Crestline Soaring Society

Anyone heading out tomorrow?

- Alan

Who is planning to fly tomorrow (Wednesday)? In current forecast day is looks like to be epic.
Alex

Another strong summer day! Peter Swanson and I went to the 750 with a couple of Falcon 3 195s. Peter was just getting above eye-level, climbing from low out front of the bluffs, when I launched at 14:43. I didn't catch his thermal, but another a couple of minutes later just above the 420 launch was rock-solid. Peter was out of sight and I just cranked in the core and up past Cloud Peak. At 14:54 I was at 6,000 MSL and halfway to Crestline. We both went to launch and then Billboard and then both fought a stiff headwind and sink areas coming back out to Regionals. More boomers in all the usual places. We landed for another round. I'd gotten 38 minutes airtime.

Well, I saw it for myself today. One of the officers of the
"Laggards & Slaggers Club" was at work today. Actually, this was his third trip up the mountain to Cloud to mount a new Wind Sock.
His mission was assigned to him by another "Laggards & Slaggers
Club" officer, Mr. Kim Floyd.
Mr. Kim Floyd personalty ordered & paid for 2 very large & nice wind socks & cage assemblies for the socks to be installed at determined locations.

Wow. First 'normal' summer day conditions I've seen this year. Strong climbs in well-formed thermals all over the place.

Got above the 750 launch, after sinking to above the 350 launch, with a Condor 330 at 10:40 this morning. That flight was 12 minutes, with six of them over the LZ at a few hundred feet AGL trying to sneak a landing between thermals. With a Sport 2 155 at Noon I worked up the Cloud spine to 4,300 hitting 400+ FPM at times. At 13:15 I took a U2 160 from Regionals to 5,000 in just a few minutes, hitting 600+ FPM before it slowed near the inversion layer.

High pressure and low (double) inversion. Launched a Sport 2 155 at 14:50 into weak ridge lift. Crowd scratching below Billboard so I went for Regionals, expecting to get up and go back to Crestline. Was soon scratching above the 750. Finally a good core came through and got me above the lower inversion (~3,300 MSL). Much more relaxing and easier to stay up, but the strong thermals kept slamming into the upper inversion and petering out to nothing between 4,700 and 5,000 MSL. Lots of sink between the good thermals and I tried getting up everywhere, even on the west side of Devil Canyon late in the flight. Landed at 16:50 in a sink cycle.

Re-post from Dean Stratton who is up kicking ass in Chelan at the PWC. Apologies if you receive this more than once. To stay up to date on the latest for the league please join us here:
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Hello everyone, the league will continue this year, it’s just getting a very late start because I’ve been so busy the last few months. The league will only have 4 official meets this year and they are posted on the website. I’m thinking of doing some impromptu events this year to help fill up the calendar but I’m not sure about the details yet, I’ll keep you posted. I hope to be present at all the events this year but there is a chance I may not due to my work schedule. Aaron Price has graciously volunteered to help me with the league since my work schedule is so heavy. I will be getting him up to speed so he can run a meet should I not be able to make it. I’ll tell you all more about it when I see you at the meet coming up.

Well, probably not, but the NWS Forecast Discussion does contain the words 'Fly In' :)

"THE FLY IN THE OINTMENT IS THE MONSOON HAS FINALLY DECIDED TO PAY US A VISIT. THERE WAS SOME HIGH BASED MID LEVEL CONVECTION OVER THE DESERTS DURING THE EARLY AFTERNOON HOURS...BUT NO SHOWERS SO FAR.

ON SATURDAY THE MODELS INDICATE SOME INCREASE IN THE MID LEVEL MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY...AND IT COULD BE MEAN THE FIRST DAY OF THUNDERSTORMS GENERATED BY THE MONSOON FOR THE SUMMER. THIS COULD AFFECT THE MARINE LAYER BY SLOWING DOWN THE REDEVELOPMENT AND INLAND EXTENT OF THE LOW CLOUDS."

Hot, smoggy, and stable. Just gust cycles at Regionals. Very switchy at the LZ until after 15:00, at least. Good launch of Sport 2 155 from Regionals at 11:48, skimming the foxtails. Some scratching in mini-thermals SE of Cloud, then hanging at the bluffs waiting for a steady cycle. Six glorious minutes.

Cycles a little more frequent at Regionals. Launched a Sport 2 155 at 13:08. Ran extra hard in light cycle. Skimmed the foxtails again and took out the two tall yucca spikes way below launch, hitting one with each wing. Pretty scary seeing that I was going to hit them. Whump! Whump! No direction or pitch change - luckily they were on a line nearly perpendicular to my flight path. Was inclined to fly straight to the LZ and just land; decided to thermal a bit and mellow out. Eight minutes' airtime. A green stain on one LE cleaned right out with Folex.

Kim Floyed wants to start a Slackers and Laggers task force (those who have not been involved in club events in the past 6 months)

I told him I would try to set up a project and that I set a date of 2020 for the start date.

The recruiting office is held at CSS launch, where pilots can talk about slacking and then catch some airtime.. Land and slack some more. It is and endless cycle that has proven the test of time.

Good cycles at Marshall late in the afternoon - maybe 15 in the gusts. Nice and cool up there.
Launched a T2C 154 at 14:50 and climbed a little, overflew the crowd. Got up to 5400 MSL from Cloud Peak a few minutes later and went back to Crestline, which had good ridge lift. Went from Billboard to Pine from 5700 and slowly veered to fly right over the top of Pine, since I'd only lost about 300 on the way. Pine wasn't happening for those few minutes I was there, so out over the Afterbay and then a VG tight speed run to Regionals (fun - downwind).

I didn't think I'd gotten a shortly-after-launch shot, but I did, and we didn't mid-air.

I spotted Di McKenzie about to throw this guy off Marshall, so I got the camera out for some pix. There was traffic and maybe my flailing around with the camera didn't help.

Still from brief handheld in-flight video with Kodak fun camera.

The newly installed gate-post. Thanks Rob!

See: http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/forum/20100207/3030

The installed post and gate, with the shadow of a Falcon 3 195 for scale.

See: http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/forum/20100207/3030

I guess we never recovered Bill's helmet (Charlie Insider). Frome the air it will look like an egg. I'll put up a case o' beer reward. John Kerry

Soarable, technically, but not much more than that. Very little base wind, lots of alto-crapulus filled in mid-afternoon. So the thermals were weak and they didn't drift in straight lines (i.e. downwind). But you could scratch close to the hill in small thermals until bigger ones eventually came through. Good cycles at Regionals for launching. Hardly anything fell off gliders onto the LZ. Decent-sized crowd for a Wednesday, especially later. There were flights off the new 350 (Embree) launch, both PG and HG.