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Glorious Skyport

From: RF
Activity_Date: 10/28/01
Remote Name: 165.247.243.9

Comments

How good does it feel to be back home at Skyport? Sunday gave a lot of folks a little taste of winter soaring fun when an unexpected chill enveloped the Santa Ynez mountains, Santa Barbara heated up a bit, and the clouds blew off for a great afternoon. More than a dozen hangliders started the day off. Some Topa pilots (Dan, Tom B., Benson, Sharon and myself) were joined by Chad and pilots from his group as well as SA and the Eagle contingent.

It overdeveloped in the morning. About half a dozen hangies launched and did well over the Holy Hills. I launched at 11 AM with an unmanageable knot in my lines on the right side. I didn't have adequate precision on the controls; still, I managed to catch a nice thermal and white-out over the monastery. I took the height and booked it to Parma, intending to straighten things out and give the new Mistral a fighting chance on a second flight. Everything shut down behind me on the mountain. I packed up and thought about heading home. But Dragi came by Parma and the sky cleared and gliders began to launch again from Skyport.

So Dragi and I cruised back up to launch and started throwing the last of the pilots off so we could follow. Everyone was finding good lift, primarily over the Holy Hills. There was some west wind; a few pilots headed down range. I launched last at 12:45 and headed to the Round House. Strong thermals there lifted me to 3,000 and I made a play for the beach. But the sink was strong and I saw Tom Beidler skying out over the Riviera so I followed his lead. He and Dragi and I played with the abundant lift for awhile before I pointed once again for East Beach. This time the glide was perfect, the air was smooth and I basked in the warm sunshine as I came in over the volleyball courts with 2,000! I took a little excursion out to some sailboats and the Condor before coming back to the Clark Estate for some spiral descents and a soft landing by the slough. Dragi came in right behind me, his first beach landing! Many thanks to Benson who picked us up. What a grand start to the winter season!

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