Ojai ROCKS!!!

[dteal]

On Sunday, a boat-load of pilots met at Andy & Emily's LZ in the upper Ojai valley for the site intro and tour of their LZ and several bailout LZ's. Got to Chiefs launch about noon and it was blowing in nicely. It was a beautiful day and we could see forever. I launched about 1:30 and took one thermal to 7500 over Chiefs Peak (behind launch). Went to the main repeater and got nothing. I proceeded to scratch FOREVER along the spine and lower knob and finally decided to bail. I was bummed because I really wanted to fly over the Topatopa's which is a whole mountain ridge of sheer cliff faced rock that reminds me of Yosemite. Here's some pictures of the Topa's: http://www.discoverojai.com/Ojai_Links/ ... hoto1.html. So, as I'm heading to the main LZ, I get over the houses and farms just north of the 150 and start getting some lift. I worked that back to 4000 and headed back to the knob (don't remember the name), only to sink out again. Headed back to the houses and got really serious lift. I rode this lift to 5500 and the SW pushed me back toward the Topas, so I headed for them and worked the east spine up to where I could then fly in front of the cliff face. I got lift the entire length of the face and by the time I was at the end, I was above the range!! What a view and beautiful mountain!! I hung around over the range for about 20 min and decided to cross the valley at 6500. I lost only 500 feet crossing. By that time, I was tired and tried to get down to land - no so easy to do. Lift was everywhere from the valley at that time. Landed fine in a huge LZ after a 2 hour flight. What a day!! I'd like to thank Andy and Emily for coordinating everything and having us all out there. Dealing with the Forest Service, roads, LZ's and all the logistics was a lot of work and I certainly appreciated it. I'll definitely be back!! Thanks also to Fast Eddie for driving our truck and giving site specific flying advice on the ride up and at launch. Awesome site!!!!
DT

[jdevorak]

It was indeed a great weekend fly. Sunday it was so good all pilots but one made it back to the ranch (including many Falcons). The "one" who didn't was on an Atos. Juan said that proves it's not the arrow but the indian. Monday wasn't as good as Sunday but we still got a thousand over. Six pilots made it back to the ranch. One was Larry but we suspect he was lost. Markus radio'd that he landed at a ball field on the way. A call went back, "Which ball field?" Markus didn't know. There was much confusion. I guess I wasn't helpful because I was totaly ignored. I kept asking him, "Who's on first?" The following link might clarify my question. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/ ... 8748248448

[M@rkus]

Very funny.

I totally agree - this was a great fly-In. Thank you Andy & Emily for an amazing weekend. I'll be back!