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Flight Articles from Saturday, 4/1/06 (in order of posting time stamp)
[Tony De Groot] [Hansford] [Jimmy Z] [Bob Ramey] [Bob Anderson] [John Lyon] [Terry Taggart]

Hansford Cutlip
Saturday, 4/1/06
Alternator to the Wilcox

While the paraglider parking lot at Parma was empty there was a pretty good group that went up to Alternator..including some Eaglets for their first flights from Alternator.  I launched first into some light thermal draw from the west.  The clouds were broken but still probably more than 50% filled in.  This turned out to be a (not too surprising) mistake as I had to scratch just to get around the front of WB.

We could see people getting up at the Wilcox and they looked like there were having a lot more fun that I was.  By the time I got around front I was low enough to start thinking about landing in the little patch before the reservoir on the way out to Cieneguitas.  As I crossed the power lines I got enough of a thermal to stay in the game for a few more minutes.  By then others had launched and were doing much better.  Eventually I was able to climb up the front face of WB and join the party though I wasn't around long as the lift kept getting stronger and stronger as I went up.

I hit cloud base at around 4500 and kept going.  Confident that I knew where I was I climbed in the cloud until I ran out of easy lift at about 5300 at which point I started heading south.  I found clear air over Robbins and decided to make a play for the Training Hill.  I figured that since people were still up at the Wilcox maybe if I got to the Training Hill with enough altitude I could drop in on some unsuspecting ridge soarers.

I found a tail wind on the way and got a great glide, enough to show up at the Wilcox 1000' over JD, Don Frick, and Glen.  Eventually I drifted down, flew a few passes in pretty strong wind from the the SW and landed. This was the fist time I have launched in the mountains and made it to a ridge site and was able to soar the ridge site.  Don was kind enough to give me a ride back to Cieneguitas.

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