Saturday, 4/4/2015 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Southside] [Gracecab] & [Sundowner]
SD's Google Earth [KMZ File] plus [IGC Data File] and [Photos]

Chris Ballmer  aka gracecab
Friday and Saturday, 4/3 and 4/4/2015

Article Copied from: http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3185
Posted by gracecab » Sun Apr 05, 2015 7:17 am

Twofer in the Fishbowl: April 3-4, 2015

Friday flight: 1.5 hrs, Skyport to Parma, light winds, great lapse rate, high to 5,850

Was off for good friday, so took my wife, Shelly to drive.  We ended up boosting a van load of hungry hippos; the mini van with it's V6 did a stunning job up to Skyport.  Light wind S set the tone, and a great lapse rate.  Cracka unloaded first and got up and to RR.  I went second and did one loop and went to bench up at RR.  Soon after everyone else was up.  A group went to Padaro, and Eric and Niel went XC to Fillmore and Ojai?

The air was smooth in the fishbowl for moi, and it actually got lonely being the only one most of the time over RR/LaCumbre/TF... Chris Heckman was there and got up quick for a Padaro run, too.  Guess it was more active towards the powerlines, etc... but everyone made their lz of choice.

Nice to have my wife see what I do- and video and chase and meet the gang!

https://vimeo.com/124078909

Lessons:

-Patience: as in chess, you need to think through the choices and be patient.  Especially benching up at RR and LaCumbre.  Just keep swimming- keep the high ground.  Don't get fancy or think you'll have a better idea of how to catch up, the elevator doors are pretty much where you expect them to be.

-Thermal Factory: higher is better, it seems like a little popcorn factory, but when i was finally high enough I caught the best altitude of the day (see photo).  I'm guessing that the little bubbles merge somewhere, and if you are in that merging zone, clench your buttocks-it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

GudFriday flight path, bouncing between the main peaks in the fishbowl

-Transitions are super important:  You can lose all your hard earned altitude if you choose a poor path to the next trigger.  Be aware of the wind direction BEFORE you find out the hard way that you are in a down flow zone.  Alter the line to avoid so much sink, keeping in mind possible other thermals along the way.

-Start thinking ahead more. Benching up is great, but what is the next move once I'm there.  Right now I'm just bouncing between LaCumbre and TF... trying to master thermals this way now, and stay up as long as possible for flight time.  Seems to be working for me now, eventually I'm guessing I'll have enough confidence in myself and the wing to risk moving down the line a little more.

-Gotta get my flight deck so I can start noting altitudes.  GPS works great!

Saturday flight: 1 hr., EJ to Parma, SW winds, choppier smaller thermals

Similar yet different.  A little more W/SW wind, but still very thermic.  Did much of the same ping-pong game from LaCumbre to RR to TF, but once I got too low at the TF...it was game over.

Lessons:

-Get my coach set up before hand.  Aaron gave me some prime coaching. (see photo of spine-next to Thermal Factory which saved my bacon to get back over to Skyport and home)

-Stay high. There was a definite lack of thermals (inversion?) once I got to 500 over the Antenna Farm, so hold the highest safest ground as long as possible.  Still look for lift, but be sensitive to the layers and if nothing is working, so go home... this is nature, not powered flight.

- There can be more thermals then the Big 3 in the fishbowl (LaCumbre, RR, TF)... so keep an open mind and remember: The lift is where you find it.

Direct transitions mo betta.

Lift is where you find it.

- Be selective in lift during the search... not every thermal is large enough to be worth attacking.

-I'm so heavy on my wing, it's like flying with speedbar on all the time, so I'm almost never using speedbar even today when through one layer on the way to Parma it was 10-15 mph headwind...i was still penetrating fine...but I'm sure i'll want it one day.

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