Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

My flight on Sunday was a kick. Got up right away at the saddle and plodded my way down the Sierras, at first between 10 and 12, then after awhile between 11 and 14K without any real hang-ups. After not hearing Gran'ts laconic, monotonic altitude and position reports for awhile, I found I was not in radio contact with anyone. I assumed my battery had died but found out later that I had either knocked the plug out, or bumped the volume switch when I was fumbling for my O2 switch. Things were going too well though, to use that lame excuse to land.

The Westerlies were above us the whole time and by the time I got to Tinemaha reservoir, they had worked their way down and spit me off rather low. I headed for Grant's private campground where there is room to land just to the west of it, hoping for some help to make it to those elk fields along 395. Circling it, I picked up some zero sink and milked it unitl I could make those fields, but it kept up and my optimism was improving. By the time it fizzled I thought I could make Klondike. When I got there I found a better one that took me to 10K before it was done, giving me an easy connection to Black Mt.

It took me some time to get high along the Whites and I was half way down before I found something that took me to cloudbase somewhere above 17k. I was enjoying watching the sailplanes down below that were all over the valley that day. They were scooting all over the high country there, going in both directions. At that point I ran into the consequences of my second mistake of the day. Since I couldn't find the batteries I had brought, I never changed them in my vario that morning and now it went dark. I continued feeling my way downrange, not making many turns, though I did manage to catch one nice thermal that took me back up to maybe 13 or 14k. Continuing a run along the front side for all I could make, I still thought I might be able to make Janie's, but around Boundary Peak, I ran into a NE wind that was wrapping around the range and found myself quickly flushed off into the valley. I headed for the little town I could see and found a huge pasture on it's south side where I put it down after about 5hr 45 min., fighting a turn all the way. 93 miles and my longest.

My apologies for driving everyone nuts trying to reach me on radio. But what was I supposed to do, give up a 93 mile flight to be polite? Not me.
greg