Crestline Soaring Society

Great action shot Bob! This sounds like the same spot that got me a few years ago when I was taking lessons.

I was doing figure 8's over the spine leading up to Cloud and slowly gaining on the peak. I was approaching the spine from the South side flying back West when all of the sudden somebody grabbed my lines and started shaking my harness violently up and down (soap on a rope) with me somehow still in it!

I was thinking how the hell am I supposed to weight shift when my butt isn't staying seated long enough, and I was too disoriented to figure out which way to shift anyway. It seemed like an eternity, but the shaking stopped after a few seconds, and left me facing back into the gully I'd just come from, which looks to be just about where the glider is in your photo. My gps track showed a 170 degree about face.

I let go of my right brake and reached for the reserve handle, then realized I wasn't really loosing much altitude, and I was only about 75 feet above the hard stuff anyway. About the time I got the right brake back in hand, the wing pressurized again and I made a sharp right turn away from the hill, and landed to check my drawers!

Later on, a pilot who had been flying above me, and had seen all the action, told me everybody knows to stay out of that area known as the "washing machine". Well my instructor didn't seem to know anything about it, but after that day, I sure did!

Is the "washing machine" really common knowledge, and does anybody know what causes it??? My log book says the winds were SW at 5-10 that afternoon - 4/26/03.

Bob

Bob

I don't fly PGs, and I haven't heard that area is known for turbulence, or called the washing machine. I do know from expereince if I'm not going up at a good rate when I'm in that area I feel boxed in pretty quickly. So, I just don't go there. But, thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Bob