| Author |
Comment |
Jon James
Member
|
Elk Sat, 5/1
Elk was good Saturday.
9 hg and ~6 pg pilots flew. Early
launches were from the south side, later from the north. It was
better earlier, James a pg got to 7800 early. We got to 6400 over
Elk at 2:30.
Greg and Matt and Ian landed at the alt. Leo and
Jon climbed to 7000 over Pitney, then landed in Clover Valley and
Sentry. Bill joined Jon in CV after finding nothing at High
Glade.
Rich got up at High Glade, then completed a 30 mile
triangle, to his house and back to Horse.
Kurt was last heard
from over Indian Valley Reservoir with Linda chasing.
Scot used
his Mosquito to fly to Snow, then back to Elk (he flew in quiet
mode).
I followed James the pg around at Pitney for awhile,
from thermal to thermal, he was doing better. Climbed in a couple of
strong thermals with Leo. Gregg and Greg retrieved us. Sat was good,
Sunday's probably better.
|
Kurt
Member
|
Elk Sat, 5/1
I made it over Bear Valley to hwy. 20 for 36.5 mi. I left Elk at
6,300 and 7,000 over Pitney and 8,000 over Bartlett. Sunday was not
as good. We did not get as high or go so far. I landed with Bill V.
at the end of Clover Valley to be greeted by very friendly land
owners who welcomed us to land there anytime!
|
Roy Wormington
Visitor
|
Hull - 5/1
Hull was pretty good on Saturday, with slow climbs to 8,700 ft.
over the mountain and to 9,300 ft. over Windy ridge. Present were Me
(Roy), Doug, Bob Ortiz, Mike Pelton, Mike O'Leary, and a crew of 3
or 4 from Berkeley (I think). Take off was perfect, SW with cycles
coming in at 10 to 15 mph. The Berkeley crew landed at the end of
the runway and the rest of us landed in the slot, fortunately we
landed before the West wind picked up strong, but it was still kind
of rowdy when some of us landed. It was a very pleasant afternoon,
waiting for the retrieval crew to come down, setting around by the
flooded lake landing area, with ducks and water birds of all kinds
all around us. Thanks Mike for the ride up and Doug and Mike for
retrieving so I could laze around the lake.
Roy 
|
ben
Visitor
|
Wild Ass, Goat
mtn, Valley of Doom Report for this year.
(5/1/04) Greetings Sonoma heads.
As you know, I've dedicated my year
and 400 gallons of gas to pioneering some new sites in the San
Benito Mountains 2 hours south of San Jose. With Wayne's help and
some others (Don Herrick, Eric F., and so on) we've driven, flown,
scoped, and begged. Here's a quick recap:
San Carlos Peak
(Wild Ass Launch) overlooking the Valley of Doom: This has proven to
be the most consistent and flyable site around. 3600' vertical. On
the edge of the Panoche-Hernandez shear line which sometimes goes
by. 2wd road, no gates, permission to land in the lz on the West
side, but almost everyone goes 10 or 20 miles (to the bar). this
site has only not been flyable once in 14 months. Wayne set the site
record at 34 miles last year, but Wayne and Ben both flew 45 miles
Sunday and agreed to land at the hang gliding training area in Tres
Pinos just for kicks. Had to burn off over a mile of altitude and
cut the flight SHORT, but it was worth it. Look for 100 milers out
of here going south. Typical day is 400-600fpm thermals to 7-10k.
Goat Mt: 1.5 hours to the TOP from Hollister. lzs at 3.5-1,
6.5-1, and everywhere on an XC. Just scoping this: launches are
South and West and so NW prevailing can make the site unflyable. 1
hour from Wild Ass on dirt, so alternates are available. BLM has
given us permission to widen the road.
Goat is known by
sailplane pilots as the Hernandez elevator and is famous for its
abundant and powerful lift. Ben has seen his vario pegged (blanked
out) and has seen AVERAGED ascent rates of 1000fpm for several
minutes. These are truly Owens Valley-like thermals. Ben Dunn
reports flying straight up and having to wing over out of a thermal.
Wayne set the first site record Feb 14 on an overcast day by flying
18 miles. Ben went 28 miles in early April. This site is where we'll
soon go for the 100 milers south.
So . . . for a year it was
basically ben, wayne, don, and sometimes others, but now the word is
out and pilots are starting to plan regular trips. For bay area
pilots, it's 4 hours to big mountain sites and you fly around in a
fishbowl (hull, elk usually, dunlap, tollhouse). These new sites
will change the nature of xc here because all xc is along straight
roads with plenty of lzs that just happen to sit directly under the
convergence zone reaching from tres pinos to L.A. Look at the
blipmaps on almost any day. See where the best lift is just ESE of
Monterrey Bay? That's where these sites are.
We go every
weekend, so if you want a site into, give me a call 650-269-9036.
Here's the trip planning post for today:
<snip:
Flightplans Sat. post>--------------
Looks like there are
alot of folks goin:
vehicle 1: pifko, don, wayne,
ben
vehicle 2: rajiv, bobby, dean, someone else?
these
guys could coordinate:
Steve cahill?
Lee gardner
Urs
needs a ride.
Who else wants to car pool with Urs? Paul
Gazis? Mike McConnel? Jim Woodward?
WEATHER:
The
boundary layer has been going up daily and is over 9770 today. May
break 10 or 11k with current trends tomorrow. Also Thermal strength
has been growing and you can expect 550-650 fpm. We're getting lucky
with a very light southerly flow at altitude, so I think we can
expect a number of 20 mile flights tomorrow.
It's going to
be hotter than a two peckered goat, so bring water.
See you
there.
Post to Flightplans if you're going so Urs doesn't
have to drive alone.
ben
|
Scot
Member
|
Flight
Report/Cinco/Record
Saturday at St. Helena (5/8) with cues popping early. Chris Arai and I
are too tempted by conditions to land for the party. We head over
the back toward clouds forming to the east and climb back too base
at 6500 and head for the street leading toward the north end of Lake
Berryessa. We find consistent lift staying high but have to work
some light lift just before the lake to have the altitude to make
the Blue Ridge and get out of the lake effect. Chris is staying
consistently in front and I'm usually about a half mile behind
working higher as he goes on glide after topping out. I'm not real
dialed into my flexwing after flying the Atos which handles so
nicely and I'm falling out of lift and getting locked out of turns
and just not performing at Chris' level. He hasn't flown in a year
but lokks pretty dialed in to me. We have a long glide to the ridge
then climb out in strong lift to around 7000. The clouds are drying
up but a few are popping in the valley and Chris goes for them. I'm
hanging back trying to decide which is the way to go for mileage.
Cues are popping on the east flank of the ridge and I'm getting east
wind readings after having consistent west to that point. I'm
thinking the top of the ridge looks like the place to be but I'm
half way to the valley toward Chris and start heading south working
the secondary ridges. Chris climbs slowly but also decides to head
more southward. we connect again and work an area of lift then he
heads out into the valley and I'm a little unsure of that move aas
I've never gotten much lift in the valley whenever I've flown it
before. Anyway I soon decide to follow Chris figuring he has more
experience and knows what he's doing. He spots a dust devil as we're
getting low and I see it also but being behind and lower don't have
the altitude to make it. I'm also a little concerned with my landing
as my zipper is jambed having caught on my pants after takeoff. I
flew with it partially opened the whole flight but haven't tried to
unzip it to this point. When I try and find it unmovable I'm too
distracted with it to concentrate on coring the little lift I'm in
and soon am setting up for a belly landing in tall grass. Chris mean
while has climbed in the dust devil and is right over me around
4500' I radio I'm fine after a less then graceful landing and he
crosses the 505 heading southeast toward Dixon. He is reporting
seeing and feeling all different wind conditions and being a little
unsure of what his next move should be. He flies almost to Vacaville
then hits the westerlies coming through the delta and continues
climbing and flying almost due east at that point. He finnaly
reports he's setting up to land. Matt Terkiele from McClure is
chasing us after flying St. Helena for the first time. He finds me
soon and we head out looking for Chris. I call him on the phone and
hesays he's on Willow Point rd. near Clarksburg. Matt has a state
highway map for directions so it takes us awhile to find him as we
have to get around the shipping lane and Sacramento river to reach
him. We finally do around 7:30. Chris took a reading from the LZ at
janes field so is unsure of what his total miles are but for sure we
know he has a new flexwing record!! We stop in St. Helena for a late
dinner as we have called in and know we missed a good party. I got
35.5 miles landing near the 505 and I think Chris is around 60.5 but
that's my best guess estimate with the help of topo usa.
Congradulations to Chris and thanks to Matt. Matt says the Coyote
Howl is next weekend at McClure so come on down and getusum.
|
Kurt
Member
|
Flight report
Sunday May 9, 2004
Woke up thinking Elk and ended up at Tam.
It'd been @20 years
and it was just as I had remembered - wind switching north,
hovercraft landing on the beach, dodging Mother's Day revelers,
breaking down in sandblast conditions... great day. Kurt
|
Mike K
Member
|
Hull report,
Sunday May 9
I was the only pilot at the Pillsbury LZ on Sunday and it was
looking good with blue skies and a few cummies from the S and W. I
was fortunate that my parents were willing to drive my car down.
