The Worst of Times… After hiking up and being warned of a rattlesnake on the road up, I launched first around 3:30 pm and the NW side base wind was strong. I found one thermal that took me 550′ over launch but when that petered out, the lack of ridge lift cut my flight time to 13 minutes. Strangely enough I was followed by David and Stan despite my obvious short flight. There was comfort in being rapidly joined in the LZ.

The Best of Times…  With the hope that the forecasted wind would finally arrive, we took a quick shuttle ride back up. It was as if it was a different day, with plentiful lift up to cloudbase. I flew close to 2 hours, and the air was smoother than typical. The widespread and steady 500 fpm lift was intimidating for some, but cloudbase could be avoided relatively easily. Max altitude of 5500′ for me but cloudbase had lowered to 4k by the end of the flight. I could hear Jordan over the radio and Gene’s sweet voice from Marshall.

The Soboba LZ is cat-friendly, as the rusty-colored kittens have grown up and running around the grass. But they are also hard-working, as they have successfully rid the LZ of gophers!

Some pleasant surprises since my last visit: Vastly expanded kitchen area, New roof structure providing more shade, More tables (boardroom type) under the shade, 2 more weather stations (LZ  and 1400′).

Plentiful lift…

I think we can make the LZ (straight down)…

Playing with the skirts of cloudbase…