Hi everybody,
I've been in Southern California for several weeks and have had the opportunity to fly the Andy Jackson Air Park in San Bernardino a few times, including yesterday.
Yesterday the word went out that the winds were about to "switch" from the Northerlies that have been prevalent for the past several weeks to the SW, facing the launch site at Marshall. One of the locals, my friend Jeff who once visited our sites, gave me a quick review of what to expect in these changing conditions. He said big altitude gains are often experienced on these switch days. They are typically accompanied with significant turbulence at the convergence of the two air masses at some point above launch.
Jeff, a biwingal pilot, chose to fly his HG on this day. I noticed in past meetings with him that his choice of which wing to fly is a pretty good indicator of the likely bumpiness of the conditions. Yesterday was no exception. Wind speedos on launch were entirely reasonable for both PG and HG, but the turbulence up high was above my comfort zone on a PG. In my U2 it would have been a perfect yee haa woo hoo day.
Many of the local pilots including nearly all of the HG pilots got way high. After taking a very substantial frontal collapse not long after launching I chickened out and stayed relatively low. Even at that I got more than 45 minutes while mostly scratching about in bubbly thermals in the warm 80 degree air.
Andy Jackson is a great site. I encourage all our pilots to visit it if you get the chance. It's managed by the Crestline Soaring Society. On the days I've been there I've seen forty or more pilots flying different parts of the day. They are typically split approximately evenly between HG and PG pilots.
Dan T
The "switch" at Marshall Calif.
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