Under the cloud yesterday, over the inversion today
After today's low cloud base, we had the opposite today - strong inversion sitting across the entire San Bernadino - Riverside valley.After a lot of parawaiting and observing the inversion level on the mountains right across the valley, start was eventually set for 3pm.
Everyone on an EN-D wing took off and promptly raced away shortly after 3pm barely above takeoff height.
Evenone on a EN-C and below took off and ....sunk out. Just to rub it in, as I made my landing approach, I heard San Diego pilot Dimitri Soloviev come on the radio "at 11,000ft and going on glide to Palm Springs". He took off from Laguna and flew over five hours along the famous convergence through desert landscapes which would have made for a long mountainous hike out. Well, maybe someone read the weather right. You can see his amazing 138km flight here.
From the landing field, we had a great view of the guys on the serious gliders thermalling like demons at thermals that appeared to max out at 0.5m/s.