Crestline Soaring Society

Just offhand, what would be the approximate hours of the Andy Jackson Fly-In be? My wife expressed an interest in coming but doesn't want to be stuck for a long time with nothing to do. She has offered to bring down a display of her jewelry to give pilots with guilty consciences a chance to butterup their women, and contribute 10% of the take to the club. I am unsure if it would be appropriate, but thought it might add a bit of variety. If it's a no-go, she won't be offended.

Hot and clear. Two brown smoke layers in the distance a little above the marine layer; smoke from the fires in Big Sur and west of Santa Barbara.
Wind 0-5 ENE at Marshall at 10 AM. Launched T2 154 from lower SW in a lull. LZ almost soarable. Longer lulls at Marshall later, so 11:30 T2 launch was a little easier.

At 13:30 solid SW 5-10 most of the time. Able to launch the U2 160 from the top SSW. Got into a thermal near the windsock (good look at windsock!) and climbed to 4600 then 5300 as it drifted slowly NNE. Got to Crestline at 5000 and floated across the face to below Billboard. Snagged a developing core and got to 6000 after a few minutes.

I have it on good authority that Mike Z and Joel were the weed whacking party and that each worked for many, many hours to clear the site.
Give them a hand and a big THANK YOU next time you see them.


- Alan

Tues:
Warm post-heat-wave day. Two inversion layers evident - the marine/smog layer squashed down low, as usual, and a second layer at just above 5000 MSL, evident from the Cajon Pass brush fire smoke spread horizontally toward the south. Clear air in between. Quite east at Marshall at 9:30 AM and too strong for the upper SE launch, so we went to Crestline, where it was less cross and actually ridge soarable. Later we could launch of the S and SW launches from Marshall.

typical warm and buoyant at marshall. tops in the mid 5s. no luck back at crestline so flew out the arrowhead spine.top landed the talon fine so tried it again and a left turn at a couple seconds before flare time took out my left downtube. fortunately the magic bus freighted the ship back to the lockup. thanks Diane.
also renewed membership in the scabby knee toplanders club.

Hot and not a lot of wind. Only gliders flying at 14:15 were two PGs at Marshall; no one but me standing on the peak. Got up at 15:00 from Marshall easily and went back to Crestline (a crowd was setting up there), where it was barely ridge soarable. Pine was barely happening. A pass over Marshall triggered the big sink to below the 750. Found a squirrelly little core and rode it for 12 minutes, gaining 2500 feet. The sink must have been all over, as several PGs and HGs streamed in below me as I started the climb and a few of them got hold of it. Landed Marshall at 16:07.

Here are the events that lead up to the reserve deployment as I recall them. Dusty and others may be able to fill in some of the missing pieces.

I was at the SE corner of the lz at about 2k agl doing spirals and wingovers to try and loose altitude (no rowdy lift just what seemed the typical late day glass off). Not having much success I decided to fly towards the water pond by the quarry at the nw side of the LZ. As I crossed over the lz I was on speed bar and assessed that I may be a bit low to be doing so. I let the bar off as I crossed over the shade structure, At this point I was aprox 800 ft agl.

Interesting day. It was blowing over the back at Crestline in the morning.

1st flight:
Launched at noon and could see 15 km/h NE wind on my GPS when at 6k (maxed at 6120'). Lift was smooth and visibility towards the desert was clear (see picture), but not a good wind direction for going XC to the East. After an hour, the smog came in and it wasn't as nice.