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Saturday, 10/4/2014 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Cort] [Jonathan] & [Sundowner] plus [SD Photos] & [Misc Post]
3D Google Earth Track Paths for [Jonathan] [Neal] and [Sundowner]

Boutique Fish Bowl
Saturday, 10/4/2014
See Also, [Weather Archive] Sundowner's [Photo Set] & [Reflections] plus Google Earth [3D KMZ File] or [IGC Text File]

Nordhoff Peak to Santa Barbara, then back to East Divide and OTB to Pine Mountain via the Divide Convergence, and then back out to east end of Upper Ojai.

Numeric Summary:
Leg 1 ~ 1.4 miles / Nordhoff Launch (Ojai) to low spine in bottom of canyon east of launch (Start Point)
Leg 2 ~ 27.1 miles / Start point Westbound to the RnR (Santa Barbara)
Leg 3 ~ 15 miles / RnR Eastbound to East Divide Peak (Casitas Pass)
Leg 4 ~ 5.1 miles / East Divide Peak NNW bound to Mount Arido
Leg 5 ~ 11.6 miles / Mount Arido NE bound to Pine Mountain
       or Leg 4 & 5 without turnpoint ~ 13.2 Straight Line from East Divide Peak to Pine Mountain
Leg 6 ~ 10.0 miles / Pine Mountain southbound to Nordhoff Ridge Intercept, just west of Spine One
Leg 7 ~  9.2 miles / Ridge Intercept eastbound to landing on the east end of the Koenigstein Plateau
total flight path length ~ 141 miles (includes circles and zigzags)
total distance around 9 turn points ~ 83 miles (add in Chiefs Peak Detour 4.7 + 2.3 + 5.6 - 9.2 ~ +3.4)
total distance around 7 turn points ~ 79.5 miles
total distance around 6 turn points ~ 78 miles
total distance around 2 turn points ~ 69 miles (27.1 + 24.6+ 17.3)
total distance around 1 turn point ~  60.5 miles (27.1 + 33.4)
max point to point distance ~ 33.4 miles (RnR to Landing)
take off to landing ~ 8.3 miles
Measurements taken via Google Earth using the ground track, not the flight path (except total path length)

Launch Altitude 4,480 Feet
Max Altitude 12,349 Feet
Low Point (not including final glide to landing) ~ 2600 Feet (east spine of Montecito Peak)
Landing Altitude 2,037 Feet or 2152 (Koenigstein Plateau)
~ 5 hours 51 minutes airtime, Launch 11:24, Land at 5:15 PDT
Note: camera clock was 1 minute 36 seconds fast / subtracted time in photo set text rounded to nearest minute
Pressure vs GPS Altitude can vary by up to 150 feet, and the altitudes are intermingled, so...

Trango

Sundowner's Flight Report Narative
See Also, [Weather Archive] Sundowner's [Photo Set] & [Reflections] plus Google Earth [3D KMZ File] or [IGC Text File]

We were excited to be driving to launch rather than hiking for the first Santa Anna event of our pending fall/winter/spring coastal soaring season.  The events offshore wind strength was only moderate, but the lapse rate looked good at all altitudes.  Ron Faoro picked me up at my house at a quarter past 8.  We had to fuel, so we were 5 minutes late for our scheduled 8:35 rendezvous with Chris Paul at Ash Street in Ventura.  Chris's loaded his gear into Ron's truck quickly and were on time for the 9 am Fly Above All bus at Nordhoff High School.  6 flying pilots plus Chris Grantham crewing for the morning run (Chris flew on the afternoon Pine trip), composed of 5 PGs and 1 HG, but Ron Faoro set up late and was having some equipment issues, so he didn't get off the hill.  On board were Chris Grantham (crew), Chris Paul, Dave Bader, Neal Michaelis, Ron Faoro, and Tom Truax on PGs, plus Jonathan Dietch flying his HG.

Comfy ride up the hill.  Had a deer running in front of the truck for a quarter mile as we were climbing up from Rose Valley.  It was calm at the gate, but wind from the NE was increasing with altitude.  Stopped at the ridge top to gage the strength and direction before heading west to Nordhoff Peak.  On launch about 20 past 10.  It was cycling from the east, zero to 12 plus, but it seemed more like wind than thermals.  The edge of launch needed a trim, but Chris Paul didn't want to wait and was off with a line snagging pull-up a little past 11 o-clock.  Chris did ok initially on his way out front as we relocated some of the warts, but he ran into wind and sink, coming up a few feet short of getting around the corner.  He was forced to turn east and went to the bottom of the canyon between Nordhoff and Stooges to practice his spinning helicopter brush entry technique below the trail.  Dave was next and made it look easy, followed by Neal.

