Pine Mountain!

Driving through coastal fog today was a cool way to start the drive up to Pine Mt and try to get high and go big. 

The SoCal league was there to give it a go as well. The first pilots got up and specked out at around 11am. I got out there and was at 11k in no time.  As we crossed the badlands several got low but it seemed most everyone made it to the Lockwood Valley.

From there I suspect a few landed and some made the truck stop LZ turn point. It was pumping at Frazier Mt. And cumulus began to pop all around. I flew back with Ron who had a harrowing yet ultimately safe landing involving strong gusty winds, dust devils and power lines so he could land next to Bob. Tom was there in no time to pick them up, having landed earlier, hitched back to his car at the sand pile LZ and raced out to scoop is all up. After Ron's ordeal, I opted to speck out and try to fly back to Ojai and succeeded.

It was going off everywhere now so climbing to 14k was easy on the way back. 

Looking back it was hard not to continue on to the desert and chase Stephan who was way out there trying to make it to the Owens valley. 

I had to go fetch my kids from Grandma's house anyway so this was actually the perfect outcome for me. 

The glide was 7:1 and it only got easier.  

My landing was windy and turbulent right as I touched down but it was a soft landing and grassy for packing.  The guys on retrieve are kindly picking up my truck on top and driving it back to me here at the school where we met this am. 

Ta dahhh!

Landed near 3 pm and could have thrown in with Chris with FlyAboveAll, who was loading his suburban for the glass off. Instead he called winds via radio for my landing (thanks a ton!) and I opted to let my truck come to me to save time. Thanks Tom, Ron, and Bob for the flying fun and for driving back my truck. 

Looks like the glass off could be huge 

Time to relax in the shade.  

Cheers,

Marty