Saturday, 1/25/2014 [Weather] [NAM] and [Flight Articles] by [Jonathan] & [Sundowner] [SD Photos]

Jonathan Dietch (aka NMERider or JD) Oat Mountain / Fillmore Saturday, 1/25/2014

Article Copied from:  http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3008
Posted by NMERider » Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:45 pm

The video: http://youtu.be/53y8Vz_UiJQ   /  Google Earth [KML File]

Oat Mountain Majesty and Clucking Condors

Me Sundowner & Nitrous. Visited with Ronnie down in the canyon while waiting for the high clouds to clear out and the gusty SE winds to back off. I think sd first hucked off around 12:20-ish and got flushed, landing down on the spine. Nitrous went to pick him up while I prepared my T2C for launch. I hucked off next around 12:35-ish.


I failed to immediately turn right and jump the gap to Santa-whatever-the-hell-you-call-it mountain to the West. I arrived a tad low and being that I was feeling pretty ill I flew too passively and failed to work in close enough to work it. I landed at the foot just off Grand.


Five minutes after I landed sd arrived at the East-most bump with a little more altitude and stayed right on top and worked it.

He got established then worked his way downrange and at 2:18PM left me a voice message indicating he was about to cross Hwy 33 at 4200'. He also left a message w/ Nitrous that he got to the mid-8s over the Topa Topa bluffs. Nitrous picked me up at 1:30 and we drove back up for round two. I think I launched into a 15mph SW breeze around 2:45.
 
I climbed 300' over launch in glassy smoothness while Nitrous decided to drive down to the lower launch. I gradually worked my way out to the powerlines where it was ultra-smooth with an occasional thermal or two. Wind was a laminar 15mph from the SW.

Eventually there came a pause in the winds which allowed thermal development and that's when the fun really began. I looked down near the white water tank and spotted several families of Condors scrambling to get airborne all at once. I joined in and a lone juvenile joined me for about 8 turns in the thermal.

At one point I was sandwiched between about 15-20 condors in one gaggle below me and another 15 or so above me. They dispersed and I was left to my own devices until I heard all this clucking coming from a half-mile away and sure enough it was good-sized gaggle announcing more lift so I headed over, or underneath as the case may be.

This game of ditching me and then announcing the gaggle had found new lift by clucking loudly and summoning me over continued through three iterations. The last group was to my East and flying straight toward me like a squadron of B-25 bombers. This time they were on a convergence line and I flew East to join underneath once again and followed their trail for a few miles upwind barely losing any altitude. By this time I was down to 1500MSL over the high school field and call Nitrous to let him know I was bailing for Vons.


The landing was exciting due to the turbulence I hit on base leg. It ended well, at least.


I also shot a little panorama.


Nitrous showed up and then sd called me around 4PM from the entrance to Lake Casitas. You all will just have to wait for sd to update his blog. We all decided it would be best for Nitrous to go pick up sd while I finished breaking down.

Not long afterward a gentleman drives up and asks me where I launched and the discussion reveals that he is the son a landowner on Oat and comes back with his pickup and give me a ride back to the upper launch with my glider poking through his rear window and his two lovely kids in the back. By the time I got back through the gate Tom was back in his car driving home and Nitrous was relaxing.

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