First race of the SoCal XCLeague for 2015 and what a day!
Clear skies and record March temperatures meant potentially high lapse rates. The sky was clear with some inversion in the distance and southwest winds forecast
Event organizer Aaron Price set a ambitious task for the start of the season, 66km all the way to Soboba. The nice weather brought out a great turnout of 20 pilots. The course went north over to Pine to start, then down range to Mt Harrison, across Redlands and Calimesa, then a committing line accross the 'Badlands'. If we could make it across the Badlands, Soboba would be an easy downwind leg.
I had my doubts about finishing the course. The only longer race where I got to goal was last years epic Elsinore to Redlands flight where we had had one of the best flying days of the year.
Ross Detweiler and Alex Gagarin as always were first off the hill, they like to get out early and feel the air. Me, not so much, I don't like hanging around before the start of paragliding races, so I ended up taking off just seven minutes before the start time.
On glide over Redlands....I think it is Alex directly behind on his Mantra 4.
The third turnpoint was around a place called Fishermans Retreat, along San Timetao Canyon. The thermals got harder to find with several pilots landing near the turnpoint. Ziggy and I found a much better thermal at about 1000ft AGL. Then it was time to commit to crossing the 'Badlands'. The Badlands is a four by ten mile area of crinkly hills, not particularly high, but very distinct feature from the air. I suspect the land is a geological formation to do with one of California's fault lines. There are few public retreive roads, and in 90 degree heat landing out would have been as much as a two hour very hot hike. More worrisome was that with the strengthening afternoon breeze would create potentially turbulent landing areas due to the many small spines and valleys.
Crossing the Badlands Low... landing out would have meant a 2hr walk in 90 degree heat with a fourty pound backpack...
From high above the Badlands again it was a 3:1 glide to goal in Soboba. I arrived at Soboba to find myself the only person in the air at this popular flying site. The afternoon wind was too strong on the ground for people to launch safely! There was lift everywhere and it was difficult to get down.
As I cruised around quite tired after three hours active flying, looking for some sinking air to come down into, the local pilots saw how good it was and started to launch. After fifteen minutes I eventually managed to get down, to be greeted by cold beer and congratulations at making this classic SoCal flight and winning the first race of the SoCal XC League for 2015.
Big thanks to Aaron for setting a challenging task and taking great in flight photos, our retrieve ladies who did a perfect job, and Soboba soaring for the landing zone welcome!
SoCal XCLeague Results
Doarama Animated Tracklog Replay
Looking back over the route from above Soboba with afternoon lift everywhere. Marshall is in the haze in the distance beyond the badlands
Click the Map for Leonardo Tracklog
Clear skies and record March temperatures meant potentially high lapse rates. The sky was clear with some inversion in the distance and southwest winds forecast
Event organizer Aaron Price set a ambitious task for the start of the season, 66km all the way to Soboba. The nice weather brought out a great turnout of 20 pilots. The course went north over to Pine to start, then down range to Mt Harrison, across Redlands and Calimesa, then a committing line accross the 'Badlands'. If we could make it across the Badlands, Soboba would be an easy downwind leg.
I had my doubts about finishing the course. The only longer race where I got to goal was last years epic Elsinore to Redlands flight where we had had one of the best flying days of the year.
The house thermal was working perfectly, and a group of pilots climbed out rapidly to about 6000ft. This thermal turned out to be the strongest of the day so it was nice to get up high quicky and easily!
I had great line to the first turnpoint, having got high over launch. I had the pleasure of being top of the stack on the way across to Pine, and seeing other pilots having to climb up the big spine, which is typically quite windy and turbulent.
Aaron and I got nice and high again over Marshall again on the long leg to the Mt Harrison turnpoint, which is 25km down the range towards Redlands. Aaron took some great photo's of me while we climbed out together to about 6000ft.
The group slowed down at the Mt Harrison turnpoint. The air was very disorganized, and the turnpoint was deeper in than I expected. I wasn't comfortable with the erractic behaviour of the air over the top of mountain, so led out towards the valley, looking for organized thermals.
