Crestline Soaring Society

http://www.youtube.com/user/NMERider#grid/user/201A25D0DB73055D

On Sunday I flew a 69-Mile triangle from Marshall Peak, 33.9 miles end-to-end and 5 miles deep. The video shows launching from Marshall Peak then Owen joins me for a few turns until he goes off on a different XC league route. I climb out over the Crestline cut-off then head for Pine Flats. From there I head straight across the Cajon pass with modest altitude. I arrive at the East end of the Cucamonga Peak/Mt. Baldy spine and spend a considerable amount of time and energy scratching my way up along many different bowls, knobs and spines until I nearly climb even with 8,800' Cucamonga but not quite.

I head as far West as I feel comfortable some 19.8 miles West of launch where I climb to 8,300' and decide to head back rather than trying to tag Kagel in Sylmar as I had planned. I get flushed gliding back and have to stop and work my way back up so I can make the Eastward crossing of the Cajon Pass and get back on to the Pine Flats ridge.

I catch a boomer as soon as I'm on back on the Pine ridge then take a detour to get a nice view of Silverwood Lake before heading along the Crestline Ridge toward Keller Peak some 14 miles East of Marshall launch. I make a fairly fast glide toward Smiley Park and easy crossing at Running Springs. I arrive low at 7,800' Keller Peak and find myself scratching hard and failing to get above the peak.

Again, I find myself unable to get any higher than 400' below the summit and change my plans. I head South toward the front range hoping to get high enough to head East toward San Gorgonio but all I get is flushed. I finally find myself with a glide back to Andy Jackson Airpark that's more than I can muster given all the sink. It's a tight squeeze along the front range and I'm consistently too low to glide home.

I finally catch a nice column a few miles East of Marshall that I hope will allow me to glide over my launch point, but again: no dice. I arrive in front of Marshall a hundred feet below the ramp and throw in the towel as I've been in the air 4-1/2 hours. I head out over the LZ and spend several minutes off camera working on my hand transitions. I come back on camera as I'm in the staging area over the LZ and set up my pattern.

I'm tried and punchy and go a tad long and slow on my downwind and base legs and note it. On final, I skim right over Rob McKenzie in the glider hauler-upper with two students and greet them as I pull in for ground effect. Round-out, skim and flare go well and I make it known after 4 hours and 43 minutes aloft. I come back on camera in the breakdown area just as fellow XC pilot Bruce comes by to give me the E-Team greeting just before the battery dies.

I did over 40,000' of climbing and 91 miles of straight gliding during the flight. I narrated fairly often and conserved battery life and memory as much as I could. I went through the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes of flight video and found that 93 minutes of it gave a very good glimpse into the world of XC flying as I know it. Later, I edited that down to 39 minutes and added a few minutes of animated tracks. It's in four parts in my YouTube playlist.

Interactive flight track is avialable here: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/309343

Cheers, Jonathan