Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

What an amazing day!

I was joining a group for a Memorial Day cross country flight at Garlock. I was the first to arrive at the LZ, eager and a little nervous about making my first cross country flight. I knew this was going to be an adventure, but I wasn't quite sure what I'd gotten myself into. Fifteen minutes later the other pilots started to arrive as one car after another pulled into the parking lot. Twelve ( Joe Greblo, Kris Greblo, Erik Larabie, Lynden Vazquez, BJ Strand, Ken Andrews, Malury Silberman, Loren Meck, Tom Casper, Steve Murillo, Alex Wright, and Chris Vorhees) pilots loaded into two vehicles along with Irwin as our driver. We met up with Adam Newman, Bill Brick and Jacquie at the Garlock LZ. We loaded everyone into Joe's and Adam's trucks and headed up to launch.

The adventure began as I was setting up my trusty Falcon 195 on a downward slope. As I started spreading the wings, my glider started rolling on its big, fat wheels. I had an image of myself running down the mountain chasing after my glider. After finding a nice rock to use as a wheel chock the setup went much more smoothly. Joe advised me that it would be cold up high, so I decided to wear my snow suit and bar mitts. Standing around in the snow suit and harness made me very eager to get in the air. I got to the launch and found that, with the snow suit and camelbak, I couldn't seem to get the carabiner to the hang loops. With a little help from Joe I was hooked in and ready to go.

A few other pilots launched before I did, and I saw Lynden climbing high just east of launch. By the time I got there he was already over 9000 ft and heading east. I managed to find a thermal and climb to about 7300 before fumbling a bit and losing a couple of hundred feet. At under 7000 feet I decided to try for the next ridge. Just before the ridge I found a thermal that took me up to 7800 ft. I headed east again, and, as I dropped below 5000ft, I started to wonder if my flight would be ending soon. I could see other pilots in the same area desperately searching for lift. Then I ran into a thermal that shot me up to 9300 ft. I proudly announced my new personal altitude record. During this time several pilots landed at various points along Garlock Road. At the same time Adam and Ken were struggling to get above launch.

I headed a little farther east and was trying to work some lift near a gravel pit. I was maintaining my altitude, but gaining very little. Joe came over and joined me, and together we found the lift and rode it up. I found another thermal just before reaching highway 395 and rode it up to 10300 ft. I proudly announced my new personal altitude record. I was very happy to have the snow suit and bar mitts. Adam and Ken had managed to escape the clutches of the launch area and were now over 14000 ft at the radar domes.

I was trying to decide whether to try for the radar domes or just head down Trona Road with 10000 ft. Bill was flying nearby at about the same altitude and probably wondered the same thing. I could see a few rock formations that I was hoping would be thermal triggers. So, I took my chances an pointed myself toward Trona. Bill made the same decision and we began our game of leap frog. I made it to one of the rock formations and did find some weak lift. At some point Joe's radio died, and I lost track of him. I was sure he had forged ahead and was waiting at the airport drinking a nice cup of coffee. It turns out that he had doubled back and was actually trailing Bill and me. I was able to gain 600 more feet to get to 8500. However, I then encountered a long stretch of sink. Malury had reported that he found lift by a small, rocky hill criss-crossed with motorcycle tracks (which I hereby dub Malury's Motorcycle Mountain). It was right next to the road, so I pointed myself toward it and hoped. I would fly over it, and, if there was no lift, I would land on the other side. I announced that I thought I would be landing soon. I was down to about 500 AGL on the downwind side of the hill picking out my runway when my vario stopped squealing. And...could it be...yes! It BEEPED!!! Quick, turn, turn. Not too steep! Don't fall out! Oh please, oh please. I started creeping up at 50 fpm, or less.

I was doing my best to stay in the lift, and I was slowly drifting downwind toward Bill. Bill had made it within a mile or two of the gap where the road goes into Trona. By the time I reached him I had gained about 500 ft and was back up to an amazing 4300 ft. I joined Bill in his thermal, and the arial ballet began. Round and round and round it goes.... We were going up slowly but steadily. The higher we got the better the lift was. We knew we would need some altitude to get through the gap, since there didn't appear to be anywhere to land as you pass through it. Suddenly, at 8 or 9 thousand feet Bill stopped climbing. He started feeling ill and made the decision to land. A wise choice and, I'm sure, a difficult one. I'm certain he would have made it with me to the airport if he had been able to continue. I continued climbing to 11900 ft. I thought about doing a couple of more 360s to try for 12K, but I really wanted out of my knee hanger. I proudly announced my new personal altitude record. Somewhere during all of this Ken was landing at the airport. Malury bagan to urgently coax him off the runway because a C-130 was approaching. The C-130 appeared to be practicing approaches. Fortunately, the pilot saw the glider steered clear so as not to flip Ken over.

