Weekend at Pine

From: T. Pipkin
Activity_Date: 5/26/02
Remote Name: 66.81.167.108

Comments

Saturday; Launched Pine at 11:00 into stiff S/E winds. Poor climb rates, only managed to get to 7800' after an hour of trying, landing at the sand pile. Picked-up by the rest of the group & headed to Chiefs for another hour + of scratching the main spine in the valley inversion. Weak day.

Sunday at Pine; Chris P., Chris G., John, Bruce & myself in the air by 12:00. Everyone but me went straight to 11k+ like they had been shot from a cannon. I struggled below launch for 10 min. before finally connecting & climbing out.

Chris P. offered to land & run retrieve if we wanted to go OTB. John sounded like he wanted go, so I asked him to let me know when he topped out so we could leave together. He did at 11.5k & we went for it. Bruce & Chris G. were also above 11k & followed.

We took the conservative route heading towards Guillermo mtn., always staying within a glide to the lockwood hwy. Full speedbar thru big sink sometimes as much as 1200' down. Connected with lift at the west end of the Badlands. Came in at 7300' & worked it to 9300'. On glide to Lockwood valley.

John's glide on the X-Act forced him to veer slightly north to stay with-in reach of the hwy, (good decision), extending his distance of glide to the next connection. Too low to connect & fell off to land near the 50/50. Bruce & Chris followed & landed near John.

A cloud street had formed on the south ridge of Lockwood. A large cu was developing over the S/W part of the valley. That's where I had the best lift of the day, 1200-1600'. Soon at 13k, I followed the cloud street to a spine on the south west side of Fraiser mtn. Diablo once recommended that I take the southern approach to Fraiser. Last year I flew around the north side & was hammered by head wind, sink & rotor. I took his good advise went to the south side. Much better route, Thanks Tony.

Came into Fraiser with 8300' & climbed in a thermal to 12.5k. The air became really turb., then I felt my reserve/flight deck fall to the left side & starting to pull the bridle out. The right side buckle had slipped off & the reserve was hanging by the left strap. I wasn't too worried about a deployment, but it was awkward balancing the reserve between my legs & trying to read the vario & GPS. In the rowdy air I pulled the gloves off, & tied the fastest knot of my life.

Left Frasier w/12k heading towards I-5. Again big sink, jumped the I-5 at 7500'. Headed southbound over the east ridge parallel to the freeway towards Gorman. Since there was a slight head wind from the south, I felt the truck stop to the north would be a good bail-out LZ if I couldn't find lift. Over Gorman w/6k, I threw in the towel & turned northbound back to the truck stop to land. At the lower alt. the wind direction changed & now I was fighting head wind again. Full speed bar & 2/3's of the way back, I turned south bound over I-5 & did 40mph back to Gorman, landing next to McDonald's. I wonder, can I count the mileage while doing laps flying up & down the I-5 looking for an LZ? Thanks Chris P. for retrieve.