Friday, 5/24/13 Flight Articles] by [Aaron] & [Sundowner]

Aaron LaPlante
Friday, 5/24/13

Article copied from: http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2831

staycation friday

Posted by Aaron » Sat May 25, 2013 8:04 am

howser, bobA, and i loaded up at my house at 9am for a weekend in mammoth of ski, bike and fly. the conditions looked marginal for all three and there and clouds were starting to pop in our hills so we headed to parma to get a flight first as this low pressure system is still upon us. beautiful clouds popped everywhere and we bounced off the skyport trampoline to cloudbase. cb was just under 4k. took a leisure stroll with willy on his hg down to painted cave with pleasant conditions. heading back it got funky, i think both the lower south wind and upper north winds were getting strong making conditions interesting. i had a first with dropping my camera when i got rocked on one of them. not sure if i threw it or dropped it, but i did let out an, 'ohh gawd!' as i got rag dolled around trying get my glider under control. its always interesting to see if your backup works as i peered over my harness to happily see my camera swinging far below me on a thin peice of line. i threw in the towel at westbowl as i was in a stiff east wind and didnt like the conditions. heading out wasnt anymore pleasant with lots of big ups and downs. found some 500 down around cocapaw, put it on a tip and spiraled to the deck at the back of cochapaw for a most appreciated non-turbulent walk out. i think willy flew around for 5 hours yesterday, that guy rips and he dives for the most unusual triggers and seems to get it every time. grabbed bobA and chris at the beach and pondered our plan at the Habit. it was blowing steady like a seasoned porn star so we went and soared wilcox for an hour or so. since we defaulted for a staycation and already had the bikes loaded up, we drove up to knapps(snyder trail) and dropped down the backside for a gorgeous sunset ride to paradise road. love those santa barbara staycations! git sum!