Home Forums Pilot Reports And the Rain Came Down. 9-11-22

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  • #16627
    Ken Howells
    General Member

    Flight Log 2022-09-11
    ====================
    Model: F3T
    Size: 225
    Serial: 29307
    Dealer: KLH
    Launch Site: RGNLS
    Land Site: AJ
    Launch Time: 16:50
    Airtime: 0:35
    Comments: Warm, partly cloudy, chance of showers from Hurricane Kay remnants. A couple of hangs landed while I was deciding what to do. Mori & Noel. Heard thunder from the LZ, radar showed cell over Big Bear heading NW. Decided to get ride to RGNLS with Gene & 2 pg’s. Windy at launch. Experienced PG shot up after launch. Rookie got dragged a bit trying to inflate. I waited out a gust cycle on the road then stepped over the edge gingerly and had a two-step launch. Gene took rookie down to the 750; too windy for him there too. (Good decision to not fly.)  Took focus to climb, but easily joined the PG at 5k east of Cloud Peak. Very cool and calming in the air. Went west slowly but the hills on the west side of Devil Canyon weren’t kicking lift off. Back to RGNLS and such. Could see dark to the far east, rain in Redlands & Loma Linda, moving west. Finally saw a bulge in the front to around E St. & the 210 Fwy. Stuffed the bar at 4k and descended (slowly) to west of the LZ, where I found sink and got to 400′ AGL. The PG was still doing big ears. Steady SW 12+ at the LZ, I sank worryingly at the end of my downwind then got popped up at least 6 feet on final nearing flare-time. The flow was so smooth it was easy to just pull-in and glide it out. Kathy Rhodes got phone video. It was sprinkling by the time I had my battens pulled. A single-surface glider who’d launched the 750 landed fine; another from the 750 stayed up in the rain and landed after it was raining in earnest and blowing from the north. Somehow he landed (gently) off the east edge of the LZ heading N.

    Then the rain got very hard with wind blowing it sideways. I left the LZ at 18:10 and it was a little bit of an adventure getting home. 25 mph, wipers on high, could barely see the roadsides at times. Water curb-to-curb on some streets, standing waves at intersections. Water ankle deep, flowing from neighbor’s front yard across my driveway into my backyard. Six inches deep at the south end of my back yard. Drained completely by 9 PM.

    Work Needed: Dry glider well. Lost a basetube nut safety ring while setting up – it sprang away during insertion. Broke a #2 batten string breaking down. Used spare from harness.

    20220911_203049

    #16636

    Thanks for the great Pilot report Ken

    #16637
    Ken Howells
    General Member

    1.96″ of rain at CSUSB yesterday!!

    Screenshot_20220912-183521_Chrome

    #16638

     Gene took rookie down to the 750; too windy for him there too. (Good decision to not fly.)

    Gene took me to Regionals on Sept 7 , near sunset ; had a Great flight. Next

    day it rained ; I left to Las Vegas .

    Sure had a Great time ; hanging with you CSS Skanks !!!

     

    Bille

     

    Bille @ CSS

    #16639
    Dan DeWeese
    General Member
    CSS Instructor
    #16641
    Ken Howells
    General Member

    Landing video added to original post.

    #16643
    Jonathan Dietch
    General Member

    By a weird twist of shuttle availability I cancelled my 2PM ride to Marshall w/ Marcello after I got a 230PM ride up at Sylmar. The CSUSB rain rate exceeded 5″/hour for a fairly long duration depositing 1.8″ or so in 30 minutes. I had dinner Tuesday w/ the pilot who landed off field and have seen two different videos of the event. It was freaky. I’m glad no one was injured in the melee. The weather at Sylmar was like:

    #16644
    Tim Ward
    General Member

    If you don’t have your own stash of safety rings, I do. Hit me up next time you see me.

    #16660
    Linda Salamone
    General Member

    I saw mammatus clouds by 3pm right over Marshall. Stupid day to fly, especially for students. My students used to rely on me to get a read on “weather” to fly or NOT. We were all relieved to hear the visiting pilot that couldn’t penetrate the gust front and got blown back behind launch had a relatively easy extraction in the downpour. Far better than being sucked into a cu nim. *photo taken while pilots still aloft. FC26CCA0-0ECA-4C37-A532-9B992645D83C

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