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Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
EJ's to East Beach
~ 1 hour airtime, 11:30ish to 12:30ish
Trango

Sundowner's Flight Report, see also [Weather Archive]

The weather didn't look stellar on paper, but had to retrieve my truck anyway.  Got dropped off at Parma about 9:45 by Pam & Tess on their way to Tess's Sunday horse riding lesson.  Was surprised to see Eagle's truck loading up.  They had an assortment of visiting pilots, a few rookies, and some advancing intermediates.

Convecting up at the Rock, calm at the Bypass, and very light up at the Skyport.  Opted to checkout EJ's since we were too early for the Skyport.  EJ's had some light convection cycling up the south side, but it was also oozing OTB.  Setup for a front pull-up.  Had a good cycle and got off clean.

It was buoyant in front of launch, so tried right toward the Peak, but the east faces weren't wicking and it seemed like a light headwind.  Aborted after a few hundred yards and went for Tunnel Tit.  Got there a few feet over and hung on for an hour.  Got over 31 a couple of times and tried stepping up to the R&R.  The first round seemed to work initially, getting to 33 hundred, but lost it and had to fall back to the Tit.  Didn't connect at all on the 2nd attempt.  A hang glider came over to keep company, but he couldn't do any better, tried east to Round House Hill, then flushed to Parma.

Seemed like the max altitude was getting worse, not better, as day ticked past noon.  There were some higher clouds between Cathedral and the Peak about 5K with light drift from the north, but we were stuck down in a lower air mass.  Finally fizzled below the Tit and had to move over in front of the power lines at the Holly Hills.  Down to 22 and opted to play for the clouds out front.  Got back to 28 drifting from the SW, half way between the Holly Hills and the Round House.  Bridged along the weak convergence seam above Monastery Ridge toward some clouds over the Riveria.  Got on the bar passing the old reservoir to get through some sink, and got under the clouds over the Riveria with 16 or 17 hundred.  Connected back up to 2K.  Cloudbase was higher, but I lost it and didn't want to give up the glide to the beach to fish for more altitude, so headed southbound.

Got to the beach easy.  A little bar to get through the sink leaving the Riveria, but neutral after a half mile.  No noticeable headwind.  A thousand crossing the freeway, and 700 over the sand.  Light drift from the left on glide, but the flag at the pier was light from the SW.  No movement in the palm trees.  Did several wind checks, setting up crosswind and looking for drift, but couldn't tell.  Opted to land going west and guessed right.  1-3 MPH from the SSW on the deck.

Ron Faoro was gracious enough to boost me back to Parma on his way to a lunch meeting.

I think I was the only one to get of on the south side from EJ's, but one of the visiting pilots from Oregon/Arizona launched to the north and came through the gap.  The rest of the crew trucked back down to the Skyport, which was cycling in by then.  Another crew also did ok over at the Alternator and West Bowl.

A couple of green pilots got hung up in trees.  One in a short Oak at Parma was an easy extraction, but the other pilot on his first high flight was in a tall one near Saint Mary's needing professional help.

Thanks to Eagle for the ride up and getting my truck down.

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