Tuesday, 4/7/2020 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Logan]  [Chris Garcia] & [Sundowner]

Logan Walters
Tuesday, 4/7/2020

Oat Mountain Launch in Fillmore to 3 miles west of Figueroa Mountain
Launch at 9:52 / Land at 1:47 PDT / 67.9 miles SLOFD

Reference: [IGC Text Data File] and [Google Earth KMZ File] or [Ayvri Web Animation]

Article Submitted by Logan via email on 4/8 for his 4/7/2020 flight

Chris Garcia called on Monday morning (the day prior to this flight) to discuss flying plans.  There looked to be some east wind on Tuesday, so we thought about our different launch options.  Launch Santa Barbara and fly west to Gaviota seems like a fun option.  But that lapse rate was looking incredible, maybe we can start further east at the Nut House?  And then Garcia suggested starting from the far east end of the course, Oat (seems obvious).

We called Tom Truax (aka SD), as he knows best, and he would reach out to Mark Pratt to get us through the locked gate and up to launch.  Mark agreed and we set the meet time of 8 am in Carpinteria with three pilots SD, Garcia, and myself.  The forecast showed a high probability of OD with lowering cloud base but we were hopeful of making Ojai and if we were fast maybe Carp or Santa Barbara?

SD was off first (again), and I didn’t want to lose sight of him so I launched within a couple minutes (09:52) to try and keep up.  He knows what to stop for and what to skip better than anyone so I knew that paying attention to his lines would accelerate our flight.  Garcia was off just behind us and we all made the connection across the Sespe to San Cayetano Ridge.

Moving quickly uphill I found cloud base and bowed out and around Santa Paula Peak following clouds with SD just ahead, in front and below, putting me in the perfect position to watch and learn and maybe keep up.  I ended up leaving the SP ridge around 5200 in front of SD towards Puckers where a nice big cloud was forming.  SD out front and lower knew that my move was a detour and as I recognized this I zigzagged out to the front points.  SD flew ahead to Nordhoff and once I got up at Chiefs I went on a long glide bowing South again following faint wispy clouds keeping me in buoyant air.  That was the last I saw of Garcia who was only a mile or so behind.  For the rest of the flight I thought about that, and long after landing.

We will fly farther together, and had I hit the brakes at Chiefs we likely would have been able to fly much farther.  Team flying is not about when the flying is easy, team flying is about when it gets tough, and if you're not together it's no help.  There are many tactics to do this successfully and it will take training and practice.  It's not for our next flight, it's so that we have a dialed in team 3 years from now that can perform as such on difficult long flights, team flying now is an investment.

I joined up at Spine One with SD knowing this is the place to get high before crossing the 33.  We were able to get up near 5k and had a nice glide over.  I stepped in front a bit here having flown this line a couple times.  I felt confident with the moves and made quick work towards White Ledge along the back spine.  SD spent a bit more time getting up (Bump 3) but was right behind me before long.  As we flew behind White Ledge I saw a nice wispy forming between me and the front notch of East Divide and a nice cloud forming at the notch.  SD decided to hold the back ridge more but he came out toward me eventually as the cloud base was dropping significantly.

It was an amazing glide from East Divide to Layer Cake making a few 360s just for the view and to check in on SD.  We ridge-soared the clouds way out in front and it was absolutely stunning.  I stopped at Layer Cake as SD stopped at Romero, I feel like Layer Cake makes more sense to me because you can soar the anabatic flow past Romero and Layer Cake is right at the crossing so being higher there is ideal?  But the Road Cut (at Ramero) often gets you higher, I'm curious to see his track through there to compare!

From there cloud base was back above ridge height and I made moves to Thermal Factory and considered going front points with nice clouds popping and the “altitude is worth more out front.”, but I wanted to peek over into the backcountry and see what the development was like over there.  The backcountry looked nice plus it’s a longer course line and we were still so early, but the rain was coming.  SD made moves after me at the RR but came in a bit lower and as I went towards La Cumbre he was skying-out near the Tit.  I skipped along to Alternator which was shaded with smooth lift.

SD and I discussed front range or OTB (Over the Back).  Tom and I had recently flown to Refugio on separate occasions, and though it is an amazing flight, I was more interested in the difficult, beautiful and deep backcountry.  While I stalled there deliberating, SD said he would follow if I chose to go.  At 4700 ft I went on glide to an unnamed bowl a mile east of Sage (about 2 miles west of South East Bowl). SD was a couple minutes behind opting to transition up and over the VOR spine before going OTB.

It was a bit windy with lots of draw and broken thermals down low.  I made my way to Sage then skipped downwind to Loma Alta for a boost from 34 hundred up to 5K plus (my highest altitude OTB).  I continued NW towards Happy Canyon on a 6 mile glide over the badlands to my lowest point in the flight, a little over 2200 where I found a lee-side thermal just east of Cachuma Creek (one canyon west of Happy Canyon).  It was deeper and lower line than I wanted, but every opportunity I had to stay in the middle third of the sky I did.  Being low was bad and the clouds were becoming a bit too scary for me to get close.  Luckily, I got across the badlands to the Happy Canyon flying site, which was comforting, for about two minutes.

Lots of draw with the big development and now I had a stiff wind that was not at my back.  I headed out of the area the best I could while still trying to make distance, but the clouds were dark and the closer I was to Figueroa the stronger ups and downs were not great (big lift, big sink, lots of bar).

At the very end of the flight I had the option of going into the lee and skirting around towards the Neverland Ranch, or turning right and landing near the Figueroa Mountain Road on nice grass.  I chose the grass rather than the valley.  I didn't need the extra mile or any extra risk.  Flying is risky enough without making dumb decisions like low lee side, especially with so much social judgment during the current Covid19 issues.

After getting retrieved by Edward and stopping for a sandwich we started the long search for SD.  He was deep behind Lake Cachuma (in the Santa Cruz Creek drainage) and had quite the hike in the rain.  After some 4x action and even getting to drive across a fast flowing Cachuma Creek, we found him.

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