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Bo Criss
Sunday, 11/27/05
Skyport to Shotgun Field

Article copied from [Circling Hawk Paragliding]

An interesting weather day in the mountains.  When we arrived at Skyport and the Eliminator, we had very calm conditions with an occasional light breeze from any direction.  Ron Faoro was the first to launch and quickly went to 5,000 feet plus without any noticeable drift.  Bob Hurlbett followed suit.  Dean launched next and didn't get the same initial climb and headed to the Thermal Factory.  I waited patiently for the next cycle with took a long time to arrive.  Once I launched it was a bit spanky and I had some small folds on my Boomerang 3.  Tom Hampton launched next and joined Dean and I at the Thermal Factory.  Patience paid off as Dean and I climbed to 4,700 feet with a SE trajectory.  Once aloft we realized there was a strong north component of 18-20 mph.  We decided to head East and each took a vector based on how much we wanted to play with a possible rotor wind.  I opted for the line furthest from the mountains, but intersecting with the lowest foothills in hopes of extending my flight distance without additional rotor risk.

I caught up with Ron and Bob and eventually headed out to a familiar landing field called "Shotgun Field".  This is not a recommended LZ due to past experiences of other free flight pilots, but was the safest choice considering my altitude and location at the time.  I noticed a few corrals with horses and picked a spot to land as far away as possible.  I had a nice landing 20 feet from the main road called "East Valley Road" near "Toro Canyon Road."  I packed up quickly and continued to watch Ron and Dean's progress.  Dean was flying well, continuing to work the leeside lift at Castle Ridge.  Ron was really climbing well somewhere West of Romero Canyon.  As I watched Dean transition from Castle Ridge to the NE and the next spine, I was wondering if the conditions had changed, because I had been scarred off by strong North flow.  As Dean approached the next spine he caught some nasty sinking air and he turned quickly to avoid landing in the vegetation.  He was sinking quickly and heading down the spine away from the mountains to the South.  Then it looked like he caught some lift, followed by a spin of the glider and he rotated out of site behind the spine he had just avoided.

I put in a call on the radio to Dean immediately asking for his status.  He reported within 15 seconds that he had landed hard in the manzanita and seemed to be OK.  What a relief!  I continued to monitor the situation as Bob Hurlbett arrived by car.  Tom and Patricia Hampton showed up with a ride carrying Andy Palmer and Ron Faoro, who had landed at the beach.  Tom had made it out to East Beach for the first time - nice flight!  Dean was making slow progress gathering his wing from the brush.  We checked a map and decided it would be best to try to meet Dean on top of the mountain on the fire road.  We saw that we could get within 2 miles of Dean by going back to Skyport launch and continuing up the road and back East to a locked gate.  We piled into Andy Palmer's truck when we got back to Parma loaded with flashlights, saws, water, food and jackets in case we needed to help Dean gather his wing.

On the way up to launch we stopped a truck of dirt bikers.  We asked them where they were heading and explained the situation.  Issac and Danielle responded that they were headed to East Divide and were also EMTs wanting to help.  We followed them all the way up to the end of the pavement and handed them a radio and GPS with Dean's coordinates.  We were able to reach Dean on the phone and radio and he said he had made great progress, was packed up and had reached the fire road, about 1-1/2 miles behind a locked gate.  Issac and Daniel took off and found Dean quickly.  Dean grabbed Danielle's bike and rode with his glider on his back.  Danielle jumped on Issac's bike and the 3 came down the mountain.  Dean had a big smile and was happy to get in a warm truck with Andy, Ron, Bob and I and head home.  Dean had a few small scrapes on his left leg and a bruise on his arm.  We were all happy that our good friend was OK and we didn't have to spend the night out.

Thank you Tom, Patricia, Bob, Ron and Andy for helping Dean out of a pickle!  And Dean, don't do that again - please!!!

I heard later on that a number of hang glider pilots and paraglider pilots had made East Beach from Skyport and Eliminator, including Jim Maddox, Irene Revenko, Skippy, Roland Angel, Bob Anderson, John Greynald and Terry Taggart - nice work!  Also, John Kloer had taken the day by flying from Chiefs to Fillmore in a paraglider with a 16.4 mile flight.  Way to go John!

 

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