Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

Good point! Once you get there check the message board, if there are no messages, leave one and let everyone know where to find you. Hopefully we'll have rough head count by Wednesday evening so we know how many spots we need (based on two cars per site).

I will get out cell numbers to those who have sent them to me czumpft@singular.com just in case so you can contact folks while on the road if necessary.

Once there, we can use our radios to some degree. Let's agree on a frequency (probably the standard club would be easy to remember). Don's right though. I was incommunicado all week end last year.

I,m going to be on 147.5550 the whole trip.We will be leaving early Thursday for Hearst castle.& anyplace else that looks interesting along the way arriving at the camp grounds Thursday night or Friday morning.Have a safe trip and we'll see you there.

Oscar & Suai

BJ called and left me a message at 8am this morning saying he has secured sites 10 and 11 at Plaskett and expects to get site 12 tomorrow morning.

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OP wrote:http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/4874/img0557k.jpg

Great photo! I hope the trip was a success.

Some of my pictures from the Big Sur trip can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 ... 12a648fd02

What a successful trip! It was great to see so many people in attendance. Someone told me we had around 40 people in the camp site! It was great.

Special thanks to BJ, Cindy, Joe G., for making the trip such an enjoyable and easy experience. I know the entire group appreciates all the hard work you people put into this. More thanks to Richard Shaw's wife, Kat for being such a great trooper and carting us up and down the mountain. She's become a real pro at 4 wheel driving. I think she's getting ready for the Baja 500.

Anyway, it was great. Thanks!

BJ you are the King seeing you were flying all above as,I think you reached 14 K. easily, and thanks for all the food you provided for everybody it was excellent,you that man and I don't care what your girlfriend says about you .
And special thanks to Joe for organizing the trip every year, it is a beautiful place to fly, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYGxm1OU4zI

Wow what an amazing video.

I just solo'd last week and hope I will be at a point to fly big sur next year. Looks liek I may end up selling all of my rock climbing gear to buy HG gear..

Marc

What a great trip! I counted a total of 26 glider pilots, and who knows how many family members. In first name alphabetical order, here's the pilots:
1. Adam Newman
2. Alex Wright
3. Bill Brick
4. BJ Strand
5. Brandon Peterson
6. Chris Armenta
7. Chris Vorhee
8. Dion Rezael
9. Eric Browne
10. Erica Klein
11. Jay Janda
12. Jim Heaton
13. Joe Greblo
14. Joseph Vandertol
15. Joey Fresquez
16. Kris Greblo
17. Larry Chamberlee
18. Malury Silberman
19. Max Wagner
20. Mike Ivey
21. Orion Price
22. Oscar Arias
23. Richard Shaw
24. Rob Sherwood
25. Steve Murillo
26. Tom Casper

Everyone had good flights and some even made it above launch. On Sunday, Joe Greblo taught the more advanced the fine art of top landing. All in all, no injuries, no broken down tubes, no forest fires, nice camping sites, nice people, and warm campfires! This trip rocked! Special thanks to Joe Greblo and Cindia Klein for organizing. Also thank you to all the drivers and families that supported us pilots. There's too many to list.

Here's another group photo from 700 feet above launch.

And the zoomed in photo.

Here's the events as best as I can remember them:

Laura and I arrived late Wednesday. The next day, Thursday, we reserved 4 campsites at 7:00 in the morning. By 8:00 am, Plaskett Creek was full. We spent Thursday guarding our campsites from the bloodthirsty vultures. Thursday night Alex, Oscar, and Oscar's wife Suai joined us. We had a nice evening gathered around the campfire as Alex and I recounted last year's Big Sur adventure to Oscar. Somewhere around 3:00 am, Adam Newman arrived in his diesel truck, towing a trailer with a Harley Davidson. Friday morning saw the arrival of Rob Sherwood, his girlfriend Julieanna, plus the arrival of Jim Heaton and Joey Fresquez.

We decided to go for a flight. I was first off, followed by Adam. Alex was next, who straight off caught a thermal and climbed above launch! Adam and I watched from the ground, cursing our luck; we were of course happy for Alex though. Rob, Jim and Joey eventually followed with sled runs as well.

Friday night everyone started arriving, and I mean everyone! We were soon faced with a logistics nightmare of finding parking. Where there was 2 place parking spots, we managed to fit at least 4 cars. It was exciting to see so many people.

Saturday morning we started up the hill for the first run of the day. It was lightly blowing down, but we set up anyway. Eventually it started blowing in. After some hemming, hawing, pushing, a wind dummy volunteered himself. Off he went, and miraculously, he started going up! Since it was a bozo H2 pilot, you can rest assured that it wasn't skill that eventually got him 700 feet above launch for a 40 minute flight. Unfortunately, almost every glider after him went straight down. The only exception being Mike Ivey who caught a portion of the little lift left and also made it above launch. After this flight, some pilots went for a second, some went back to camp.

Due to the large number of pilots, we had 4 campfires going Saturday night. Some had mashmallows, some had smores, and some had Dion's rotisserie cooked lamb meet. Delicious!!!

Sunday morning we packed up our tents and went for a final flight. Joe Greblo taught those willing and advanced enough how to top land. Then it was time to go home. Extremely fun and relaxing trip. Good times had by all!

this was a great trip! had to be there to appreciate the beauty of the area and experience the antics that happened throughout the weekend!
Thanks to all who helped to make this so great!
Organizers, drivers, provision providers, cooks, and really to everyone that was there supporting the pilots, sharing their own personalities and experiences.
Some went on after Sunday to fly in other coastal sites. It would be cool to hear how they went...