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Sundowner Archived Flight Log
Copied from old hard copy hand written log book

Pine SS to Santa Barbara Pier
through tall cumulus clouds and low status

Flight on Wednesday, March 5th, 1986 (transcribed on 6/7/11)

Duration: 1.5 hours, 1:30 PM to 3 PM
Distance:  33 miles
Glider:  Comet II 165

SD and Diablo (Tony Deleo) race to launch in Topa Chase (little blue Datsun B610 wagon) with Clyde for crew.  Paco, and Bryan are already reporting cloudbase @ 12K as we drive up.

Easy launch after Tony into 5-10 mph cycles.  Turn for a fly by and then up to cloudbase plus 500.  Westbound across Hwy 33 for a well defined towering Cumulus Cloud.   Bobbed on underneath toward the upwind west side shade line and found a big strong smooth core.  Climb from 95 through cloudbase at 11.5 up to 14K.  Roll out and glide south for 5 minutes inside with building ice.  Out the side, on-course, and head for the southernmost cloud mass over Old Man Mountain through strong sink and tall visuals.  Into the side well above cloudbase and dolphin for about a mile.  Down to 11.5K and turn left for a big fat thermal and climb to 14,000.  Experiencing cold, heavy icing, and mental fatigue from concentration.  Roll level and head SW for 5 minutes inside and come out on course west of Old Man and north of Jamison Lake with 13K.

Heading for Santa Barbara against a 5-10 mph west wind at altitude.  The ice begins to shed below 10K.  Crossing the range behind Snowball with 9500, Jim Graham reports the Santa Barbara weather; socked in with bases about 1K to 1500.  Aiming for the Biltmore, I pop out over East Beach and land at the Pier with 300 to spare.  3 PM

Diablo lands at Nordhoff, Bryan and Paco go over the back.

Tony and Clyde retrieve from SB about 4:30

(Ron Gruell had flown from Pine to the Ventura Pier the day before)