I found a thermal triggering from the first line of hills and then decided to commit to the glide out over the Redlands valley. Another nice thermal over the flats took me back up to 6500ft, which seemed to be the top of usable lift for the day. Alex and Len Szafaryn came to join the thermal that I had marked, followed by Russ and Ziggy Mulhauser. Taking off again in the lead I went on glide over small airfield in Redlands. I wanted to glide over directly above it, safely out of the way of any approaching or departing small aircraft. I could see the little planes making touch and goes as they did flight training.
Alex and Len soon caught up, with the few km/hr of of their higher performing gliders allowing them to slowly pull ahead. Alex took a more northernly line, along the rising ground between Redlands and Calimesa, while Ziggy and I took a more southerly line following the 10 freeway, where we climbing out patiently in a slow, choppy wind-blown 1 m/s thermal, helping each other find the scarce lift.
Aaron and I got nice and high again over Marshall again on the long leg to the Mt Harrison turnpoint, which is 25km down the range towards Redlands. Aaron took some great photo's of me while we climbed out together to about 6000ft.
Climbing out over Marshall Peak on the way to turnpoint 2 at Mt Harrison
Photo Credit: Aaron Price
On glide with Aaron to Mt Harrison at about 6000ft
The group slowed down at the Mt Harrison turnpoint. The air was very disorganized, and the turnpoint was deeper in than I expected. I wasn't comfortable with the erractic behaviour of the air over the top of mountain, so led out towards the valley, looking for organized thermals.
I found a thermal triggering from the first line of hills and then decided to commit to the glide out over the Redlands valley. Another nice thermal over the flats took me back up to 6500ft, which seemed to be the top of usable lift for the day. Alex and Len Szafaryn came to join the thermal that I had marked, followed by Russ and Ziggy Mulhauser. Taking off again in the lead I went on glide over small airfield in Redlands. I wanted to glide over directly above it, safely out of the way of any approaching or departing small aircraft. I could see the little planes making touch and goes as they did flight training.
Blue Thermals the whole way
Alex and Len soon caught up, with the few km/hr of of their higher performing gliders allowing them to slowly pull ahead. Alex took a more northernly line, along the rising ground between Redlands and Calimesa, while Ziggy and I took a more southerly line following the 10 freeway, where we climbing out patiently in a slow, choppy wind-blown 1 m/s thermal, helping each other find the scarce lift.
On glide over Redlands....I think it is Alex directly behind on his Mantra 4.
The third turnpoint was around a place called Fishermans Retreat, along San Timetao Canyon. The thermals got harder to find with several pilots landing near the turnpoint. Ziggy and I found a much better thermal at about 1000ft AGL. Then it was time to commit to crossing the 'Badlands'. The Badlands is a four by ten mile area of crinkly hills, not particularly high, but very distinct feature from the air. I suspect the land is a geological formation to do with one of California's fault lines. There are few public retreive roads, and in 90 degree heat landing out would have been as much as a two hour very hot hike. More worrisome was that with the strengthening afternoon breeze would create potentially turbulent landing areas due to the many small spines and valleys.
After deciding to dive across with the possibility of a long hike, I got lucky and suddenly found myself straight lining in consistent lift. There was a convergence line setting up over the hills and I climbed up to 5500ft without turning with a 25km/h tailwind! Ziggy meanwhile had missed the convergence line and had an agonizing glide down the narrow valleys to try and minimize the hot walk out.
From high above the Badlands again it was a 3:1 glide to goal in Soboba. I arrived at Soboba to find myself the only person in the air at this popular flying site. The afternoon wind was too strong on the ground for people to launch safely! There was lift everywhere and it was difficult to get down.
As I cruised around quite tired after three hours active flying, looking for some sinking air to come down into, the local pilots saw how good it was and started to launch. After fifteen minutes I eventually managed to get down, to be greeted by cold beer and congratulations at making this classic SoCal flight and winning the first race of the SoCal XC League for 2015.
Big thanks to Aaron for setting a challenging task and taking great in flight photos, our retrieve ladies who did a perfect job, and Soboba soaring for the landing zone welcome!
SoCal XCLeague Results
Doarama Animated Tracklog Replay
Looking back over the route from above Soboba with afternoon lift everywhere. Marshall is in the haze in the distance beyond the badlands
At goal in Soboba Soaring there was a 'fly-in' in progrss, so a welcome cold beer and party atmosphere!
Click the Map for Leonardo Tracklog