Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

Well, I just got back from driving from Big Sur. Don't know how the rest of the caravan is doing, as they went on further South down PCH for another flying adventure.

Myself and Laura, Jim Heaton, and Erwin all rolled into Plaskett Creek early Friday morning. Guess what! No campsites!!! I guess they started reserving all the campsites there, and as a result everything was booked for some grandiose wedding. We were all flabbergasted. We drove to another campsite only to find the same thing, for the same wedding! Would love to know who the selfish shmucks were that got hitched. So we decided to camp up on launch. Goodbye bathrooms and running water!

While driving up, I noticed that fuel was slopping out of Erwin's gas cap; it doesn't tighten correctly. When we pulled off to inspect, my car decided to overheat. Erwin lost a lot of fuel, and my worries about my coolant began. Eventually Bill Brick arrived with his girlfriend Jacquie, and his teenage daughter and another teenager. The campsite right next to launch was already filled by a memorable character named Chuck. So we drove a quarter of a mile further down that road and camped there. After stepping out of the vehicles, we were assaulted by millions of the peskiest flies ever. They were everywhere! swarming, buzzing, landing, they were so freaking annoying!

After setting up camp, we discovered there was just enough of an opening in the trees for someone to launch, and the wind was blowing straight in. Well, I thought, why not. So with input from Erwin and Jim, I launched, avoided the tree stump in my way, and away I went. Bill picked me up and we checked out Gorda. Signs were posted that said no campfires, and the guy running the store said it was $2,000 fine. Driving back to camp we stopped at the ranger station to get a propane stove permit (yes, there was signs that said you needed a permit to use a stove). We asked about campfires and they said the fine was only $75, is a minor misdeamoner, and he emphasized minor. As Bill later put it, it was practically a wink and nod. I asked how late they're open and he told us they close at night with no rangers there. Well, I don't want to incriminate anyone, but the smores were really great!

During the night, the whole Windsports gang arrived. There were 7 H2's for their first Big Sur trip. The first person they met the next morning was our neighboring camper, Chuck. Chuck was about 60, and was wearing a 9mm hand gun on his belt. Many were hearing dueling banjos in the back of their minds. He described a hike to a water hole spot East of launch. Jim Heaton and I were game, so we followed him into the woods. Everyone else went to set up their gliders. We found the water hole, but coming out, Jim and I took a different path that took an extra 40 minutes. In walks Chuck into our camp, with his 9mm, where the only people left in camp is Laura, Jaquie, and the two teenage girls, and he calmly tells them that we took a different way out. Well, since we didn't show up for awhile, they got panicky. Visions of our bullet riddled bodies filled their minds. They were grateful to see us when we eventually found our way back.

Jim and I set up and launched last, and Chuck offered to drive Jim's van down for a retrieval. Well, when I got down there, everyone was hurriedly packing so they could fly again. I decided to go with the girls and get a shower at Gorda. When driving back from my shower, I was surprised the gang hadn't landed yet. Got to launch and found out that Chuck drove off the side of the mountain in Jim's van. They spend an hour dragging the car back up. No second flight on Saturday for them.

So we have dinner and are enjoying Joe's generator and Steve Murillo's projector when the two teenagers decide to go for a night hike. We're in the middle of Megan's HG video camera footage when the teenagers anounce that there is a forest fire headed our way. Sure enough, we drive to launch and can see a big old fire working it's way around the road down the mountain. We're talking on the radios when guess who calls in: Malury announces on the radio he just arrived with his wife and is driving up the mountain. We tell him to go back down and get help. He says, I kid you not, in the same transmission, "Ok, I'm gonna go get help. (short pause) I'm driving up closer to the fire, it's really burning." "Go back," we cry, "get help!"

The fire trucks arrived and told Joe we would have to evacuate. We tore that camp down in 20 minutes. Drove up to launch to wait for the firefighters to return, set up chairs to watch the blaze working it's way on the mountain, when we decided to have ice cream. Yes, someone drove a motor home to launch, and had frozen ice cream. We sat there watching Dante's Inferno work it's magic on the mountain, while we sucked down ice cream. It was truly a scene from one of those unbelievable comedy movies. The fire truck arrived and told us there were going to evacuate us through a different road, one that the motorhome could make it through. It's at this point that I realize I'm leaking coolant. Chuck shows up, drunk, and gets his VW bus at the head of our caravan. The road is hell. Especially for the motorhome. About an hour of driving on, as Jim put it, the 'Big Sur 500', Chuck drove off the side of a mountain, again!!! Joe Greblo, Steve Murillo, and the fire men spent almost 40 minutes saving Chuck's life and changing his flat tire. Chuck was pretty plastered. It was 12:00 at night and everyone was pissed. During this break, Max confirmed it was my water pump seal that was leaking, Erwin confirmed that his clutch was about fried and he was almost out of gas, and the motorhome determined their breaks were shot. We drove for another harrowing hour before we came out on PCH, somewhere near Gorda. What a bitch of a night.