Launch was straight in with good cycles, and lift was abundant up to
a very cool 8500. Cloud base at Sanhedrin was about 8000 and about
9000 at Snow. Lift was available all the way down to the flats and
landing in the slot was uneventful (except for the several passes by
a Bald Eagle below me when I was about 1000') with 10-15 off the
lake in the normal direction. The only negative is that somebody
built a fire pit right where we park at Timberline launch, and used
wood with a ton of nails in it. Anybody got a big magnet?
Spring
at Pillsbury is always so quite and beautiful with a wide variety of
bird life by the edge of the lake. The first flight of the season
always reminds me what an amazing sport this is! Thoroughly
enjoyable day!
|
carai
Visitor
|
Flight Report,
Great fun...
Hi All,
I'll skip most of the details as Scot has already
covered them.
I was a bit rusty having not flown since the
last Cinco de Mayo party, which is evident in the zig-zag nature of
my flight path. The interesting part of the flight was over the flat
lands. I could tell a convergence of some sort was going on, but I
failed to read it and stay in it. (Assuming someone can tell me
where I can send a GIF of the tracklog I'll make a few references to
it.) The wind was doing some very wacky things. You can get an idea
by looking at the big loop in the track near Winters. From the SE
corner of that loop to the W corner I was in a thermal. My last
major climb was just before Dixon (sorry Scot, it was Dixon, not
Vacaville.) After finding 200fpm to 3500-4000 in the previous few,
this one went to 6K at 450fpm most of the way. At this point I
should have headed East I think to stay in it (in retrospect) but
the looming metropolis of Sac was pushing me south. Perhaps even
going NE again would have yielded more miles, but the tail wind was
NW so I went with it. You can see where I dropped into the strong
westerly seabreeze SE of Dixon. Once in that I only found one
significant climb from about 1800' back up to 2800'
I learned
something new about Ham radio on this flight as well. The reason
there was chatter on 147.525 is that it is now the output of a
"reflector". What is that you ask? Well from listening to almost
constant chatter for 3:45hrs I infer that it is a repeater that
pipes into the Internet on something called IRLP (I think) which
then pops out on other repeaters all over the country. We heard
people IDing from AZ, GA, FL, OR, WA and others. It is time for
Scott to learn how to change freqs!!
Today I can feel
multiple sore muscle groups that have missed not flying. The pain is
good though, for yesterday marks for me my approximate 30 year
anniversary in hang gliding. Thanks to Scott for providing the
motivation and Matt for crewing, and thanks to all for providing the
occasion!
Can I enter this flight in any of the Club
comps?
Chris
|
Gary Herman
Visitor
|
Flight Report,
Great fun...
Good on ya Chris,
Sounds like a great flight! I'd love to do the
same one day. The flying here in Oz has slowed down in the last
month, so I enjoy reading what you guys are up to. Keep it up. Hope
to do some flying with you guys in July.
Later,
Gary
Herman
|
Jon James
Member
|
Congrats
Chris
Congratulations Chris. The old St Helena distance record stood for
18 years, it was time for a new one.
I'll post it to our
comps.
Hope it's not another year before we fly with you
again.
|
Ernie Camacho
Club President
|
Your track
log
Chris,
You can send your track log to me and I'll post it. You
can either send it as an IGC file or other track log file (output
from G7towin or most any other pgm, or as an image file where you're
overlaid the track on a map.
Great flight!
Ernie
|
Ernie Camacho
Club President
|
Fly-in
report - 5/8
As for the fly-in, it was an un-qualified success! The weather
which threatened to give us a wet, unflyable Saturday, broke up and
instead gave us wonderful post-frontal conditions, where most pilots
were able to get high and stay up as long as they wanted.
The
menu change to barbequed tri-tip was well received, with everyone
singing the praises of the food (thanks to all who prepared salads,
beans, etc.). More of Jane's neighbors took advantage of the
invitation so that we were able to spend time showing them what nice
folks we are ;-). I don't have the scoring results here so I'll let
Donna report on that. I will say that a number of pilots decided to
forego the spot-landing & streamer-drop to instead land in the
big field. I applaud their putting a safe landing as a higher
priority than winning a prize. Having said that, the pilots who did
land in the main field did so safely and provided the guests with a
close up view of what a well-executed WHACK looks like!
So,
the weather was perfect, the food was perfect, the guests were all
happy, and for the first time we actually finished off the key
before midnight!
Thanks to all who worked hard to make this a
success.
Ernie
|
Greg Sugg
Club Site Director
|
The Keg
Ernie, One clarification: We really finished off the keg SUNDAY. As
it turnd out, to our delight after flying Sunday we realized the
reports of an empty keg were much exaggerated.
|
Ernie Camacho
Club President
|
Re: The
Keg
And I was there when Matt tried to get beer but sucked air instead.
I wonder why I couldn't remember? ;-)
|
carai
Visitor
|
Re: Congrats
Chris
Hi Jon,
I understand that you were the holder of the
previous record. What was your route?
Chris
|
Jon James
Member
|
old record
www.sonomawings.com/xc/sthrcdold.gif
It
was ne (down) on launch, I followed clouds down the Napa Valley,
couldn't go west until Napa. Eric Beckman had flown to Vacaville
Gliderport 40 miles along the same route on a blue day.
|
Jon James
Member
|
9 letter
filename
Sorry about the 9-letter file name, this one should work
www.sonomawings.com/xc/sthrcd86.gif
|
SkyBob
Member
|
Re: Flying This
Weekend May 15 & 16
So, how was Elk?
Three of went to St. John Sat. I got to 10,500
over launch, Dean about the same, Ken 9500. Playing around the
clouds. A beautiful cloud street heading north, Dean went 42 miles
for his 1st flight of the year, I went 34 to just past Paskenta. A
new best for me. (And on a day I had my doubts about, untill we got
there. So much for my forecasting abilities.)
Bob Bay
|
Kurt
Member
|
Flight report
May 15 & 16
That is good to hear Bob! I wish we had gone there as Greg had
suggested in the first place. Ten of us drove back down the hill
because of too much north wind at Elk. Spencer and I had a good
early morning sledride from Hull on Sunday but it blew north again
in the afternoon. No one else even came out.
|
|
|
Goat Mt. flight report - 5/22
This report is on a separate page.
To see it, Click Here
|
Hangfly
Club Secretary
|
Weekend Flight
Reports 5-22&5-23
Interesting weekend at St John. Saturday Todd and Kurt flew. Matt
and Charley broke down. Due to temps in the mid-70s in the valley
the lift didn't have enough oomph to push the clouds up over the
mountain. Consequently the route to town was blocked by clouds. Kurt
and Todd were able to climb over 8K west of the clouds then go
around them to the north to get to Stonyford.
Sunday Kurt and I
flew. Conditions were VERY lee-side. Thermals were barely big around
enough to circle in and it was quite rough. I got to 6800+, Kurt got
to 7K. Though going but good practice to increase ones bump
tollerance.
CW
|
Bill Vogel
Member
|
Sunday Flying
Hull Mt. 5/23
Saturday cloud did not lift off Elk so we passed. Sunday went to
Hull and flew with Mike K. Larry S. and another pilot. All Four were
off before 2:30, Larry launched last and had some difficulty with
wind coming strong from the right on lower launch. Mike got to cloud
base which he called out at 6800 ft. but I experienced base at 6400
ft further down the ridge from red spot. Lift was everywhere and we
all had good flights with Mike getting the most air time. The
thermals were small and strong as much as 900 up but generally 300
to 600 up was average, and punchy. Bill
|
John
Visitor
|
Flight
Reports 5/22
After a week of howling coastal winds, Saturday seemed a little
lighter.
I got to Goat just about 1PM and it was pretty NW at
15 to 18. Set up and got a spectator to help launch into very smooth
lift. Went south and it got pretty strong but very smooth with
minimal white caps.
After an hour, it started to cap big time
and the VG rope was getting quite long, so I made a perfect landing
on the beach in the midst of a gaggle of kids who had a good time
asking questions and taking pictures!
|
sridhar
Visitor
|
Hull weekend
report 5/22-23
It was socked in everywhere Sat but the Pillsbury basin cleared up
by 11AM. Mike K., Bob Bruns, and myself flew. Winds were crossing
strong north at Timberline, but we all got off during straight-in
lulls. Lift was mostly between red spot and timberline. I got no
higher than 6200', Mike of course got higher but not above the
peak(?). There was huge sink all the way to the airport. Mike and I
landed in the LZ with a nice 10 mph SW wind, while Bob landed in the
slot. There is dry land in the LZ, but you'll get very wet if a bit
long, short, or wide left towards the lake. We stayed
dry.
Sunday, there were cumis popping everywhere and there
was a noticably greater lapse rate than Sat. Winds were less cross
at launch and lighter. Lift was abundant everywhere. Mike got around
8500' on Windy ridge; I got to 7800'. I left the punchy air at the
peak and had some nice smooth lift flying under clouds across the
valley to the polo field. It was very buoyant from the polo field
all the way to the LZ. Winds were lighter in the LZ, around 5 mph SW
but Mike and I still had dry landings. Bill and Larry had nice
landings at the airport (at least from my perspective
above).
