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Saturday, 9/25/04 Final Hat Trick Task Thought I'd roll out of bed and into someone's vehicle, but Pipkin was out of town so I had to field non stop phone calls on two different phones, find my suburban and scramble for crew, while getting the kids breakfast, trying to log weather. Mike and Riss from Texas collected me from my house and we loaded Doc at Rite Aid in Ventura about 9:35. Found the Suburban parked at Chris Grantham's house since the Eagle Paragliding Clinic. It was full of fuel, but stopped at the service station just the same to check water & oil, empty some trash and wash the windows. Edward called and reported he got back from his trip early (late last night rather than Saturday afternoon) and would be available for crew after all. 9 minutes late for the 10 am meet at Nordhoff High School. Ojai John was there with his rig. We had one or two too many to squeeze into one truck, and no one was offering their SUV, so we opted to run 2 big vehicles with plenty of room for all. Edward and Doc for crew. Tried to get a permit for Topa at the Wheeler Ranger Station, but were told we could only get them at the Ojai Station (on the east side of town), which is closed on weekends, so if we needed one we would have to come back on Monday. I guess it does seem too reasonable to expect our government entity would issue permits for the weekend from the station that is open on weekends and also on the road up the hill, when we can get our weekend permits from a station that is closed on the weekends on the other side of town, 20 minutes round trip off the route to the road that the permit covers. Our clunky bureaucracy at work. The ranger was very polite and friendly, but frustrating just the same. Wind check at the old north launch was 4 to 6 from the north. Got to launch about 11:30. It was cycling from the south, zero to 14ish. The cycles seemed ok, but there was a little buffet in the transitions. Did the pilots meeting and was airborne 5 minutes before noon. Seemed a little early, with choppy thermals and some drift from the south. Art launched a few minutes later and I followed him over to the spine. He mapped a thermal out front and I climbed to 75ish above his trajectory, but felt it was drifting over the back. Art masterfully tracked back into the convergence and went to big altitude. Paul tracked WNW into the convergence, and I finally followed on my third attempt. OJ came up just below me so I got on top and used him to help map the edges. Topped a little over 11K and went fishing west bound following along the convergence line. It was buoyant for the most part, but did have to pull a couple of short glides in some sink. Got down below 10 approaching the grassy meadow hill tops a few miles past Hwy 33, and was faced with the dilemma. Push on and hope it works, or turn back, giving up the last 15 minutes of progress and hope to reconnect for another try. Pressed on a little deeper and was rewarded by a well defined convergence edge and climb back to altitude. Continued on, following the loopy arc toward Monte Arido. Worked a lot of weak stuff trying to stay high in the buoyant air. Got over 13K a couple of time, and never much below 11K. It still looked like a long way around the high ground loop, but when I got back above 13K the second time, behind Monte Arido, the glide angel looked doable. Took the long final glide into smooth air SSW bound. Crossed the west end of Power Line Ridge with 75. Thought I might be able to reach east beach, but started encountering some headwind from the SW behind Polo Ridge. Could have pushed the speed bar into Summerland, but opted to turn south and reach the ocean at Santa Claus Lane. Turned left again to follow the surf back toward Carpinteria, and then angled downwind for home. Called the house and they came out to wave. Got there with 1,500 and landed at El Carro Park. 2:05 pm Pack up on the grass and walk home. Gear stowed by 2:25. SD |
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