Nordhoff is sort of like Elsinore or Plowshares.  It blows laminar offshore and then dies before the on-shore flow is pulled in.   You want to wait as long as you can for better thermal action, but not too long or the lower altitude west will pull in to fill the void left by the raising thermals, and Nordhoff is an east facing launch.  Unlike Elsinore or Plowshares, from Nordhoff Peak you have to follow a ridge a ways to get out front, and the onshore flow from the SW is often stronger down lower and further out front, so you might launch into late cycles from the east only to encounter wind from the west as you try to bob out front along the spine running SSE.  If you can grab even a little altitude at launch, then you can get on top of the spine and weather flow from either direction, but you often need to work your way SE below ridge line on the east side.  Ron Faoro was reporting strong cycles from the east on launch about the same time that Chris Paul was observing stiff flow from the SW on the deck.

I waited a bit too long and noticed Neal over the spine taking some drift from the west on his glide as I was clipping in.  By the time I was off and trying to work my way SE along the ridge to the front points, the drift along the ridge was mostly from the west, which translates to lee side sink on the east side.  I tried to latch onto a couple of scraps drifting toward the hill, but they didn't pan out.  I wasn't going to get around the corner.  I've done Chris Paul's hike before, so I needed to make option C work.  I turned tail and ran east, perpendicular away from the ridge and the lee side sink into the canyon.  I angled for my highest achievable intercept of the low spine that terminates in the canyon behind Stooges and Bruce's.  Fortunately, there was an organized thermal rolling up the spine when I arrived.  I was able to center it on the 2nd 360 for an easy climb out of the hole.

Everyone was gone by the time I got back to Nordhoff Peak (except for Ron Faoro who was practicing his ground handling on launch).  Climbed into the upper 5s and got on course westbound.  I heard Dave Bader on the radio, but didn't get a visual.  Spotted Neal across Hwy 33 trying all the wrong spots.  [Neal's Google Earth Track Path] indicates he had plenty of altitude to connect, he just didn't know where to go.  He never went past Bump 1 on his first crossing, and never went past Bump 2 on his 2nd attempt.  We do need to commend the young lad for his experimentation and exploration, pulling off multiple low saves in unlikely places and staying in the game.  Jonathan was coming back low from the west side of Bump 3.  Take a  look at his [Google Earth Track Path] between Hwy 33 and White Ledge, it's pretty ugly.  He did eventually stumble across the top of Bump 3 and got on course westbound.  I apologize for not giving a better briefing before launch about how to connect across Hwy 33 westbound.  Dave Bader has flown Nordhoff Peak almost a dozen times, but I didn't realize that he had never attempted to cross Hwy 33 westbound before Saturday.  I made the erroneous assumption that since everyone was a seasoned pilot, they didn't need my input.

To atone for my sins, I included some notes on getting across 33 in the photo set.  Basically, the low level wind flows into the gap like a funnel, drawing from both directions (east and west).  Avoid the funnel.  Take a line a bit out front when crossing the Highway to avoid the gap venturi.  Do not go to the back ridge east of Bump 1, it is in the venturi flow so you will have upwind penetration issues.  If you are low, try to dolphin up the middle ridge (not the back ridge) and get around Bump One.  Bump One and Bump 2 are soarable, but use them as steps to get to Bump 3, which is away from the gap venturi, works better, and is a ticket back to higher altitude.  You don't want to linger in the more difficult trouble zones, you want to power through them and get to a better location.  You also want to know where to throw an anchor and make a stand to attain enough altitude for a problematic next step.

You can come into the SE spine below Bump 3 pretty low, around 2800, which is about 600 below the bump point.  Get to 45 plus at Bump 3 and take the back ridge route that runs behind White Ledge.  On westbound flights, you generally don't want to try and fly out front around the south side of White Ledge because that will expose you to potential lower level west wind spilling through Casitas Pass from the ocean.  Working westbound up the back ridge behind White Ledge will offer protection from the onshore flow and will often be downwind even when the lower level flow is from the west out front.

On Saturday, I easily stepped up the back ridge, then poked south into the saddle behind White Ledge for good thermal before continuing downwind toward East Divide.  Got above 7K at East Divide and started to execute the game plan which was to go OTB northbound across the Murietta Divide Saddle for the point south Old Man Mountain (which I named "Step One").  I sensed that there was too much east wind, so I got cold feet and angled back for the front range.  Looks like a little V on the 3D Google track path.  Used about 500 feet for the excursion.  I needed an east/west convergence and the considerable drift from the east led me to speculate that I was too early, so I continued west a ways with the intention of coming back to try again later in the day.

