SCPA & SBSA Discussion Board

I’m publicly re-posting a telegram PM from Schuyler Greenawalt and my response regarding Jeff Longcor’s course options this past weekend because the info might be useful to a number of pilots…

Posted by Schuyler via Telegram PM on Sunday, 8/6//2020
… if Jeff would have been able to keep going NNW where he turned around yesterday and gone about 12 miles up that valley, you get there (Pozo).

Telegram PM Reply from me, (Tom Truax aka SD)
Schuyler, I looked up Pozo this afternoon and it looks like it might have been within reach? I see Pozo Road on the map, but not sure what the retrieve options are if a pilot comes up short. Looks like you would need to drive around via the 101 through Santa Margarita and then come back toward the ESE? I don’t see any way to connect by road from Hwy 166 to Hwy 58 without going through Taft? I stopped at a USFS fire station along Hwy 166 yesterday (Sunday) while chasing Jeff toward Santa Maria and reviewed a USFS map with one of the firefighters. His take is that there is no public access from Hwy 166 to the NW. There are a mix of Forest Service and ranch roads, but many of them have locked gates and would be super slow. Bottom line is that even if you do connect to Pozo it is a retrieve logistics issue.

With a little more altitude and better knowledge of the roads Jeff might have gone for the glide (toward Pozo), but it is common to run into a headwind from the NW. On Saturday he was past the end of the cloud street. On Sunday the clouds did extend a bit past (NW of) Jeff’s Saturday turn point (just east of Branch Mt), but he angled west for a number of reasons including increasing headwind that direction.

Thanks for the info on Pozo. The NW end of the Cuyama Valley presents a huge retrieve obstacle and it looks like Pozo is the nearest retrieve connection (but somewhat of an island)… so the public roads around Pozo are worth reviewing if we want to extend that direction…
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I'm posting this topic here rather than telegram because it is meant to be more of a knowledge reference than a social chat or transient logistics communication that would be washed over quickly??

Toward the end of Jeff’s Saturday flight, I commented on Telegram that I thought he might be “boxed in”. If anyone can lend insight and knowledge to what the retrieve options going NW might be please share via a reply to this message. If you post a reply here you can post a direct link to your reply on Telegram…

Some more information from my discussion with Tom:

Ah thanks for such amazing feedback! So I'm actually planning a bike-packing trip for the fall that will have me rolling out from SB, up over the back and then along the ridge that runs the length of the south end of the New Cuyama valley. There are OHV roads that leave from 166 very near to where you picked Jeff up on Saturday. They seem to connect all the way to Pozo, but part of the purpose of the trip is to see what's out there. On the topo, once you are past the first bit crossing NW from 166, that valley seems to flow slightly downhill all the way to Pozo. Obviously for PG retrieve it would simply be better to drive around SLO/Santa Margarita and then head towards Pozo from there. But, part of what I'm looking to check out on the trip is how a walk from landing out in that valley to Pozo would look, in case anyone ever wanted to extend. It's just a cool saloon in the middle of nowhere that has cold beer and burgers, and a huge grass lawn where they have concerts. Went and saw Willy Nelson there once, and it's stuck in my head ever since as a cool spot to land.

Also:

And for sure - I think that leaving 166 on those OHV tracks requires a pretty burly 4x4 - the most logical retrieve will still be coming from 101/Santa Margarita out to Pozo first. If people land out in that valley between the 166 and Pozo, from the topo at least I think retrieve could drive up the valley pretty far. The unknown is gates and such, and that's what I'm hoping to scout. It's a lot of retrieve driving to simply tack on an extra ~12 miles, but I just think it would be a cool goal, and a neat line.

I'll post pics/update once we've ridden the course, let people know how feasible it looks.

-Sky

Here'e the proposed bike-packing route btw:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/34047267 ... rIIAaP4NDl

As best as I can tell it's about 95% dirt. Trying to get an understanding of the water situation out there currently, and of course at the moment the entire NF is closed.

In reviewing Jeff Longcor’s 9/5/2020 Fillmore to Branch Mt flight (83.4 miles SLOFD) I did a little Google Earth and Google Maps research and included some placemarks in Jeff KMZ file for Saturday (still in construction).

I also phoned Daniel Sinton (the Sinton Family is the historical owner of the 12000 acre Avenales Ranch https://avenalesranch.com (805) 748-4433) to inquire about public access to the Avenales Ranch Road, which runs SE from Pozo. Daniel said there is a locked gate where the road changes from pavement to dirt, which I think I have located on Google Earth (GE placemark). Danial also indicated that he may be able to arrange access through the gate if needed, but the road is rough, and he does not recommend relying on access.

I think Daniel’s focus is the winery further north and his knowledge of the Avenales Ranch Road seemed limited, but he did suggest Sinton Helicopters (another Sinton family business?) might be able to provide more information about the Avenales Ranch Road Valley (https://sintonhelicopters.com) Their website indicates they have 2 choppers, both turbine powered, so they are likely expensive to “charter”, but that might be an option and possibly cost effective depending on the scenario?

I’ll post a KML file with placemarks to this discussion topic after I finish the logs for last weekend… From Jeff’s Saturday NW turnpoint it was about 15 miles direct to the Avenales Ranch Road Locked Gate, so Jeff would have needed a 15:1 glide, but the SE end of the Valley with access through the locked gate was only about 3 miles ~ 4:1 glide. The best extraction option if landing somewhere in-between is likely to walk along the ranch road toward the locked gate?