Ron Faoro (The Spin Doctor)

EJ's to the Alternator to the Factory to East Beach
Thursday, 4/8/10

After reading about Sundowner's excellent adventure on Wednesday, I decided to give him a call this morning.  The balloon data looked good and the day had promise if the winds backed down, so there were ulterior motives in the back of my head as we discussed his flight and subsequent extraction from Montecito Peak yesterday.  I probably got him into trouble at home, asking the addict if he wanted more of the drug today. (But, if Pam isn't reading this, it wasn't that hard of a sell.)

We met at East Beach and Tom loaded up my gear in his old blue van.  What memories to sit in the front seat of the original Topa Chase once again! Twelve years ago, that van carted me up and down the training hill and all over southern California - loaded to the rafters with eager neophytes, warm camaraderie and incessant anxiety - as we searched for soarable conditions anywhere.  The van looks just like we left it, clean and funky.  The rituals were the same on the drive to launch.  Tom dutifully stopped at the Rock and the Bypass to check the feel and flow of the air.  Skyport was weak, so we continued to West La Cumbre to check it out before backtracking to EJ's Bowl to launch.  It was my first launch there, a big and friendly place to get started.

Tom was off first and specked out over La Cumbre Peak before I got off the ground - my skills a bit rusty after a month layoff.  SD was higher and went farther than me all day.  He pushed on west to the VOR while I turned around at Alternator to head back east. But the day was warm and beautiful and the soaring was excellent; I got up into the high 5's.  It was rowdy at the Peak on the return trip and I skipped the R&R and flew straight to the Thermal Factory to pick up enough for the beach.  It seemed like an iffy day at lower altitudes, so we didn't proceed downrange.

I flew over the foundation of my house on my way out to the beach and noticed that five houses have been rebuilt on my block (mine starts construction in one month).  I reached East Beach with about 800 feet to spare, but it was Truax who scored the magic at day's end.  The wind was strong west at a few hundred feet, but east on the deck.  This set up a convergence - mapped out by seagulls - that Tom stayed up in for over 45 minutes, about 200 feet over the sand. A family had started talking to me after I landed. They wanted to see SD land and I told them he'd be on the ground in five minutes.  They patiently waited with their kids for almost an hour to witness the descent from 200 feet to the ground.  He could have stayed up over an hour, but he flew over toward the wharf to get out of the lift so he could land and get back home to the kids.  I've never seen anything like it.  He really knows how to make things interesting and exciting!

A very fun day and the local paragliding scene is much sweeter with Sundowner in it.