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Saturday, 9/4/04, Labor Day Weekend Normally I'd only get a kitchen pass for one day on the weekend. I put in for Sunday, but Pam's cousin Patty was visiting and Pam wanted to show her the local Santa Barbara Mountains. Naturally, I suggested that if we drive up someone might as well fly down so Patty could observe the activity. We had offered to give Pat a ride, but knew she probably wouldn't bite. Sam had flown tandems and trios at Wilcox and Bates, but this was his first mountain flight. Stopped on the way to the Peak and said hi to old friends at the Liminator while Pam gave Patty a tour of the Skyport. Patty was impressed with the view off the back side. Back down to the Skyport for a 1:30 launch. We had to accommodate Tess, so I took the gear down and set up first. We put Tess in her car seat and Patty stayed up top with her. Tess didn't like the separation. She seemed to know we were leaving and Patty was a stranger to her. She vocally protested as 16 month olds do, crying and screaming until she fell asleep on the way down. We'd done a rigging hang check in the garage that morning, so I was confident about the setup. Fortunately, Casey and Bob Hurlbett showed up just as we were getting ready to suit up. Casey was tasked as the photographer, and Bob would assist with the pull up. I build a wall solo before getting everyone hooked in, so we had a good layout. The launch cycles were about 4 to 10 so we didn't expect to need much running room. Got Sam & Pam hooked together about 10 feet back from the lip. Sam indicated he was scared. Gave him a little pep talk and bribed him with a strawberry smoothie at the pool after landing. Pam had reservations earlier, but seemed ok now. Clean forward pull up, not too hard or fast. Let the canopy come just a little in front and it pulled us forward. I braked and we ran to the edge. As we swung thought the bottom of the pendulum, we had plenty of energy and popped up about 75 feet right off launch. Sam got over his fear in "zero milliseconds" and loved it immediately. Pam wanted back on the ground. The rigging worked pretty good and everyone got comfortable. Despite getting a hundred over right away, we weren't able to climb out. Pilots had been climbing out at launch and were reporting over 5K, so we might have if we gave it more time, but Pam was nervous so we needed to get on glide and away from the hill. Left with 150 over launch a few minutes into the flight. Everyone commented on the wires. Came in over the Antenna Farm with a few hundred and were stuck at 25 hundred for 5 minutes. Pam wanted down now, but I wanted to take a glide to the beach rather than land at Parma. A thermal finally came through and we climbed to 38. Probably could have gone a little higher, but I used up my allotment of 360s by a few turns. Sam was having a blast and tried to calm Pam. Once on glide, everyone settled down in the smooth air. Pam & Sam bonded up front, but I could only make out bits of the conversation from the back due to the wind noise. Sam was chatting away the whole flight and pointing out landmarks. Crossed the freeway with fifteen hundred and flew upwind over the water to just short of the pier. Everyone enjoyed the view. Came back downwind over the boats to a spot where some HGs were breaking down across from the Fess Parker Hotel. We didn't seem to have much wind at altitude, but there were small white caps on the water a few hundred yards off shore. I wanted to land on the grass, but was concerned about the potential for wind and needed to leave some room for getting dragged. Turned out that the stronger wind was mostly staying off shore and it was only blowing about 10 at the beach. Tried to zig back in for a patch of grass but realized I didn't have the altitude to line up for my target between the trees and aborted back to the sand. Good landing with Sam & Pam touching down first. I continued to fly for a couple of seconds after they were on the ground. Brought the canopy down with the B's without getting dragged. Packed up on the grass while chatting with the spectators and HG pilots. We were across the street from Patty's hotel. She pulled up and we loaded the gear curbside. Went to the hotel pool and got Sam his strawberry smoothie. |
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