Crestline Soaring Society

Rebar Dan said he flew to Ridgecrest..... Darn ATOS...

How about you Owen

I decided to drive chase for Southside (John) Saturday night. I was planning to fly but was under the weather healthwise. John landed a few mile N/W of the 138/14 junction in Palmdale for 85.4 mi and Owen landed at Ave. H and 20th for ~81 mi. and a PB for him. They each topped out ~13K. John could have gone >100 but went on final early due to air sickness. Earlier I heard Wally on the rdaio saying he was driving John W down the mountain which set an alarm bell off in my head, so I called him while driving home and he gave me the bad news about the reversal of conditions and flipped or trashed gliders and bail out landings.

I liked the site and hope to fly there eventually. I also shot and edited some interesting video that I'll upload later today.

http://knumbknuts.blogspot.com/2008/09/blackhawk-down.html

Southside Ready for 85 Miles @ Blackhawk: 9/14/2008
Tony Deleo over Blackhawk: 9/14/2008
Tony Deleo over Blackhawk: 9/14/2008
Tony Deleo over Blackhawk: 9/14/2008

Thanks for the updates and pictures guys.

How far did Tony go?

-Dave

A couple of things: Congratulations Dave for your flight in the Owens; thanks Jon for driving; and sorry to hear about what happened to the later launching pilots.

I almost landed before getting out of the starting blocks due to radio problems. I had a new radio set up and mount. Once I got in the air my harness pushed against the PTT on the radio itself causing it put out a constant high pitch beeping noise. I couldn't take it so I went out to land. But luckily after a few yanks on the antenna (the only thing that I could access)I was finally able to free up the radio and got the noise stopped. I was fairly low out front by that time, but then lucked into something that eventually got me to just under 10k. From there I just headed WNW. Except for two fairly low low saves, one near Rabbit Dry Lake Bed and the other just east of Lake El Mirage, it was pretty easy flying.

Owen could have probably gone farther. He was a couple of miles behind me but without visual contact. When I said that I was heading for the 14 and 138 he thought I meant where the 138 heads east which is on the south end of Palmdale not the north end of Lancaster where it heads west. He veered way off our course line costing him a longer flight.

Tony landed at about the 100 mile mark after backtracking about 5 miles or so because of the wind and landing options.

Full write up here: http://socalxc.blogspot.com/2008/09/blackhawk-914.html

Blackhawk

Here's my 10 minute compilation of keel mounted video on Southside's Litespeed, plus some hand-held video w/2 2-meter dialogue and some stills ( mainly of Tony)
HiRes: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v15906779Jc86MNk4
LoRes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT4kkmaEyyg

I saved my driving track log which shows me making the same mistake as Owen and backtracking on the 14 to the wrong 138 junction. Considering we did a half-assed job of preparing (no paper maps and no MapSource data on my GPS, etc.), it came off well. I was responsible for re-inserting John's 2-meter back into his harness after it kept failing a radio check w/ my VX-150. I was his driver it didn't matter whether Wally or Fast Eddie could hear him. John removed the transceiver so we could re-set each wire connection but it hard to try stuffing it back in with John wearing the harness. Anyhow, having good radio contact (after the in-flight fix) made a huge difference.

http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1051
"Black Hawk Mine Sunday 5 hours 105 miles
by Tony Deleo on Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:57 pm

In blue skys and slow going landed just short of Inyo Kern.I thought that once I was at the south end of the Sierras that I would have it made-never got there landing at the base of Boomer Ridge in north/northeast head wind. South Side flew 85 miles west bound landing near Avenue 150 in The Antelope Valley. Max altitude 13500' once. Tomorrow looks like it is going to be "smoking"."

Great thread! Thanks for posting your adventures!

Sorry John! Glad your all right. Jump back on the horse and file the issue under experience. Don't let it happen again.

got a late start but ended up launching quarter to 1. ran into the end of cycle thermal blast immediately, went to turn but there was Kyle right behind having run off right behind. no biggie, plowed out front and climbed to 75 in lumpy scraps so tracked back to launch and east over a steep cliff that had a decent climb to 10.6 finally enroute at 1:15 trailing the pack. parallel to hwy 18 climb to 12 and things are looking up. A blue day but lift is avg 500 up. over 18/bearvalley rd, topped 10.2 headed NW. minding my own business suddenly a hammer from above slammed the glider ripping the basebar outa my grip. whoa. just crossed the 15 down to 75 and getting drilled at 7-9 down divert right to a hill w/ antennas and hit 400 up thats drifting dead east then SE higher thru 12k. 18 miles later took a weak 2000 ft gain back to 10.6. dropping down thru 9k a few miles later a screamer no drift to 14.4. a buoyant glide and my fingers went numb from the cold. oh well, beats sweating and low. now 6 miles past kramer jct climb again from 86 to 11.7 a couple minor gains later and coming up to the rising terraim near randsburg. I knew there was going to be good lift ahead. dark hills lots of sun and sure enough beamed back to 14k and its 4:30 take a long glide to just south of IYK off Brown Rd. I liesurely tear down the sun sets, so I pull out the strobe and set it on top of the harness and wait for the truck.