Mostly down hill, getting lower the further west I went.  Also encountered more wind from the west the further west I went.  Did a lot of dolphin bobs and only stopped for a turn or 2 when necessary because I was loosing ground with the drift.  Had to use the wind shadow to cross Ramero Saddle upwind, but got around the road cut ok.  My low point was getting around the east spine of Montecito with 2600, but the west spine got me back into the mid 4s and I was good to go.  Considered going to La Cumbre Peak from the RnR, which is a more prominent turn point, but it was already 1:30 and I wanted to get back and test the Murietta Divide Saddle again.  It might take have taken another 15 minutes to tag the upwind peak and get back, so I opted to leave with my thermal from the RnR in the upper 4s.

The eastbound downwind leg was pretty easy, but I did have to come in tight in a few spots.  The midday air was strong.  I wouldn't recommend it for P2 pilots without close supervision.  Reports from pilots retrieving vehicles at EJ's were 10 to 15 from the SW and the La Cumbre Peak archive was recording 15 from the SW with gust to 19 at 1 PM, but that was more of a boundary layer wind.  There were some local stiff draws to contend with,  but the wind in open space was only on the order of 5 to 10 knots, and some of the thermals even had a little drift from the east in places.  Made good time and got back up to almost 7K at East Divide before committing OTB.

The conditions for a 2nd attempt were much better.  The thermal at West Divide was drifting from the SW, but the thermal at East Divide went almost straight up with a little drift from the SE. (see Google Earth 3D track path).  The initial glide OTB was buoyant and I only lost 500 feet before encountering a thermal that boosted me over 8K.  Fished back over Old Man Mountain but didn't find anything initially, so I turned back and flew south for 6 hundred yards before I regained my courage and headed back north to search deeper.  I was rewarded with the sight of 2 large birds that I initially thought were condors going up at my 12 o-clock.  When I entered their thermal at similar altitude, I realized they were a pair of large eagles.  A special treat more typically seen in remote areas.  That thermal got me into the upper 8s.  Only lost 200 feet on the next 3/4 mile northbound glide to a thermal that went to 10K.  Tiptoed along holding 10K or better for another mile over Monte Arido before turning NNE with the spine on a 2 mile buoyant glide to the next prominent peak which got me back over 10K again.  Continued to tiptoe along the convergence for another mile and a half in the vicinity of 10K before turning to run toward the west end of the Pine Mountain Range just before the west end of Ortega Ridge.

Used 3000 feet on the next 5-1/2 mile glide across the headwaters of the Sespe aided by a single 500 foot 3 circle boost midway.  Came in on the west end of the Pine Mountain foothills a little west of the Pine Mountain Inn and found a thermal at 7K over the first prominent knob that took me back up to 10K.  From there I had the turnpoint assured and was able to dolphin all the way to the south launch without losing altitude.  The lift got better over the top, not very strong, but smooth and going up everywhere.  On the glide over I was contemplating landing at launch, but I topped at 12,350 at 4 PM and figured my time was running out, so I went south.

I would have gone SW toward Carpinteria, which we discussed on the ride up the hill, and it would have made sense to land at home if my car was still there, but Jonathan had landed at East Beach in Santa Barbara and picked up my car in Carpinteria to get back to his vehicle at Nordhoff High School, so my car was at the school.  Jonathan then took his vehicle back to East Beach in Santa Barbara to collect his hang glider, and he offered to chase, which is a luxury, so I opted to make Fillmore my goal even though I'd get there well after the last bus.  I had wind from the NE at altitude leaving Pine, so going toward Casitas Pass would have been downwind initially, but I was expecting the west to push through a ways as I got further south.  I figured I'd run into some east toward the east end of Ojai, but was hoping to be able to go under it late in the day.  With 12K from Pine you can usually cut the corner and go directly to Chiefs.  Unfortunately, I had to crab against the east wind all the way out and crossed Nordhoff Ridge between the Nuthouse and Spine One.  I finally got out of the east down below 5 or 6K and scooted over to Twin Peaks.