I flew about 40 min Sat and 1 hr Sunday while Mike
flew about 1.5 hrs each day. It was a beautiful weekend with the
birds and green grass on the lake and noticeable lack of "yahoos"
ruining everything.
|
Ian Riedel
Member
|
Hull report Sun
5/30 or "Leo was (partly) right"
I drove up to Hull Sunday with Hans, an H3 from Norway/
Berkeley. He had never flown Hull before and was quite excited to be
going to a site of this size. We arrived at the LZ at 11:00 after
having to drive the slower county road. The logging road is
currently closed. Pillsbury was strangely quite for the holiday
weekend. Being the only two pilots there we located two upstanding
young men (as opposed to the not standing up type) in the camp that
were willing to drive my truck back down for a few doubloons. Launch
conditions were switching east-west at 1-2 mph with cycles coming in
at 5 min intervals blowing straight in as strong as 18 mph for up to
2 min. I launched into a good cycle that produced considerable lift
at first but 100' out from the hill hit consistent sink all the way
down the ridge. Within 15 min. I was over the No. end of the
airstrip with 800Agl and planning a landing when I was given a
reprieve of light lift. Hans seemed to have an identical flight but
arrived at the airstrip with 200-300'. We were both able to work the
lift and climb to 3800' Agl and drift around over the LZ and boat
launch area for about 45min. At three o'clock the lift was turned
off completely. During my descent I searched as far as my glider
would allow but found nothing more. As per Leo's prognosticating I
did get to witness a truck get stuck in the mud. Its only exposed
area was its roof and a vague outline of the bed rail could be seen
at water level. Cool! I chose to land nearest the lake end of the
slot. The streamer at the lake end of the slot was indicating
straight in off the lake, at 100' I felt a strong surge forward. The
streamer by the road that crosses the slot was now pointing directly
at the lake! I whipped the glider around and had just enough time to
level out and flare. After unhooking I watched the two streamers,
one at lake shore and one at the road pointing directly towards each
other. The wind off the lake was about 5mph at the lake side
streamer, and that blowing towards the lake through the slot was
probably closer to 10mph at the streamer near the road. Any thoughts
on these conditions would greatly be appreciated. Hans landed a
couple minutes after me further into the slot. The only other pilot
to fly was Mike Pool who arrived at launch a few minutes after Hans
and I were off. We were treated to a spectacular, dead vertical,
helicopter take-off from in front of the store. Apparently someone
had fallen off the bridge (no more beers for him) and got a cool
ride to the trauma centre out of the deal. All in all a great day of
flying for Hans and I, bad day for beer drinking bridge walking
pedestrians.
ciao
|
roger
Visitor
|
Hull 5/31
Monday Roy and I flew at Hull. Only ones there. Wind at launch was
strong at about 20mph by Roys estimate, slight NW component. Ended
up at the knoll where I found some light lift. Roy flew under me
without finding whatever it was I was working and flew out over the
trees where he worked some lift to about 5600. The wind on the lake
was out of the west but the wind sock in the landing area kept
swithching to the North. Was converging along the boat docks, but
the strong North winds influenced me to go in and land. I landed in
the slot in North winds. Good landing since the wind didn't switch
on final. Roy landed at the air strip and also had a good landing.
After breaking down Roy and I amused ourselfs by watching the wind
sock make 360's. Short 45 minute flights, but 1st time in the air
since end of last season for me.
|
Eric Hinrichs
Member
|
Re: Ian and Hans
at Hull
Great story Ian, most of us have given up going to Hull on holiday
weekends because of the yahoos. Sounds like you guys got lucky in
that respect, and pretty lucky with your flying. You explained what
was going on in the LZ between soaring over it and watching the
streamers. On a north day you often find a convergence over the lake
where the flow out of windy gap meets a south or southwest flow.
Hull is a great place to fly in convergence. Once in a while the
central valley flow also pushes over to hit against the westerlies
and once I saw that push all the way to the lake and create a three
way convergence because the north/south convergance was happening
too. The lake looked like a pie chart divided into three sections
and I flew the line I was in to where all three met just to see, and
sure enough it was really nasty. When the convergence is over the
LZ, it's better to pick a different place to land, there's a few
different LZ's at Hull depending on lake level. By the way, how high
was the lake?
Eric
|
MattsFlyin
Club Treasurer
|
St John Flight
Reports 5/29-30
Lori and I arrived Friday eve.
Got to 8800, 8600 and 9400 on
Sat, Sun and Mon.
Strong north kept me local Sat. Sunday I
couldn't get high enough at the right place to feel comfortable
going so I stayed local again. Monday was a fly south day for me but
somehow my radio became unlocked and off frequency even though I
radio checked successfully with Kurt before launch. So I stayed
local as was the plan. Soared the town and landed at the Quiberg
Ranch all three days. Nice camping and landing spot. Mary is very
generous. We finished up the gate installation Monday before flying.
Kurt and Scot have good flights to tell about!
Scot
owes Jon big time!!
Thank You Lori for driving and keeping me
company!
Matt
|
Jon James
Member
|
Chasing
Scot
Landing at camp is always a pleasure and Sun and Mon, I had good
flights and good landings there.
One drawback to landing at
camp is you might get involved in chasing those who
don't.
Sat Charley and I chased Scot and Kurt. Scot landed on
a nice, big, clear hilltop 50 miles out. And left his push-to-talk
there.
Sun didn't look that good, so I volunteered to chase
Scot again. It looked better and better the farther I got from
Stonyford.
I didn't realize that I'd knocked my radio off
frequency while chasing. Didn't hear a word from Scot, but that's
not too unusual. I decided to go as far as where he landed
yesterday, but turn back there if I didn't hear from him. Looked
around and found his push-to-talk.
After turning my radio
back to the correct freq, I heard from Scot soon. He can tell his
story. But some chase statistics are:
I saw him land at
6:45
Stonyford to Scot's LZ - 3.5 hours by back roads
distance
back to Stonyford by road - 135 miles 2.5 hrs
get back to Camp
Quiberg - 10 pm
get back home - 1 am
Nice flight, Scot
|
Scot Huber
Member
|
Flight
Reports/Elk, St. John 5/29-30
I went to Elk for Sat. figuring it would be better then St. John
that day. I had Daniel Sauer chasing with his cousin John
navigating. No other pilots but me. Flew the flexy and had a good
flight out into the central valley near Arbuckle for 47.1 miles.
Sunday St. John again on my Lam. Had a decent flight considering
the day of 50.0 miles landing on Hesse rd. on Vinces route. Again
St. John Monday but flying the Atos. A rare day with strong cycles
soon after noon blowing in at the ramp. Launched as soon as I was
ready and climbed quickly to nine grand which I headed north with.
Lost only 700 ft. crossing the gap, the day before on the lam I lost
2000'. Glided till Alder Springs Rd. above where we had the
turnpoint last year at the flyin when I caught a good one to around
5500'. Tried the back route but was on Red shortly where I climbed
back to 7000'. winds were either SE, South or East between 12 and 8
the whole day. Left Red and drifted back behing the prison climbing
to 8000 at the back of the Gorge where I crossed to the other side
deep on the ridge top. Nothing happening so eventually headed out
front and got on the valley route. Crossed the 50 mile mark at
around 5000'. and kept on a go'in for it. was only 4pm so had a shot
at the record. Jon caught up to me on Deschutes rd. just north of
the Sacramento river near Anderson where I climbed out to around
5000' again and headed NE hooking up with Oak Run Rd. Shasta looked
so close and Round Mt. was only a thermal away but I found nothing
more and glided to the ground at 90.2 mi. My best flight off St.
John to date. If I'd of gone for the valley route with out the
detours I think I would have had a shot at that last thermal. Live
and learn. Had a good time camping with everyone and hanging out
together. thanks Jon for finding my push to talk and the late
retrieve. I have 2 drivers available locally at St. John so anyone
hoping to get back early on the final day of the weekend please let
me know ahead of time next time so I can arrange a retrieve and keep
the peace.
I have a couple other scores I want to get recorded
for the comps: St. Helena, 35.0miles flex. Hull Mt. 17.3 miles
rigid. and Diablo 15.8miles. rigid.
|
Charlie
Nelson
Member
(6/2/04)
|
Indian Valley
Dust Devil
Saturday May 30th around 3 pm a very cantankerous dust devil struck
the Burn launch at Indian. The local pilot there, Ernie, had seen
very few if any like this one. It was blowing around 12 NNW most
places in the valley, ( over the back) but we went up to the Burn
anyway hoping for leeside thermals. When we arrived at launch it was
blowing straight in (SSW) at 5-10 mph , and we radioed that info out
, oops, so about a dozen pilots were setting up when this thing hit.
I was just suiting up to fly and had my Laminar right on the launch
facing NE .
A gust could be heard SE of launch . It got louder
but no dust could be seen. It had rained the day before, the soil
was still wet, so we had little warning , maybe 10 seconds from the
yell ' dust devil' to the moment a roaring 30-35 mph sustained SE
gust hit, and banshee hell broke loose. Eric Heinrichs grabbed my
keel and I had the nose, and two other people grabbed my wingtips.