We camped at the Big Sur LZ and ate breakfast together. I headed home while my water pump still lived, and the rest of the gang headed South to fly elsewhere.

Memorable quotes while they saved Chuck's ass a second time:

Lynden to Erwin on the radio, "Chuck needs a spare tire, Erwin since you have the same car, can he borrow yours?"
Erwin to Lynden on the radio, "No!"
HG pilot (don't know who it was) to Erwin on the radio (in the most awe inspired voice), "Erwin, you're my hero."


Lynden to everyone listening on radio, "I know we're all upset, but we need to listen to that small voice in our heads, the one that is saying we need to be kind to Chuck and help him out."
Chris (a newer H2) back to Lynden on radio (in the most sweet, angelic voice he can muster), "The voice in my head is telling me to kill him."

All in all, I suspect this will be the most memorable trip any of us will go on. What a blast! Hope others post their memories of this adventure. Pictures of the fire would be nice too.

That's a great story. Good for a laugh.

The deep woods can make a man mad, I tell you...

I left the LZ about 45 minutes ahead of everyone else with my girlfriend. I was surprised to hear that no campsites were reserved. I checked the Plaskett Creek web site a couple weeks ago and noticed that every site was reserved and just assumed that some of those reservations were for our group. On the way up to Big Sur, I decided it would be much easier to just get a cheap hotel room and try and find a campsite on Saturday morning. That was much easier than trying to drive up the mountain and set up camp after midnight. We got a really cheap room in Morro Bay and had a good night's sleep!

The next morning we headed North. Sure enough, I found a campsite at Kirk Creek campground, just a couple hundred feet past Nacimiento Rd. on highway 1. I drove up to launch to join the group for the first flight of the day. I didn't go up for a 2nd flight, but no one got one anyway due to fog. Sunday my car and campsite was covered with ash. I figured there was fire nearby and am glad that our group didn't accidentally start it. We stopped at Hearst Castle on the way back. My girlfriend hadn't been there before and she really enjoyed it. It was a pretty foggy weekend at Big Sur - not as much sun as usual. We made the best of it.

I believe you will be able to get an update from the link in the subject line and here: http://inciweb.org/incident/1551/
Nice write-up BJ on our grand adventure. Definitely a trip to be remembered! I think it was Joe that mentioned how it is often fun to tell stories of trips and embellish thrills, trials, etc.... But with this one all we have to do is tell what really happened and it will be a bit hard to believe! We couldn't believe the chain of events ourselves... And for me it as an adventure just having my girlfriend Jacquie and two teenage girls along for the trip! It really was a pleasure to have them along and as it turned out my daughter Julia and her pal Katie made us one of the first responders and made sure we got ourselves set to get off our flaming inferno....

One of the things we really felt we missed other than a few more amazing flights was the footage we were viewing of our flights that got cut short by that pesky fire.... Maybe this Saturday after we enjoy another pancake breakfast and do some good work on the LZ we could set-up the projector and review our camera and video work... There are now some great shots of our flights at Cayucos that we are excited to see as well as forest fire footage.

Cayucos was great! Some lunch, a walk of the LZ (beautiful beach site) and then off to the launch.... well once Joe got his bearings after such a long time away from visiting this site.

