Pine mountain 7-5-10
Pine mountain 7-5-10
On Monday (7-5-10) several pilots few Pine Mountain. Joe Greblo, Andy Beem, Fast Eddy, BJ Strand, Jay Devorak, Greg Dewolf, and me. Kris Greblo was the driver. We met at Andy’s LZ in the upper Ojai valley and it was socked in with marine layer. Andy said that it was pretty much the same as the previous day, and most people had sled rides (launching from the repeater). Fast Eddy said that Pine was the call – wind direction would be good and the altitude looked like 9500 to 10K. So, we headed out, checking the various bailout LZ’s on the way. Got to launch and it was blowing in nice. I launched about 1:30 or 2PM and headed past the knob to the first bowl and dolphin soared for about 10 min back and forth there, then headed toward the sand pile. I didn’t get much of anything until the rock ledge above the sand pile – found a nice one that took me to 8000 and I headed back to the range. Got there at 7500 and was thinking about punching over the back, but figured I’d get lee side rotored into the trees, so I cruised the range looking for lift - didn’t find squat. Back to the rock ledge again and it’s going off pretty consistently for the next few hours, taking us up to 6500 or so and back down. I was only there for about 30 more minutes: as I was getting low I followed a thermal back toward the range but was kind of in it and kind of not. As I turned around to look at the rock ledge, I’m way back and equal to the top of it, in a low area like a bowl. Panic sets in, and I head for what looks like a gauntlet that I might be able to sneak thru to the north of the rock ledge (see pic below). I make it thru that gap with about 25 feet above the brush & rocks. Turned left and had to get over a few more bumps but made it – barely. I can now see the road and it looks like I’ll be landing on the curve. I finally start hitting some lift and made it past the road curve to an area just north of the actual sand pile and landed in a bush beside the road. After thinking it over and talking with others, I should have gone downwind to TJ’s instead. Anyway, no damage to body or glider, but had the *&%# scared out of me for sure.