You could hardly hear above the boom of the wind , and Eric yelled
'if it lifts me up I'm letting go!' First it sucked on my right
wing,and the man there squinted and held 'er down . A glider bag got
sucked up and was whirling around about 100' high and going up. tip
and batten bags were swirling much higher, some to 400 ' high. Then
it let off my right wing and went for the left. the person there,
Igor, was cringing and laying on my sail tip, dirt blowing in his
face. After 20 seconds, it started to let up...we all relaxed a bit,
then it hit again, harder, this time from the NE, 30- 35 mph . most
of the gliders were faced that way, and it looked grim, the gliders
were defenseless. A guy from Oklahoma had to let go of his Lam nose,
it went 20 ft high , flipped, then slammed down on a stump upside
down , ripping a 2 ft gash through both surfaces. Mike Pelton's
Laminar got a 1 1/2 ft hole in the upper surface , either from Bob
Ortiz's king post or somebody's truck door that was open. Bob's
glider had not been tensioned yet and Bob had to let go of it due to
Mike's glider menacing him. then it looked like a giant invisible
hand was throwing Bob's glider around on the ground, maybe ten times
this way and that over the gravel road.
I heard that Fitz laid
down on top of his rigid, and was able to hold it down. That's a
brave lad.
The thing passed by at last . there was no sound. it
was about a whole minute of chaos.
Like the aftermath of an
earthquake , everybody was in shock. The tip bags drifted back down
in different directions , one landing about 600 feet away down the
front , others dropped way out back and were never found.
Then
the wind switched to a steady 8-12 NNW over the back, and stayed
that way. We all broke down and went back to camp.
You guys have
seen what these babies can do.
Be careful this summer.
|
Dave
Clement
member
(6/3/04)
|
Owens over the
Memorial weekend
Ernie, Did you go to the Owens last weekend, and how was the
flying? I didn't see any posting.
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(6/3/04)
|
Re: Owens over
the Memorial weekend
As I was coming into the Owens Valley on Friday, the sky was filled
with friendly cumulus clouds. They were a bit low, obscuring White
Mt., but they looked promising. Unfortunately, they were the last
clouds I saw all weekend.
Saturday was too northy and strong.
Only one glider flew that I knew of, at it launched around 4PM from
Walts.
Donna was with me and since this is her first visit
to the Owens, I played tour guide, taking her to launch, down the
valley pointing out landmarks, around Bishop, and up to Lake
Sabrina. The Berkeley crowd didn't stay in the Tuttle Creek
campground, so we didn't get much of a chance to visit with them.
They thought that they might be able to launch from Paiute, so Donna
and I sat in the shade near the bailout for a while to see what we
could see. Dave Merriman came by and told us that there was a
matinee showing of "day after tomorrow", a disaster movie about
global warming, so we went to see that, then back to Lone Pine for
dinner. Bob Kanick and his new bride came by our campfire for a
visit. Bob is living in Colorado now (he used to live in Daley
City).
Sunday looked very good, and a big crowd showed up
early at Walts. Unfortunately, the rule about not setting up on the
road was ignored by a lot of pilots. Any car coming up the road had
to weave betweeen the gliders set up against the hill and those
overflowing from the launch side. The launch situation was a bit of
a mess too. There would be 4 gliders at various points along the
edge ready to launch, with little or no coordination. Luckily we
didn't have any near-misses during launch and no blown launches,
although a lot of launches were shaky. Gliders were getting up
smoothly, but not fast. A big gaggle formed over Wonoga, and with
the spectrum of pilot skill shown at launch, I'm sure there were
pilots up there behaving badly. I didn't fly because of a plugged
ear. I think there was an inversion because it was hard for pilots
to get above 10,800. Few pilots made it past Whitney Portal, and I
only heard of one pilot making it to Big Ears (at the foot of Black
Mt.).
Since I couldn't fly, I thought I might talk to some
pilots as they flew over the Whites. That meant a trip up to the
Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. We went all the way to the end of
the road, where there is a locked gate. We visitied with a marmot, also known as a
woodchuck, and took a few photos of wind-ravaged Bristle Cone Pines
(I forgot my digital camera so I used up the rest of my
glider-mounted camera's film). We came back down from the Whites
through Silver Canyon, a scenic, though steep decent to Hwy 6 at
Laws, near Bishop.
We left on Monday, when it was forecast to
be much better, but as we left the valley I could see high clouds
showing strong winds at altitude.
It turned out to be a nice
weekend to be a tourist, but not so nice for
flying.
Ernie
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(6/3/04)
|
Re: Owens over
the Memorial weekend
A letter from Jerry Mahoney about his experience in the
Owens:
This year in the Owens was the worst for me. I set my
personal best 3
years ago and exceeded it the next two years.
This year I got 6.4 miles
(Diaz Lake).
Sunday the inversion
put a cap about 10K plus or minus. I launched, got
to 9800 over
launch, went to Winoga and scratched for 40 minutes between
8600
and 9600 on the switchbacks and then gave up. Of 57 who were set
up
only 6, as far as I could determine, made it north of Lone
Pine. One of
our SD group got to Bishop. One got to the north of
the Alabama Hills.
A Santa Barbara pilot got to Big Ears. I left
early Monday, but I heard
that about thirty pilots were there and
conditions were better. Reports
of people at 15k on the north end
of the Sierra's. I don't know how they
wound up.
I'm planning
to go back in the middle of July to try again.
Good luk to you
and all the Sanoma Wingers in Utah.
Jerry Mahoney
|
John
B
Unregistered User
(6/5/04)
|
Hull 6-5
Lake beautiful, winds howling out of North!
LZ cleaned up,
landing circle rebuilt, illegal fire rings removed.
No
flights.
Curt and Anna camped out for Sunday; Mike K at the
cabin, Gunter in his trailer (beer in hand).
Situation
normal!
|
anna
Unregistered
User
(6/6/04)
|
hull 6-6
winds still howling north. lake still beautiful. mike still at the
cabin. kai "perfected" the landing circle. all swam. all went home.
-ie - see jon b's post and 2X it.
|
Larry
L Roberts
Member
(6/7/04)
|
Re:Flying
6-6
Winds were out of the north, took off at 12:30, landed at 4:31 -
rowdy day, stayed local, as XC was tough. There was a lot of heavy
sink between the very ragged thermals. Very few thermals could be
worked with lift completely around them. Flew in 33 thermals, turned
right 66%, left 31%, mixed 3% per my flight log. The drift in the
ragged thermals was pretty strong. Had a good time flying the Crazy
Creek area. (Sailplane flight)
|
Donna
Matthias
Club VP
(6/6/04)
|
Shakespeare at
Stinson
Ashley, Kerri, Aaron, Jet Ho (Dr. friend of Kerri's), myself, Matt
and Lori went to see Anthony in Midsummers Night Dream. All I can
say is you gotta go. It was great. Even Ashley at 13 yrs enjoyed the
play. Alot of laughter. We got there early, had a picnic of chicken,
salads, chips, cookies and wine. The weather cooperated and the wind
picked up towards the end of the play. Very enjoyable evening.
Anthony, thanks for being so talented! You look marvelous in
glasses.....
~Donna
|
Roger
Unregistered
User
(6/14/04)
|
How was the
flying at Hull last weekend 6/13 and 6/12
I thought it would be too north at Hull, but Sunday the winds
seemed to be more Westerly, anyone fly and if so how was it?
|
Leo
Jones
Unregistered
User
(6/14/04)
|
Re.
Well I was only there on sunday though folks flew saturday
too.
Sunday seemed windy in the LZ but what the hey, we went
up anyway. On launch at 1 pm it seemed pretty good - blowing
straight in with up to 10 mph cycles. Of course by the time we were
set up it had died, was mostly out of the east or over the back. If
you waited long enough - like 20+ mins - there was an occasional
launchable cycle which lasted maybe 30 seconds.
Greg Sugg
took off first and I followed about 10 seconds later. There were
thermals, and after a bit of searching we climbed out to about 8400
eventually, but it was kinda rough and disorganized lift, with
perhaps a very light easterly drift aloft.
Matt and Charley
had to wait 20 mins or more for the next cycle. Charley's vario
battery died so he sunk out. Greg went across to the frog pond at
Sanhedrin before bailing. Conditions seemed to deteriorate, getting
rougher, and John Blacet got stuck on launch. Dust devils began to
appear, and he decided not to launch.
In the LZ winds were
out of the west, over the trees. Charley landed well out in front of
the slot. Matt, Greg and I landed at the airstrip where it was
pretty gusty and bouncy, but OK.
We saw LOTS of ospreys
fishing and at least one bald eagle.
Another nice day at
Hull.
Leo
|
Hangfly
Club Secretary
(6/14/04)
|
flight
report
First a clarification on Sunday. Charley flew without a vario so he
sunk out.
Now about Saturday. Winds were NW 10 to 20, there was
no lift on the mountain. My vario went dead at Red Spot on a quick
glide out. I did have my altimeter on my watch. I came over the LZ
at 2700' and hit lift right over the spot. Next thing I know I was
gaining 100' in each circle. Convergence covered a small to medium
area over the lake and over land on the NE corner of the lake.
Pilots got well over 5K in it. It was fun climbing over the
water.
Launch and landing conditions were challenging both days.
