Hello from the Left Coast

[DanTuck]

Hey Capital amigos! Hope you're all doing well and surviving the white stuff. Things are going well here in SoCal. My life's been pretty crazy since xmas but it's finally starting to settle down and yesterday I got my first chance to go flying. I'm living about 20 minutes from Andy Jackson Airpark. For those that don't know, it's home to the Crestline Soaring Society, and LZ for several launches - the most popular being Marshall and Crestline. The Santa Ana wind pattern (wrong direction) had been going on for awhile so there were tons of pilots out yesterday. I didn't count but there's no doubt it was well over 50, probably more like 60-70. Anyway, Crestline got blown out so we went up to Marshall Peak. Marshall is 2,300' over the LZ, by far the highest launch I've been off. However it's 1,200' below Crestline so the wind there was not too strong at all, actually kind of light. I launched and joined the crowd in the air for an hour and a half. I managed to climb out and then make it back to Crestline which is about a mile behind the Marshall launch. I topped out at 800' over Crestline (6K MSL) before I headed back out front and down to the LZ. Pretty fantastic views of the valley from up there. I made a quick video since it was my first flight but I'm definitely not going to be making videos of every flight. So here's a peek at Marshall Peak, it just might pique your interest in heading West.

[jyoder111]

Awesome. Thanks for the video. Good luck over there!

[mcelrah]

"it just might pique your interest in heading West" - hell, yeah! Been there before, but never enough. - Hugh

[sailin]

Hey Dan!! great to hear from you man! I can't wait to come fly the west coast!! If the snow and cold keep up here much longer you might see my smilin face out there sooner than later!!! keep us posted over here with how everything is going.


Jon

[Ward Odenwald]

Dan,

It's great to hear that you're doing well and that your back in the air! Keep posting the videos and please let everyone know out there that we "the right coasters" all land just like you do.

Ward

[markc]

Great vid Dan, please keep 'em coming for we jealous snow-bound easterners, when-and-if possible
given the demands of a new home, job, everything.

Good luck out there, hope that you enjoy the SoCal skies!

MarkC

[g.sessa]

Cool video, Dan! The scenary is awesome.... thanks for sharing!

[cthornberger]

Very nice indeed. Really enjoyed the track playing as well.
I'll be joining you out on the NorCal (Monterey) coast by August

[CraginS]

Jealous! Oh, so Jealous!

[Danny Brotto]

Nice landing... but more important... nice (boring) approach!

Danny Brotto

[DanTuck]

Thanks for the comments. Today I flew Lake Elsinore for the first time. I won't mention the temperature out of fear of one of you coming through the interwebs and strangling me.... It was just an extendo but here's a video of the landing. Typically I use a DBF (Downwind, Buttonhook, Final ) approach pattern - probably 99% of the time. But today I decided on an "S-turn" approach. The LZ at Elsinore has a slight downhill slope to it and the winds were light. Even though the field is huge I've seen several videos of people overshooting it and I was warned ahead of time about coming in high. Since I knew I'd have little headwind I wanted to be as low as safely possible as I entered the field. Of course speed is your friend on approach but I figured if I did the regular DBF, there was a chance I'd either come in too hot or banked too high near the ground, and overshoot or worse. I had taken note of the scrub field downwind of the LZ which could be used as a staging area to lose height and get onto final while entering the LZ. Even still, my ground skim was over a thousand feet long.... What say you about that decision? What would you have done? Anyway, I thought the shadow looked cool in the video. Enjoy.

[XCanytime]

Dan,
Thanks for the video. What does concern me a little is the presence of the potential basetube grabbing scrub bushes that some of the final glide goes over. It looks like the bushes are still a few feet below you, but all it would take is a big foot of sink to drop you down a few feet and a bush grab your basetube. I got bit 11 years ago landing out at Woodstock by high weeds. Took out both downtubes and bent the keel in a sudden stop power whack. Luckily the chest mount parachute served as an airbag for my chest/abdomen. Keep those west coast videos coming!

Bacil

[carweill]

Hey Dan,
Don’t open the door if you hear someone knocking at odd hours, it could be a group of starving east coast flyers.
Have fun!
Carlos

[Dave Proctor]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the videos...get high and go far.

As for landing. Approach looked fine, you were plenty low and not smoking fast when you entered the field. Try to learn to keep one heal hooked on the bottom of the harness zipper and go fully upright (can still have hands on basetube) and pull the harness forward with your heal to act as a drogue. Works pretty good. Only hook with heal, never toe. Don't want to get a foot caught at the last second.
Good luck, have fun.

Dave P

[stevek]

Hey Dan. I used to make a 180 around the tree and come in screaming low right next to it. But that was when the breakdown area was the tree. Now, inasmuch as the entire LZ is illegal (no trespassing signs up all around) the locals have moved the breakdown area to the far end on the theory ( I guess) that the far end is more hidden and, therefore, less of a flagrant violation. So far it seems to be working. Anyway, good approach.

And May the price of homes in Cali never ever appreciate. May the price of homes be like unto the price of a ride up the mountain at 'Snore, which has forever been a six pack of Coors Light, and behold 25 years later it is still a six pack of Coors Light.

I may fly there tomorrow. I will check in the morn. Give me a call if interested. 202 812 8305

[mcelrah]

Dan,

Since you land better than me anyway, all I can say is "great landing!" And, yeah, that's a hell of a long float, ain't it?

Steve,

I will not accept mare's piss for a ride up. Hefeweizen or hike!

- Hugh

[stevek]

yeah, I agree. Told the guy I drink Arrogant Bastard. He had never heard of it. Explained that it is made by a brewery in San Marcos but "you probably wouldn't like it. It's very complex and sophisticated." No response.

[DanTuck]

Good point about using the harness as a drogue. I did that my first couple landings in the U2 but haven't in a long time. I kinda forgot about that trick, thanks for the reminder! Steve, I didn't realize you were out here and I actually flew Elsinore that next day. But the flying has actually been pretty sparse here lately - lots of North winds and then a few days of rain. I'm still waiting for the season to kick in. Hopefully soon. However, I've managed a few flights in there. Like I mentioned I flew Elsinore on the 10th. That was a great flight, a couple grand over launch and glorious views of the ocean 23 miles over the back. Yes, on a good day you can fly to the beach but there are very few landing options along the way. The wind was pretty strong on launch - in the 15-20 mph range - but not gusty. The landing kind of sucked because the field was really bubbly and switchy. I couldn't get things lined up to flare so I just ran it out. Then, on the 13th, I got to fly Crestline for the first time. Actually, I had flown the ridge before but that was after launching from Marshall. This was my first launch from 3,500' AGL Crestline, you can see the Marshall ridge out front when I'm standing there. That was another great flight - when I sank out from Crestline, I flew over to Marshall and got high there, flying for another hour. Then it was on down to Andy Jackson LZ. My first time landing there I overshot the spot landing cone by 25 feet. This time I undershot the cone by 20 feet. Maybe the third time's a charm and I'll get it next time. So for the vicarious flyers back East, here's another quick one to help you through...

[RichH]

Landings looked fine to me!! good solid approaches and thanks for the video ..Flew Crestline a couple of times its a great site have great memories taking off in L/V and flying out to Marshall and benching back up to crestline..Thanks Again!! Rich Hiegel

[g.sessa]

Cool video, Dan!