Sacramento Sunday 5/21
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Re: Sacramento Sunday 5/21
Arrived at the SAC around 10:20A to find soarable conditions and Canadian fire dust in the sky, hazing out the nice cumies coming towards launch. Other arrivals were Will Hnyla, Allan Bawell, and Romano Altamonte. I waited until I saw surface conditions switch to NNW at Liverpool and Millersburg before launching. That event occurred around 12:30P, so I had a good launch into moderate contitions around 12:45P+. Figure 8ed in lift by launch to stair step my way up above the ridge before heading west to the river to stage a downwind run, w/ Carlisle Airport as the goal.
Began the run towards the Klingerstown Gap. Fought a WNW wind @ 24 MPH along the way. Turbulent air, and rowdy lift lines oriented to the NW. Dolphin flew to near the gap, then climbed in some lift to ~ 2500' MSL. Started the gap run and made it to the other side just above the ridge. Found lift there and slowed down. Dolphin flew to near the Pillow Gap, and climbed up to ~ 1700' MSL just shy of the gap. Went for it and reached the other side at ridge level, finding lift again to get up above the ridge. Made the run to the 3rd "saddle" gap, and jumped across w/ not a lot to spare. But down here the ridge faces NNW, and by this time the winds were NW/NNW into the ridge, so the X was not as difficult to battle.
At this point I'm at the river, so I waited for the ticket out of there. Heading WSW towards "Big Balls", I blundered into a decent thermal that I took OTB towards the Lykens Valley Golf Course. Topped out at ~3000' MSL drifting towards the golf course. Gliding over the course found another thermal that kept me going towards my planned staging point on Berry Mountain east of Lenkerville. Found a nice thermal just before the mountain, and climbed up to 4100'+ MSL, drifting towards some wispies that were drying up. I glided towards Peters Mountain, but was losing altitude quickly. I slowed near the gentle slope called Dividing Ridge, hoping to find a thermal triggering off of the slope. Found some crappy, disorganized chop/lift, circling in it, but no real gain was to be had. Drifted towards the field I landed in 3 years ago on 6/7/2020, when I made my 1st real attempt to try for Carlisle Airport. Had a soft belly landing in the field. Had a good approach in relatively smooth air, but at the last minute a gradient robbed me of airspeed, and I gently flopped in. Carried over to the nice line of evergreen trees that provided shade and wind shadow to break down.
Allan texted me, asking me if I had landed. I replied back that I did, and proceeded to slowly break down, in between preaching the gospel of hang gliding to passerbys. Romano called, and offered to retrieve me. I graciously accepted. I'll test my Uber app another time. The resident of the house, Carol, who drove me back to launch 3 years ago, came out to say hello. We had a nice chat, and she rejoined her company, who let her know I was by her shrub line breaking down my hang glider. Romano showed up right on time, and back at launch nobody had taken off yet. Joe Gorrie had joined the pilot list, and Doug Rogers showed up around 4:45P. Joe's brother Chris was visiting from Colorado, and Natalie, Doug's wife, rounded out the attendee list.
Allan led the remaining pilots into the air around 5:15P. He got up easy. Romano was off and up. Will didn't stick. Joe got up. Doug got up. The airborne pilots had nice flights, and good landings in the LZ. It was a good day at the SAC. Bacil
Began the run towards the Klingerstown Gap. Fought a WNW wind @ 24 MPH along the way. Turbulent air, and rowdy lift lines oriented to the NW. Dolphin flew to near the gap, then climbed in some lift to ~ 2500' MSL. Started the gap run and made it to the other side just above the ridge. Found lift there and slowed down. Dolphin flew to near the Pillow Gap, and climbed up to ~ 1700' MSL just shy of the gap. Went for it and reached the other side at ridge level, finding lift again to get up above the ridge. Made the run to the 3rd "saddle" gap, and jumped across w/ not a lot to spare. But down here the ridge faces NNW, and by this time the winds were NW/NNW into the ridge, so the X was not as difficult to battle.
At this point I'm at the river, so I waited for the ticket out of there. Heading WSW towards "Big Balls", I blundered into a decent thermal that I took OTB towards the Lykens Valley Golf Course. Topped out at ~3000' MSL drifting towards the golf course. Gliding over the course found another thermal that kept me going towards my planned staging point on Berry Mountain east of Lenkerville. Found a nice thermal just before the mountain, and climbed up to 4100'+ MSL, drifting towards some wispies that were drying up. I glided towards Peters Mountain, but was losing altitude quickly. I slowed near the gentle slope called Dividing Ridge, hoping to find a thermal triggering off of the slope. Found some crappy, disorganized chop/lift, circling in it, but no real gain was to be had. Drifted towards the field I landed in 3 years ago on 6/7/2020, when I made my 1st real attempt to try for Carlisle Airport. Had a soft belly landing in the field. Had a good approach in relatively smooth air, but at the last minute a gradient robbed me of airspeed, and I gently flopped in. Carried over to the nice line of evergreen trees that provided shade and wind shadow to break down.
Allan texted me, asking me if I had landed. I replied back that I did, and proceeded to slowly break down, in between preaching the gospel of hang gliding to passerbys. Romano called, and offered to retrieve me. I graciously accepted. I'll test my Uber app another time. The resident of the house, Carol, who drove me back to launch 3 years ago, came out to say hello. We had a nice chat, and she rejoined her company, who let her know I was by her shrub line breaking down my hang glider. Romano showed up right on time, and back at launch nobody had taken off yet. Joe Gorrie had joined the pilot list, and Doug Rogers showed up around 4:45P. Joe's brother Chris was visiting from Colorado, and Natalie, Doug's wife, rounded out the attendee list.
Allan led the remaining pilots into the air around 5:15P. He got up easy. Romano was off and up. Will didn't stick. Joe got up. Doug got up. The airborne pilots had nice flights, and good landings in the LZ. It was a good day at the SAC. Bacil