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Saturday, 2/1/2014 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Tess] & [Sundowner]

Saturday, 2/1/2014

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

Tom and Tess did a short tandem flight at Bates

Bates came in pretty good for about 45 minutes to an hour, then faded over the next hour.  Pilots mingling on launch when we arrived about 1'oclock said it had been blowing in at 17 knots with a good direction, but it was much lighter at 1 pm.  It came and went a couple of times, getting weaker with each iteration.  John Kloer launched and was getting a couple hundred over for awhile, but was down much lower by time Tess and I were ready for our tandem flight.  John top landed, then Tess and I took off, getting about 50 feet over the lower cliff at best.  Dave Bader joined us for awhile.  After about 20 minutes we couldn't get above the ridge, so it was time to land.

Chatted with David Teal (hg pilot) on launch while picking up my car about 2:30.  He reported that a group of HGs went to the Eliminator, but didn't set up.  There were some up cycles, a few good strong ones lasting as long as 10 minutes, but it was more down than up, so they punted about 1 PM an drove back down.  The station reports indicate it did finally draw in steady from the south for a short while (an hour and a half?) at both La Cumbre Peak and Montecito around 2:30ish.

It was a busy morning.  Pam and Tess were on duty at her school yard sale by 7 am while I archived the weather and posted a summary.  I got to the yard sale about 8, then went home to fill out the softball forms and have breakfast.  Returned to the yard sale at 10 to boost Tess to her basketball practice, but when we got to the Boys and Girls Club, they were having a function, so the practice had been moved to the Middle School.  Pam boosted Tess to the Middle School in the car while I went to the High School to pre-scope the softball tryouts, but no one was there from the Carp Girls Youth League, so I went home and looked it up on the computer.  The email said the high school at 11, but their web site said Viola Fields.  Picked up Tess at the Middle School on the bikes about 11:25 and we rode up to Viola Fields.  45 minutes late, but it worked out ok.  We were done by 12:15.  Took the beach route home.  It was breezing straight in at the beach when we got there about 11:45 with light white caps on the water, which surprised me because my earlier check of the mid channel buoy only showed single digits.  The wind was building on the way home.  Asked Tess if she wanted to do a tandem and she was game, so we grabbed the tandem gear and got back to Bates about 1 o'clock.