Ojai to Fillmore

From: Randall
Activity_Date: 5/11/02
Remote Name: 216.86.200.221

Comments

I guess I must have been feeling adventurous, since I volunteered for wind dummy duties. And so anxious to get off the hill that I launched without turning on my vario or GPS. It's not easy trying to turn on and adjust a Garmin Vista's tiny buttons through gloved hands while thermaling in bumpy air at Chiefs. But soon both vario and GPS were doing their things and I could concentrate on trying to get high enough to go somewhere. Which was now my goal.

There had been talk of flying to Fillmore today, so I kept an eye on Brendan to see if I could follow him. But I never could seem to get high enough to attempt the crossing to West Repeater. Eventually, I tried cruising down the back ridge, but lost a lot of altitude fast and high-tailed it back to launch. By now, Tom had re-launched and gave me the encouragement and advice I needed to try it again.

I got up again at the middle bump, then headed down to the first spine, worked it up to about 6k and kept working lift towards Santa Paula Ridge, which I intercepted at about 4k. Other than having a pretty good idea that that was Santa Paula Ridge I was staring at, I was completely clueless about the other landmarks (Boyds, Puckers, St. Thomas Aquinas) I was flying over or towards or away from.

I worked my way laboriously up the ridge to Santa Paula Peak, got to 6200 over that and headed out towards the town, which I guessed must be Fillmore.

A fairly strong north compnonent wind was nudging me out across the valley, but the air was buoyant and I didn't lose much altitude as I glided down the middle of town, right over hwy 126.

By that point, someone on the radio reported no sign of me anywhere over Fillmore, so now I was convinced I must be over Santa Paula (though the big F on the hill threw me for a loop). Since everyone else seemed to have made it to Fillmore, and since I still had a couple grand of altitude to spare, pride spurred me to veer back towards the foothills past the river and try and work my way back up so I could carry on Eastwards.

I did find lift -- plenty of it. And with a good tailwind, I could have kept going for who knows how long, maybe to Piru.

But by then Ojai John in chase had confirmed that I was indeed flying past Fillmore and the thought of a quick retrieval, and absence of any certainty of what lay ahead of me, convinced me to come down and land. The air was still so lifty I had to pull big-ears to land, in a big brown field along the highway.

What a great day and a great adventure (and by far a personal best distance for me). Glad I could share it with all of you!