Launched in the snow

From: Dan
Activity_Date: 02/15/01
Remote Name: 24.8.188.224

Comments

Bob H., Bill B., Tom from Ojai, Tom B., Chad B., and I launched in 6" of snow from the alternator around 11:00am. A little late in the day as it was pretty overdeveloped in front of west bowl. It was a good thing we took my 4wd truck because we needed it. Cycles were good and everyone got off without a hitch. Everyone landed at Cienigitas(sp) with exception of Tom B. who landed at the bailout lz and Bob H., who took a defensive manuver to make sure there were no conflicts in the clouds and loosing his lift source, landing above foothill Rd. Bill B. provided chase for the two.

Chad launched and I launched a minute or so behind him. We went towards West Bowl and were immediately sucked into the white stuff at the north end of West Bowl. Wanting to be safe because of potential traffic I took a bee-line heading to Cienigitas. It was a non-eventful flight and 22 minutes later I was on the ground. Chad's compass he borrowed stuck and I heard a "damn" on the radio. He was lost but eventually made it out and was quite high. All of us landed before Chad as he gave us quite a performance doing an SAT manuver about 1100' agl. He was down to 300-400' in what seemed like seconds. Way to go Chad.

Thanks again to Trevor for being our driver.