Crestline Soaring Society

I suggest you go have a look in person. powerlines, mounds, fences, sign poles, gullies and the strong afternoon sea breeze probably DQ it as a 2,3 site. not to mention the class C overhead.

Well heck Dan, That sounds like a great LZ for you Atos. No flaps required.

Cya

In the early and mid-eighties the Rock actually got flown fairly often.
I remember going there when it was north at Andy's but the smog line was fairly close.
But most of my flying there was on the typical Hot Summer Day, with ridge and thermal flights earlier and smooth ridge soaring later.
Tim Ward introduced us to the place, I still fondly remember his Pinto station wagon.He also named the late afternoon/early evening atmospheric phenomenon that sets up there the "Magic Wind".
As I recall Tim had a theory of a "standing wave" to explain it.
Right about sunset you're soaring the cliff, and when you get to the north end as high as you can you head straight out away from the cliff. If the Magic is there you will ever so slowly gain altitude as you leave the cliff, if you don't climb turn back while still high enough to get back into the slope lift and make passes for 5 minutes, then try again.
If the Magic is on you will slowly (50fpm?)gain height in very smooth air, with a groundspeed of maybe 5-10 mph.
It's really amazing to continue climbing as you fly ever closer to the lee side of the big hill on the west side of Sierra.
Eventually you will feel a mild "bump" and that will be the edge, keep going and you'll descend at a normal rate, turn around and you'll be back in it.
I'd guess the total area of this Magic lift is somewhere around a square mile, at least half.
Ken Westfall and Mike Johnson and I as well as others used to go fly the Magic. We were all in wonder as we looked back and down at that little cliff a thousand feet below. Tim's standing wave theory is the best one I've heard. If you go driving all around the area and study the upwind terrain it all starts to seem plausible.
As Rebar said, there's airspace issues to consider, I remember there being quite a bit of light aircraft traffic but I don't recall hearing of any close calls.
I do recall hearing Rob McKenzie describe the place as a "100 foot Hang 4 site".
We used the mound at the south end of the ridge for a launch,I don't think a wire crew is necessary for hang 4's and above except in mid-day thermally conditions.
If anyone knows how to contact Tim it would be nice to hear his take on the place.
It's great for R/C slope.
Steve

and why it doesnt setup till sunset? is the thermal activity delaminating the flow and breaking the wave? or waves dont form in an unstable layer? any other guesses?

Rebar, my guess is that the mechanics responsible for glass-offs has something to do with it.
Or maybe it just needs the "laminar flow" that can't occur when convection is happening.

All I know for sure is that it is indeed a "magic" experience.

Many happy hours spent flying in it and then wondering about it in the lz afterwards.

I guess it should be kept in mind that this was back in the day when fliers would bother setting up just to fly in ridge lift. Not seen much nowadays.

steve, still blue ballin' in blue jay

here ya go Steve.
first drove by LZ choice #1 and checked it out.ok enough, low turn to final over the fence over the ditch, land in the bare spot next to the dirt pile. setup in the cliffs rotor around 2pm. stood at launch and picked the 2nd and 3d choice landing alternates in case i got low or behind the cliff.sea breeze rolled in around 3. randy launched well so i followed a minute later. the big xtralite kept me slightly above randy so we both passed backnforth without having to dodge too much. its a small run so the laps go pretty fast. at the south end grabbed a thermal and flew to the hill behind and got a couple hun over. nice view of downtown riverside from there. went back down to the cliff made more passes, climbed to the back again, watched randy land so figured i'd do likewise. flew upwind of first choice, burned downwind turned left to 5ft over the fence faking out randy and mel. bwa. landed about 80ft later in a brisk headwind. way cool place.

My First Altitude PG Flight was from The Rock. I was a guinea-pig student of Rob McKenzie's as he taught himself to teach paragliding. I'd had a few days of bunny hill and some ground school. We'd gone to Cucamonga for some winter HG sledders and Rob piped up that he could throw me off The Rock on the way home, if I wanted. I wanted.

Laid the wing (WW 125, IIRC) out at the south end, on a sloped open area a few steps from the edge. Rob drove down to the bottom to radio me in. Little wind, so it was a forward inflation and off-the-cliff kind of thing. I turned right along the face but there was nothing. Rob had me turn left and basically head straight at him. He had me pump the brakes in a long slow cycle intended to get my pendulation in synch with arrival at ground level. I didn't understand it at all at the time, but I followed instructions and it worked out fine.

I was really really glad I wasn't trying to land a hang glider there.

Good Flying,
Ken Howells

Damn Mike.....What ever happened to Whitey, or Zane, or Chris Price??? and you LIVED at Flabob...Damn, that brings back some memories, Kenny.

We were airport bums staying with my father-in-law, Glenn Beets. Glenn was the foreman at Stolp-Starduster and he also had his own design which he sold plans and parts for. A small single seater open cockpit volkwagen powered 25 foot parasol wing. The wings were fabricated from spruce and covered with fabric. He flew it back to Oskosh a couple times where he won best in his class.

http://www.aalmps.com/gbspecial.htm