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Sunday [Weather] [Photos Pending] and [Flight Articles] by:
[Logan] [Marty] [Dylan] [Garcia] [Jeff] [SD Crew] [Dave P] [Austin]

Sundowner's Crew Report, see also [Weather Archive]

Woke early after a good nights sleep, licking my wounds from a hasty poor decision to side hill land the heat of the day on Saturday.  Sunday looked like a better day on paper so I wanted to be part of the action.  I considered doing a tandem, but would need to scramble to find a passenger and arrange logistics, both of which would be negated or mitigated if I made an early decision to crew rather than juggle.

Got a weather perception posted before 7 am, then after some waffling, posted a 7:30 offer to crew for either Fillmore or Pine   Logan was the first to respond with a preference for Pine, SA offered the Eagle Bus so we set a sequence of Bus Stops starting at East Beach at 9 AM.  Since it was going to be record hot I made a grocery store trip to load the ice chest with sports drinks, water, and apples for all.

After Jeff's epic flight the day before (Saturday), enthusiasm was elevated on the bus ride to launch.  Marty was on board from Ventura, but since his goal was to fly back to the beach he staged his vehicle in Carpinteria, so no takers for the Ventura or Nordhoff stops.  5 pilots plus a tandem co-pilot (Sophia) and crew for a total of 7 bodies, so we had plenty of room.

Despite the forecast for light winds at launch altitude, I was a concerned about the potential for wind on launch.  Conditions were good when we arrived a little after 11 (more detail in weather archive).

I'd brought some tools and went to work digging out some of the obvious bushes.  Put down the pick-axe to help with the launches when Logan and Sophia laid out.  They got off on their fist pull just before 11:46, followed by Marty about 5 minutes later, followed by Dylan at 11:55, followed you Chris Garcia at 12:02, with Jeff Longcor (only pilot not to land at the beach) a couple minutes later at 12:04, so all 5 aircraft launched in less than a 19 minute window.  Everyone seemed to be climbing out ok, so I went back to launch maintenance for another half hour.  Was finally in need of some water so I hiked back up to the van and turned on a radio.

The air looked a little edgy, and Logan had opted to mark a low point at 6200 (800 bellow launch) half way out to the Sespe, but everyone seemed to be getting up ok shortly after Jeff launched, so I was a little surprised to spot a glider well below launch out toward the road (Chris Garcia at 6250 MSL) when I checked in.  I opted to go mobile.  Stopped at the parking lot launch for roll call.  Marty indicated no one was headed toward Lockwood, so I continued on to Hwy 33 southbound and found some shade with a nice view of the Sespe just up the road from Cherry Creek.  Garcia had gotten back in the game.  3 of the other 4 pilots had gone on glide toward the beach, but all were reporting poor glides despite leaving with impressive altitude.  Logan had left with over 15K but burned 6K just getting across the Sespe to Ortega, so he opted to turn around.  Marty and Dylan also got cold feet and turned back for a re-boost.

Garcia checked in with big altitude (almost 9K) behind White Ledge.  Logan (with Sophia) and Marty topped out and pointed southbound again, followed by Dylan.  Jeff was finding better air fishing west of launch,  reporting 18K near Hwy 33, then 18K again further west.  After lingering in the shade for a half hourish, everyone was on-course somewhere, but different directions.  The old Team-Topa "Rule" is "Chase" supports the "Lead", but it wasn't clear who was in the lead, so we needed to consider other metrics to decide which direction to chase (presently the options were binary and opposite).  Based on Logan 1st southbound glide attempt, and his limited performance on a tandem glider compared to Marty's 2 liner, Logan was the question mark going toward the beach.  Jeff was chasing clouds westbound over the San Rafael Wilderness with potential bailout to the Cuyama Valley side of the mountains.

I figured it would be best to chase Jeff since some of the pilots were likely going to land near their vehicles at the beach, and if Logan ended up in Ojai it would be quicker to have someone grab Logan and Sophia compared to driving back out to Cuyama to collect Jeff.  I broadcast my thoughts and asked for an executive decision from Jeff and Logan.  Jeff said I should chase the main group toward the beach because he was prepared to vol-biv (spend the night out).  By now Logan thought he might be able to make the beach and can came back firmly indicating that he was directing Eagle to chase Jeff.

My phone is getting older so the battery doesn't perform like it used to, plus batteries seem to do worse in the heat and when searching for a cell signal.  I meant to bring my "tablet" but left it on the table in our morning enthusiasm.  My Android phone is a USB Micro B while my Tablet takes a USB C, so I brought both cables.  The Eagle van had an Apple Lightning cable.  I tried charging up on the drive down toward Cherry Creek, but by the time I got there I realized the battery was still depleting.  Fiddling with the cable I realized I had a cable problem.  If I held the bend just right it would indicate charge.  I shut the phone off to conserve battery, but I needed the phone and internet to follow the inRerach satellite trackers.  I kept turning the phone on the check location and shutting it off to conserve battery, but by the time I was on Hwy 166 I was down to 15%.  Fortunately, I was able to buy a cable at the "general" grocery and everything else store in New Cuyama.

I initially stopped in some shade after reaching Hwy 166.  Jeff was zig-zagging across the San Rafael wilderness, many miles north of Hwy 166.  I considered  the possibility he might play to toward El Capitan Beach or the Santa Ynez Valley, in which case I might be better to go back over the Pine Mountain Summit, but with a fading phone battery I wanted to check the store in New Cuyama to see if I could rectify my battery issue.  Jeff wasn't particularly familiar with the landmarks, so I didn't want to completely loose the inReach track and have to rely on radio alone, so I continued on to New Cuyama.  Also tried to buy a local map, but the general store didn't have any.  Tried the gas station, which has maps of San Francisco and LA, but nothing local.  By now it was 6 of one or half a dozen of the other when comparing the routes back to SB, so I continued on to LZ in front of Plowshare, which had good cell reception.  I suspected I'd loose reception where Hwy 166 turns 90 degrees toward Santa Maria and gets narrow going through the mountains.

Parked under a tree along the side of the road for a while.  Made a few phone calls and checked in with Jeff by radio a couple of times.  Once I saw him on glide heading NW (via his 10 minute inReach crumb trail) I went mobile, but promptly lost cell reception and the inReach track.  Stopped at a USFS fire station half way through the mountains and reviewed a hard copy map with one of the firefighters.  No public access into the wilderness to the  NW.  Picked up cell reception and Jeff's track passing the Twitchell Reservoir.

Thought Jeff was gliding toward Nipomo so I got on the 101 northbound, but his track was slow  to update.  Got off a the Nipomo exit and pulled over to check.  It now looked like Jeff had turned SW instead of NW (due to increasing lower level headwind from the west?), so I backtracked.  Jeff reported landing at a school yard, but his inReach was slow to update so I had to pull over and wait again.  It finally updated and marked his location.  His LZ was a newish upscale school yard with super lush green grass.

We fuelled the Eagle bus in Goleta and had Laura meet us at the Eagle shop.  Filled a trash can at the gas station, and still emptied a bunch more at the shop.

Super fun and rewarding day to crew.  On the ride up I commented that we had the "A" team on board the Eagle Bus and everyone lived up to the never before and never again opportunity...

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