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TFR? So what, Crestline was On!

Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2019 4:13 pm
by Chip
I was sort of resigned that flying this weekend was going to be a bust due to Santa Ana's and the TFR that arose because of the fire. I'll give it to Phill Bloom for keeping me in the loop as to what was being discussed and where others might be going to fly. Since my glider is at Sylmar, I am beholden to someone bringing my glider to another location if pilots are leaving Sylmar. The call was made to go to Crestline, so I tried to coordinate my arrival there from San Clemente.

Arriving Crestline I was greeted by Dennis and then Joe Greblo, Andy Beem, Derek Gordon, and Phill Bloom, so it seemed more like being in Sylmar rather than Crestline. We all payed our day use fees, and slowly made our way to the Crestline launch which was blowing over the back still and it was nearly 2 pm, so we moved down to Marshall launch. It's been a loooong time since I launched there, and did it only once (or maybe it was twice if you count the top landing and take off). Paraglider pilots that had launched earlier were already at 9k

The setup was quick and I opted to take the very long run down the main slope, barely making it off thinking about stopping the launch about two different times. I finally made it off and realized the glider was flying, but barely. Pulling in slightly I gained just enough speed to be not so close to stall. Right off launch I hooked into a very nice, strong, but smooth thermal that took us (Andy and I) to over 6k. Greblo and Phill were climbing quickly and soon reported altitudes over 9k and then later 10k as they made a play towards Cucamonga. I left lower and pretty much caught them near Glen Helen where Phill had a light thermal that was difficult to track. He and I decided to fly back to the Pine Flats ridge.

Pretty much the convergence was very wide but primarily over the mountains. I stayed over 9k almost all the way to Rim of the World high school and pressed on to the 330 before turning around to fly back to the LZ. At the LZ we were greeted by very buoyant air and had to search for anything going down.

Good landings all around making the Sylmar crowd look like the pros we are (or pretend to be). A good quick dinner at a barbeque joint (Dicky's). Thanks to Steve for driving the crew out and those that brought my glider so that I could commune with all my Sylmar brothers.