It blew through the trees in the LZ both days. Saturday I whacked
right on the streamer, Sunday I had a nice two-step landing as far
from the trees as I could get and still stay dry. Dust devils were
on launch both days. We should take some dog anchors up there and
screw 'em in the
ground.
Hangfly
|
John
B
Unregistered User
(6/15/04)
|
Devils!
After I was broken down and had the glider tied to the car, all
hell broke loose, starting with a real ripper that took about an
inch of top soil off of launch. It was a dense column that started
with a tremendous ripping sound, like some giant split open a circus
tent!
If I had been standing at launch, it might not have
gone very well.
|
|
|
Vince and Nancy in Austria
This report is on a separate page.
To see it, Click Here
|
John
DeAguiar
Unregistered
User
(6/21/04)
|
USGHA Report on
Hull Mountain Fatality 6/19/04
I submitted the following incident report to USHGA on Saturday
evening. I didn't post anything on the website until I knew that
next-of-kin had been contacted. The pilot's name has already been
mentioned on this site, so I'll post the report for the
community.
The pilot is Neal Ronald Cruz, a new H2 pilot from
Emeryville. He claims to have received his training at Mission
Soaring.
The GPS coordinates of the incident are N39d27.099m,
W122d56.038m.
Winds were consistently SW 10-15, and thermals
were small and hard to find away from the mountain. 12-15 pilots
flew on this day, including single-surface gliders, and all made it
to the designated LZ except Neal.
He was a new H2 pilot. This
was his first flight at this mountain site. He asked for and
received thorough pre-flight orientation on the landing zone,
launch, and other site characteristics. He did not have a radio for
communication with or guidance from other pilots. (A 2 meter radio
and Ham license are strongly recommended by our club.) He did have a
vario.
Witnesses say he launched safely, but flew on his down
tubes for an extended period, then went prone and continued his
flight.
Once airborne, he was not under the supervision of
any other pilot.
I estimated the crash time to be 3:00-3:30pm.
I was the first to land at about 3pm, and I didn't notice any other
glider in the vicinity of the LZ.
Neal's glider was spotted in a treed area
about 1 mile from the designated LZ. Nobody saw him go down, and he
may have been down for as long as 30-45 minutes before we arrived on
the scene.
Neal had no pulse or breathing when we arrived.
Two pilots with EMT training did start CPR, and paramedics and air
ambulance were summoned. However, the paramedics declared him dead
and the air ambulance was turned back.
Neal appeared to have
died from head and neck injuries on impact. The chin guard on his
helmet was cracked or broken on impact. He appeared to have impacted
in a prone position. He was still fully zipped into his harness when
we arrived. There was no sign that he had tried to deploy his chute.
His glider was on the ground near the dirt road leading up
the mountain among trees and bushes. It isn't clear to me which
exact path the glider took to arrive at this point. The only obvious
damage was a broken down tube. (One pilot who disassembled his
glider said the keel was slightly bent.)
The main LZ about 6
miles from launch, but clearly visible from launch. A number of
alternate LZs closer to the launch are available at the site,
including two large dirt air strips with their own wind
sock.
The winds and weather were typical for the site at this
time of year. The 10-15 mph SW wind in the LZ did cause some pilots
to land short, but there were no other dangerous incidents on this
day.
Many other H2 pilots have successfully flown this site
early in their career. I'm not aware of any other hang gliding
fatalities at this site.
My assessment is that Neal became
disoriented from panic and/or froze up when he got close to the
ground, and took no action to prepare himself for any kind of
landing.
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(6/14/04)
|
Wild West
Regionals adopts XC format
Ray Leonard writes:
Region 2 Wild Wild West Regionals will
have a new format to keep up with the changing times and interests
of the pilots from H2 to H5. After 14 years of racing to goal for
three days to determine a Regional Champ we will be following a
different format this year.
It's much simpler and just as
challenging. The contest will be open June 18-20 2004. Open distance
will determine the winners. Everyone is free to choose their own
course. The only determining factor will be distance. The pilots may
use GPS, camera or just a signature card from a witness to
substantiate the validity of their flight.
The awards will
be:
Longest distance flex wing (one flight)
Longest
distance rigid wing (one flight)
Overall cumulative distance
flex wing
This way pilots may fly just one day or all three
and always be competitive. Flights will initiate from either
McClellan Peak or Slide Mt.
Pilots meeting will be daily 9 am
at the Washoe State Park which is 2-3 miles off exit #42 on route
#395 between Carson City, NV and Reno, NV. Meet phone #
775-883-7070
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(6/14/04)
|
e: Wild
West Regionals adopts XC format
Hey, this sounds great! It looks like Ray is taking over the open
distance XC format that the now-defunct Sierra Nevada Hangliding
Association used successfully the last two years.
This makes
it hard for me to pass up the Regionals, but with it being the
weekend before the King Meet, it's a more expensive than I can
afford right now.
Those of you going to the Regionals, I
hope you do well!
Ernie
|
Ralph
Hyde
Unregistered
User
(6/14/04)
|
New
Format
I find I am less inclined to go, with this new format. I enjoyed
the old format, the thrill of making goal, and finding your friends
there, riding back to camp together at a reasonable time, going out
to eat, partying at the campground later.
This way you'll
need a personal driver, or agree on a route, long retrieval times,
getting back to camp late, exhausted, to do it again the next day.
To me, this is more of an ordeal than a fun meet with
friends.
Unless persuaded otherwise, I'll probably pass on
this one.
Ralph
|
Leo
Jones
Unregistered
User
(6/14/04)
|
Just
go...
Ralph, you are a great pilot. Just go. Fly as far as you feel at
the Regionals.
You will kick butt and have a blast in open
XC. I Promise.
Yee haw!
Leo
|
buzzett
2002 Service Award holder
(6/21/04)
|
ready, set,
go
We had a great time at the regionals. Suzy and I team drove for 5
pilots. Daniel drove for Chris. Four placed in the top, 1- Rich,
2-Tim, 3-Bill, 4-Todd. Thanks to Bush and the airspace restrictions
on friday, the pilots had to launch early. Rich made it past
Winnimuca for 162.4 miles. This is a new site record and a personal
best for him. (yes, he had oxygen) On Saturday the team flew to
Fallon for a short retrieve and then partied at Bullies in Carson
City. Sunday found Ray calling an out and return to Silver Springs.
Rich was the only one to make it. Tim landed at Silver Springs. The
air was real nasty. Bill landed just short of Silver Springs. Todd
chose not to fly on sunday, wanting to spend the day with Suzy.
Instead he spent the afternoon on launch helping other pilots. there
was a blown launch, tandem landed below launch and several others
that landed on the backside.Thank you Todd for being there.
Ray
plans on keeping this format for next year. Making it bigger and
better by getting the casinos to sponsor different classes. Maybe
even $$$$ prizes. The group I was with and the repore we had for
each other made this trip memorable and I look forward to next
year.
Linda
|
Larry
L Roberts
Member
(6/21/04)
|
Re:
Congratulations on the Great Flying!
Great flying! Congrats to Rich, Tim, Bill, Todd. Next time Rich
will probably fly to Utah. Sonoma Wings was well represented. (Of
course, the great drivers make it easier to fly far!)
|
|
|
King Mt. Meet - Idaho
This report is on a separate page.
To see it, Click Here
|
sridhar
Unregistered
User
(7/7/04)
|
Lakeview
report
Nobody posted about Lakeview so I'll oblige. Didn't see any SW HG
pilots at Lakeview last weekend. I thought some might extend their
trip after King. We got to Sugar Thursday which was apparently the
first day that didn't OD. Hat Creek wasn't flyable the night before.
A few pilots already in the air at Sugar were able to cross Fandango
pass and get decent flights, but I'm not sure if anybody made
Hunters. Five of us launched later and could only maintain at launch
altitude or little below and all landed in the bailout (primary)
LZ.
Friday, most pilots were able to cross Fandango but Jim
Woodward was the only one to make Hunters. I took much longer
crossing Fandango than the others, knowing that my Saturn just
doesn't have the glide even with full VG. I got to 11.5k' behind
Sugar and worked lift halfway across the gap before committing to
glide across. I made 20 miles and others did up to 25 miles. Winds
were very light. Friday also had the first good day at Black Cap
with people getting to at least 10k' and boating around for hours in
the evening.
Saturday was trophy dash day from Sugar to
Hunters, but the perennial favorites from McClure didn't win. In
all, only 2-3 pilots made Hunters with at least one flying a rigid.
After many pilots had crossed Fandango, I launched and quickly
climbed to the top of the stack, but at only 9.5k'. Two blade wings
started crossing the gap below me. I headed across at 9.8k'
searching for lift along the way. Even with that altitude, my glider
couldn't fight the moderate headwind and I had to land about 3
quarters the way across the gap in a rocky field near the road to
launch. Many pilots ended up in the primary LZ and several others
also landed in the gap or just beyond. Winds were stronger from the
W or NW and no good flights were had from Black Cap.
The
weather seemed to be getting more typical but we left Sunday
morning. My girlfriend Amabel got her first taste of chasing XC and
made Dick Girard's day by happening to be driving by when he landed
to give him a greeting and water, and also got me a beer within a
few minutes of landing in Fandango. We camped in Lassen Sun night
which was still pretty empty for a holiday weekend. There was still
lots of snow in the park.
|
|
|
St. John Record Encampment - new site records!