I pressed through the gap and turned north along the eastern edge of the foothills. I stopped a couple of times to tank up to 10K. I reached a point directly west of the airport at an altitude of 8500 ft. It looked like an easy glide the rest of the way. Thinking that I was still at the south end of town, Joe advised that if I had about 11K, I could make the glide in. I had heard chatter earlier about the final stretch being difficult, so who am I to doubt the master. Wax on. Wax off. I started climbing again when Adam spotted me, and the new advice was “stop climbing and get down here.� I reached the airport at about 4100 ft AGL. I started thinking about that C-130, and I didn't want to linger too long above the airport. Joe told me of a technique for a really fast spiral dive. I did a few turns, but decided I didn't want to make it all this way only to puke on the runway. That one will take some getting used to.

I landed in the middle of a long, wide, flat, smooth runway and taxied over to the breakdown area. There was quite a welcoming committee. By then, all of the pilots and chase vehicles were there. Joe made me stand there in my now very warm snow suit for pictures, and several pilots swarmed my glider and had it broken down before I could even get out of my harness. I highly recommend the Trona airport. The service is excellent.

So, a day full of personal bests that may take me a while to beat. A person could get hooked on this.

Flight distance: 40 miles
Flight duration: 3 hours 55 minutes
Altitude: 11900 ft.
Continuous altitude gain: 8400 ft.


This was my one sided view of the days events. I invite the other participants to put their spin on it.

Also, a big thank you to Irwin and Jacquie for chasing after us.

Tom

Congrats, Tom. Good account.

Tom C wrote:..........I highly recommend the Trona airport. The service is excellent............

Not as good as your baking, I'm sure! Outstanding performance there, Tom! I have thermalled with you many times over the past 9 months at Kagel and your perseverance and coring accomplishments come as no surprise to me. So, when are you going to work on your RLF and fly with us in the Falcon League?
Mazel Tov!
Jonathan

That was a very very exciting flight account ,I wish I could have been there .11,900 WoW you did great Tom -great flying buddy .

OSCAR wrote:That was a very very exciting flight account ,I wish I could have been there..........

Next year it will be you writing the account, Oscar!

