Flight Articles from the weekend of 6/24 - 25 (in order of posting time stamp)
[Andy Palmer] [South Side] [Diablo] [Tony De Groot]

John Scott (aka South Side)
Saturday, 6/24/06
Blackhawk

"Wonder what happened out at blackhawk"

Well, let's just that the "home team" didn't put in that great of a showing; the Kagel boys, kicked our arses.  They put one pilot back at Kagel, another in Aqua Dolce and at least two others near the 14.

The lower level wind was already flowing through the Cajon Pass when we met for breakfast in Hisperia at 8:00 am.  It would end up putting most of our crew on the ground at around the 30 mile mark.

I was the fourth pilot off and after bit of yoyoing 100 over/below launch I climbed out nicely in snaky thermal with Phill Bloom to just over 15k.  Up to about 8k or so we had drifted to the east of launch, but by the time that we had topped out we were about 3 miles to the southwest of it.  Phill (Litespeed with all of the bells and whistles) and I (Fusion SP) left at the same altitude and at the same time; in about 5 minutes he was about a mile ahead and 2k above me.  And that would be the last that I would see of him (he would end up landing near Ave S).

On my way to Ord I ran into a number of pockets of lift, but nothing it seemed, big enough to stop and work.  Reached Ord at about 11k.  Out front on course there was a beautiful cloud street marking the shear line; the only problem was that it was about 20 miles away on the west side of the Cajon Pass.  But there were also some smaller clouds to the north and NW of me.  It became obvious that I would have to try and go around the lower level stuff seeping in through the Pass.  But, rather than go due north, I tried to cut the corner and aim for a cloud to the NW.  I chased the cloud all the way down to just under 6k just west of the wash at about the 25 mile mark.  Found something above a golf course and lake that got me just above 7k.  But then I ended up committing the most common mistake in XC flying: leaving marginal lift for something better where if you don't connect you have no other options but to land.  In this case I saw a nice dust devil a little over 5 miles away.  I knew it was going be hit or miss whether or not I would make it there high enough to take advantage of the lift, but I went for it anyway.  Well, I wasn't.  I landed in due south winds.

Jeff Chipman, one of the Kagel pilots, reported going all the way out to the old George AFB before running into the convergence. From there he cut back to fly over El Mirage and back toward the San Gabriels.

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