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Tony De Groot
Sunday, 2/19/06 & Monday

Killer Flying Weekend

Man.  Did we score or what?  Sunday was really killer.  Lots of pilots out and about.  I flew from Eliminator and caught my first thermal in two months at the white house and just drifted away downwind singing "All we are is dust in the wind".  Eventually landed at Santa Claus lane.

Monday was just breath-taking (it was a holiday!).  Pilots were going everywhere.  Snow flurries were out and lots of snow on the ground.  I felt right at home with all my snowboard clothing and goggles.  I took Jim Wixtrom with me and we flew out of his comfort zone for a very nice flight.  Let's hear about all the cool flights at the next meeting!!

Greg, Jim and myself met up with Dean, Chris, Marty and Andy with Lee showing up later to fly his paraglider.  I wanted to follow the paragliders as much as I could as I new they were going to try to go through the pass for a long flight.  So I was first to launch and got up from there and was joined by Chris as we climbed out at the Thermal Factory.  Everything seemed good and instead of waiting for the paragliders and following there every move I jumped ahead and then got stuck at Montecito peak.  Greg and I lost a lot of time there and watched as Dean and all the paragliders came in high and moved on while we groveled.  Usually you can get out of their fairly quickly but not on this day.  Greg and I finally got out of there and we could see the paragliders now had a huge lead on us.  We followed but Greg got stuck at Romero and finally left to land at, I think, the Polo fields.  I saw how high the paragliders were getting and just kept moving on.

Just before the Power lines I had the highlight of the flight being joined by three Condors.  That was really beautiful looking down on Carpinteria while circling up in smooth afternoon lift as the ocean sparkled while sharing the air with these huge birds.  It was also soon decision time for me and I limped over the power lines and decided to tip my toe in the water so to speak at trying to get through the pass.  It was a struggle and since I was only around 3300 or so about a quarter to a third of the way in there and looking at complete no-mans land decided to abort and try to get to Cate.  It was not happening though.  I had to chose between landing near a trail or trying for luck in this canyon and decided I had pushed it enough so I set it on the brush about 40 to 60 feet from the trail.

Unfortunately that five foot tall brush is actually twenty feet tall and I was suspended ten feet off the ground.  It was solid though and I climbed out of my gear and down one of the brush/trees.  Grabbed the extra water I had and the radio, marked my location on GPS and then just split.  I needed saws and help and walked down the trail.  I left my harness attached so the glider wouldn't get blown away.  I met the first land owner and we started talking and I saw a plane circling my glider and called 911 and let them know it was my glider and that I was o.k. and that I would retrieve it the next day.  The operator chuckled and said she would inform all parties and I saw the plane fly off.  It turns out that being a local of Summmerland and Carpinteria has its advantages as we realized we both new a lot of the same people.  He called someone else and said to show up the next day at noon and someone would go up with me in their ATV to retrieve my gear.  Since it was all private property I wasn't going to argue.

The next day I was greeted with a friend of Scott Angels and he was totally cool.  I had a bunch of tools and rope and a cordless sawzall and he had a chainsaw.  I said I want to take my friend with us, can you drive that motorcycle.  And there was a killer xr 250.  Ugghh killer, you bet.  And we rode up some pretty steep terrain and all the way to arrive near my gear.  With some work we got it out and folded it up and then got it back to the trial.  I had brought some ties and padding and we loaded the glider and harness and cruised out of there in total style.  It was so awesome!!!  He video taped it and it was a mind-blower watching my glider scoot on up and around all the terrain while I cruised on the XR on a beautiful day.  I am used to carrying all my gear out so I was really stoked.

We watched the video of the retrieval and I was still blown seeing it all over again.  I gave them some beer and a little cash and they said until next time which made me ponder just a second.  I was content though, to go home with my gear and consider myself very fortunate.

 [Chris Grantham's Flight] [Ron Faoro's Flight] [John Scott's Flight]