How I almost took 2nd in the Fishbowl

A place to stretch the truth a little...
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ericbrown
Posts: 104
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2005 5:40 pm

How I almost took 2nd in the Fishbowl

Post by ericbrown »

Saturday 4/22/06 I showed up at Kagel for the Spring Air Festival only to see launch fairly obscured by clouds. The Fishbowl comp was cancelled. It was cold and miserable and the small bunch of pilots that were landing were pretty wet and unhappy. Freddy Wagner and I decided to go up anyways and get a sled ride in. On launch it was drizzly and blowing a steady 18-20mph but the crows were just parked in the ridge lift which made me think it could actually be pretty good.

The Ballards launched tandem and soared a bit and then sank out. Freddy helped me launch and I immediately flew into a nice steady band of smoooooth lift. After a few passes I was well over launch and watched Freddy launch himself which was pretty impressive as the wind picked up a bit. Soon we were both about 500 over and cruised over to trash. Lost a bunch of altitude coming over and thought about turning back when i hit the lift band at trash. Back on up and even better lift over here, we worked our way around the front of trash. The lift was so good we kept going all the way around, something i had never done before. So we worked back and forth on the far side of trash, keeping the kagel lz in view and makeable on my falcon.

It was clear the lift was reliable, so we ventured further east. Now I could clearly see the cemetery and then the shooting range and soon i was able to see little tujunga rd. Soon we worked our way all the way to Lances. It was so cool following someone, in radio contact, both of us venturing farther than we had ever gone. After looking around and spotting some potential bailout lz's, i turned back to trash. I had a tailwind now but the lift was dying a bit. It was the first time I really had to stay on the fast in sink/slow in lift game to extend the glide till the lift picked up. On the east side of trash I waited for Freddy who was having a tough time getting back over. He finally got up high enough to get back over and he decided he wanted to try for the 1500 which i think was the other waypoint for the advanced class.

When we got into the valley between trash and kagel we were pretty much at cloudbase and the vario was still pinging up. I pulled in and I was still going up. I did diving turns and still I was going up. It started getting all wispy and freaky and after a few FCC-violating expletives, Erwin told me to fly further away from the ridge. That, combined with crouching with the bar all the way to my knees and a deep diving turn finally got me down. I headed out with Freddy west and almost to locals, I thought i was too low so I turned back to land. Freddy made it to towers i think and then came in shortly after. Totally awesome flight. I thought it was going to be a sled ride but it was almost 2hrs. Really gave me a good sense of how fun flying xc must be, especially if you've got someone to explore with and help each other out.

Too bad the comp was cancelled, I would've taken 2nd place (out of 2 8))
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Christian
Posts: 238
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:32 am
Location: Pacific Palisades

Post by Christian »

Great report! But you have to feel sorry for Freddy, who would've come in second to last.
greblo
Posts: 464
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:22 am

Post by greblo »

great flight Eric;
thanks for sharing it.
Joe
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