Crestline Soaring Society

I was driving north on the 215 yesterday south of Moreno Valley and I saw some fast moving specks against the Box Springs Mtns. I got closer and saw that they were jets doing low maneuvers. Three Thunderbirds. I pulled off the freeway at Oleander and watched them fly over me on final.

There's an airshow at March ARB both days this weekend. It might be good alternate entertainment. If flying, keep an eye out for unusual aircraft staging in our area.

Switching to onshore after a couple of days of light offshore winds. I decided I'd take my chances from the 750 and then hike back up to get my truck, for the exercise.

I launched my Falcon 225 from the 750 at 13:10 and sank to the bluffs. Saw the flags at the LZ pointing to the SE and I found the thermal east of the LZ at 300 AGL. At 13:25 I was at about 8000 MSL.

Flew out toward Little Mountain but found large areas of >700 FPM sink, so back to the hill. Gliders were launching from Marshall during this period; one had taken off and skied out just before I launched. I chased a weak one up to Cloud Peak, and once it got above there it turned on like a rocket. I was seeing 1000 FPM on my vario's averager with 1400 FPM peaks. It was cold at 8800! Flew to Pine and climbed some more, to 9000 before I just got too damn cold - short-sleeves, no gloves, white fingers that stayed dented when I let go of the basetube.