Tuesday, 11/3/2020 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Mitch] [Sundowner] [Chelsea] [Austin]

Mitch Riley
Tuesday, 11/3/2020
Pine SS to Chismahoo Turnpoint to Ojai
Leg 1 / 15.8 miles / Pine SS to Chismahoo Turn Point
Leg 2 / 7.4 miles / Chismahoo Turn Point to the Ventura River
about 2 hours 36 minutes airtime / Launch estimated at 11:38, Landing at 1:14 PST

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

Mitch Narrative Pending?

Hopefully Mitch might find time to narrate his flight on Tuesday, but he may not so I (Tom Truax, editor) will offer my speculation base on a review his track:  Mitch wasn't flying with a radio and I haven't had an opportunity to discuss his flight with him.

It was light over the back from the north when we arrived at the south side launch about 11 am PST (about a half hour later than expected?), but there were occasional weak cycle trying to block the north flow.  After watching for a short while the day stated to stir with more robust cycles and dust devils.

Mitch had a couple of aborted pull-ups in fiesty cycles that bucked his canopy around in various directions.  After 10 minutes and the prospect that the north might be building he finally got off in a weak up cycle with a good run, scrapping the low bushes out front.

The down air was more than expected and Mitch had to plummet about half way to the highway before finding something solid enough to latch onto and dug out of the hole, drifting from the WNW back to a little below launch altitude.   From there he went fishing downwind for about 3/4 of a mile and found a good double pulse core just below 6K that stood up with light drift from the WNW down low before shifting to drift from the south for the 2nd pulse above 9K to climb to just over 10K.  From there Mitch pointed south across Hwy 33 and found more action over Ortega Ridge, climbing from just under 9K to 10,761 Ft MSL, his highest altitude of the day, still drifting from the WNW.

We had discussed trying to connect over the Watershed Divide.  We were also expecting less wind with more of a NE than a NW influence, but the velocity was more than forecasted and the east component was in reality decisively west.  It looks like Mitch initially tried to angle west to fish parallel to Ortega Ridge as he tested toward 3 Sisters which is on the north end of Watershed Divide, but not finding any joy he redirected to take a less aggressive line toward Monte Arido and Old Man Mountain on the south end of the divide before re-evaluating and angling for a high intercept over White Ledge Ridge, thinking he could still work back to Santa Barbara along the front range (as considered during pre-flight discussion).

Mitch intercepted White Ledge Ridge over the Back Step with a comfortable 6K and went fishing uphill to the west along the ridge toward the High Step, but lost a thousand on the short glide so he angled out toward White Ledge Peak.  He found some weak lift in the saddle behind the peak where he was able to gain a hundred and hang on, but it wasn't working good enough to climb so he looked directly over the White Ledge Peak with 48 but didn't find any joy.

Most pilots would have thrown in the towel and  turned downwind downhill back toward Ojai, but Mitch got on bar upwind for Chismahoo.  Worked a scrap on the low SW spine before succumbing to the reality of his predicament and angling south with about 3K.  Just under a mile into his southbound glide he opted to turn 90 degrees with 2600.MSL and run downwind eastbound toward Coyote Creek.  Don't know how he was weighing his options, but I don't think he had a retrievable LZ within reach at that point?  He got a welcome boost on the east side of Coyote Canyon about 1-3/4 miles behind the ranger station and climbed out of the hole from about 1550 MSL to 31 plus.  Another 300 foot gain 300 off the housing tract fields was enough to get across the river.

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