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Sunday, 9/19/04
Upper Bates
To Marina Park in Ventura
about 15 miles & an hour plus airtime
Bonanza
Sky surfing the Rincon Coast. Flew in the wind, but ahead of the strong wind. Had an exciting landing at Marina Park. Exhilarating. First post frontal day of the upcoming season.
Passed on Saturday, waiting for the marine inversion to go away. Monday looked like it could be better due to less wind in the forecast, but didn't fall on a weekend this week. Didn't make much difference, because no one else launched anyway.
The winds aloft forecast didn't look too bad, but the zone forecast said watch out, and the morning buoy report along with the balloon showed some wind. Debbie and Montecito were blowing OTB with gust into the mid 20's at dawn. Debbie started backing down around 9 am, and was only gusting into the upper teens by 9:30 so I opted to load gear. She was reporting zero to 10ish by the time Pam, Tess, and I pulled out of home base for Parma. The ocean looked a little iffy on the way up the coast. White caps off shore, but calmer in closer to the beach and not much wind in the trees. At Salinas Street exit, we started encountering the edge of the west wind. Took a look at Parma. It was 10 to 15 on shore from the SW. Debbie was going the other way and now reported gust to 14. Opted to pass and give Bates a look.
Stopped at Starbucks in Montecito for Pam's coffee. The wind was starting to push through. Driving by Summerland, the white caps were now up to the beach and the trees were showing the breeze. Opted to swing by home for some ballast. Switched gear to the blue van and headed for Bates. Pinky and Tess went north to Costco. We'd already dropped Sam at Dylan's on the first trip northbound.
There was a good breeze at Bates when we pulled up, so I was concerned that I might be late on the window. I needed to reattach my harness and do a line check, which takes longer than my usual prep. Didn't bother to check the wind at the cliff edge because I wanted to get ready fast. Did the layout next to the van on the asphalt and got it all preflighted. Tom Pipkin arrived and provided welcome assistance. Sharon and Betty were also there checking on the activity and offered to retrieve if needed. Double Dee offered to monitor on 46. Opted to use full ballast which puts me about 15 pounds over the placarded weight.
Skippy reported that it had been blowing about 10 to 15 earlier, but was now 4 or 5 knots more. Pull up was ok, but a little off on the jump timing, pulling the trigger before building good energy, so I wallered a bit off launch. Took awhile to build energy once airborne, but flew away ok all the same. Still a little early and not too strong yet. Could penetrate upwind from the lower cliff back to launch without speed bar. Sat on the good spots for 10 to 12 minutes. Needed to go to min sink to get above 400' msl (200 over launch), which meant giving ground and backing up. Topped at 500, but was back down to 480 when I turned to run downwind.
Took a good spank on the way uphill, but have had much worse (you need to expect some spankage when jumping low). The drift was away from the cliff half way to the Gas Plant, but finally got far enough along so the lateral drift was into the hill. Came in behind the Gas Plant a couple hundred below ridge line and went right back up. Topped over 1K, but moved down wind with 900.
Consistently left 200 below max altitude on most of my glides. Tried various techniques. Think there was some thermal stuff mixed in, but if I did a full 360, I'd fall out the back. Drifting along using shallow figure 8s seemed to work the best, but I always did one last turn and fell out of the bubbles. Perhaps the warm ocean was letting off the big weak pulses. 1400 in front of La Conchita, and around the corner.
Got to Pitas ok, and finally topped close to 19, but down to 17 around the corner. Back up at Solimar, but backing up at altitude. 19 again on the way to Taylor, pushing out front, but went around the corner with 17. Average glide. Crossed the river mouth at the beach with a grand. A few hundred yards off the end of the Pier with 750. Thought I might have to turn into towards the State Park, but the glide got buoyant below 500 so I kept reaching toward Marina Park.
Looked like it would be windy on landing, so I got unbuckled about 600 feet up. Slid into Marina Park with 75 feet to spare. The field was full with jolly jumpers and lots of kids. Did a zig and backed in. Took a gust that rocked the canopy behind and pushed me back into the middle of the field. Let it pendulum toward the ground, and stepped out on touchdown, holding onto the right break handle. The harness went all the way up the break line to the canopy, turning it cross wind and killing it. Probably gusting into the high 20s on touchdown, but 20 minutes later it was gusting over 30.
Packed up on the grass in the wind shadow at Tee Time. Stopped by Sharon's to check out the pictures. We walked out to the cliff to check the wind. We were getting sand blasted until we got to the edge. Seemed to be steady 35 plus, gusting over 40.
Enjoyed the flight. The jump back was scary as always, and the landing got my attention, but the connections were pretty easy otherwise (except for the first jump).
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