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Weather Archive and Summary for Friday, 10/29/2021
see also [Flight Articles]

Multiple Pilots had good flights on Friday form Santa Barbara and Pine Mountain.  P3 pilots took the day, outperforming seasoned veterans and accomplished XC pilots.

Dave Patterson led eastbound past Ojai and Saint Thomas College.  His narrative does not explain why he opted for a side hill landing in the foothills almost a 1000 feet vertical above Steckel Park?

Chris Diebold was close behind Dave and he too opted to pass on Santa Paula Ridge, opting to anchor and land just south of Saint Thomas College.

Dave and Chris were sucessfull where a number of other pilots (including myself) failed due to a number of reasons including (but not limited to) timing, paying attention to what was happening, and investing the effort to stay has high a possible along Castle Ridge. They were able to race through Ojai. Their flights were impressive, but likely didn't realize the potential of the day and quit early, leaving many miles on the table. Perhaps I'm dreaming, but had they tried to claw up Santa Paula Ridge, perhaps Piru or the interstate was reachable? The both arrived at the tip of Santa Paula Ridge in the game, but were likel above the lift, rather than flying uphill, upridge, they both opted to bypass Santa Paula Ridge. Dave made a play down the river toward Santa Paula which is toward the ocean and more stable air. When Chris encountered the upriver draw from the SE feeding Ojai, he opted to anchor.  Both pilots are green and learning.  Hopefully, the next time they will read the meterology to realize that despite the low level filling flow from the SE the upper flow was from the SW, so the better play is to try and claw up Santa Paula Ridge to get above the river draw and back up into the SW flow. For illustration, you could compare [Dave KMZ] and Chris's KMZ files from Friday with Sara's KMZ and [my KMZ] from 1/21 of this year where I came into Santa Paula Ridge about 1,000 feet lower than Dave but rather than bypassing Santa Paula Ridge I made an effort to scrtatch up. My recollection is that Sara also arrived low at Santa Paula Ridge and sucessfully scratched up on 1/21 (based on her inReach), but she didn't post an IGC or Ayvri track.

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