Garlock 8/31/13

A place to stretch the truth a little...
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Don
Posts: 512
Joined: Thu May 12, 2005 8:58 am

Garlock 8/31/13

Post by Don »

Joe Greblo was taking about 8 H2s & H3s to Garlock so a few others joined in. I don't even begin to know all the names but they included Cyndia, Brandon, Rob & ???????. The "others" included Frederick (with his Mesquito), Ken, Richard, Kris, Max, and myself. The "others" intended to go XC towards Trona and possibly beyond - Rob and ?????????? also showed an interest in venturing from the "nest" (aka the LZ).

Greblo's crew launched the SW launch while the "others" launched the traditional S launch into a slight cross wind. All the H2s & H3s had nice launches, reasonable flights, and for the most part uneventful landings in the LZ. After most of Greblo's crew had launched Richard, Kris, and Ken launched. Clouds shaded most of the prime thermal triggers and I thought the lift was going to be weak, however Ken and Richard immediately got ~ 1,000' over launch. Kris was finding no love what so ever and ended up with an extended sledder. I was next to approach launch with Max suited up but waiting to see what was happening. As I approached my selected launch area I could see Richard and Ken were now at or below launch level. The sun was just beginning to shine on the thermal triggers but I was in no hurry to join a bunch of pilots, at the same altitude, looking for salvation so with Kat on my nose wires I waited 5 minutes or so.

After launching I easy climbed to the mid 5s but not much else. Ken, Max and I were exchanging altitude positions but getting much over 6k was proving to be difficult. Over the next few minutes Ken got flushed and headed to the LZ. That left Max and myself as the only remaining XC pilots. I could not transmit but could hear and was under the impression that Max had gone down-range. I caught a thermal to 6.5k and decided this was going to be the best I was going to get here at the launch area. I kept looking for Max but had little hope of seeing him since I assumed he was at least 5 miles ahead of me. With this altitude I was ready to turn in anything that beeped. I did four climbs in the first 10 miles before leaving the Radar Domes at 6.4k into the barren flatlands. There were a few beeps but, as usual in this area, nothing worth turning in.

I ended up landing nearly 17 miles from launch. After landing I radioed to Max to let people know where I was and then learned that he was about 7 miles WEST of me - I had been chasing a shadow for nearly an hour. Max also topped out at 6+k and ended up landing 25' West of me. I claimed victory by the smallest of margins. Max said if he had known he would have stretched the flight out and would have landed just East of me. Max, maybe you will get some sympathy from a scoring judge but not from me. Besides, I need something to talk about other than my broken down tube!

Richard, Kat, and the "others" picked us up after a small delay because of a train blocking the road - but I'll let Richard tell that story.

We returned to the LZ to find that the Greblo crew was still there and Joe was soaring with Fredrick's mesquito. We all stopped for dinner in Mojave and arrived back at a very busy Slymar LZ about 7:30PM.

Overall a nice change from the same-old Sylmar routine. The flight was certainly shorter that any of us wanted but at the same time rather challenging. Greblo's crew all seemed to enjoy the trip and look forward to additional Garlock flying.
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JD
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Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:05 am

Post by JD »

Wills Wing downtube - $109
Beating Max by 25' - Priceless!
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max
Posts: 222
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:26 pm
Location: LAWNDALE CA.

Post by max »

:evil: I want re-measurement.
[youtube] http://youtu.be/LZP6Yy1MmIU [/youtube]
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MAX
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