Saturday, 2/14/2015 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Jonathan] [gracecab] [flychild] & [Sundowner]
SD's [KMZ] & [IGC] Comb Tom and Neal [KMZ] plus Neal's [KMZ] & [IGC] and [Photos]

Neal Michaelis    aka flychild
Saturday, 2/14/2015 / Valentine Day

Article Copied from: http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3151#p9351
Posted by flychild » Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:53 am

I had been having some great flights during the week with Henzi and Eric, but couldn't fly on Wednesday when they made it over the pass to Ojai, so I had a little extra motivation to make it work on Saturday.  But mostly it was SD's pre-dawn thoughts on the day that set the tone.  If he says Fillmore, then sure enough I am going to set my sights on Fillmore.  I hadn't made it across the pass since the New Year's day flight from the Nuthouse, mostly because I would push on too low past the Castle Ridge expecting to make it work, just to end up throwing in the towel and gliding out to Carp, Padaro or Summerland.  On Thursday Henzi and I had made it to the Power Lines, crossed them and fished around, but the Santa Ana event was still in full force and the thought of what lay ahead had us both a little hesitant.  Henzi had found the Santa Anas the day before in the Ojai valley and it didn't sound like fun to me. So on Saturday I was determined to make it work with Santa Anas taking a break.

Got a little later start than I wanted so I decided to not go too far west before getting on course to the east.  Headed to la Cumbre to tank up hoping to get high enough to take the back ridge east bound.  Never could get above 42.  Hung out and waited a bit there for SD and Cracka to return from the VOR.  Made my way to the TF and joined up with SD there.  We got a good climb and SD headed off west while I tanked up.  After that I never did catch him but could see him ahead on course and got continued reports over the radio.  Never got high on the way to Power Lines, but was able to keep making progress.  However, my determination to not blow it today led me to making lots of circles (making spaghetti as SD calls it).  Maybe I made too many circles and should have just pushed on.

Got to West Divide a little low and searched out in front on a little point that I thought might be working.  Got just enough to skootch back up onto the peak and climb high enough to make the glide over too East Divide.  Circled there for a while for a net gain of nothing and so continued on for the SW spine of Whiteledge.  SD had radioed back to me that the SW spine was working good so I felt confident.  Worst case I could always use the bail out on the fire road below the peak and hike to the re-launch.  My first time through the Pass last winter this is what I had to do, so at least I was familiar with the situation if I didn't pull it off here.  The SW spine worked good, but I probably could've made it over the top of the peak if I had been patient.  Instead I made my way around the front of the peak along the SE ridge which meant that I would need one climb before crossing the 33 for the Nuthouse.

Once you make it past Whiteldge the hard part is over and you can pretty much just keep moving, grabbing climbs as necessary.  But once I got to the upper Ojai valley I started to realize that the day might be getting a little late to make Fillmore.  Had I gone too slow and careful all day?  The climbs were there but not getting me very high.  Would I be able to get onto the Santa Paula Ridge was the question.  Ultimately I did make the ridge, but pretty much at the very bottom of it without a chance to hang and search.  Put the wing down at a beautiful grassy spot above St. Thomas Aquinas College.  Packed up and had a nice hike down to Hwy 150 where Kevin and SD pulled up just as I arrived…perfect.

Much thanks to Kevin for driving retrieve!!  And thanks to SD for being the carrot on the horizon that kept me going.  The flight ended up taking 4 1/2 hrs to make a 40 mile route around 3 turn points.  Very slow going…. but very rewarding.

     nice grassy LZ above the college  ↑

     hiking down  ↑

     hiking to the college  ↑

Saturday, 2/14/2015 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Jonathan] [gracecab] [flychild] & [Sundowner]
SD's [KMZ] & [IGC] Comb Tom and Neal [KMZ] plus Neal's [KMZ] & [IGC] and [Photos]

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