I thought I'd have an hour left, but Twin Peaks was weak and I lost a few hundred before a weak thermal finally pulsed through.  It only got me back to 38 after arriving with 36, so the front point route wasn't an option.  I was a little low to head up the spine, but that was my only option so I gave it a try and clawed up to 6K over Chiefs Peak.  I needed the day to hang on for another half hour, but it was essentially final glide after topping over Chiefs.  I tried a few turns along the way, but nothing paid off.  You can normally reach Saint Thomas College in late day buoyant air with a tail wind, but I think it might have still been working up high because my glide toward and across the Boyd and Puckers front points wasn't buoyant.  Wasn't confident I could clear the last hill just east of the Koenigstein Plateau.  Clearing the hill would get me to green grass at the college, but the landing options between the plateau and the college are ugly, so I turned back for the sure thing.

Touchdown in smooth light conditions and was able to kite the glider before bringing it down.  Pack-up was a little slow due to the slightly scruffy ground cover.  I prefer green lawn grass, but haven't had it on my last 4 flights.  Was in the bag in 25 minutes.  My landing field was retrievable via a dirt road off the end of Koenigstein Road, but I was below a rim and Jonathan didn't know his way around, so I hiked the 700 yards to the blacktop and got a better line of sight for radio transmissions.  Jonathan was there in 10 minutes.

Stopped at the Stagecoach Station Market near the Upper Ojai Summit for refreshments.  Jonathan dropped me at my car in the High School parking lot.  Chris Grantham had flown out  from Pine and he was waiting for his truck to come down.  Swapped stories for 10 minutes and made may way back to Carpinteria via the coast route because I didn't want to deal with the turns along Hwy 150.  Stopped by Bates for a photo.  Showered and relaxing by 8:20, but the flight archive took awhile.

Reflections

Another route I've been looking at for some time.  We've connected to Pine Mountain via Monte Arido from Santa Barbara on Hang Gliders by going OTB in the vicinity of Ramero Saddle and working up the spine above Pendola, but I've come up short trying to cross the river on a couple of attempts at that route in my Paraglider.  The route may be possible with a paraglider if you leave with more altitude, but we would attempt the route on days when it was weak on the front range and good over the back country, so we were going OTB with minimal altitude.  The thinking was that there was no need to detour north if you are getting to 5K on the front range.  The backcountry cloudbase is typically lower on days that are good on the front range.

Now that I've done the front range route toward Fillmore countless times, I'm looking for more color, or as Diablo says, Boutique Flights.  Saturday was ideal for the Divide Route, with a classic standing convergence setup along the watershed divide.  We've hit on the convergence many times flying from Pine toward Santa Barbara, but that direction is downhill.  Now that I've done the uphill route, it looks repeatable.  The Matilija Wilderness does command respect, but as long as you don't panic and know your options, I think you can go down and not have too long of a hike.  Rob Sporrer tried to cross the Matilija Wilderness from the head waters of the Sespe toward Lake Casitas against a south wind on a slow entry level canopy in the 90s when he was a fledging P2 pilot.  I landed near the Lake Cachuma Dam that day on the north side of the lake and had to flag down a fisherman for a ride across.  SA was able to limp out to Matilija Canyon around midnight and knock on the door of a house to beg for water.

The best time of year for the uphill divide convergence route is early fall and late spring when you can get high over the back country mountains.  10K was adequate for tiptoeing along the convergence, but 8K would be a nail biter.  You might also be able to do it on a few select days in the summer.  Going down hill from Pine, it is common to get over 12K along the Watershed Divide Convergence, and occasionally as high as 14.  I was willing to go OTB on Saturday with 6K, so having almost 7 was a huge cushion.  I think you can do it a lot lower, like maybe 5500, and if you can't wiggle up to Step One, you can fall off toward Matilija Canyon.  A side hill brush landing above the Murietta Canyon Trail will leave a modest downhill hike to the gated trail head.

Light NE wind at Pine coupled with a good lapse rate is ideal for flying back to the beach.  We talked about it on the way up the hill in the truck, but no one went that way.  I don't know that you could have gotten back to SB in a Paraglider due to more west wind at altitude toward the west, but I think we could have reached the beach in Carpinteria with 2 or 3K to spare.  That was my initial intention, but when my car ended up at Nordhoff and I had chase, it made sense to try and reach Fillmore.  I though the west would push through better at altitude later in the day.  In hindsight, if I'd known that I'd have to crab against an east wind all the way to Nordhoff, I would have gone straight downwind from Pine and angled for White Ledge or Divide Peak.

The views on the flight were absolutely stunning.  The camera shots don't come close to capturing the moments, so you will have to get up there and experience the route for yourself.

Saturday, 10/4/2014 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Cort] [Jonathan] & [Sundowner] plus [SD Photos] & [Misc Post]
3D Google Earth Track Paths for [Jonathan] [Neal] and [Sundowner]

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