Saturday 4/14, Chiefs

From: Benson
Activity_Date: 4.14.01
Remote Name: 208.3.185.96

Comments

Spin Doctor launched first, and the lift looked a little weak. He hung on at the second knob for ten to fifteen minutes until the lift began to build. Art was in the air next on his Matrix followed by by Walter (from SA) then Bob on a Carbon and myself on another Matrix. By now the lift was easy to find and we were all getting up to 4500 or more. Most of the lift was out front as marked by Ron on the Atlas before the rest of us launched. Shortly after we were joined by Dan, Tom P and John.

We were all getting good results from the second knob down to the fourth knob. I heard Sundowner on the radio in SB heading E, and Ron was on his way to Three Stooges not getting a great glide. Meanwhile Walter had flown out over the Valley and was gaining altitude all the way. Bob mentioned that it looked like a convergence had set up out front, so we all headed in that direction including Ron. Out by Twin Peaks there was plenty of up air. Most of us boated around in it for sometime geting to 5200 and 5600 (Bob was top dog on his big Carbon).

It was hard to tell if the E or W component was stronger. I headed for W Repeater and took a lot of sink on the way over, but found a nice thermal that got me back to 4800 before heading to E Repeater. I came in about 300 over and took one up to 5600, then headed for Boyds. I came in well above Boyds (later Ron told me I could have made the glide to St Thomas Acquanis) and searched around but found nothing so I headed for Upper Ojai to see if there was hope of convergence there. The air was bouyant, but no convergance, nice fold up at Summit School.

Everyone else headed W..