John Scott (aka South Side)

Saturday, 7/16/05
Black Hawk to Copper Mountain
~ 36 miles

I was the launch potato.  Hurt my Achilles earlier in the week and was hoping for a strong enough cycle to come in to limit the number of painful strides I would have to take to get airborne.

I struggled out front for a bit.  Got high enough once to step back to launch only to find myself limping back to the front points again.  Finally I gave up and headed out away from the hill. The last time that I was up there the same thing happened.  But like last time and one or two times in the past I was rewarded with a nice strong thermal that put me back in the ball game.  After dropping below 5,500 feet I climbed back to at least 9k.

For what it's worth, Robb seemed to be a little west of the area that has worked for me so perhaps that was the reason he didn't connect.  "Robb’s path was the recommendation from the “locals” but the downside was if you didn’t get up out front, you were done for the day."  Since I was the one with the recommendation I feel a little bad about Robb's flight.  Having said that, I still feel that its the right call.

Anyway, stepped back to launch again, but this time I was high enough to get established.  The call was to Parker and so after topping out at around 9,500 on the east side of the ridge I headed in that direction.  Rex and Herb were reporting higher altitudes out on course.  Climbed to 10,500 at 5 miles from launch, but then hit nothing but sink for the next 10 miles.  Found a ratty thermal that got me back to 8k, which was enough to get me under some clouds at about the 18 mile mark.  They didn't work that well at first, but when I fudged over to the east side of them things opened up and I climbed out to 15,300.  Unfortunately there was a big blue hole in front of me to the east and Herb was reporting low altitudes and that he was running into a bit of a head wind.  There were clouds forming above Twentynine Palms, but it was going to be tough getting to them.  There was a strong crosswind to contend with, but the main problem was the restricted airspace for the Twentynine Palms Marine Base.  The best angle to take to continue east would have put me in the airspace so I cut back more into the wind toward Copper Mountain.

Just north of Copper there are three dirt roads that run west to east. I got on the radio and asked whether or not it was ok to fly down them as I was now low and flying directly into the wind.   I was told that roads lead right to the bas.  It might have been ok to angle off and fly down them, but because of the wind direction any thermal that I might have found would have drifted me into the airspace.  Because of that I opted to stay to the west of Copper and was shortly on the ground thereafter.  A big whopping 36 miles from launch.

Two of the other guys I was flying with landed nearby (one a bit shorter; one a bit longer), but Herb somehow got through the tough section and caught up with the clouds at Twenynine Palms. He climbed to over 14k and continued on for a 103 mile flight.

 [Top of Page]  [Home]