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Sunday, 9/5/04, Labor Day Weekend First time through the pass was exciting ... Too many times I've been trying to get over White Ledge, only to chicken out at the last minute. Well, again I found my self at White Ledge with that same indecisive attitude. I've always tried to be a 'recreational pilot' ... no ambitions for glory. And try to ALWAYS have an 'out'. Well sometimes your only option is to fight! At White-Ledge .... somebody is pinned in the canyon ... Debbie reporting 7 - 17 ... a long way from anywhere ... and sinking fast. I made a serious tactical error by heading up-wind looking for my last thermal. That obviously was not going to work, so I started crabbing south to a rocky point which looks like it should have a nice thermal.... and BOOM! Wing goes way back ... hands up waiting to see what happens ... at this point I'm in survival mode. Back up to about 8500 ... and back in the game. A thought of Tom T went through my wind ... use the wind Casey... (or something like that) Turn downwind and go. To be honest, my real goal at that time was to get out of the mountains and onto solid ground. So, I angled out towards Carpinteria. Working the front points it became obvious that I was not going to land out, problem was I could not get back to the main ridge.... so I just headed out to Summerland and landed in the field to the west of the Polo Fields. I probably get one or two flights a month, so to me the air on Saturday was big.... but manageable. ~9500 |
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