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Dean Stratton

Monday, 6/13/05
Black-balled at Blackhawk

Everything looked good on paper but we found NE wind averaging 15-18 with gusts in the mid twenties at launch.  Diablo was the only one to launch and as soon as he hit the flats he turned downwind and had a 20 mph tailwind.  Diablo used the winds and headed West for a 92 mile flight hitting 12k along the way.  Watching Diablo's progress was killing us, he had to get in the air.  While chasing Diablo West the winds began to taper off after crossing the I-15 and we were desperately searching for any place to launch.  We ended up at a butte near El Mirage.

We drove half way up and hiked the rest of the way to a nose bleed height of 350' AGL.  Where's a Sherpa when you need one?  I'm glad our hike wasn't too much longer because temps were in the mid-nineties and I wasn't prepared to carry Pipkin the rest of the way up if he happened to pass out.  It was every man for himself at this point.  A 5:30 launch put Pipkin and I on the ground soon after while Truax managed to finesse his way up to the mid 4's, taking the drift a few miles SW of launch where he put down and was picked up in a truck by a Skoal chewing, Banjo playing, crystal-meth cookin' local.

We intercepted Truax and chased down Diablo who was well West of Rosamond.

It was a very long and hot day but well worth the troubles.  With all the different valleys and their respective winds there's a lot to learn about flying out in the desert and the routes that can be taken.  Between Deleo and Truax I think it would be hard to find others with more knowledge of the area.  While driving in the truck  I probably learned more about the areas we were passing through than if I had flown all day.

Here's just a few shots of the area to give you a general idea of the potential routes.  Some of the shots are from the day before when I was out with Herb, Russ and Forger: [photos]

Sunday, 6/12/05

It was a long day and plenty of hard work on course. Probably should’ve headed in a different direction but elected to follow Herb and Russ into light-medium headwinds. Very scrappy lift with lots of shadow boxing had us second guessing our flight path but we continued on for a long 3 ½ hr. flight that rewarded us with a measly 16 miles. Not epic, but definitely one more flight to put in the Blackhawk reference bank.