Crestline Soaring Society

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.

Was at 6 grand in front of launch when I heard a helicopter. Looking NE I saw it a few hundred yards away, at my altitude and headed my may, but rapidly banking to it's left so I saw it's underbelly well. It then levelled out and continued SW, still at 6k. Hoffbrow was below the helicopter's path, but I didn't see that any turbulence affected him.

It was about 4:20 and I wanted 2 hours airtime, so I figured a run back out to Pine, then S to the Afterbay and a downwind leg to Last Chance would put me at Marshall at 16:45. This went like clockwork. It was still very soarble and lots of gliders were launched or getting ready. Lost a lot of altitude when I pointed back to the S behind Marshall, so I landed pretty low on the slope 16:45, but the strong wind wasn't a problem.

What a fun flight.
My shirt and shorts were soaked with sweat, but I had water left in the Camelbak. Didn't feel all THAT hot while I was flying. I suppose the late day flying stayed good.

Images of GPS Flight Tracks:
http://www.kenvective.com/images/flights/