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30.10.2006
Fly Santa Barbara - Friday and Saturday


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


After a few days of east winds and marine influence the winds die down and go
off shore and on Friday we head back to the south facing hills/mountains above
Santa Barbara on the winding lane and a half of Gibraltar road. It's blowing up
when we get to launch, so we are encouraged, just as we are by the crystal clear
air (less crud from Los Angeles (Riverside's Revenge)).


While John Greynald, Robert Milligan, and Guy get up at the house thermal just
to the left of launch I miss it and have to work the antenna farm in my borrowed
Wills Wing Falcon 3 170 to the south east down the ridge line. The thermals are
small and irregular, but I work to 400' over launch. The air is punchy but
enjoyable.


I see Guy in a Falcon 3 170 thermaling below launch on the ridge to the right of
launch and decide to go over to join him. Robert and John are up on the
ridges above him.


I lose too much altitude getting to Guy and now not so sure about what it takes
to get to the Parma LZ, head out. The Parma LZ is a steep uphill LZ and I was
looking forward to a fly on the wall landing. The wind was light and the LZ was
easy. Guy landed there shortly afterwards. Robert was able to fly back to the
training hill at South Eelings Park which is near his home. He road his bike
back to his car at Parma.


On Saturday, many of the locals turned out for an afternoon of flying. I road up
to Parma with Robert leaving the truck at the beach. A dozen of us headed up the
hill not including the paraglider pilots who for the most part were already up
at launch.


Again it was coming up lightly and we set up quickly. The paraglider pilots were
getting up and we soon joined them. I launched second and again I had to go out
to the antenna farm, but it was harder to get up. Guy and I had really had to
work the point to stay up. A couple of hundred feet meant the difference between
being able to later land at the beach rather than Parma. I really wanted to make
it back to the beach and to my truck.


After a couple ups and downs I headed out for the beach while I was still high
enough. Guy would have to land at Parma. Many of the pilots came over and joined
Guy over the antennas. They were stuck below launch also. John and Robert got up
and up and down the ridge line. Almost everyone landed at the beach. Just
another terrible day in Paradise.


The lift conditions aren't as strong as they were last week when we first got
here. So pilots are not getting to 5,000'. Still there are plenty of challenges
to interest the pilots. The mountain range is huge and has lots of little nooks.
Being concerned about landing options is always necessary.


I notice that I've spent a lot of my time flying here circling. In fact, I've
had to make sure that I'm looking out at the horizon otherwise I've noticed
myself getting air sick looking at the hillside.


A couple of paraglider pilots came over to land at the beach and created quite
an impression when they landed in the wrong spot (falling into the ice plants
and one laying his glider over the bike lane). Skippy, the SBSA president, went
over to speak with them. She already wasn't happy with one of them as he had cut
her off in a thermal by reversing his turn. Other pilots were also not too happy
with the guy as he had flown back and forth in front of launch keeping them from
launching.


So was the guy just too new, too clueless, or what? I asked him why he didn't
look up the landing rules on the SBSA web site. He didn't have a good answer. He
did apologize later. His license plate was Dr. Air. Didn't seem really like a
graduate to me. I just wish new pilots would make the effort to learn the rules
of the road and cooperate with the local club.



http://OzReport.com/10.217.5
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