Marty Devietti
Sunday, 8/28/11

Pine to Mojave
71 miles
4.5 hours airtime

Article Copied from http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2299#p7036

by Marty DeVietti » Sun Aug 28, 2011 8:50 pm

Pine was on! Lots of folks in OJs rig today including a driver as we got the early start to the top. As we arrived at launch it was pretty blue but the last turn revealed some cumulus among-us!

Bob A and Brendan punched off early as did Alex who was first I think. It wasn't looking easy to get up at first but eventually most of us made our way towards the 50/50 and beyond. I took a line more south to stay under the street of clouds leading to Frazier Mountain which was building a doozy of a cumulus over it...I figured it would OD so I stayed more on the south edge under the shade of it, but still got rained, sleeted and hailed on as I made my way. Bob A did a better job of staying clear of the precip than I did. My speed bar broke on the way there, so I took the slow and easy route today.

Meanwhile, those that tried to brave the shade of the Frazier cloud got drilled, rained on and ultimately denied. A hang pilot got sucked up, disoriented, started to G-out and hucked, landing under reserve in 100' trees, according to the helicopter pilots who plucked him out, thanks to Fast Eddy calling 911. Nice work Eddie.

As I left Frazier, I was near 14k and cold, wet and took a minute to wipe the droplets from glasses, flight deck and go pro. I was contemplating the heat of getting lower at the 5, but managed to stay high enough to watch a sailplane core out from the lake on the East side of the 5. I slowed down and tried to get back to base as the sailplane exited, Bob A arrived and went as well. I was unable to keep up, got low and around 5k managed to get some love from the foothills near the 14.

Bob specked and left at 13k to the north towards Mojave. It took a long time to get back to base, but when I did, I was coasting past the race track on my way to more clouds when Bob reported landing just north of the race track. The clouds streeted up on the way to the windmills and when finally at base, it was an easy cloud hop to Mojave where the rig was waiting with Chris Paul, Andy D, Roger Marsh, our driver Ryan who did a great job today! I tried to core some sink and spiral away the hard earned altitude as I had my fun and wanted to get home at a decent hour.... Thanks to Topa chase for making sure I didn't get drug into traffic on my windy landing (15+ mph) next to the road.

We made a quick stop and did something you don't see every day, we retrieved Fast Eddie, who was waiting at Mark Stuckey's house in Lancaster.

4.5 hours in the air, 14K+ max altitude, 1200up. 72.1 miles

Hopefully OJ will take off the probation for my lack of posting and grant me lurking rights once again!?Last edited by Marty DeVietti on Wed Aug 31, 2011 10:57 am, edited 2 times in total.

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