Great to hear your side Tom, It was really a great day for us and others! I had not a clue that we would have such flights yesterday! Of course I didn't ride along with Joe or any of the other pilots to hear discussion of what might be in store for us!
Some highlights (and lows) for me yesterday:
* After marveling at a handful of other pilots that launched and immediately climbed higher than I anticipated reaching the entire day I launched... only to drift on down the ridge missing all the lift that seemed to take the others beyond my reach... After dropping fairly low I hear Joe direct me to head toward the LZ... OMG! I am going to have a sled ride... I hear my GF Jacquie call to me on the radio and in an attempt to be sweet let me and everyone else know that I could ride with her on chase the rest of the day.
* I searched the area near the LZ finding mild lift but nothing to sustain me. As I hear Irwin and Jacquie on the radio discussing my helping her on chase I hit a thermal that started mild and lifted me for a few minutes at 1 to 200 fpm and as I rose amazingly beyond 5, 6 and 7k feet the thermal widened and the lift improved and I was able to announce that I may not be able to assist in the chase after all!
* Unwilling to take any chances on losing this gift, I rose beyond my personal best as I heard Tom report his triumphantly as well... everything above 7k was new!
* Joe asked me my altitude and I was proudly able to let him know I was over 10k feet..... to my surprise he informed me that I was ready to head East...... Wow! I was suddenly nervous as most of the other pilots had left the area ahead of me and some had even landed a few miles from the LZ.
* I mostly watched and listened as pilots reported their positions as I slowly moved East in search of pilots I could fly with...
* Passing over some of the pilots I had hoped to fly with I started thinking I was certainly going to lose lift and was looking for possible LZ's.
* I continued to find pockets of lift and managed to rise from 4k plus to 7 and 8k a few times before reaching Tom nearly at the 395/Rand junction.
* Joe showed up and and we worked nearby thermals moving to and from the lift we saw the others using.
* Tom decided to move on over the 395 and lost lift pretty quickly. I followed but paused in pockets of lift to try and maintain some altitude before moving on... I ended up straggling behind everyone for a while. I met up with Tom and we spent some time sharing very limited lift.
* I am pretty sure Malury saved us both by pointing out some hills that kept him going in that area.
* Tom and I were struggling and we were both pretty sure he was about to land as he dropped below what appeared to be under 1000 AGL for probably his and my second or third time.... I struggled in light lift over Malury's motorcycle hills watching to see Tom land so I could report his location....
* To our disbelief he scratched in some nearly unmeasurable lift and maintained about 5k as i sunk to another low approx 500AGL and suddenly hit some mild lift once again and found Tom moving near me and we started our rise slowly and then quickly beyond 7k once again.
* Unfortunately I became lightheaded and feared I was going to pass out as I heard Tom announed 9k feet I announced to our chase car that I had to land...
* Ironically I actually had to fight to get down now. Steve, BJ and Alex were aware of my distress and were kind enough to point out potential dangers in my selected LZ and even made suggestions as I landed.
* I can't tell you how much I appreciate Steve, BJ and Alex for their unwavering actions to come to me, ensure I was well, and began breaking down my glider while I rested.
* I am certain those of you with XC experience already know the feeling of comraderie and appreciation you have with the chase team as they track you, discuss the lay of the land, encourage your progress and assist you once you have landed. This was my first experience with this and truly one of the best experience of the day!
Of course going possibly 30 miles cross country and to nearly 11k feet in a flight over 3 hours was pretty fantastic too!!!

It was great flying with you all and I appreciate the efforts by all the pilots positive comments and assistance!

I am very excited about the La Salina trip and look forward to more new and exciting experiences with all that are able to go!

Great job everyone! I can see the smiles you must have had on that adventure.

Great job, Tom! You and Bill were scrappers. You never gave up. Awesome flights for both of you, and you showed us what an H-2 on an F-3 can really do! YEAH!

Feel free to lead the way next XC!

NMERider wrote:

OSCAR wrote:That was a very very exciting flight account ,I wish I could have been there..........

Next year it will be you writing the account, Oscar!

YOU BET Jonathan Doesn't anyone have any video or photos of the Garlock flight to post and Bill you did real good 30 miles & 11,000 ft that's fantastic I'm sorry to hear you got light headed and had to land may be it was the altitude any way great flying dude.looking forward to flying with you guys soon

Here is Tom's tracklog in 3D animation w/ soundtrack of my choice

http://vimeo.com/4866614

Be sure to watch in full screen or download the full res wmv file.

Good flying, guys!

And Tom's story was quite well written. I smiled at all the appropriate parts.

I remember some of my "personal bests" from my early flying career. Fewer of those happen later, of course. But enough. Like the time a year and a half ago when I flew over my own house for the first time. Not as cool as personal altitude best, but still fun. There's always more fun things to do.

I'm glad you all had such great flights.

Thanks for posting Tom's flight. Just amazing to watch and appreciate the amount of work it took to make goal. BZ.

That was really amazing to watch. thanks for sharing Tom's flight info.

Can someone tell me what relation the path colors have to the altitude he was flying? I don't know the color coding keys. \
Thanks

Need more information!

If I'm going to be jealous (and I am) - I need to know everyone that I am jealous of. I would like to know everyone that went and how far (approx.) each person got.

Trona on a Falcon - I haven't made it that far in a double-surface glider!

Don

NMERider wrote:So, when are you going to work on your RLF and fly with us in the Falcon League?

I think I'll wait until I can hit the numbers every time before I start thinking RLF.

TomS wrote:Congrats, Tom. Good account.

Thanks Tom

OSCAR wrote:That was a very very exciting flight account ,I wish I could have been there .11,900 WoW

Keep on flying Oscar. That day comes quicker than you think.

billbrick wrote:Great to hear your side Tom,...

