I'm Only Soaring When It Rains - A Kagel Pre-Frontal Video

[JD]

Still processing so check back later for full resolution.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MumNjbSCuTA[/youtube]

Yesterday morning, Jason called looking to carpool with me and Oscar for some flying before a series of rain storms lasting a full week hits central and southern CA. I thought Sylmar would be good for some combined slope and thermal lift but wanted to arrive early to hook up with a ride up the hill without one of us having to draw short straw (I volunteered to be driver if necessary). As luck would have it, Rome, our resident octogenarian pilot and frequent driver was available as soon as he polished off his Mex food. There was a small group ahead of us when we arrived on Kagel Mtn. and it was blowing straight in at 8-12 mph under overcast and darkening skies. Jason launched a little after 12:30 about five minutes or so before me. Oscar didn't get off the hill until 15 minutes after I took off.

I had my GoPro HD on my simple wing mount and only caught a short glimpse of Jason entering a steep dive before he did some awesome 120 degree wangs out front of launch. You can see him in the lower right-hand corner of the frame at 0:19. I didn't hang around in front of launch very long but jumped the Pacoima Wash and searched for better lift on the Towers Ridge to the West. The lift there was limited to a small area as I discovered when I headed West to the 1500 turnpoint, made two turns and headed back. I came back too low below Towers hill to catch any lift and headed back across the wash to the Kagel spine, where I arrived low and got to play scratch 'n sniff.

As I clawed my way back up the spine, I worked my way through Andy's tandem training flight and then Oscar who had just launched. I got a lot of shots of the tandem but not much of Oscar, who did an outstanding job of prolonging the inevitable on his Falcon Deuce and a Quarter. As I climbed my way back up above launch height more vehicles had arrived and glider were being set up in the developing rain. One by one they launched and only Malury on his black and purple Sport 2 stayed up in the rain with me and just a few others. Several gliders made a beeline for the LZ and got broken down and placed in their storage tubes before they got more than just damp.

I caught one breakaway thermal that drifted way back behind launch and I was thinking I might hit cloudbase, 1000' above launch and skim the bottoms for some distance. But it petered out. The rain came down harder than a drizzle and was making a lot of pitter pattering on my helmet, visor and glider. The camera did a remarkable job of picking of the ambient sounds with the optional open back, combined with the angle I had it set at. I overdubbed lots of music but you can still make out the background noise of the rain.

Right now, my and Oscar's gliders are in his shop drying out. It was a fun time and I'd do it again. When I landed my upeer surface was completely covered with large beads of water and the stall speed was about 2-3 mph higher than normal, which I took into account when flaring. See if you can tell the difference in the landing segment.

Enjoy! Jonathan

[OSCAR]

Well done...nice landing Noticed you sped up the flair timing to compensate for the wet glider .I haven't seen to many in the rain HG vids on YouTube.That was a fun day.The gliders are not dripping any more and drying nicely.

[Ron Keinan]

Nice one NME. That's a cool angle for those launch fly by's.

[max]

Jonathan you getting way too much flying time I'm jealous ,cool video