Wilson and Back Take 6-Shooting Fish in a Barrel 1/25/07
Max altitude 8100ft. Todal distance 40miles. Duration: 2 hours.
Before launching Phil said Let's try to go to Ojai. I said it's not a high enough day to do that. I want to got to Wilson. Ron wanted to run a comp route, "Kagel 3". In the air, when we topped out at something over 7K, I said I'm going to Wilson. Ron and Phil did Kagel 3..
I glided straight to Lukens and got there at 2:15. I thermaled to 7500ft and headed east. The San Gabriel Valley looked clearer than normal. So I felt pretty good about doing this. Past hwy 2, it was the Bumpiest glide over to Brown I've had. It felt more like sink than turbulence.
Soon as I hit the main peak at Brown, BAM back to 7K. I left it not really needing that much altitude. As I flew along the ridge from Brown towards Echo Pk,, it was so buoyant that I actually was climbing in places. As soon as I came up to Echo Pk., BAM back up to 7K. This was really too easy. I can't believe how ballistic this is. It was also really cold at the top. My lips were getting a little numb. I was having trouble talking clearly when other pilots called on the radio for a progress report.
From Echo Pk., I flew over Eaton Canyon to Mt. Harvard. Now I was a little on the low side. I think I was about 500ft over the towers. There's a bunch of new towers out front of the Wilson launch now. Again as soon as I was over the towers, BAM back to 7500ft. I drifted back with the thermal over the Wilson launch and considered gliding over some of the telescopes behind launch. Then I glided along the ridge line, back to the west.
I Flew over the giant 1,000ft tall radio tower furthest west of Wilson. When I passed by the tower I was about 200ft over the top of it. It has little spiky things all around it just like the bird pokers on a billboard.
This was so easy that I was relaxed enough to go out of my way to do some sight seeing. I continued along the main ridge line and considered trying to catch another thermal over Mt. Disappointment. but I decided I was too low and came in to Mt Markham about 500ft above it. BAM back to 7100ft
I headed back down the ridge line to Brown. BAM back to 7500ft and I have a 5mph west wind. No problem on the glide back to Lukens. In fact, of all the times I've done this below 9000ft, this was the highest I've gotten back to Lukens. The Lukens ridge line is buoyant as hell and on the east side of the towers. BAM I'm going up so fast. (This was the best thermal of the day.) I caught it at about 5400ft and I topped out in about 2 minutes at 8100ft It was so fast I thought at first that it must be by 6100ft. But I was way too high for that.
I was going to do an out front glide coming back to Kagel, but the sink in front of Lukens was bad enough that I cut in to Big T to join up with Phil, Ron and Seabass. It's pretty exciting to fly in a new place with a different view.