Crestline Soaring Society

Saturday was clear, a bit smoggy, not too hot - normal summer day. Inversion rather low and pronounced.

Six of us launched from Crestline within a short period (I launched the UltraSport 166 at 15:03) and soon we were all at Billboard working the one thermal. That was pretty fun. I got to 5700 so I headed for Pine and several followed. We looked all over for lift but there wasn't much, so everyone left. I kept topping out at barely over 5000 so I finally left too. Marshall complex was soarable but it was hard to get good climbs in. Best thermal was 500 FPM in the bowl way out front of Marshall, a tiny core drifting to the NE. I worked in the east bowl for a few minutes and finally flew over the top of Marshall, where I saw the PG pilots waving and pointing to the LZ. I saw the big white "X" out, indicating we had to clear the air for emergency operations. I saw no smoke anywhere. Flew low over a rigid wing at Cloud and yelled that we had to land, then dove for the LZ and spotted the fire truck and glider in the approach area. I did a big left-hand approach around the fire truck and landed between the HG and PG spots with 1:08 airtime. Then they rolled up the X because they were going to take him to the hospital in an ambulance instead of a helicopter. Ugh.

A hang glider pilot doing a ground-skimming approach, prone with hands on the basetube, trying to squeak those last few feet to the LZ proper from the ENE, hit some down air and his basetube hit the ground. He had a cut-up face and some pain in his back between his shoulders; glider virtually undamaged. At the hospital they found that he had a few broken ribs.

Sunday late in the day had high clouds from the east shadowing Crestline and all the way out to Marshall Peak. Steady wind at Crestline, 15-18 MPH.

Launched the Falcon just after 17:00 with Mark on my UltraSport 166 and Dave on his Sport2. The laminar flow meant we could buzz launch for our drivers (Greg and Wendy from Oz; he's an HG pilot) and some spectators who showed up. I saw the whites of their eyes ;) No thermals to speak of, but fun boating for a while. Marshall was scratchable but we all just let ourselves wander down to the LZ. I landed after 45 minutes in the air. My GPS batteries ran out near the 750, which is a strange coincidence, since I was giving serious thought to landing there (would be a first for me) and circled the area several times doing practice approach patterns a hundred or so feet up. I'd originally planned on driving up to Marshall and top landing, but the volunteer drivers eliminated the need for that. No need to do a sketchy landing just for the hell of it. Fun, relaxing flight.

GPS track images and flight gory details on my website.

Good Flying,
Ken Howells