Max and Jacquie offered to be our drivers, the teenagers guarded our remaining items at the LZ so off we went! It was much steeper to launch than excpected but we made it up. Funny thing is that just as we were getting through the main gate to head up to launch but who should show up??? No! Not Good Luck Chuck but our pal and ready responder Malury! Until that point just a voice on the radio the night before! He and his wife followed us up and assisted us all in getting set to launch! Chris barely heard the words from Joe's mouth that perhaps we could set-up and see.... he had his glider down and was setting up before we had even gotten ours off the trucks! WE had several peak-a-boo views through the clouds of the LZ or other shoreline areas and Joe was ready to show us how it was done! It was really awesome seeing him slowly disappear from our view only to hear the fantastic news that just out of our view was clear line of sight of the ocean and our LZ! We all hustled to get ready to fly! Max was razzing me about my life insurance and perhaps I wanted to stay and drive down the other vehicle..... He was only having second thoughts on flying himself with thoughts of helping me by flying my set-up falcon!!!
Well, the launch was fantastic even at only 700 feet, seeing the clouds blow over the top of the hill as we launched and hearing on the radio that you were no longer in sight of Lynden on launch and then moments later to hear Joe say got 'em on this side.... have a great flight!!!! Great! We really had that sense that we were flying at the ocean. Megan had pointed out previously we didn't really sense the ocean feeling when landing at Big Sur due to the clouds and distance from the water. This time though I was able to head to the waters edge and start my downwind, what a great site! I was still a bit high for landing close to our group so Joe told me to dive, dive hard.... so I did and got to zoom just over he and Megan for an exciting landing!!!

It was lots of fun, with lots of other wild unexpected thrills and chills thrown into the mix!

I can't wait for another trip although I am not certain the teenagers will wish to tag along...

See you all at the LZ Saturday! Hope we can show our pics and videos!

Our Story: We came just to camp with our friends, I didn't even bring my glider. At Plaskett Creek we checked the group camp for HGs but were shocked to discover a full philharmonic orchestra set up and playing music for that wedding! We looked through the next camp and found Rob and his girlfriend who graciously invited us to stay with them, but nooo, we had to go up to launch. It was dark and gloomy, foggy and wet climbing that road.

Punching out of the marine layer, we stopped to enjoy the last light and the stars. Driving around the bend, we were shocked to see the mountain burning! Acres and acres burning. That's when I got our pilots on the radio.
I could see two cars coming down and I thought they may be firefighters. That is why I hesitated to drive to Gorda to report the fire. The drivers were civillians so we rushed to the call box at Pacific Valley. After all of that we retreated to a motel room near Hearst Castle.

The next morning we were sitting by the seashore when the caravan rolled by us, southbound. We gave up on catching them.

Hours later in Cayucos (notice the O Bill?) We see the caravan leaving the LZ. Falling in behind, we got a free tour of the Cayucos flying site. It was fun to watch our brave H-2s launch into narrow tunnels of visibility in those rolling clouds.

We said goodby and took the inland route home. Four hours later we were startled to see Lynden overtaking us on the 210 freeway. WTF? What a weekend!
ps: I think Tokiko is finished with flying trips.

What an adventure we had!

Here are some videos I shot to get an idea of the conditions. Enjoy!

• Big Sur
• Cayucos
• Fire

damn.

what a trip. i learned somewhere that bad camping trips create tight bonds of friendship. seriously, the speaker went on for a half hour about it. you guys are now related or something.

that having been said, i can say i am glad i wasn't there.

i led a css trip there on president's day to the group campsite #1. that's a handy one to stay away from the riff raff. got a transmission oil pan puncture, but gary powell makes race cars for a living. pfft! fixed. got poison oak, too (and had traffic school the next weekend oof). still, i got off light ha!

thanks for the vids, love to hear about flying there.

This Big Sur trip will undoubtedly go down as one of the great HG trips of all time! We'll be sitting around some camp fire somewhere reminiscing about past trips and someone will say "remember that Big Sur trip in '08?" and a priveleged few will be able to share a chuckle. Someone else will chime in with "yeah-that trip was really "chucked" up". We had a great time, the least of which was the flying. As a new H2, flying down the spine of a ridge at Big Sur, wondering if I was going to make it to the crest, then flying over Max and Lynden who had made mid way top landings on a hill top, and continuing on down to the crashing waves on the coast of the LZ, punching holes in the clouds, setting up in and out of the goo, and then finally landing in a strange, wide open LZ. All of it was just plain exhilarating. Cayucos was a great side trip. It should be a mandatory stop for all Big Sur trips. Too much fun, pizza before launch, 15 minutes to the launch site, landing on the beach, being chased by someone's dog as you land. Like I said, too much fun. Count me in for the next trip!
Steve M.

Many thanks to all that attended to the trip. Sazia and I had a blast going through the adventure with such a great crew.

Sorry to post so late - you can view our pictures at the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sazhussain/ ... RxuyQbciso


Hopefully I'll see you all in the scorched L/Z on Oct 25th for Rome's 80th birthday bash!

-Alex