feet off the deck. A sudden 180 over the fence and I was ready to land.

All in all a pretty good day at Plowshare. Weather.com turned out to be a good indicator of valley winds, which were light most of the day. The west came in strong after everyone landed.

Looking for a bit more lapse rate next time out, and plan to launch a bit sooner. May's the time!

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