This report is on a separate page.
To see it, Click Here
|
kb0nai
Unregistered
User
(7/9/04)
|
crash at
slide
Over the 4th of July weekend, another bay area pilot decided to
attempt flight at slide.
Launch was in strong pulses of SW, and
an attempt to ridge soar the face of Slide.
The pilot got very
low on the face and behind the knobs and then crashed into the trees
in front of the knobs. Pilot was not injured from reports.
Slide
IS NOT a ridge soaring site, especially when it is blowing over the
back.
The crash is not the whole story!
This pilot then
climbed down the tree and walked out. Leaving his glider in the
trees and made no attempt, to our knowledge, to retrieve his
glider.
The glider remained there for the entire holiday weekend
and now must be removed by local pilots.
The inconsiderate nature
of this is overwhelming. Do you leave your trash at your home sites?
A downed glider is a emergency call to rescuers, forest service,
highway patrol, etc. We want them to respond when a true accident
occurs.
New and stricter rules may be necessary for the
preservation of flight at Slide!!! Last year a mid-air with low air
time HG pilot and baggie, now this. Slide is not hard to fly if
common sense and attention are used.
I post this to the Sonoma
site because you guys are a strong club and have many great pilots,
and hopefully can help us with keeping our site open for all to
fly.
I don't know of the club affiliation for the problem
pilot.
steve in reno
|
kb0nai
Unregistered
User
(7/9/04)
|
Ernie
I have read about Ernie's landing out and now his terrible retrieve
problem. It was handled perfectly. Notification to authorities about
non-life threatening downing of aircraft, and pilots helping to
retrieve.
Sorry Ernie, I can't help
steve
|
MattsFlyin
Unregistered
User
(7/9/04)
|
Problem
Pilots
This may be obvious but here goes:
1. Find out who the pilot
was. This should be fairly easy since you have the glider and can
post a description of it on the net. Public ridicule and peer
pressure can work wonders.
I hate to even suggest this but it
sounds like you really have a problem and we all know that money
talks.
2. Bill him/her for your time. This may not be
practical as far as collection goes but perhaps a round or two in
small claims court will get people's attention especially in his
club if he/she belongs to one.
3. Involve his/her club in the
claim. This will definitley get their attention.
Still
Scratchin' (light lift and poison oak)
Matt
Experienced Pilot
of Ernie's Journey's
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(7/9/04)
|
Glider retrieval
from Grindstone this weekend
I'm planning on going up to Grindstone Canyon tonight with the
intention of spending the next day or two getting my glider up the
hill. I've made two sets of wheels that I'll strap the glider to,
allowing me to pull it up. I'll have to see just how much of a
hassle it'll be getting it all through the brush. I may end up
spending most of my time cutting a path to pull the glider through.
But, pruning shears seem to do a pretty good job. It'll just take
time. I plan to hit it early in the morning (that's why I'll be
camping there), and quiting when it gets too hot, or I get too
tired. With two days to do the job, I can take it at a reasonable
pace.
I'm posting this for two reasons:
1. I want you all
to know that I'll be there. I'll have my radio and if anyone flys
over I'll try to make contact. I don't expect to have any problems,
but I'll want to maintain some sort of contact with whoever is up in
that area, just to be sure.
2. I'm reluctant to ask for help
on this retrieval, since there is the chance of getting poison oak,
and it's a lousy way to spend a weekend. Actually, the poison oak
shouldn't be much of a problem. There's only a couple of places
where I had to cut a path through it last weekend, and I'll be
making those "holes" larger this weekend. I don't think Matt or Lori
got any poison oak (at least I haven't gotten any angry phone
calls), so that risk should be at a minimum.
I figure that
since I got myself into this, I shouldn't ask anyone else to put
themselves out (and this is a major "out", just ask Matt and
Lori).
But, two people pulling the glider out would make the
project much easier than one person. I expect there'll be spots
where I'll have to wrestle the glider around sharp corners
etc.
If you have a desire to test your mettle, give me a call
(838-6708) . I'll do all I can to make it an adventure instead of a
death-march.
Ernie
|
MattsFlyin
Unregistered
User
(7/9/04)
|
Quandry
Hmmm...Fly or help Ernie...Fly or help Ernie...Fly or help
Ernie...Fly or help Ernie...Fly or help Ernie...!!!
I
know! Do both!
Ernie
with all the help you've given to me (and to all you reading this,
you know who you are) I have reached a compromise.
I'm going
to fly St.John on Saturday and will help you on Sunday. This will
give us both what we need:
I get to fly and also get to help
a very generous friend.
You get a chance to reflect on your "BLUNDER!" and also get
your glider back.
By the way, I have a miniscule amount of
poison oak that doesn't even itch and the same for Lori. How are you
doing? Good job with those long handled nippers!
Matt
Experienced Pilot of Ernie's Journeys
|
Ernie
Camacho
Unregistered
User
(7/9/04)
|
Thanks,
Matt!
Your offer sounds like a good compromise. I should be able to
either get the glider all the way up, or at least part way up the
hill by the end of Saturday. We can try to make contact on the radio
(147.495) for a status report Sat. evening.
Ernie
|
Lori
Allen
Totally Kewl
Hangchick
(7/9/04)
|
Yes, I do know
who I am
Yes, I'm another one that Ernie has helped countless times. But
since I can't be there to help, Ernie, a little flat, round
souvinier of the King meet just got mailed to you
today.
Thanks for all you've done for me. Good luck with the
retrieve.
Lori
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(7/12/04)
|
St John Record
Encampment - the rest of the story.
In case you missed the first part of this story, read this first. Actually, for
most folks, the SJRE is all about Vince's amazing 144.4 mile
record-breaking flight on Saturday the 3rd of July. For me, the
story is about my own record - a record-breaking glider retrieve of
5 days, over two weekends. Here's the rest of the story.
When
last we saw Ernie, he, along with Matt and Lori, had broken down and
bagged his glider and left it in the chamise (not chemise - that's a totally
different thing <g>).
During the following week I
hatched a plan to get the glider out. I didn't want to subject
anyone else to the poison oak, so I figured it would be a one-man
retrieval. I made a couple sets of wheels that I could strap to the
glider, with the idea that I could then pull it up the hill. I
wasn't sure, though, how easily the wheeled glider would get through
the chamise. I was thinking that I'd have to do a lot of pruning to
clear the path. But, that was the plan: I'd go up Friday night and
camp at the road above the glider, then get an early start on
Saturday and work as long as I could last. I was hoping to get the
glider half way up Saturday and the rest of the way on Sunday. Just
in case, I put a call out for help on the bulletin board, explaining
about the poison oak and all. Friday afternoon, I got a call from
Bill Wood, a new pilot who lives in Ukiah. Bill said he doesn't get
poison oak, used to hunt those kinds of hills, and didn't have
anything important to do over the weekend. What luck! Bill worked in
Concord so he called me as he came through Windsor on his way home
to Ukiah. What with the commute from Concord, by the time he got
home and threw together some clothes and a sleeping bag, we didn't
get to the job site until midnight.
Saturday went as
planned, almost. I learned something: be sure you eat breakfast if
you're planning on doing hard work. I hadn't eaten much for dinner,
and had only a couple cups of coffee for breakfast, then we forgot
to pack the energy bars Bill had brought. About fifteen minutes into
our trudge up the hill, I could see that my body was protesting even
more than it had the previous week, even without the heat. Over the
next few hours we dragged and carried the glider through the worst
of the underbrush. I realized that my original plan wouldn't have
worked. It really needed two people to get the glider out. The brush
was thick enough in places that it would have taken hours for me to
cut a path for a wheeled glider. By putting it on our shoulders,
Bill and I were able to bull our way through those spots. I had to
take frequent rest breaks because I was getting dizzy and queasy - I
knew it was the no-breakfast thing. Eventually we made it to the top
of the first open area, where we called it quits for the day. We
dragged our bodies back up to the truck where we rested and ate the
energy bars we'd left behind.
Well, we had half a day to
kill, since it was only about noon. We made contact with the pilots
on St. John and offered to drive for them. At first we weren't
needed, but then Kurt had to bow out with a broken rib on his glider
so Leo, Greg, and Matt needed us to get them back to camp. Bill,
being a hang 2 with no XC yet, was new to the area so I decided to
take him up to Red Mt. where we could see the route from St. John
all the way past Paskenta. Since I'd never been to Red myself, I
wanted to take a look too. As it turned out, once we got up to Red
Mt., we had a front-row seat to watch all the pilots struggle along
the ridges and past us. Actually, it was only Todd and Rich that got
past us. Everyone else, and I mean everyone, seemed to lose it
before they could get past Red. We watched about a dozen pilots
landing at Chrome, just at the foot of Red Mt., and heard others on
the radio landing further back along the route at Alder Springs Rd.
When we got down to the pilots in the valley, we found that another
group of bay area pilots (Wayne, Urs, Sean) were without a ride back
so we loaded up the truck with pilots and gliders and eventually
made our way back to St. John where we had a gut-stuffing communal
dinner and a nice visit around the campfire. Then Bill and I made
our way back to our beds, an hour and a half away, and got to sleep
around 11pm.
