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Friday, 1/2/2015 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [??] & [Sundowner]
See Also: SD's Google Earth [KMZ] file or [IGC] Data plus [Photos]

Friday, 1/2/2015
Leg 1 ~ 2 miles Skyport to La Cumbre Peak
Leg 2 ~ 15 miles from La Cumbre Peak to Cate School (longest leg)
  or    Leg 2 ~ 14 miles La Cumbre Peak to Noon Peak
  and  Leg 3 ~ 3.6 miles from Noon Peak to Cate School
total distance around 2 turn points ~  19.6 miles
total distance around 1 turn point   ~ 17 miles
distance from launch to landing ~ 12.9 miles
1 hour 42 minutes airtime, Launch at 11:34 and Land at 1:16 PM PST
Niviuk Icepeak 6

Sundowner's Flight Report, see also [Weather Archive] and the [Extended Weekend Item Index]

Opted to fly on Friday because the air mass was still cold and the winds were light from the west.  We flew west with a light tailwind from the east on Thursday, so it would be nice to go east with a light tailwind from the west on Friday.  Twisted Peter's arm for a tandem partner.  Peter was considering flying solo, but my argument was that the thermals would be punchy and the day offered XC potential.  Saturday looked like lower altitudes with only limited XC potential, but it also looked like a more mellow day for novice pilots.  Peter bought my logic and we met at Parma.  Took Dave Bader's Prius from Carpinteria and left my car at home for a retrieval vehicle.  Loaded on a full 10 am Eagle Bus at Parma for the Skyport with 15 pilots.  It was light up at both the Rock and the Bypass.

We were a tad early on launch, so we took our time setting up.  Rob Sporrer launched one of his students about 11ish.  He didn't mark any lift at launch, but started climbing up from below the Round House on his way along the spine leading down to the old Monastery and got up to an altitude higher than launch.  That got everyone excited.  Peter and I were off a little past 11:30.

Got up right away at launch and moved over to the RnR.  Left the Skyport with almost 400 over and initially got a good glide, but the 2nd half was poor.  We reached the RnR spine ok, but a little too low to turn 360s.  Had to struggle for a few minutes, but we eventually double pulsed up to 4300 and went west to connect below La Cumbre Peak.  We got up right away at the Peak, but couldn't get more than 50 feet over the top so we got on course eastbound.

Got to almost 4500 at the RnR, thermalling with Kevin Howe and his male tandem passenger from Scottsdale Arizona.  The passenger's girlfriend (originally from Philly but now living in Scottsdale) was also doing a tandem with Marty DeVietti.  Marty flew out to Parma.  Our double tandem group got into the low 4s at the Thermal Factory where we parted ways.  Kevin went towards Parma while Peter and I went east.  Not particularly eventful.  The air was punchy, but the tandem is pretty stable so compared to a solo ride.  Got to 3600 over the west spine of Montecito crossing paths with Neal Michaelis who was on his way back from Ramero.  Chris Clontz opted to explore eastbound trailing couple miles behind us.

Castle Ridge worked good enough, getting to about 4K on the west end, a hundred or 2 over the minimum needed to play for Powerline Ridge on the Tandem with minimal tailwind and decent glides.  Got to almost 42 over the west spine of Powerline Ridge but was down to 37 over the spine before the lines, so we had to fish out the SE spine a little ways before blundering into a decent thermal that got us back to 4K drifting from the west over the lines.  Still had 3900 going off the east end of Powerline Ridge for the Noon Peak Trapezoid, but pulled a poor glide, arriving below 3500, a couple hundred below the top.

You can usually hang on to the SW face of the Trapezoid using ridge lift technique, but we didn't have much base wind and we arrived between thermal pulses.  Didn't gain anything on our SE pass along the face.  We were low arriving over the spine that runs down toward the SSE.  I generally try to get to Noon because the altitude usually gets better, but it pulses and I've flushed off a time or two. There is often significant west wind, which makes it problematic to get out of the mountains.  The SSE spine of the Trapezoid dead ends into a valley like canyon with foothills on the low end.  When flushing, I'll often fade left with the west wind for the spine that runs down from Divide to the hill behind the Gobernador Valley.  You can usually clear the power lines and land on the fire break to hike up to the top for a re-launch.  On Friday, the lack of west wind was bad for hanging on at the Trapezoid, but good for pulling a glide out.

It was buoyant lower on the spine.  We desperately wanted to hold the high ground, but couldn't afford to get any lower.  Did a few 360s, breaking even, and tried fishing back uphill a ways with no luck.  Finally had to head out with 3200 from where the spine drops off.  We got lucky and hit a nice core half way down the spine and climbed back to almost 3400, gaining 300 feet in 2 turns, but we lost the core and were in a limbo dilemma.  The boost gave us just enough altitude to give us a shot of reaching civilization, so rather than fishing back toward the high ground we took our altitude and went south toward Cate School, clearing the last hill with 500 AGL.

Easy landing at Cate.  We tried to be quiet and discrete, but a school representative wandered over to reminded us they don't want pilots landing there.   It was nice to pack up on the green lawn.  Dave Bader landed at El Carro Park in Carpinteria and walked to my house for the Toyota.  He arrived within seconds of our walk to the parking lot.  We collect Chris Clontz from grass field at the end of Linden.  He landed on the beach and walked to the field to pack up.  He was pulling his final zipper as we arrived.  The Toyota is pretty small.  We can transport 5 if necessary by tying gear to the bike rack, but Dave and I opted to drop our gear at home so we had plenty of room for 4.  Stopped for lunch outside at Padaro Beach Grill, then back to Parma.

Reflections

The altitude was marginal, but it should have been adequate to get over Casitas Pass and reach the bus stop in Fillmore.  Not sure that we did anything wrong.  Tried to tip toe along Powerline Ridge, but perhaps I was a bit overconfident.  My Bantoo tandem doesn't have the glide reach of the IP6, so we were marginal about getting out after flushing off Noon.  Fortunately, the west wind was light and we got that 300 foot boost on the glide out.  Probably just as well that landed at Cate.  Peter was not gung ho to go over Casitas Pass low, and it was nice to have lunch at the beach and get home early.

My last out landing after flushing off Divide Peak was my [first day (2nd of 3 flights that day) on a Trango II] in May of 2005

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