Monday, 2/23/2015 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [gracecab] [Matt ? ?]

Matt Henzi
Monday, 2/23/2015

Skyport to the Wood Wolves Preserve / San Joaquin Valley

Track Log copied from: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1104078

46 1/2 miles in just over 4 hours
Ice Peak 6

Google Earth [KMZ]  or  [IGC] Data

Matt's Narrative Pending ? ? ?

Sundowner's notation:  To the best of my knowledge, Matt's flight is the first time anyone has reached the San Joaquin Valley from the coastal range on either a Paraglider or a Hang Glider.  Even more impressive is that he made new connections along a boutique route with marginal altitude  that previously would be considered below my minimums.  He made good time despite doing a lot of turns in weak lift.  His track log shows deliberate moves without hesitation, only throwing the anchor a couple of times in must climb scenarios, and working the last gasp scraps late in the day.

From Matt's track log, it appears he went over the back from Montecito Peak with 5400 toward Pendola.  He worked a good thermal over the slender bump just south of the river before Pendola, climbing from 3500 to 4500, but I suspect cloudbase became a limitation because he continued to climb on glide up to 4800 after leaving the thermal.  Matt then dribbled along in some weak lift tracking up the Pendola Jeep Trail Spine toward Monte Arido, but the spine is shallow and he was unable to stay above it so he committed to the west side where the spine makes a turn toward the east.  He found a thermal on the NW finger spine and tracked it toward the ENE, but north of the shallow main spine running up to Monte Arido.  The first climb along that line boosted him from 3900 to almost 45 in about 20 turns (a flat weak climb gaining only 600 feet while drifting a mile).  A 2nd pulse after a mile downwind glide was a slightly better thermal climbing from 4 to 6K in about 30 turns while drifting 1-1/4 miles.

The Divide Ridge Crest running North/South is in the mid 5s, so Matt could now see over the top, but he was still about a mile and half west of the Watershed Divide and 2 1/2 miles NW of Mont Arido over Diablo Canyon which feeds into the Agua Caliente Canyon Drainage, which is accessible by dirt road depending on the seasonal state of locked gates?  Matt angle north, parallel to the Watershed Divide and hit on the next finger spine north of Diablo Canyon and found a much needed thermal with a similar flat trajectory that got him from 56 to 6400 in 20 turns while drifting a mile.  From there he mad a play for the Watershed Divide and reached the crest on a 2 mile glide to Three Sisters, arriving with 5500, about 200 over the crest.

Matt anchored over the Petrero Seco Road, which I think has been closed for years?  He did some figure 8s, (likely not wanting to blow OTB low) before latching onto a thermal that tracked OTB toward the ESE.  It was another shallow climb in 3 pulses that got him up to 7200 after drifting about 3 miles in 60 turns.  He was now past (east of) the Watershed Divide, and west of the headwaters of the Sespe Creek.  The terrain below is in the upper 4s to low 5, so he had a little over 2K AGL.  The Sespe on the south side of Pine Mountain is about 4K.

Matt ran downwind on a 3 mile glide to low gap at the Pine Mountain Summit, where Hwy 33 crosses over the western tip of Pine Mountain, just clearing the hill with 5700, about 500 AGL.  Matt did 4 turns approaching the crest but only broke even so he continued OTB and skipped along downhill toward the Ozena Ranger Station, picking up 300 feet from 55 to 5800 in 13 turns half way to Ozena while drifting a half mile.

Passing just west of the intersection of Hwy 33 and Lockwood Valley Road, Matt angled NNW up the north side of the Cuyama River with 4500, about 1K AGL (the river is about 3500 at Ozena) before finding a thermal and tracking it toward the NE over the badlands away from the road.  That thermal topped out at 8300 over Apache Canyon, his highest altitude so far, after drifting almost 4 miles in 70 turns over a 15 minutes stretch.

Time check, 1 PM at the 27 mile mark, about half way into the flight time wise, but almost 60 percent distance wise.  Matt continued on a 4 mile downwind glide along the same line to the next pulse over Quatal Canyon where he latched onto 30 turn thermal for 10 minutes drifting from the SW for 2-1/2 miles, topping out just before Ballinger Canyon at 8650, his highest altitude of the day.

After his high point near Ballinger Canyon Matt continued downwind toward the NE over the badlands on a line passing 4 or 5 miles west of Mount Abel.  It was a mostly a downhill into the San Joaquin Valley.  He had to angle west to get around Blue Ridge at 1:30.  Matt had gone about 37 miles in a 2-2/3 hours, but would only log another 10 miles in the final hour and a half

Matt spent a half hour struggling below the NW tip of Blue Ridge.  He finally wiggled back up from 3500 to 5K, drifting uphill from the NW, giving up a little over a mile in a double pump 55 turn thermal that took 20 minutes to top out at 2 PM.  He then went of a 2 mile fishing glide along finger spine toward the NE with about 500 AGL before finding a flat land thermal over a meadow for a slow 20 minute 65 turn climb from 3600 to 5900 feet, drifting about 2 miles from the NW (5 or 6 MPH drift from the NW?)

With 2500 AGL, Matt angled NE toward some houses and a paved road (Wind Wolves Preserve) below the foothills, likely across light flow from the NW.  He hadn't given up yet, it was still only 2:30 when he stopped for 6 turns half way out to pick up 300 feet in 6 turns drifting from the NW.  His final thermal about a mile and quarter short of landing, just above the lowest 500 foot bump/foothill before the alluvial fan was good for 400 feet, climbing from 2400 to 2800 in 15 turns drifting light from the ENE.

Final glide out to landing on the alluvial fan at 1350 MSL.  The valley floor was about a thousand feet lower, but the alluvial fan was shallow, only dropping about 200 feet per mile.

It looks like Matt had drift from the SW until he got around to the north side of mountains on the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley.  I suspect his progress northbound was slowed late in the day by the lower level draw toward the mountains to his south?

Hopefully Mat will write up an article for us with perhaps some photos.  I'm sure the clouds and overdevelopment played a huge role and you can't deduce that aspect from his flight track alone.

Click Track Image Below for Full Size ↓