http://ozreport.com/data/SantaBarbaraarea.kmz


On Thursday we went up to the Eliminator launch with our local guide, USHPA
regional director, John Greynald, Kipp and Lee Kahn. Terry Tigard and JR were
already there and Scott Angel would get there just as I launched. The Eliminator
launch is at three thousand feet most of the way up Rattlesnake Canyon on
Gibraltar road. Check out the Google Earth place markers in the file a few lines
up.


The south facing mountains behind and north of Santa Barbara are high, over one
thousand feet over the Eliminator launch, and that's the point. Their purpose in
our hang gliding life is to block the Santa Ana winds, any off shore flow, and
allow for the thermals in front on the south face to rise undisturbed up through
launch.


The point here seems to be that you want the winds over the back (from the
north) because that keeps the cool air from the water (the marine influence)
away from the hills that are being nicely warmed up by the sun. Then when the
hills get nice and toasty you launch off into the thermals and climb up in them
until they hit the winds coming over the back. If you've picked the good day,
apparently, the winds are light (less than 60 mph) and you don't get tossed
around quite so much at the shearing layer.


John told us that it had been a little rough on Wednesday when he got to 5,200'
in his demo Wills Wing T2 - 144, but he is at the bottom of the weight range. He
told me that he liked he glider, even better than his Laminar.


The winds were light on Thursday but still I have to admit I was a little
spooked by this "launching into a rotor" talk. Sure conditions were great on
launch, but what happens when you get up over the top, which you can do quite
quickly. Of course, you are not really launching into a rotor, at least we
weren't on Thursday.


We met John at his house down in town near the bottom of Rattlesnake Canyon near
the Botanical Gardens and followed him up five minutes to the Parma Park LZ.
This is a hillside landing area in deep thistles, not exactly the most inviting
landing area, but one that definitely presents the hang glider pilot with a
challenge, if that's what they are looking for. John pushes for pilots to land
there to keep current on their restricted field landing skills. Most locals opt
for the beach. That was my option also.


We walked the LZ, noting the boulders and the wind streamers, and the aluminum
graveyard upper LZ before heading up in John's Eliminator shuttle vehicle. With
Belinda riding shotgun we got a great view of Santa Barbara and the coast was we
wound up this former training road for the Discovery team, lead at that time by
Lance Armstrong. It was a pretty constant elevation gain with few cars and lots
of repair work going on mostly at night apparently. Perfect for hard core
cyclists.


As you can see from the Google Earth view (you have turned that on by now,
right?), the launch is just at a bend in the road. The launch itself is just a
small earthen mound. You park just a few feet up the road past the launch.
Plenty of room. The paraglider launch is to the left.


It's a clear launch with streamers around to give you an idea of the wind. The
setup area is well protected behind it. You run down a short bare area. John
says that no one has blown a launch here in years. No matter how badly they
launch.


John told me that the house thermal was just to the left of launch over the
paraglider launch. I was almost the last person to launch and I noticed that
while most of the pilots tried to get up there none did. I went over there and
sure enough there was a sporadic thermal and I just turned the easy to fly Wills
Wing Falcon 3 170 and up I went to 500 feet over launch. John launched after me
in the WW T2 144 and even he didn't get up in the thermal. Maybe all those
pilots with the topless gliders have trouble turning in little thermals.


After I got up I went over to the west, the right to the next ridge line. I had
been told that single surface gliders didn't go over there (at least until they
got up over launch) as they could get trapped behind the ridge line in a west
wind. Which reminds me, why is this launch called the Eliminator?


Well because in the days that people were flying standards from it (and perhaps
landing at the postage stamp LZ straight down below) they had a clear shot out
to Parma, but then Con Edison put in high tension power lines going across the
canyon, and the pilots in standards were cut off and this launch was eliminated
from their launch spots. The high tension wires would eliminate them if they
weren't too careful.


So I had to be sure that I made it over the wires also in my little low
performance hang glider. But I had no problem as I was plenty high enough when I
got over in front of (south of) the ridge to the west and found even better
thermals. In fact they were so good that I kept leaving them as I was getting
too high too fast for comfort given the discussion about turbulence and over the
back winds. I really didn't need to be so concerned as it turned out.


The mountains rise up above me and they form quite a long east/west ridge line
with lots of tiger country behind them. The longest flight from here is 100
miles east back to Palmdale. Other long flights have gone north west to Santa
Maria. John and the other pilots were racing up and down the ridge line going 50
mph plus over the ground when coming back from the west, while I was
bobbing up and down along the lower ridges.


There was lots of good strong lift and the air wasn't turbulent. It was pretty
easy to find the lift and stay in it. I was a little concerned in a single
surface glider in case the wind was quite strong, but at 15 mph out of the west,
it seemed manageable.


I tried to stay low and work the lift off the ridge lines. After a while I
hopped over to the east ridge to try out that side but got low enough that I
headed out away from the mountains and over town. Near highway 101 I found more
lift and thermaled up again and again over a small hill at about 1000' AGL right
near the ocean. With the offshore flow I wasn't feeling the ocean's effect.


Finally I headed for the east beach, next to the Fess Parker Resort. It is a
huge long and wide beach with few people on it. There were some kite boarders on
the west end so I stayed away from them, but there wasn't enough wind to get
them out in the water.


What a great beach to land at. This is apparently the only major city that
allows folks to fly in and land on their public beach. The local club worked for
years to get it open, and it has been working this way for the last two years.


I circled in and landed at the east end of east beach with a perfect landing in
a nine mile per hour wind keeping the glider and the base tube off and out of
the sand. It was easy to take it over to the grass breakdown area across the
bike path.


Everyone else landed there also and we took John back to his car at Parma. A
good day was had by all with lots of racing on the mountain tops. Perhaps I'll
be ready to go cross country on my next flight here.


The Forest Service has closed the road to Mt. Pinos day and two other launches
around Ojai as a result of the Day fire. I hear that there is one open launch
site some where out there perhaps in the burned area, perhaps not.