Gridley

From: Benson
Activity_Date: 3.4.02
Remote Name: 208.2.186.31

Comments

Sunday was a short wild ride for me. I launched into a weak cycle, came in low on the front ridge and caught a booming thermal. I cranked a tight turn but it was no use, I was spit out the back with a vengeance which balled up my canopy, costing me the 70 feet I had gained in the half turn. Apparently Eddie saw this as he mentioned there was a thermal I might like a little better just down the ridge. It never occurred to me to re-enter that monster.

Down the ridge I was between cycles and couldn't find anything for ten minutes or so while sniffing around low. Then I found one on a knob. I knew when I entered it that this was an unusual day. This was the second thermal that I had entered about 20 feet off the ground that was going up at 1000 fpm from this very low alt. I did a little better, I got in a full turn and gained over 100 feet before being ejected with a 50 percenter. I only lost 30 feet so I got right back in, gained about 150 feet and was tossed out again with a bigger collapse.

Thinking that maybe this is a day for more ground clearance I went down the spine a few hundred feet where I found another boomer. This time I got higher but the force of ejection was such that I had 20 percent of my canopy left. It opened with some nasty surges which flushed me towards Gridley Trail. Eddie was already coaching me to find the trail for a bail out, I was dealing with some nasty rotor in the canyon.

Over the trail the rotor was pretty bad and the wind was coming up the canyon so my progress down the trail was very slow. Out over the center of the canyon the air was better, but the exit would be awful. I decided a controlled crash as near the trail as possible for the best option. I managed about a mile in trashy rotor which kept things interesting, and put down a few feet from the trail in a bush.

My Swiss Army knife saw made it possible to get my Matrix out of the bushes in less than an hour.

Thanks to Mike and Chris who met me on the trail about an hour down from the tangle site.

I was very glad to get back to my car!