Arrived at the SAC around 2P to find light to low end moderate conditions on launch, and cumie filled skies. Pilots staging their gliders were Allan, Pat Fuedo, Tom Shaffer, and Jeff Vaughan. Joe and Karen showed up w/ their Falcons, and Bob Beck came out to help w/ launches. Tom launched and got up in his Falcon. I quickly set up and had a good launch in a light cycle just after 3P.
The SAC is notoriously difficult to soar in light conditions. I turned right, hit some lift, turned back and flew to the left of launch, and found nothing over there. Turned back and flew over the slot 1/3 of the way up from the bottom/windsock area. If you get below the bottom of the slot, you're usually toast. Found some lift again in the area right of launch. Made sure I stayed put and scratched and clawed my way up above the ridge. Made many many figure 8 patterns before getting high enough to do a 360, making sure every turn was in lift.
At this point I was a couple hundred over, so I flew out away from the ridge in lift lines. Allan and Jeff launched after me, but did not stick. Decided to head west again; a nice long cloud street bisected the ridge on the way to the Klingerstown Gap. Found some good lift under the street, which got markedly stronger as I got higher. Fearing cloudsuck, I moved to the edge of the cloud, all the while continuing to climb. Approaching 4200' MSL, I encountered scary turbulence, very similar to the wind shear event at the Pulpit on Labor Day. It was quite unnerving, so I beat feet outta there, heading towards Klingerstown.
As I reached the Gap, I was down to just above the ridge. I nixed trying to jump the Gap, so I turned around and headed back towards launch. The conditions on the ridge were almost 70° cross (WNW!), and I found myself 50' below the ridge screaming across the tree canopy, with nothing but corn in the fields to my left. Somehow I made it back to launch w/o losing any altitude, and since the launch is in a "saddle", I arrived just above it, and found plenty of lift, albeit very choppy, to ~500' over.
At this point I had had enough excitement for the day, and went in and executed a picture perfect approach and a good landing, a little over an hour after launching. William Hynla was packing up his glider after a nice soaring flight; he had launched prior to my arrival. Tom was packing up after his soaring flight as well. Jeff and Allan packed up their gliders and went back up and had soaring flights. We watched Pat launch his S2 155 and take a smooth thermal to cloudbase. Joe and Karen had long and short flights respectively in their Falcons. After everybody landed, we all packed up in the waning sun, and Joe and Karen treated me, Jeff, Pat, and Amanda (Pat's wife) to a scrumptious dinner at their house. A fitting end to a nice day of flying at the SAC. Bacil
https://ayvri.com/scene/z15y60z0jx/cku6 ... 6i72yj8pno
Sacramento Wednesday September 29th
Moderator: CHGPA BOD