Thanks for posting your version, too. I didn't realize that you had also gotten as low as 500 AGL. I get so wrapped up in what I'm doing at the moment, it's hard to remember what I did five minutes ago, let alone what anyone else did five minutes ago. I think that's why I lost track of Joe. I've got to work on that.

jwjanda wrote:Great job everyone! I can see the smiles you must have had on that adventure.

Thanks. My face hurts from smiling so much.

Steve90266 wrote:Great job, Tom! You and Bill were scrappers. You never gave up. Awesome flights for both of you, and you showed us what an H-2 on an F-3 can really do! YEAH!

Falcons rule the air! Thanks Steve. It was great flying with you and all the others. And your support when you joined the chase team was fantastic. There was a point, while I was scratching, and my knee hanger was killing me, when I started thinking "maybe I'll just land here." Then a voice came on the radio and said something like "keep it up Tom. This is exciting." The sore knees just faded from my mind, and I was ready to keep going. Thanks to whoever said that.

NMERider wrote:Here is Tom's tracklog in 3D animation w/ soundtrack of my choice

Very cool Jonathan. Thanks.

stebbins wrote:Good flying, guys!

And Tom's story was quite well written. I smiled at all the appropriate parts.

Thanks George. It was fun writing it. The hard part was untangling the jumble of memories in my head. I think I got things mostly in the right order.

billbrick wrote:That was really amazing to watch. thanks for sharing Tom's flight info.

I think the lowest point is deep red, and the highest point is deep blue in rainbow order. The low point would be the airport at a little over 1700 ft, and the highest would be around 11900 ft.

Tom,

Great flight, and so soon in your flying career! I thought I had a few more years before having to worry about you as competition in the Dahlsten Cup!

Tom is truly the star aviator on this excursion but I was there and I made it to goal too. I got to 7 k over Garlock but lost the lift. Crossing the canyon to the east I arrived low. (my classic mistake) Greblo saw me scratching low in the canyons and wondered and worried who was the dummy down there. I assured him I had a glide out to Eric's LZ.

I saw a young hawk and got over him. That saved my whole day and took me to new personal best elevations. It was so awesome hooking into that invisible elevator.

Heading for the radar domes, I caught up to Tom, Bill, Ken and Adam and Joe Greblo. Topping out at my best ever 12350 msl I set out east for Searls Dry Lake which I had on visual.

Ten miles of thermal free air took me to 4300 at the T junction. I'm glad those guys found lift behind me at the motorcycle hill cause it didn't do much for me. They needed it on Falcons. Getting up to only about 6500 I shot the pass, worrying about LZs but there was a sandy river bed and other spots to land.

I didn't do too well in the foothills west of Trona and expected to land there.
After a long time the lift started and I had a decent shot at the airport. 6000 msl at best. Setting out across the desert floor, it was bouyant! Wow! did it ever feel good to gain the confidence for the final to the airport.
Arriving 1500 over the north end of the airport I began lolling about, enjoying certain success.

I watched Ken land mid field and then I watched a big C-130 approaching the uncontrolled field. Ken began to carry his glider across the runway. Runway Incursion!!! I broadcasted "Ken, there is a big plane landing right now. Get your ASS off that runway! Move to your left right now!" I probably over-reacted as the huge plane did not land and was not as low as it looked from my perspective.

I made a decent landing after 3 hours and 20 minutes beaming smiles like a beacon.

I want to thaaank everyone who ever offered me any advice. I used it! And a special thank you to Joe Greblo, Andy Beem, Paul Thornbury, Hungary Joe Szalai, Eric, Don, Jeff, Fredrick and Richard.
If you are reading this then you must be a mentor to me and I thank you too.
What a great club.

Nice account Malury congratulations on your personal best 12350 msl thats great man

Tom, I think you have the unique distinction of having flown more miles in one flight than you have logged hours. It sounds like some kind of record. Of course the people flying with you deserve some of that credit like a pit crew helps a nascar driver. Having an instructor there for advice and training is priceless.

Your gps animation looked great. I know you've landed at several sites but some one mentioned you haven't had RLF training. So, in a way you were like a kamikaze pilot who was not trained to land in order to ensure he reaches his goal/destination . Seriously, great job!

Doug

Malury wrote:.............I was there and I made it to goal too..............What a great club.

Great report Malury and fine flying. I'm coming to you for coaching from now on.