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It was like a mini fly-in! Kind of tough conditions to soar in but lots of pilots flew. Had some out of towners visiting. Great burgers and hot dogs and salad in the LZ afterwards. What more could you want?
Crestline around 3 PM.
I’m so sorry to hear this. Stan was a great guy. He was very smart and I learned a lot about flying and weather in the course of riding up the hill with him and in the LZ after flying over the years. His patient, analytical approach to hang gliding was a great influence. Great sense of humor.
He had a ritual of always eating a simple cheese sandwich right before launch to keep his stomach settled. He did train as an alternate Payload Specialist for a space shuttle mission, way back when.
In 2001 he lent his Fusion for the C.S.S. entry in the Crestline Days Parade (we won!). His son was the ‘pilot’ and his daughter tended a wingtip tether.
Yes, fun flying. There were anvil clouds over at San Gorgonio but all that looked to be drifting S. When I got my glider over to launch at Crestline about 4:30 I heard the Emergency Alert tone from my phone (in my harness, behind my head) and the flash Flood warning was still on the screen after I landed at 5:50.
Easy soaring to 6k while I kept a wary eye on that rain way east. Saw a solid column of white dropping from cloudbase to the ground on the far side of Crafton Hills for at least 10 minutes. After that the clouds that way got thinner and fuzzy.
Was ready to go land at the hour mark but the windsock was hanging slack for a while. Luckily, it was quite lifty north of the LZ so I just idled at 4k for 15 minutes until the SW flow resumed. It was dramatically warmer when I got to about 400′ AGL. (had seen 104° F about 2 PM)
Tales of 10k from the early pilots, who said the thermal ceiling dropped rapidly. Many late-day pilots flew.
Sunset glow.
