Balboa School

From: Southside
Activity_Date: 11/25/01
Remote Name: 4.33.114.220

Comments

Well, the Santa Ana season has come and gone without, for the most part, any wind. Normally, I get at least two flying days out of Ojai during the fall, but because of the lack of full on Santa Ana days I didn’t make it up there this year. So now my hope turns to Santa Barbara and the possibility of great post-frontal flying.

As everyone on this page knows, the problem on post-frontal days is that often times we must contend with low cloud bases, and or, winds howling over the back. And of course, this past Sunday it was post-frontal and by all indications we were suppose to have both. The winds aloft page was showing 40 knots at 9k and 50 knots at 12k from the NW. But, because I hadn’t flown since September and as Tom mentions the lower wind showed a much more manageable less than 20 knots, I decided to throw the hang glider on the truck.

At 9:00 when Tony Deleo and I arrived at Tom Truax’s house the windtalker on the top of the hill was showing gust peaks over the back in the high twenties. We decided to have breakfast. But, a half-hour later it had backed off almost 10 knots so we headed up the hill. As we were driving up we could see that the streamers were blowing down, but on arrival at launch we got a short up cycle. But the cycle didn’t last long and it was followed by steady breeze over the back. Tony decided to unload his glider anyway, but Tom and I weren’t convinced. We had decided to go up and fly the Brotherhood. However, just as I finished strapping down my glider again for the ride up we got another up cycle. Off the car the glider came. Of course, this was followed by another long steady breeze down and so the glider stayed in the bag as I waited for a little more confirmation that it was going to block. It wasn’t much of a confirmation but the next up cycle was strong enough to convince me to set up. About halfway through my set up Tom had a strong enough up cycle to launch his paraglider (You can read his report below). However, that was the last up cycle for a while. Another pilot managed to get off, but he immediately flushed to the LZ. With reports from the Brotherhood indicating that the north wind was beginning to build again, we were afraid that we had missed our opportunity. But after a long steady down cycle we started to get a few puffs up again so I suited up and headed to launch. Finally, a thermal came threw and I started my run. But right in the middle of my first step I hear a few loud “Stop!” “Wait!” and “Don’t Goes!” I hesitated for a split second, but I was committed so I continued my run. I was thinking that the winds had switched and so that is why they were trying to tell me to stop. As it turned out, my cell phone had fallen out of its harness compartment. *Note: If you are ever with me at launch when something like that happens again, please keep your mouth shut. Thanks in advance. Anyway, as it turned out, I actually picked a nice cycle, and I too climbed out to 4k. And, like Tom I headed out toward the clouds near town. I didn’t reach cloud base but I was plenty high enough to head on course down the coast. There were whitecaps on the water indicating, at least on the surface, that the winds were more west than north. Still, I didn’t make much sense to head back into the mountains when there were clouds forming near the coast ahead me, so I stayed out front above town. At Summerland above the golf course I gained 1k. It was a slow go, but I was able drift with the lift all the way to Carpinteria which put be in a position to glide comfortably to Bates Beach. For what it's worth, this is the second time in a row in similar conditions that I have gotten up at the golf course.

Without sounding too smug I gained a bit of satisfaction looking down from 2700ft at the gliders set up on the ground at Bates. The Bates to Ventura flight is nice, but it is much better when your starting point is SB. From Bates it was down the coast to Ventura, while stopping for a boost at Taylor Ranch to make the transition to the Avenue. I left with 2k and I was down to 1k by the time I made it to the ridgeline. I flew into The Avenue right above the RC pilots. A second bout of smug self-satisfaction came over me. At The Avenue a few passes enabled me to top out at 3k and then it was OTB into the Oxnard Plain where I landed at Balboa elementary school in East Ventura. The flight was only 31 miles, but I’ll take it.

John Scott