Well, another interesting SoCal XC League weekend!
Weather looked good for the Owens Valley, although a few said it is still too early in the Autumn for good conditions.
To save the long drive, Saturday was at a site many of us had never flown. It's called 9 mile, on the east side of the Sierras, far enough south that the range is about 6,000 ft. The object is to climb out from a fairly low launch deep in a large bowl, then fly up the range and downwind as far as possible.
Conditions on launch looked good, with nice thermals coming through. People started to launch and it soon became clear that no one was climbing out. We had quite a large group, so pretty soon there were about fifteen gliders in the air, all ridge soaring the same large steep bowl. Whenever someone pushed out a bit into the valley to find thermals, they seemed to do a couple of turns then fall out and start sinking.
After about 35 minutes of soaring back and forth, I realized that the wind was strengthening in from the valley, meaning that in the weak thermals, even if we could find a thermal that would take us out of the bowl, it would drift over the back of the spine into dubious looking terrain.
Then the wind started to get really funky. Apparently the wind started coming over the back and mixing with the valley wind. At that point I decided to head out down the valley, hoping to get out of the big bowl onto the next ridge and maybe find better conditions.
I spotted a glider down deep in the bowl, kiting up the hill, and assumed someone had sunk out and was trying to get some height to relaunch. Then some radio chatter started that another pilot had landed hard and had minor injuries but was going to walk out.
Continuing to fly down the valley, I started to sink out, so made a nice clean easy sidehill landing on the soft sandy mountainside just above the road. Four or five other pilots also headed down the valley and landed on a road cutout. Turned out that the pilot that had landed was more badly injured than expected, so we packed up and headed back up towards the accident site. By that time an ambulance had arrived along with the Sheriff and Fire department.
The accident site was 600 ft above the road, up a 1 in 4 grade sandy hillside, in temperatures in the mid 90s. The EMT from the ambulance was clearly not up to the task of hiking up that hill, so myself and three other pilots hiked up to the accident site.
The next three hours were pretty harrowing. We had a badly injured pilot who was dehydrated and in extreme pain, and very scared. Local rescue that were not even fit enough for a mountain rescue, and helicopter evac services that were given insufficient information. The first chopper flew into the valley and then flew out again, having been told that the accident was on a road. They had no winch so couldn't do a mountain rescue. The second one took another two hours to arrive, then had to first land on the road to open their door and setup the winch. Then they took off and landed again on the ridgeline to let an EMT out with a backboard. I hiked up the 400ft to met the EMT and hiked down with the backboard.
When we finally got the accident victim onto the backboard and connected to the winch, it spun horrifyingly at least twenty times before getting hauled into the helicopter.
In the end it turned out good for this unlucky pilot. She spent some weeks in the hospital with a broken hip, fractured vertebrae and a lot of bruising. She'll make a full recovery.
If this accident had happened 25km down the course line in the much bigger Sierra Nevada mountains, it may have turned out a lot worse.
Weather looked good for the Owens Valley, although a few said it is still too early in the Autumn for good conditions.
To save the long drive, Saturday was at a site many of us had never flown. It's called 9 mile, on the east side of the Sierras, far enough south that the range is about 6,000 ft. The object is to climb out from a fairly low launch deep in a large bowl, then fly up the range and downwind as far as possible.
Conditions on launch looked good, with nice thermals coming through. People started to launch and it soon became clear that no one was climbing out. We had quite a large group, so pretty soon there were about fifteen gliders in the air, all ridge soaring the same large steep bowl. Whenever someone pushed out a bit into the valley to find thermals, they seemed to do a couple of turns then fall out and start sinking.
After about 35 minutes of soaring back and forth, I realized that the wind was strengthening in from the valley, meaning that in the weak thermals, even if we could find a thermal that would take us out of the bowl, it would drift over the back of the spine into dubious looking terrain.
Then the wind started to get really funky. Apparently the wind started coming over the back and mixing with the valley wind. At that point I decided to head out down the valley, hoping to get out of the big bowl onto the next ridge and maybe find better conditions.
I spotted a glider down deep in the bowl, kiting up the hill, and assumed someone had sunk out and was trying to get some height to relaunch. Then some radio chatter started that another pilot had landed hard and had minor injuries but was going to walk out.
Continuing to fly down the valley, I started to sink out, so made a nice clean easy sidehill landing on the soft sandy mountainside just above the road. Four or five other pilots also headed down the valley and landed on a road cutout. Turned out that the pilot that had landed was more badly injured than expected, so we packed up and headed back up towards the accident site. By that time an ambulance had arrived along with the Sheriff and Fire department.
The accident site was 600 ft above the road, up a 1 in 4 grade sandy hillside, in temperatures in the mid 90s. The EMT from the ambulance was clearly not up to the task of hiking up that hill, so myself and three other pilots hiked up to the accident site.
The next three hours were pretty harrowing. We had a badly injured pilot who was dehydrated and in extreme pain, and very scared. Local rescue that were not even fit enough for a mountain rescue, and helicopter evac services that were given insufficient information. The first chopper flew into the valley and then flew out again, having been told that the accident was on a road. They had no winch so couldn't do a mountain rescue. The second one took another two hours to arrive, then had to first land on the road to open their door and setup the winch. Then they took off and landed again on the ridgeline to let an EMT out with a backboard. I hiked up the 400ft to met the EMT and hiked down with the backboard.
When we finally got the accident victim onto the backboard and connected to the winch, it spun horrifyingly at least twenty times before getting hauled into the helicopter.
In the end it turned out good for this unlucky pilot. She spent some weeks in the hospital with a broken hip, fractured vertebrae and a lot of bruising. She'll make a full recovery.
If this accident had happened 25km down the course line in the much bigger Sierra Nevada mountains, it may have turned out a lot worse.
Great turnout for this event... with no idea how this day would turn out
Aaron with nice small 'hike and fly' backpack
I landed sidehill on the sandy slope in the background after winds picked up
and one of the pilots had crashed
and one of the pilots had crashed
The view from the accident site, 600ft above the road in easy sandy terrain.
The paramedic was not even fit enough to make this simple hike!
Keeping the sun off the accident victim was the many issue in 95 degree fahrenheit temperatures
I hiked up to the Highway Patrol helicopter to bring down the backboard
Ready for evacuation
Chopper coming in to winch up the accident victim
