|
Sunday, 9/5/04, Labor Day Weekend You Missed It! (Dean) Dean and I were driving through Ojai this morning and we stopped at Circle K for provisions. I waited in the car and when Dean came out of the store he handed me a Red Bull. "What's this for?" I asked him and he said when we land we're gonna have a toast. We began talking about what a great flight would be and we came to the conclusion that a great flight today would be from Chiefs launch, ending up at the training hill in SB, saying hi to Chad, and having a Red Bull toast. Damn if it didn't happen. What a frikkin day. EIGHT pilots made it through the pass today. Congratulations to Casey, Tom Truax, Sharon, John Kloer, Brendan, Tommy Pipkin and Dean. You all deserve a toast! I left Chiefs Peak with 9200 and had the most amazing and buoyant glide to the 33. I crossed the 33 high and made it to the Taft property thermal source with around 5K. After spending about 20 minutes stuck here (and also getting low and trashed a bit) I found a fattie that took me to 6.5K. Not wanting to get pinned along the ridgeline behind White Ledge, I gunned Southward to get out in front of White Ledge where I hit a monster that took me to 8200. When I finally left it I was over East Divide with a 20 mph tailwind pushing me to SB. I was stoked. I crossed the Powerlines about 500 over, and began feeling a real strong southerly component. Randall reported being pinned at the ridgeline so I made a concerted effort to get out front and away from the compression zone at the top. Good thing I did because there were more than a few occasions where I was parked pointing southward. So I decided to fly low and away from the ridgeline. The day was buoyant enough for that to work and I clicked off mile after mile flying midrange. I didn't turn in any thermals and in fact went on speedbar on occasion to blast through them. Imagine blowing through thermals on purpose and getting away with it. lol But I finally paid a price with this tactic when I got just past Castle Ridge. I got down to about 1800 and almost considered throwing in the towel and bailing to Shotgun Field. I stumbled unto some weak lift on one of the lower foothills and rode it up to the top of Montecito peak. From there it was a nice glide to the Thermal Factory and at that point was contemplating joining Brendan for a nice relaxing flight to East Beach. But just as I begun climbing out at the TF, Dean reported he was leaving Cathedral Peak with 6K and heading to the training hill. Oh yeah, the training hill. We had a pact. The TF thermal drifted me over Skyport launch where about 8 hangies were hanging out at launch. I waved to them as I flew by, climbed out a bit on the R&R and had an easy glide to Cathedral Peak where I caught the monster thermal of the day. Got there with 3800 and topped it at 6350 in just a few minutes. Yipee cause I can taste the Red Bull! I dunno what it is, but landing at the training hill and dropping in to say hi to Chad my instructor...there's something kinda cool about that. Dean had landed there with 300 feet to spare. The glide to the training hill was smooth and sweet and boy was it a kick to make it, land and see the smile on Chad's face. He had two former students make it from Ojai... so that was probably a kick for him too. After I landed, Dean busted out his Red Bull, I mine, and we had our toast. Talk about a fun day. But I'm still not sure what was more fun, the flying, or seeing the beaming faces of all the pilots who made it through. On a personal level, I had a few bests.
Vario readings: Shall we do it again tomorrow? |
|
[Top of Page] [Home] |