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

Thursday, 10/1/2020
Skyport to Painted Cave to W Divide to WSD to Montecito to Summerland Beach
Leg 1 ~ 6.8 miles / Skyport to Painted Cave
Leg 2 ~ 20.1 miles / Painted Cave to Divide Peak
Leg 3 ~ 7.6 miles / Divide Peak OTB to the Watershed Divide (WSD) Turnpoint
Leg 4 ~ 12.9 miles / WSD Turnpoint to Montecito (east spine)
Leg 5 ~ 3.7 miles / Montecito turnpoint to Summerland Beach / Landing at Lookout Point Park
total distance around 4 turn point ~ 51.1 miles
3 hours 36 minutes airtime, Launch at 12:24 / Land at 4 PM
UP Meru

Was initially considering an early hike up to the Nuthouse, but having flown and experienced the high temperatures on Wednesday, Santa Barbara's paved roads to launch were a no brainier.  We unloaded at the Skyport because it was cycling in good enough and the road was "closed" due to the fire danger higher up.  Some of the pilots wanted to go up to EJ.  I figured we were a little early and reducing the crowd at the Skyport would be beneficial, so I offered to do a drop off and bring their vehicle back down.  At least one vehicle had previously been given $150 citation while parked at EJ.

After getting my gear line-checked and ready Chris Garcia was ready to go so I assisted in spreading his wing.  He got off about the same time the EJ crew started rounding the corner and climbing in weak lift over Tunnel Tit.  Garcia flew straight out to the Holy hills where he circled up and drew in the out of town Arizona pilots who left Tunnel Tit for his thermal.  I wanted a good layout but didn't want to clog launch, and I wasn't in a hurry, so I ended up being the "launch assistant" to hasten the queue.  Got all the canopies spread one by one.  Everyone got off first pull.

Most of the pilots had climbed out at launch.  I got a hundred below and considered bailing but finally found up air as I started to leave and circled to 800 over.  Logan snuck up on me to say hello at the RnR.  47 at La Cumbre Peak with light drift from the SSE.  Down in the SW flow rounding the Wind Mill at Painted cave with 33.  Opted for the lower front route on the initial westbound leg to stay below any east flow.  Tested the upper altitude at the RnR and was still drifting from the SW above 47.  The stretch from Ramero along Castle Ridge was a bit of a struggle with some wind from the SSW gnawing at the weaker thermals down lower close to the ocean.  It got better at Noon which yielded a solid 1500 foot climb to just over 5K.

Logan had been making slow progress fishing over the south and SE spines at Divide.  I was able to come in a little higher up the hill and got lucky right away, which drew Logan in for the dance.  On launch we had discussed the potential of going OTB for the Watershed Divide and it looked like our timing was good.  Topped just over 67 and pointed downwind northbound.

We were a little west of the Watershed Divide, but the wind was light from the SSW so we had a good line.  Opted to skip Step One because it was off-line to the east and I had enough to reach Old Man Mountain if I went direct.  Got back to our departure altitude.  Logan and I had discussed going OTB along the Watershed Divide but I didn't actually check the skew-t forecast in the morning due to limited time, so I wasn't sure how high we might get.  Logan came in lower a little further south between Step One and Old Man.  He was below ridgeline on the west side but found a better thermal and climbed 12 hundred higher (just under 7900) than I got further north (just under 6700).  Always feeling better finding that first thermal after committing OTB, but I lost my core and had to go fishing.  Initially looked back toward Logan because he found a better thermal, but changed my mind and turned again to continue northbound toward Monte Arido.

A little short of Monte Arido and a couple hundred above the dividing ridge line I opted to take a spine running east toward Matilija for several reasons.  Our low altitude flow was from the west.  Intuitively I think we could have continued north toward Monte Arido and committed to the west side, but we were looking for convergence and it should be coming up-canyon from the east in the Matilija, so by running downwind eastbound we should encounter an E/W convergence.  Additionally, they have the gate from Camino Cielo down to the west side of the Watershed Divide locked up near Camino Cielo, so there is no retrieve on the west side.  Didn't have to go very far, less than a half mile, and we both fount our elevator, climbing from 56 to above 10K.  Logan was a little higher in the climb.  It really helped having another marker to map the thermal column.

After topping a little east of Monte Arido, drifting from the SSW down lower and perhaps a little from the SSE up higher, we continued northbound toward Three Sisters in buoyant air.  Less than a mile later we blundered into another big fat smoothy and boosted from 10K up to 12.5.

At this point we had a lot of options.  I think we could have connected over the Pine Mountain range or reached for the Cuyama Valley, but I sensed that all directions would be upwind down lower, drawing toward our high perch.  I do dinner with my daughter Hunter on Thursday nights.  I thought going toward Cuyama was a dead end.  We might be able to get high at Pine and come back out, but the day was starting to get late and we might be seeing our best altitude where we were.  Logan suggest we might want to simply fly back to the coast.  With pre-arranged retrieve and dinner commitments, common sense ruled the day.  We turned short of Three Sisters and headed for the beach.

At altitude the drift was quartering from the SE.  Down lower we could see wind from the West on Jameson Lake.  We were doing OK on glide, but it seemed like we were above any possible lift down lower.  Upon intercepting the front range with 7K over the east end of Castle Ridge we discussed our options.  We were expecting to encounter west wind down lower, so it was questionable if we could reach east beach on glide.  We opted to stay over the mountains thinking that once we got lower we might be able to thermal our way back to near the RnR, then reach out for the beach.  The logic made sense at the time, but down lower along the range thee was increasing onshore quenching flow from the WSW and no thermals to be found.

Logan was a few hundred higher.  I had to get on full bar to clear the east spine of Montecito.  Hoping to surf up in the ridge lift and wiggle over to the west spine, but the air was laminar and punchy.  I couldn't even make Cold Springs School or Westmont College, so I angled away from the mountains with 2400 and back quartering downwind toward the Birnam Wood Golf Courses.  Got a good glide and cleared the hill behind Summerland easily, crossing the freeway with over 700 MSL.

In hindsight / Monday morning quarterbacking, we likely could have made East Beach if we angled out toward the ocean and away from the mountains early.  There seemed to be less wind near the beach and the ocean was calm.  The quenching onshore laminar flow along the range was trapped and accelerated, so no lift and more wind late in the day along the range.

I've landed a Lookout Point Park many times, but typically with a little wind which reduces approach speed which improves accuracy into the small field with a bowl of trees on the approach end.  No wind today, and the field had some construction activity that made it smaller.  Figured I could set up an approach and if I didn't like the trajectory I could abort to the beach below the cliff, but you do get to a point where you have to either commit or abort.  Slowed down into the mush mode on the back side of the polar curve.  The air was glass smooth and I liked my groove so I continued with ample room for adjustments.  Nice stand up landing on the grass a half minute past 4 PM.  Logan had continued upwind for Parma and set down 44 seconds earlier.

Chris Garcia was on chase, but my daughter was scheduled to leave Goleta for Carpinteria at 4 PM, so I gave her a phone call and arranged for her to collect me.  Just finished zipping up my bag as she pulled into the parking lot.  We were in my Carpinteria driveway about 4:40-ish.

Loved going OTB with Logan for a bunch of reasons, and it was sweet to get almost 10K over launch in SB...

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