Chaos

From: Brendan
Activity_Date: 03/03/02
Remote Name: 198.81.17.34

Comments

It started in the parking lot of the high school. Too many pilots, too many wings, not enough drivers, and an air of, well, disarray.

Eventually we were piled into 3 separate vehicles (or was it 4? Maybe even 5?). About 15 PGs and 10 or so HGs, all headed to Nordoff. My mood was a little tense. I did not want to get caught in the log jam that would surely happen on launch. Our vehicle arrived about the same time as the first load of hangies, so we were in good shape to get out of there before they got set up, but it was only about 10:15. We had Tom Pipkin, Art, Mike, Chris, and Alan King.

Launch was complete with about 5 spectators, including a rare appearance by Brandt. Another HG vehicle also brought Tony, Ronnie, Tom Truax and a tandem passenger. Tony, Pipkin, and I were quick to get suited up, but Art punched off first and was slow to find lift so we all waited a little. In the mean time the other load of PGs arrived. Lets see, there was Ron Faoro, Benson, Tom Biedler, Mark Pratt, Jim Macklow, (oh who am I forgetting, I know there were more).

Well, whatever, there were a ton of us up there. When Art finally hooked a good one way out front it was all the rest of us needed to get going. Diablo pulled up, but his wing went sideways and the launch was scrubbed. I went next and the air was going up so I made some turns at launch. Pipkin came off behind me. Then Diablo got in the air, followed by Tom on the tandem, and Ronnie. The five of us spread out and didn’t have much trouble finding big, fairly fast moving thermals. I was next to Diablo in one when he took a 50%er and went into a spin. He spun pretty good before coming in on the brake which put him into a spiral dive, still with only half his wing, it looked pretty active. He dropped from about 100 feet above me to about 300 feet below me. I fully expected to see the reserve come out, but the wing recovered in the spiral after I think 3 full 360s. The usual rocket climb and then he dampened the dive and seemed just fine. Within 2 minutes he was right back at the same level I was, still turning the same thermal. Quite a show.

I saw Benson launch and the next time I checked on him he was deep in the canyon by Gridley trail. I didn’t see him go down, but Eddie’s abundant information over the radio confirmed that he got hung up in the chaparral somewhere close to the trail.

Meanwhile, Pipkin, Truax, Ronnie, Diablo, and I headed across the 33 with the hopes of getting on course for Santa Barbara. I ended up quite low in some really trashy air trying to work my way up to the White Ledges and the bastards left me behind ;-] When I turned back to try to hook the boomer thermal at the third bump I saw a red wing with a white belly come over to join me (Ron F?). We took turns getting knocked around either low in the canyon or higher on the ridge, smooth lift was not the order of the day!

After the second time I retreated to the boomer I was able to get up to the top and joined Ronnie. Pipkin and Truax were too far down range for me to see, my hopes of catching them were pretty much shot. Ronnie and I worked along the ridge for a while, but eventually I went down and he went up. Suddenly I was 5 feet off the bushes deep in a canyon behind the White Ledges. Absolutely nowhere to go. No way I was even close to making the glide out. No landing options other than the nice soft chaparral. 20 minutes later I was still scratching and slowly sinking further into the canyon. I was mentally exhausted and ready to just extend the glide as far out as possible and then just dump it in the bushes. My fate was sealed and I began to plan the rest of the day, and possibly even the night, with the thought that I would not be out of that canyon for a very long time.

But fate was more on my side than I thought and a good cycle finally gave me enough height to clear the ridgeline and put me over to the White Ledges. The rock gave me extra lift and soon it seemed like I might even make it to a trail or even a road. While enjoying the time over the rock I saw Diablo’s wing hung up in the brush on a steep hillside just next to the big rock faces. After I got a closer look I saw Tony picking his lines while he stood chest deep in the bushes. It looked absolutely agonizing. I figured a couple hours of line picking and then a very, very, long bushwhack.

I thought about trying a top landing to help Tony, but the terrain was way to rough so I had to bail. About that time Eddie was on the radio asking if I could see Tom Biedler who had apparently gone down in the bushes somewhere on the West side of the 33. I hadn’t seen him. I also lost track of the red wing that had been with me earlier.

The rocks were kicking off some pretty good thermals and I got back up to 5 grand, but I had no intention of heading back into the deep canyons on course to SB or Carp, so I took the altitude and the West wind and headed back to Ojai. A couple front point thermals gave me an extra boost and I almost made it to the high school. Landed in the stiff canyon draw at the horse pasture after turning back at the last second. A nice lady stopped to give me a ride back to the high school before I even got my wing in the bag.

I was so incredibly relieved to get in my car. I think I said it about a dozen times.

I heard Tom P and Tom T got to Montecito Peak and then turned back to land in Carp. Ronnie ducked the West wind by cutting over to land at Bates. How did everyone else do?