Crestline Soaring Society

WWNW 5-10 MPH at the LZ late in the day; norther higher. Wind was steady 90 degrees cross from the right at the 750, 5-10 MPH with occasional lulls that hinted at SW. Launched the Sport 2 155 at 15:50 in a lull, running diagonally from the upper-left corner of launch. Got under Peter, who was climbing a little at the far west end of the bluffs. Climbed a little but the turbulence of the lift and the wind across the fingers of the bluffs meant I lost 100% directional control for a few moments here and there.

Slowly managed a net climb and got above launch after about 8 minutes. Worked the faces and draws west of the 750 for a bit, but the same kind of turbulence was there.

Hard to figure out where the good spots would be with the wind coming straight down the San Andreas fault.

Got to 3100 MSL or so and decided to try the far west reaches of the Marshall complex. Got over the farthest west triangular portion, by the power plant, the one that has a little north face to it, and found a thermal or something breaking off just as I arrived. Drifted NE with that for a few minutes, getting to over 3200 and not sure whether I was working a thermal or ridge lift from the Devil Canyon side. Hadn't spotted Peter in a while. Went back across to the Cloud spine, still at about 3200. Faiz the PG pilot, who's been here several times this winter but not gotten to fly, finally managed to get his wing up without getting blown across launch, so he launched. Good job Faiz!

I got to 3400 or so working the western faces below Cloud, but if I ventured too far west I'd hit the sink downwind of the spine below Regionals, so it was a matter of working the faces, but not getting too close. Headed west for the area where the road crosses the spine below Regionals. No sign of Peter for some time. Watched Faiz land in the LZ.

Caught a thermal in the bowl above the wedding chapel and worked it as it drifted along the north side of Regionals toward Cloud. I wasn't sure if I was working a thermal or ridge lift off the north side of Regionals. Was leery of going to the 'normal' south side of Cloud Peak, in case it was actually blowing from the north at that altitude, but cautiously flew right over the top of it, ready to pull in and run. Got to just above 4000 MSL and saw Peter landing his Sport 2 in the LZ.

Didn't really want to land yet, but realized that since it was nearing 17:00 and the plan was to hike up and get my truck from the 750 that I ought to land before too long. So I did a big arc to the SW and then toward the LZ. It was solidly SW there, 5-10 MPH it looked like, and I actually had to dive a bit to keep the descent from being simply dawdling down. Landed at 16:46 into a nice 8 MPH SW headwind.

Peter had climbed to 8000 MSL, gotten cold, and descended. Rebar and Hoffbrow showed up. There was much blabbing and slow glider breakdowns and ball-tossing for Shiloh.

Several hiked up to the 750, but only I needed to.

GPS track images and flight gory details (identical to above) on my website.

Good Flying,
Ken Howells