[Amigo] > [Randall's flight index] [Sunday's Article Set]

Randall McCormick
Sunday, 8/7/05
Pine to Rose Valley

Ron, I launched second to last (forcing poor Milley to launch by himself), and was even later to the party than you guys.  By the time I got to base at 12k over the Chute, I was staring at massive OD all over Lockwood Valley and the Badlands.  A towering monster cu-nimb loomed directly ahead of me to the east, and a wall of heavy rain was sweeping in my direction across the Fifty-fifty.  I toyed for a while with the idea of skirting the southern edge of the development, but that line was pointing deep into the wilderness south of Guillermo, and I wasn't at all sure if there was any place retrievable should I sink out there.

So after an hour of getting ass-kicked by the turb over Haddock I finally opted to follow Mike's example and take my altitude and what was left of my dignity towards the high school.  By the time I departed, though, I was down to 11.3k and my groundspeed, which had started at 38 mph, gradually dropped until I was doing 15 mph just past Dry Lake Ridge.  I stuck with it till the last possible second but when I realized I wasn't going to clear Nordhoff ridge, I bailed east and retreated downwind to a bouncy landing in Rose Valley.

It must have been the day for getting easy rides. I got one from the first car that passed by--and I heard Darren & Ron Meyer also got one from the first cars they saw.  The day's big lesson for me (which I should already have known): with OD potential, launch early.  Congrats to the pilots who made it out to the desert!