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Chris Garcia
Wednesday, 4/15/2020

Launch from Lil Hazy below Figueroa Mountain at 11:32 PDT
Landing at Paradise Valley LZ below Sage Hill at 1:58 PDT
18.1 miles SLOFD

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Article Submitted via email by Chris on 4/15/2020

Lil Hazy Launch.  That was what this place was named by Mitch Riley, Aaron LaPlante, Andrew Byron and myself after a day of soaring here and drinking some Lil Hazy Thang’s from Sierra Nevada.  Flown for the first time in April 2019, right before Easter, we were starting to figure out a new launch from the shoulder of Figueroa mountain.

The 2nd flight from there on the 23rd of April 2019, Mitch flew a very deep and proud line to Santa Paula and I flew a more front country line back to Parma.

This site holds a very special place in my heart, and I love coming there to fly.

On 4/14 the forecast was showing top of lift in the back country around 10k feet in the afternoon and 7500 ft on Fig Mt. at 11 AM. But with over 20kts of N wind at 10k ft., it seemed like the “deep” line would be a no go. On the morning of the 15th, the N wind was forecasted to be around 10kts, but the surface speeds increased on the ECMWF; NAM and GFS agreed that it would be L and V on the surface, but the lapse indicated that local flows would prevail and there would be lots of draw.

As Mitch did for me a year ago, I offered Chris Lorimer and Bret Bjorkman to launch first, suss it out, and go to the bail out. I would then pick them up, assuming they did not get established. They both launched right before 10:30, it was buoyant, and there was lift, but nothing to turn in. Launching early as a first timer at Fig, it gives you a chance to get familiar with the terrain and maybe climb out, maybe not. But having a 5 minute drive back to launch is not a bad option.

When we came back to launch, cycles kept coming from the SE, and I felt like it was time for me to go. I launched at 11:30 on the dot. I did not hook into a climb right away, I had to search for a bit with some patience, but eventually found a slow climb that Bret helped mark right as he launched and took me to 4600ft. And allowed me to push on to the peak of Fig, searching the SE bowl for a bit and hooked into a climb that got me to over 5000, I had hoped for more, and did not stick around to see if I would get higher.I had packed food, water, trekking poles, a sleeping pad, and a down blanket, enough to hike out or spend the night out if I absolutely had to. I even did away with my flat bottom shoes for pressing the bar and finally wore a nice pair of Hoka’s. With some new found confidence of scratching, ridge soaring, side hill landing, I felt comfortable going low Eastbound.

During this flight I always had an option for a side hill landing.

It was very touch and go, I thought I would have to land at any point during the flight, but did my best to stay in the air and keep on this new course line I was self discovering along the way. I came in over Goat Rock at Happy Canyon and continued to the E, got low in the very back of HC, where the road starts to climb to gain the ridge. I pushed out, ready to land at a ranch and have quite the walk, when I found a climb that got me back in the game.

From there I played it fairly conservative and took any climb I could get, I found a really nice climb to 6k in front of McKinley Mt. While it was tempting to push on to the ridge of it, I kept with the trend of the day and stayed out front and in the valleys, flying what I could only sum up as convergence from the N desert flow and Anabatic flow from the Valley, or Marine air as I got closer to the coast.

I eventually made my way to Sage, got a climb to 3500ft there, lost the lift and went for the crossing. Hoping that it was more NW, I had plans to try and fly the N side and work my way to VOR, but I hit lots of sink and retreated. I climbed back out, this time to 3700 ft, squeaking every piece of fucking lift out of the air, I felt really focused and tried saerching for the remainder of air going up as best I could. I headed down valley and as I turned around that going deeper was not worth it, maine air had already come in and I was not willing to dive deeper after already haven been deep, just to get back to 6k. But it was tempting and the goal was Filmore after all.

Coming in to land at the Sage LZ, SUCKED. Turbulent, thermic, windy from the SW. I kept it together and landed at my truck. Fun day.

 

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