Crestline Soaring Society

I got a SPOT satellite messenger recently. I only have a couple of tests with it but a friend has flown with one for years and likes it.

By pressing different buttons you can get the SPOT to send three kinds of messages. All include your GPS coordinates and a link to your location on google maps.

Messages:

1. I’m ok.
You can prewrite the exact text. Goes to whatever email addresses and SMS text enabled cell phones you have set up on the website.

Today didn't start out too promising...

Launched shortly after noon and was only able to gain 1000' over Marshall launch and then altitude caps were decreasing. Landed after 37 minutes of that.

Without much ambition, re-launched without the warm clothes at 3pm and started making better altitude gains. Enough to glide back to Crestline after seeing Gene make it back there. Glided back with Bob and found some sweet lift in front of Billboard. Got to 7000' or so and glided to Pine where we returned to altitude. But the best was in the bowl to the West of Pine: Picture. I got up to 7600' there. GPS was indicting up to 18 mph of North wind at that altitude, but below it was converging between South and North. Pushed further West and then returned to Crestline, then to over the 215 Freeway. An unexpected afternoon delight.

Up until 3pm, I wasn't sure if I should high-tail out of Soboba for Marshall or not. And buddies were getting restless. Winds had been cross from the right (West) all afternoon. Then the "what-the-hell-let's-try-anyway" attitude kicked in.
I was rewarded with a steady climb of increasing rate up to 7400', and other pilots rapidly followed. Up at altitude, no cross-wind, just a perfect straight-in at about 9 mph.

Launched at noon, started sinking but then got up to 8000' between Marshall and Crestline. Wind was light but SSE, so I thought going "over the back" would be more interesting than battling a headwind towards the dam. Glided to Pine and there go up to altitude again before crossing to Lake Silverwood and the desert. Max altitude of 8500', but the nice part was the thermal were soft-edged, stayed high and kept many landing options, and the air was very clear (see pictures). 20 mile flight to Hesperia.

John and Dave,
What program are you using to download your GPS tracklogs?
Thanks,
Chris

Flyable all day from 10:30am to 7pm.
William and others were already soaring above Marshall when I arrived on launch after 11am.
I flew from 11:30am to 12:30, took a long lunch break, then flew from 5 to 7pm: On that late afternoon flight (details) I flew back to Crestline then went back and forth to Pine twice. Max altitude of 6200'.

Interesting day. It was blowing over the back at Crestline in the morning.

1st flight:
Launched at noon and could see 15 km/h NE wind on my GPS when at 6k (maxed at 6120'). Lift was smooth and visibility towards the desert was clear (see picture), but not a good wind direction for going XC to the East. After an hour, the smog came in and it wasn't as nice.

sunday's track in a kmz file

During today's Fly-in, 3 of us went XC towards the Dam.
Mark Kranz reached the Dam.
Bob Barry reached Yucaipa then returned to the Dam. Flight info.

After reaching Yucaipa I went to Beaumont, landing 9 km (5.6 miles) short of the Soboba LZ: Flight details.

Still very hot with high pressure. Strong westerly cycles on Marshall. Decent, workable thermals and then once in a while a boomer. Launched the Falcon 225 at 14:47. Worked ridge and thermal lift in front for a while, then to Cloud and sinking as confusing, tight thermal cores drifted by. At 3200 feet just W of the 750 I hooked one then drifted straight to Marshall and 4800 in about 6 minutes. Did long downwind legs on the 360s to keep up with the drift. Went back to Cloud Peak and worked the standing wave above the little bowl on the west side of the peak until a 700+ FPM core came through that I took to 6100. I was nearly parking at Crestline Ridge and left Billboard from 6100, heading for Pine; hit some serious down just before the ridge and cleared it at 4700. Climbed steadily up the spine and in thermals over the next 10 minutes, getting to 7000 just N of the E/W ridge behind Pine. Made a foray W to the powerlines, but found no lift and meandered back to the front of Pine. Got another one back to 6700, this time joined by 2 topless wings who went farther back, since they had more glide. Another trip W had the same results as before. Went back to Crestline, where there were a couple of other gliders, plust there were gliders going from BB to Pine all the time.

From this news page: Google Earth zooms in, June 12, 2006...

Rode up with Owen and Mark, planned to top land and drive Owen's truck down. Got to 5200 and Crestline within 15 minutes of launching the Falcon 225 at 14:06, then went towards Pine but sank slowly and ended up at Last Chance. Was near Marshall after 1 hr., but not high enough to top land. Spent the next hour trying to get high enough to shoot an approach, sinking down to above the 750 at one point. Got to 4150 south of the windsock a couple of times, but not quite enough for an approach. Fun but difficult, too warm in light jacket. Finally got 4300 east of the peak and the approach and landing at 15:59 were easy in the smooth air.