Saturday, 9/7/13 Flight Articles by: [Marty] [Ron Faoro] [David Teal]

Dave Teal
Saturday, 9/7/13

Pine to Ave 170
about 52 miles east of launch

Article Copied from: http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2875#p8598
Posted by dteal » Sun Sep 08, 2013 5:43 am

Launched about 12:15 and sank out in the west rotor until way below the last knob.  Got some lift there which eventually took me to 13K.  Made a bee-line for Guillermo, but should have stayed more south on the shear line and where the cloud development was happening.  Got there with 9500 and found lift again back to 13K.  Headed to Frazier and boated around waiting for Fast Eddy on chase.  Got to 14.8K there and could have gone higher but I was freezing cold and dived out of the lift band. It looked to me like cloud base was 16K - I just didn't dress warm enough... At this point my radio started going intermittent on transmit.  Once Eddy was near the I5, I headed straight for the cloud that was forming between Quail lake and the Libre's.  Once I got there and was getting good lift, I started debugging my radio issue.  Finally pulled out my spare, installed the antenna, tuned it to 144.250 and was able to talk to Eddy and establish the game plan.  Headed further east and bopped between 9500 and 11.5K.  The shear line was working as expected and I could have flown a lot further, but I was toast (cold, tired, and somewhat motion sick).  The first LZ that Eddy selected (by a liquor store - yea!!) looked good but the shear line was coming thru and dust devils were forming, so he moved me further east.  Set her down using the bar-stuffed-to-my-ankles-elevator-approach by the solar panels at Avenue 170 in strong SW wind.  The glider literally went straight down in that wind.  My vario showed 52 miles back to Pine launch.

What a flight! My best ever and had three PR's: first time above 13K, first time into the Antelope Valley, and first time farther than 20 miles.

Thanks to Fast Eddy for coaching me through the flight!
DT