Matt and Greg had talked about coming to help us
slog the glider up the hill on Sunday. We were glad for the offer
since the second half of the climb was much steeper than the first
half. After a hearty breakfast, and packing the rest of the energy
bars in my day pack, Bill and I went down to wrestle the glider
again. The temperature was much nicer this weekend, and with full
bellies we were feeling fine. By taking it easy, with lots of rest
breaks, we worked our way up the hill, past the last of the poison
oak to where it was safe for the others to take over. But, since
they hadn't arrived yet, Bill and I kept at it and before we knew
it, we were up and at the truck. It was over! I got on the radio and
made contact with Greg who was just getting to Elk Creek. He came up
the rest of the way anyway to visit while we regained our strength
and broke camp. The rest of the day was spent getting home,
listening to the exploits of the other pilots on the radio as we
went. I got home around 4pm, took a shower, and jumped into bed.
Now, all I have to do is wash everything that might have
touched poison oak, or any object with poison oak oil on it. I
expect that by the end of the week I'll have everything ship-shape
and ready for my next adventure. I want to thank Bill once more (I
thanked him every chance I could over the weekend), because without
him I think it would have taken me yet another weekend to get that
glider out of there. You know, I may be getting old, but I keep on
learning stuff. Like maybe I'm not as sensitive to poison oak as I
used to be, and maybe I should eat breakfast more often, and maybe,
now that I've spent five days going up and down hills, I should keep
at it and get this flabby body of mine into decent shape. Next time,
I'm hiring a helicopter!
Ernie
|
Daniel
Pifko
Member
(7/13/04)
|
Thanks to Ernie
and Bob Bay
Ernie, thanks a million for the ride back. I think every one of us
in that other group was ready to trade a long, hitch-hiking retrieve
for a good XC flight, but it made life much easier with you around.
Thanks too to Bob Bay for the lift to the Elk Creek bar and the
pointer to the LZ across the road. I took a waypoint and will be
glad to share it with anyone who, like us, uses Beer To Fly XC
techniques.
Glad you retrieved your glider,
finally.
Daniel
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(7/13/04)
|
Sonoma Wings
pilots' national ranking
According to the latest OZ report, two Sonoma Wings pilots'
national rankings are currently:
Rigid Wing:
Vince Endter
- 5th
Flex Wing:
Rich Sauer - 18th
Contratulations
to you both!
|
|
|
Discussion of a St. John Working Group (not really a flight report)
This report is on a separate page.
To see it, Click Here
|
Leo
Jones
Unregistered
User
(7/12/04)
|
St John report -
another 100+ miler.
An amazing 16 pilots turned up at St John on Saturday, fifteen flew
and all went XC!! Kurt discovered a broken rib in his Stratos so he
could not fly.
Conditions were not really very good, with
somewhat broken thermals and few climbs to more than 8500ft. Nearly
everone went down before Red mountain, though Rich and Todd went
past Paskenta - don't know how far as they were using a different
frequency to us common folk. We all had fun though.
Sunday
only four pilots turned up and flew - me, Matt, Bob Bay and Scot.
Conditions were better than saturday with good thermals to over
9000ft. Matt and I didn't want to go XC so we landed in town in
Joe's field. Conditions were a bit gusty and switchy and I broke a
downtube. Matt just pulled it off. Bob Bay went over the back to ??.
Scot Huber flew 103+ miles to Round
Mountain!!!
Congratulations Scot.
Leo
|
Gregg
Hackett
Member
(7/12/04)
|
Re: St John
report - another 100+ miler.
Eric Reed also broke the record for Potato Hill.....over 54 miles
but I don't know the exact distance....Eric post the details for us.
We had at least 25 pilots on Saturday.
Gregg
|
onglide
Member
(7/12/04)
|
near Red Bank
more or less
Sunday was a nicer day than Saturday. But there was a SE wind which
made it tough going once you left the mountains.
On Saturday,
in addition to Rich and Todd, I think Eric Froehlich and a Funston
pilot with a orange and grey Laminar and maybe a Quest Air logo on
top surface flew past Paskenta as well (I maybe mixing pilots and
wings or top and bottom surfaces -- not sure -- I didn't have radio
contact with them either.) Eric Froehlich landed a few miles up
Lowrey Road and I landed by the spot on the map marked "Lowrey" --
halfway from Paskenta to Red Bank. The other guy went further, not
sure where he landed.
Sunday was fatter despite no cumies and
it was easier to stay high along the range. I got to Paskenta much
earlier than I ever have (maybe 3:00? not sure) and there was good
lift working out towards Red Bank but there was a significant (for a
PG anyway) SE wind which made progress slow and zigzagging (at least
to stay along the route I'd arranged to be retrieved on.) I landed
on Johnson Rd 10 miles W of Red Bluff and 57.7 out from Potato.
Without the east wind component I think I5 or more would have been
easy.
I didn't see any other pilots Sunday except a rigid
that left St John before me. I saw him once working a ridge or two
north after my first crossing from St John but didn't see him
again.
Eric Reed
|
Vince
Endter
'02,'03 Go-For-It
Champ
(7/13/04)
|
Re: St John
report - another 100+ miler.
I hope Scot writes up his flight. Flying over that area, I found
only one good LZ between 96 and 103 miles. The next one is around
107 miles. Most of the LZ's you can't see from the road. I am
wondering what they look like.
Vince
|
Scot
Huber
Unregistered
User
(7/17/04)
|
103.7 miles
frpom St. John
I followed the valley route but was being pushed to the northwest
so was west of Cottonwood about 8miles when I got there. Crossed
right over the Redding airport at around 4000' and caught a thermal
off the tarmac back to around 6000'. Got back on route over Palo
Cedro and directed my driver to take old hwy#44 till the Oak Run
turnoff. Caught another thermal at around 85miles and another at the
96 to 98 mile area where I had enough to get to the fields in the
Round Mountain area. There are some LZ's along this route along
Buzzard Roost Rd about the 100 mi. area. also where it intersects
with Hwy#299 down in the gorge there is a nice field if you just
squeak over the last pass turn left and you'll make it there. I
didn't have enough altitude when I got to Round Mt. for much of a
search of the area for lift so landed behind the PG@E substation
just to the east of the mt. and the highway. Could see more LZ's
along the hwy a few more miles but would have had to make a turn and
land if I'd tried for them. they also looked a bit narrow. I'm
working on a route which will take me over Lassen Peak after
crossing at Red Bluff. Feel the valley route is too off course line
to yield the most potential from St. John. Round Mt. is almost
25miles off course line to Adin. You probably flew 175 to 180 miles
on your flight Vince. We'll see if it's doable or not. I was
planning on going this route last weekend but the strong SE wind
pushed me away from it. On a previous flight I've made it to Inskip
Hill on hwy 36 but didn't know the secondary roads at the time so
followed the Hwy. I'm in Stonyford writing this at my drivers house.
I flew Friday but got no higher then 8000 after launching at 11:45.
Landed in my drivers back yard(field) at around 2. Today looked the
same so poured some concrete in my drivers RV parking area and spent
the afternoon at the lake. Hope tomorrow is better. I'm leaving town
around 9:30 for launch so come on up and get u sum. Scot
|
Vince
Endter
'02,'03 Go-For-It
Champ
(7/18/04)
|
Re: 103.7 miles
frpom St. John
"You probably flew 175 to 180 miles on your flight Vince"
I
used Delorme Topo USA and calclulated the actual distance I flew
along my track log. It was 153.2 miles, so I flew 8.8 more miles to
get 144.4, only 6.1% extra. When I make it to Lake View, the extra
distance from straight line will be less than 5%.
Vince
|
Andy
Long>
Member
(7/19/04)
|
Andy Catches The
Rigid Bug
I regret to inform you all that I have been seduced by the Dark
Side. I flew Larry's ATOS on Saturday for 2 hours at Hull. My buying
decision followed shortly thereafter. So now I am the happy owner of
an ATOS. Anybody interested in a very inexpensive and extremely
clean low hours topless Sensor?
- Andy
|
Ernie
Camacho
Club
President
(7/20/04)
|
Re: Andy Catches
The Rigid Bug
So, Andy, does this mean that you're officially in the race to beat
Vince? I'm sure you'll give his 144.4 mile record a run. And don't
forget Scot, he's hungry for it too!
|
Andy
Long
Member
(7/20/04)
|
Vince and
Scott
Vince and Scott are true inspirations as to what a pilot can
accomplish with focus and dedication. They are paving the way for
the rest of us.
I can only hope that they will be willing to
share some of their ATOS performance and XC tips with this aging
weekend pilot.
- Grampa Andy
|
Scot
Unregistered User
(7/21/04)
|
Atos secrets for
grampas
Go Fly It. Alot!!!
|
Vince
Endter
'02,'03 Go-For-It
Champ
(7/25/04)
|
Re: flying this
weekend
Bill, Rich and I flew Elk yesterday (Saturday). Gregg Hackett was
there with his paraglider. A little while later three more hang
glider pilots showed up. I think they were from the Berkley club.
