Re: Wed, 5/23

From: Bruce
Activity_Date: Wed,5/23
Remote Name: 138.133.17.5

Comments

Based on the posting above, which I saw at 8:10 this morning, I headed off to Nordhoff getting there at 8:30. No one was there so I did not know if I had "missed the bus" or if the trip was off. I decided to take a chance and drove up to Plow Share alone. No one was in the landing zone parking area (is everyone parking by the two oak trees that are by the road directly North of the launch zone?) so I waited. At this point, it was clear that perhaps no one was coming -- which was fine; I knew the I that was taking when I took it and I was having a good time sitting there, reading, watching the wind, and planning to explore some of the backroads in the Valley when I was finished waiting.

Being relatively new both to paragliding and to Plow Share and with lots of time on my hands I came up with all kinds of questions: 1. As I sat by the landing zone, the wind was blowing down the Valley (toward Santa Maria) when I arrived and quieted around 11:30. However, it never really stopped and did not turn around until about 1:30. Does this mean that the eastern edge of the convergence zone pased by me at 11: 30 (moving east) and the western edge passed by at 1: 30? Or is this not an indication of the edges of the convergence zone? In fact, is observation of the valley floor even relevant to what is going on at the launch site or where we need to fly? 2. Supposing that I had been up on top, when would have been the appropriate time for me to launch? 3. In her posting, Leanne commented on the gap between the thermal lift along the ridge and the convergence lift in the Valley. When I asked her about this she said that her understanding was that the convergence tends to be out over the road and one has to gain enough altitude in the thermal lift over the ridge in order to get out to the road to catch the convergence. Is this true -- or does the position of the convergence varry from day-to-day, sometimes over the mountains, sometimes over the Valley, sometimes over both and so on? My confusion comes from the fact that on the date that Chad went 55 miles, everyone (except me) was getting up to about 10,000 feet over the ridge and then moving along that. 4. Regarding the posted plans on this web site, is it to the custom to regard them as definite or are they tentative unless personally confirmed? Believe it or not, I really did have a nice time today but nonetheless suppose that it is important to know for future reference how to connect up with the pilots who are posting plans. It also occurred to me that perhaps people were at Nordhoff at 8:15 AM and decided to go another place -- while I lost out for having been a sleepyhead. That is both understandable and fine, I just want to understand how the system works.

Thanks for your patience with all these questions, Bruce