California flying

[mcelrah]

I was set up to rent a hang glider from Rob and Diane McKenzie and take a tandem PG lesson with Rob last Thursday, but the prevailing NE wind was over the back for Marshall (near San Bernardino), so I headed out to visit my friend, Whitney, in San Luis Obispo. Took the back road through the desert on the other side of the mountains from LA. Whitney had a class until 4 PM so I had time to smell the roses long the way. Turned off onto a dirt road leading to two ultralite airparks; one was deserted; at the other, they said the wind was too strong and gusty to fly. Five miles further down 138 was a sailplane operation. These people were ready and eager to get me in the air (and for less money than I had been prepared to spend on HG rental and a PG lesson). I got a 4000 foot aerotow in a sleek Slovakian tandem sailplane with 10,000 hour instructor Dale, who proceeded to give me an outstanding soaring lesson in marginal conditions. We worked rotor on the back side of the mountain, then a convergence line, a touch of wave, cloud suck and a mild thermal. The advertised 1/2 hour of airtime stretched into a good hour. Learned a lot about speeds-to-fly too.
I finished the drive over the mountains to SLO where the rainy season has the hills looking more like Scotland than California. Back late Sunday/early Monday. - Hugh

[mcelrah]

Loks like part of this post went to the bit bucket: we also worked a convergence line - excellent lesson - learned a lot about speeds-to-fly, too. - Hugh
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> From: <mcelrah@verizon.net>
> Date: 2005/02/19 Sat PM 07:38:21 GMT
> To: ot_forum@chgpa.org
> Subject: California flying
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