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Thursday, 10/14/2021 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [pending??] & [Sundowner]
View event [Photos] or  photos on [Google Drive] and [Ayvri Group Web Animation]

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

Chiefs to the Topa Bluffs to Summerland

Reference: [IGC Text Data File] and [Google Earth KMZ File] or Ayvri Web Animation] [Solo] or [Group]

Thursday, 10/14/2021
Leg 1 ~ 4.6 miles / Chiefs to the Topa Bluffs
Leg 2 ~ 29.0 miles / Topa Bluffs to Ramero Road Cut
Leg 3 ~ 3.0 miles / Ramero Road Cut to Summerland
total distance around 2 turn points  ~ 36.6 miles SLOFD
2 hours 55 minutes airtime, Takeoff at 12:33, Land at 3:28 PDT
UP Trango

I had switched my harness from Logan's Supair Acro 3 back to my tattered Woody Valley.  The Acro harness has 2 reserve containers, so it works better for acro and SIV training.  My Woody Valley is similar, but seems to have a bit more storage and is more comfortable for me on longer flights with my preferred bucket body position.  The switch required some speed bar adjustment on launch, so I was last off at 12:33.

Quick climb to 5,850, a few hundred below the top pilots, then eastbound.  Had to pick my way onto the SW Repeater spine and then transition to the SE spine for a double pump climb into the mid 6s for an easy transition to the Topa Bluffs.  It was light from the NE up above, but the Bluffs drew in down lower.  Bobbed SE up on the flat looking for more, but the mild capping inversion was limiting our max altitude and I couldn't get much over 7100.  Took the NE flow for a glide westbound, picking up a thousand over the Chiefs spine en route toward Nordhoff from the middle bump with 6K.  Blake was painting the air just ahead, but he wasn't finding much so I angled a little deeper at Nordhoff which was more aligned with the thermal trajectory.  Blake caught me on climb and we both topped out at in the mid 5s.  Another few turns to get back to 51 behind the Pyramid.  The glide across Hwy 33 was OK with a little tailwind initially (up higher on the east side of the gap) before encountering a mild headwind from the SW down lower funneling into the gap on the west side.  Was able to dolphin over Bump 1 but needed something at Bump 2.  Almost had to turn around and fall back but got lucky on the west side of Bump 2 for an easy transition to Bump 3 which was as dependable as usual.

I'd done the route a bunch of times (this was my 3rd trip in the past couple of weeks), but the weather is like a fingerprint with no 2 days the same.  It is advisable to attempt to dial into the evolving trends of the time and place.  A couple weeks ago you could boat along in the face convection, but today it seemed like smallish bullet thermals wicking off the spines and points.  West of Bump 3 below the SE side of the Back Step I was down low enough that I was concerned about the potential to get overextended but was able to latch onto a small core rolling up a non-descript spine and tracked up to the Backstep, topping just over 5K.  Thought I was in pretty good shape, but encountered sink along the ridge as soon as I continued westbound and didn't get lucky at the High Step.  I sensed a little flow from the SE packing into the back ridge trap on the SE side of White Ledge and opted to play for the saddle which I cleared with a just a little to spare.

In the saddle behind White Ledge I initially started to hook right intending to contour the back ridge, but I was kind of low and the back ridge boaty face thing hadn't been working so good, so I opted too change course and bet on a finding a convergence thermal over the saddle.  Convergence thermals in saddles behind front points are more likely when the flow is light, which it was.  Got lucky and picked up 500 feet to get back to 5K, drifting light from the SE.  The short spines and points along the back ridge worked, but the max altitude was marginal.  The light drift from the SE was good for my objective, but it also made the route somewhat committal as bailing back toward the SW spine of White Ledge would likely be upwind, so I set my sights on getting through the Pass while staying above the likely lower level venturi filling flow from the SW.  Got around the corner at East Divide OK with 44 and found what I needed but not much more, gaining 350 ft.  That thermal was tracking back toward the NNW.  Altitude is worth more out front and I didn't want to get trapped on the back ridge not being able to clear West Divide so I took what I had for a glide WSW and got around the corner of West Divide with 4300 (above the saddle but 300 below the top).

At West Divide I felt could glide out to at least the Gobernador Valley if necessary, but I expected West Divide to work better than it did.  The drift was from the SSE.  I tried both the SE faces, the west faces, and the main spine, but the only thing that seemed to work was a protected lee side thermal coming off a non-descript area on the west side.  The thermal wanted to drift toward the back ridge but the trajectory was shallow.  Eventually got back to almost 46 (still a little below the peak), but I didn't want to commit to the back ridge (I don't hike well).  After struggling for awhile I finally left with 43 (my arrival altitude and a couple hundred below my peak altitude) to search southbound over the saddle.  Didn't get lucky over the saddle, but the SE spine of Noon and SW spine in front of the West Divide Saddle converge toward each other, and with a little drift from the east I sensed I could make the glide toward low bump below the Noon Trapezoid, so I turned right with 41 and committed.  Noon worked sweet and I gained a thousand climbing out of the hole from 35 to over 45.

Got another decent climb to 42 over Snowball's Daddy, but it was getting late and Santa Barbara looked progressively hazy toward the west.  I still had a light tailwind but Garcia confirmed my suspicion that it was light from the SW down lower.  Only got to 31 at the east west end of Castle Ridge before heading across Ramero Canyon.  Reached the Ramero Road Cut spine well below the road cut with 2300, not enough to squander much and still reach the beach.  Did dip my toe around the corner but quickly turned back to play out front hoping for a lucky late day boost that wasn't there.  Picked up light drift from the SW down lower on my glide out, crossing Ortega Hill with about 300 AGL and the freeway with 500 MSL.

With the big flag and my drift both showing light flow (less than 5) from the SSW, I had enough to reach Ocean View Park on the east side of town, but Lookout Point Park above the beach looked doable so I opted to attempt an approach and determine if I could find a groove that felt right (if you don't sense a good groove you can abort and land on the beach below the park / with cars and people there is some politically sensitivity, so don't force it and end up in a tree or the back seat of a parked car).  Bled my energy and came in slow on the back side of the polar curve in butter smooth air and only needed the 1st 1/3 of the lawn.

Packed up, checked in on Telegram, and phoned Eddy.  The pilots headed back to SB brought my car (which had been parked at the Nuthouse) to me.

Thanks to Eddy for a professional crew performance and to Chris for packing all 10 of us into his pickup truck.

 

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