Saturday, 11/8/2014 [Flight Articles] by [Neal] [Jonathan] [Sundowner] [John Scott] & [Tim Barker]
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Neal Michaelis    aka flychild
Saturday, 11/8/2014

Chiefs Peak (Ojai) to Parma Park (Santa Barbara)

See Also: Neal's [Google Earth KMZ Track File file], [IGC Text Data], and [Photo Set from All Pilots]

Article Copied from: http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3089#p9165
Posted by flychild » Sun Nov 09, 2014 7:42 pm

Great flight yesterday from Chiefs to Parma.  Tom's talk on Thursday at Rusty's was good motivation to make it over the pass this time around.  Thanks Tom.  Had to work hard on the east side to get over though.  We weren't skying out on the east side off the pass, that's for sure.  Actually got highest, about 6K, over chiefs on the first climb of the day.  About 5K I think over Nordoff, and then just groveling up to the pass from about 2700 after crossing the 33, never very far from terrain.  I was pretty determined to make it work this time so I just kept at it and eventually found myself close to the top but felt I still wasn't high enough to safely go through with good margin, so I decided to turn back to the east one more time in search of some more altitude before shooting through to the other side.  I grabbed a couple hundred feet further east down the spine, where I ran into Tom and a hang coming westbound. it was nice after flying alone to have some friends in the air nearby.  I then went comfortably over the pass behind Whiteledge and got a climb right away on the peak behind it.  Happy to finally be over the pass with a little bit of altitude, the crux of the route behind me, I went on glide westbound with half bar and promptly took a 70% closure.  A good reminder to not relax too much!  The rest of the flight was pretty easy going downhill to the west with a little east tailwind and nice glides.  Got as far as the RR and couldn't find a decent climb after that.  Happily landed Parma after nearly 3 1/2 hours in the air.

looking west on glide from Chiefs to Nordoff ↑

westbound to the pass behind White Ledge ↑

looking eastbound from the pass, Tom flying tandem w Peter ↑

↑ Click these 2 images for full size ↓

Cresting White Ledge as NME flushes down the SE spine (circled in pink). ↑ Click this image for full size

looking east to White Ledge ↑

Saturday, 11/8/2014 [Flight Articles] by [Neal] [Jonathan] [Sundowner] [John Scott] & [Tim Barker]
[Weather Archive & Percepton] [Google Earth Track Log Index for All] [All Posted Photos]

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