Land, Sea and Sky

Sunday morning July 3rd started hot at Avenal.  A projected high of 104 seemed realistic as the early sun beat down on the hangar as I did some maintenance on the tractor. Forecasts had held overnight and we were looking at good conditions from New Cuyama on and 16k in the Owens Valley.  This could happen. Matt showed up around 10:30 and we discussed our options.  It looked like we'd need 100+ temps on the ground to get to 6-7k near Shandon.  We'd planned on launching around noon, but temps were a bit slow in coming on. We finalized preparations in the glider.  More backup GPS, cameras, video gear, stereo speakers (yes, stereo speakers), batteries, clothes, lots more water.  My concern was sinking out somewhere in the CA Valley and having a 3-4 hour wait in 105 heat, so we had lots of water on board. Just before 1:00 we were off the ground.  A little bit of a breeze helped the club 150/150 lug our heavy bird into the air.  The air was well textured as we climbed throu

If you're from region 11, you may know about the PASCO Egg regional capture trophy.  A beautiful walnut (I think) egg that is occasionally captured from various glider operations mostly in Northern California and Nevada.  It has been a goal of mine to try and capture the Egg for Avenal  from what has practically become it's permanent home at Air Sailing .  Our neighbors to the north at Hollister also have their eye on that prize, but we have the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada mountains in between us and our trophy.  That and nearly 300 miles.  Once the Hollister crew and I realized we had the same secret goal, we began to share information on tactics and approaches.  There are really only two options when it comes to the Sierra Nevada.  Go over or go around. Going over the Sierra has all sorts of challenges and intimidation, but the first problem is crossing the massive San Joaquin Valley.  The typical summer weather pattern that would give high enough climbs and clo

The return to Avenal After an amazing day Saturday with thermals, powerful convergence and wave the unstable weather filled in and rained on us for a good part of the night.  The rain wasn't really all that bad.  But a combination of factors put that night at the top of Julie and my list for worst camping night ever. Mercy Hot Springs is a nice place, a little oasis in an obscure valley in between I5 and 101.  They had a group camp area in these brushy conifers that seemed like an ideal place to pitch a tent out of the wind.  Setting up in the dark, the first bad sign was a bird that wasn't happy with us invading it's territory and was beeping incessantly.   Surely it would quiet down once we went to bed.  Next were the beetles.  Beetles you say?  Why yes, think of the movie The Mummy and the floor covered in beetles.  Sure, these were smaller and mostly they just covered the trees, but there were thousands and thousands. After a great soak in the hot tub and a few li

Ferry Flight from Avenal to Panoche The goal of the weekend was to fly to Panoche on Saturday.  BBQ, BS and camp with the BASA and Hollister pilots and then fly with them on Sunday before landing back at Avenal. For a 3 day weekend with unsettled weather, Avenal was pretty dead.  No formal tow pilots on the schedule, just a couple of students and one other glass ship ready to fly.  Kevin drove out with me.  He was flying with me on Saturday and would then drive our truck back to San Luis Obispo on Sunday morning.  Julie was driving up with the truck and the camping gear on Saturday afternoon after dealing with some other activities.  Complicated, but at least we had a plan. We rigged the Duo.  Small cu were popping early, though they had a distinct marine influence look to them.  Kind of grey and not real vibrant.  Wave clouds were visible up on the San Benito range and it was looking quite cloudy to the NW. So despite the markers, I wasn't in too much of a rush. Dan and Ha

A recap of a great day of Wave Flying out of Santa Ynez.  Initially I wrote this as an email to my hang glider friends, so it has a slight skew towards specifics that our local hang glider community is tuned into. Many years ago, before the Perryometer (the name of our weather station, implemented and maintained by Perry) was up and operational out at Plowshare peak and long before XCSkies, RASPs and other localized weather resources, we used to just make the drive to Plowshare and see what we found.  I can remember a lot of days where we got to launch and found it blasting to 45mph up the face.  Maybe something that Patrick would now tackle with a speedwing, but generally it resulted in a lot of hang waiting and quite a few days of driving down the hill and heading home. Sunday I had the opportunity to taste a new variation of that day.  The RASPs were forecasting strong N winds up high and predicting wave in the Santa Ynez area with wave bars off the  Sierra   Madre  as well as