Gregg launched at 12:00 and spent most of the next hour 1000' or
less above launch. At 1:00, Rich, Bill and I launched. Just as we
were launching, Gregg headed out to land. I found a small thermal to
the right of launch and took it to 6,600'. This was the highest I
would get for the next 2 hours. The three other pilots launched and
stayed over Elk.
Bill, Rich and I headed over to Horse, the
intent being to get high enough to either go to Hull or St. John.
Bill sunk and headed back to Elk. Rich and I were able to stay
between 6,000' and 6500', not enough to head north. Bill made it
back, but one again sunk and headed out to land so he could make his
dinner appointment. Rich and I stayed over Horse for almost 2 hours.
It was good practice, but I got bored. I told Rich I liked the looks
of the LZ's by his house and was heading in that direction.
I
left Horse at 6,600' and found it very buoyant all the way to mid
mountain. Rich came over and found a really good one. By the time I
came over to him he was 1,000' over me. He headed over to his house
and I followed. Just past his house he hit a nice convergence and
climbed to 7,500'. Again I came in under him and climbed up to
7,500'. He was about a mile and a half in front of me headed toward
Lakeport. We had one long glide with no more lift. He landed on the
airport and I landed next to it for 20 miles.
I have been
tuning my glider and am just about finished. I am waiting for one
more part to finish it. As it is now, I am flying about 12 mph
faster. On the glide to the Lampson airport I had a chance to try
different airspeeds. At 38 mph I was getting 16 to 1 glide. At 50
mph I was getting 11 to 1. I had a cross wind with possibly a slight
tail wind component.
Vince
|
Lijian
Liu
Member
(7/26/04)
|
Jul 24/25 Hull:
Saturday 7K+ above LZ, Sunday Big Fishbow!!!
Jul 24/25 Hull Mt Report: Saturday 7000+ feet above LZ, Sunday
Hull=Big Fishbowl!
We had a great weekend at Hull
Mt.
Charley Warren, Rex Runyon & Carm, Doug Carmichael,
Leon S Dauksa, Bruno R Jahn, Dick Girard, Eric Hinrichs, Steve
(What's his last name? His wife works for Pat nowdays), me (Lijian
Liu) and few other pilots flew Hull over the
weekend.
[Saturday] Quite few pilots went over 9k+ feet. I
set my personal fly height record: 8856 feet MSL, which is 7000 feet
over LZ 
(HULL
Launch: 5800, Hull Peak: 6400, Hull LZ: 1800)
The lift was
limited around launch and the peak. Once I left the peak at 8856
feet, flew over the valley, there is almost nothing.
Steve
flew to the cloud base and stayed there to be cool (Was he over
10k???). Charley and Eric shared the peak and both went over
9K.
I met Charley in the air at about 8600 feet. Carm also
set her
Hull fly record: 8500+ feet! Dick lunched after Carm,
right before me. After past the red spot, we both worked on one
thermal. That thermal took me from 5500 feet all way up to 8856
feet, but for some reason, he sinked out.
[Sunday] The whole
valley turned out to be a big fishbowl on Sunday! Lift was
everywhere! I got up to 8200 feet when I was crossing the valley!
Flew to the north west side of the Pogie Point (See map), full of
lift. Flew to the south side of the Sunset campground (See map
"camping"), full of lift, kept flying south over Squaw Creek (See
map), only lost 200
feet. I felt myslef like a (heavy fat?) fish
swimming in a big bowl!!!
http://www.fishersnet.com/images/lakemaps/pillsbury.gif
Dick
finally got a great flight on Sunday.
I took 500+ photos, but
most of these turned out to be in bad shape. Either expouse setting
is wrong or the UV filter is bad. Anyway, I will post these photos
later.
Lijian Liu
|
Andy
Long
Member
(7/26/04)
|
Stoked
Pilot
Congrats Lijian on some great flights. I can't wait to hear your
reports when you get to 12 and 13,000 feet at Hull. Look for the
days when it's forecasted to be well over 100 degrees and the winds
aloft are light east.
- Andy
|
Hangfly
Club Secretary
(7/26/04)
|
Hull
Report
Li pretty much said it all but I will add a couple things. I
counted 12 gliders on Saturday. Steve Acton and Roy were also there.
I can't remember who the 12th pilot was. Saturday thermals had small
cores and it was a good workout. I got to 9600'+, 2:30 airtime.
Sunday another pilot named Doug was there from Ukiah. Transplant
from SoCal, via Arizona. Sunday there was convergence right in front
of launch and like Li said all over the place. It moved around alot
just to keep things interesting. I found the convergence going to
around 6500' with occasional thermals mixed in going higher. I got
over 8500', 1:30 airtime. Sunday was windier and rougher, another
good workout. I needed it! I counted 7 gliders on Sunday.
Hangfly
the Airhead 
|
Dick
Girard
Member
(7/26/04)
|
Jul 24/25
Hull
This was my 4th trip to Hull (first this year). Had a great time. I
didn't do too well on Saturday. Flew for 25 minutes and never got
above launch. I'm still learning this site.
But Sunday was
great for me. Got to 9300', flew for 1.5 hours, and landed about 10
feet from the spot (I took Gunther's advice to stay out of the
slot-thanks, Gunther).
Jumping into the lake afterwards is a
real treat. Camping at Redspot with Charlie Warren also a treat
(fewer bugs, no animals, cooler temp, quiet, great view of lake,
great company). It was great getting to spend some time with
Charlie. Great guy. I'll camp with him anytime.
Thanks, Liu,
for the photos. You always take great shots.
Dick Girard
|
Lijian
Liu
Member
(7/27/04)
|
Photos taken on
Saturday July 24
http://www.fungliding.com/album/2004-07-24%20Hull%20Mt/index.html
1/3
photos were post-processed tonight to bring up the best
color/contrast.
Could someone please help me to identify the
name of the pilot shown in DSC_0048, DSC_0050 ?
Lijian
|
Greg
Sugg
Club Site
Director
(7/27/04)
|
Re: Photos taken
on Saturday July 24
Good pictures Li!
Thanks, Greg
|
|
|
Scot Huber's record flight from St. John
This report is on a separate page.
To see it, Click Here
|
|
|
Vince Endter at Big Spring TX, Nationals.
This report is on a separate page.
To see it, Click Here
|
|
|
Matt and Lori have an interesting trip to the Owens
This report is on a separate page.
To see it, Click Here
|
scot
huber
Unregistered
User
(8/1/04)
|
St. John/ Flight
Report/ 7-31-04
Matt Terkiele and Ken Muscio met me in town for the ride up. They
were on their way back from Chelan and points north where the flying
had been lousy they said. Pete my trusty driver was ready for a
serious chase as he brought an overnight back and change of
underwear, I guess he's catching the spirit of things!!!
I
launched first at 12:42 as the convergence started setting up and
the cycles finally straightened out, climbed to 9300' and headed for
Crockett Peak to hook up with it. Was down to 6400 1 mile west of
Crockett before I got into it and climbed to 11000'. It looked
better to the north then Monday as there were no clouds in this area
then.
Made good time till the 20 mile mark where the convergence
line was broken and then another formed on the back side of Hull.
Got down to 5100 over Rocky Basin Ridge before I hooked into
something back to 12000'. A side hill landing at the bottom was what
I was looking at with a road also which gave me some patience to
look for lift, this was a low low save as I was 700' below the ridge
top.
After getting high and back in the clouds it was easy
sailing to the Yolla Bolly Wilderness Area. The clouds made a
northwest line from the Soloman Peak area and I followed. Wondering
if it was over developing or what as there wasn't much sun on the
ground. I followed the darkest areas of clouds and found easy going
dolphin flying for miles staying right near base of 105000 in this
area. Was looking at Ruth Resorvoir as I crossed #36 near Forest
Glen heading north.
I crossed Hyampom Rd. east of Hyampom about
2miles on a NW track. Pete was in Hayfork having come up #36 from
the valley. I hadn't studied the roads in this area so had Pete look
at the map for a way around the Trinity Alps on the west side. He
said #299 hooked up with #96 which then headed north. As there were
no clouds over the Trinitys' I decided not to brave the crossing . I
followed the cloudstreet till it ended and hit a forest fire also
flying through smoke, watching helicopters drop water on the flames.
I could see #299 but it was in a deep gorge here so shyed away from
it. Later driving out I was glad I did as it's highway, rocks and
river most of the way back to Weaverville. I landed on the Southfork
of the Trinity River on Southfork Rd about 3 miles south of Salyer
on #299. Got turned 90 degrees close to the ground and wacked hard
taking out a tube and pushing my sunglasses into my forehead. A
little blood but not bad.
Ken and Matt didn't like launch
conditions when I went so I'm assuming they launched later and flew
to Stonyford as their truck was gone when Pete and I rolled through
town around 1am.
It was 7:12 I was 110.0 miles out. Max alt. Was
129000' GPS 40 51 36---123 34 59 I was flying my MRX
700
Scot!
|
John
B
Unregistered User
(8/1/04)
|
Scot
Rules!
OK Scot! I can see that you're finally getting the hang of this XC
from St John. Now you can do it on a flex wing!
Really
awesome, but don't you get lonely up there all by yourself?
I
can't wait until the Fly In. May the WX be great!
|
MattsFlyin
Unregistered
User
(8/2/04) | |
