Dylan Laughlin
Monday, 10/2/2023
EJ to the VOR Spine to Fillmore

Longest flight to date from the new-ish 2023/24 Santa Barbara flying season

Reference: [IGC Text Data File] and [Google Earth KMZ File] and [JPG Overview]

48.6 Miles Straight Line Over-Flown Distance (SLOFD) longest leg
Max Altitude 5,850 Ft MSL
4 hours 36 minutes 33 seconds / Takeoff at 11:31:45 / Land at 4:08:18 PDT

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Dylan's Narrative submitted 10/5/2023 (for his 10/2 flight)

"Launched with Neal and CJ, hoping to go to VOR and then at least Ojai.  I was first, and got to cloudbase at 3800' or so at LC, waiting for them to reach me.  They didn't find a good climb off the G Spot, and CJ went from pretty low.  I followed to West Bowl, and arrived high, while CJ was now stuck on the lower front points.  Neal followed, and we team flew to VOR.  It was my goal to stick with Neal, since he moves fast, and only takes the altitude necessary.  We diverged a bit on the way to VOR, and on the return he was out front, while I was trying to stick to the peaks.  We stayed together the whole way down the range, more or less team flying with him in front.  Tit was not great on the way back, and I arrived low where Neal did on TF behind the power lines and antennas, but thankfully got some ground clearance and stayed with him.

From Castle we were moving forward with 2700', which felt a bit uncomfortable.  Neal and I would sometimes join in light lift very near terrain, and I was not comfortable turning as tight near pilots as he was.  The previous tops of lift were much easier to move along with, but at this stage I felt like we might land at Padaro or Carpinteria.  However, the cloud base was higher, so it seemed possible to continue, but the added pressure of the poximity was not great.  It was tough for a while until below the OHV Bump 1, where Steph and Evan were already on ridgeline.  We all joined this climb and continued.

I climbed on the Noon Peak knuckle, and tried to hop up to the top ridge, which worked.  Then West Divide did not really provide much lift, so Neal and I fell low on East Divide.  This spot has never really worked well for me, and it was even harder to share such light lift with another pilot.

Neal left it first, to La Granada mountain, and didn't find a climb.  Neal split East to some rocky hills far below Whiteledge.  This had no real LZ, so I watched while I had a dirt road available to land.  At La Granada, I found a very helpful climb, which I thought would only help me get to a more convenient LZ near the 150.  Over Neal's LZ, I found a great climb which put me back to White Ledge.  Here I got to 5300' and went toward Ojai with a nice glide.  I stopped for a decent climb (Bump 2) before crossing Hwy 33, but it was drifting pretty strong from the South.  It was a 400' gain, but I'm not sure this was so helpful since it put me a little behind the venturi, and my glide worsened to Spine 1.  I arrived at an alright altitude, 2300', and climbed easily.  I took the route through Ojai very slowly, topping everything out, and stopping for lift after short glides.  It was straightforward, and I reached my highest altitude at Chief's Peak around 5850'.

Sisar Peak, (The Repeater) was a slow section, but I took my time and reached 5700' and went to the lower Topa Bluffs, aka Pucker's.  I only got to 5K', then went to Santa Paula Ridge.  The clouds were showing North here, but it was not that turbulent.  The SPR spine wasn't that great, and it was a little tricky to get up to the peak.  I didn't try hard enough, and was fine landing in Fillmore since I thought it wasn't very possible to go further.  I dove to the lee side of Santa Paula Ridge, and hugged it probably tighter than I should.  There was not really any lift here, and the valley had a good South wind, so I probably should have gone into the valley and cruised.

I made a nice baseball field and Andrew picked me up at the taco place! 49 miles straight line distance from VOR to LZ."

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