This day looked promising by 10 AM when we saw small cumulus clouds begin to develop high above the mountain range. There were three us planing to fly that day, Chris, Bill, and Jeff. We arrived at launch about noon, and noticed we were alone! (surprizing for such a good looking weekend day). The sky was littered with the white remnants from the wasted energy of rising air columns.
Pine Mt. launch is just under 7000 feet above sea level (MSL), overlooking the Transverse Range, and the Channel Islands off the coast from Santa Barbara, Ca, in the distance. The terrain in front of launch is rugged, dry scrub, mountains with a dry river wash that can be landed in if you are forced down. It is much better to get a few hundred feet above launch and go over the back. There are miles of fields that are usually easily reached. Following the road that heads east to Lockwood Valley, there is a stretch of 'badlands' that rise from about 4000 ft MSL to about 7500 ft MSL. There is vitually no place to land, due to the steeply eroded, mangled ridges. They are 8-10 miles across, so a hang glider pilot needs to be 5000 feet above the top to safely cross this barrier without enormous concern. (This means 12,000+ feet!) (Please note: Pine Mtn. is an advanced hang gliding site, a pilot MUST have cross country experience before flying there).
We took our time setting up because we soon realized this could be a dangerous day. The wind was maybe 5-10 mph, straight in, but every once in a while a huge dustdevil would come through and faintly outline a small whirlwind up to the clouds! Once, a dustdevil out in front of launch was so strong it sucked the wind at 20 mph from the opposite direction! Launching near that would mean sure disaster.
Finally Bill launched first, easily floating upwards until he was comfortably above the top of the ridge. After several minutes Bill reported some turbulence that was kicking him around so he decided to go over the back and head to the start of the badlands. At about that time Chris launched and slowly gained a couple of thousand feet, way below the base of the clouds. Several minutes later, Jeff launched and immediatly hit a booming thermal. He quickly climbed to Chris's level, who by this time was flying as fast as he could to get into Jeff's air. Several minutes later, they began commenting to each other that the air was getting pretty nippy above 13,000 ft! Unfortunately by this time, Bill was on the ground.
We were in smooth, steady lift, and VERY high, so we started drifting east, towards Frazier Mtn. (8000 ft MSL) 20 miles away. After several miles and dropping to less than 11,000 feet we had to decide whether we should drift towards Lockwood Valley and go around the North side of Frazier Mtn. or hope we hit lift deep in a wilderness area with no roads. Luckily our decision was made for us when we once again found an elevator going up. As I was climbing through 14,000 ft, a jetliner went cruising directly over me by about 1500 feet!
We had drifted a mile or more apart in this frigid air, each entranced in the magic of the situation. The veiw was tremendous, the shrouded central valley to the north gave way to the high Sierra further east. Our destination, directly east, was the Antelope Valley of the Mojave Desert. To the south were a couple of reservoirs, nestled in the mountains north of Ventura. To the west was the vast, rugged landscape of the transverse range, and Cuyama Valley. Two unending lines slashed diagonally through this scene, one manmade, one natural, both intersecting at the NE base of Frazier Mtn. Interstate-5 is the main North-South corridor in CA. Just north of Frazier this 10 to 12 lane super highway drops almost 4000 feet in Grapevine Canyon into the Central Valley. The conductor of the scene was the San Andreas Fault, which traces a straight line from the SE, into a gentle curve to the NW. It has been the relentless lurching of the oceanic Pacific Plate along this margin of the continental North American Plate, that has provided the mountains for this flight.
Normally, Frazier Mtn is a stepping stone for Easterly destinations, and must be approached from the west or north because Lockwood Valley provides the only place to land in this direction. This day we skipped the badlands and Frasier Mtn itself. I was well south of it at 15,300 ft MSL, still several hundred feet below cloudbase. It was at this point that I noticed the clouds virtually disappear east of I-5. The wind appeared to be blowing from the west or NW in the Mojave so I just continued flying downwind and hoped I would encounter lift somewhere. I passed Quail Lake (east of I-5, about 30+ miles from launch) at about 8000 feet. I flew over what little ridges that existed along the flight path, but the lift was gone. I followed the main road east, flying at best glide. The air was smooth and as I got lower, I began studying the flat terrain for a safe landing area. The roads and fields all are lined with barbed wire fencing and power lines. There are also sets of main trunk lines for the West coast power grid criss-crossing the valley.
My chosen field drifted under me when I was 100 feet above the ground. The wind was blowing about 15-20 from the west, so I needed to turn 180 degrees to land. About a half mile up the road, I noticed an 18 wheeler heading towards me. I pulled the bar in and dove straight at him! This, of coarse, caught his attention and he slowed down. Then before getting close to the power lines, I sharply turned into the wind and had an easy, no-step landing, 55 miles and about 2 hours from launch. A little while later, Jeff drifted overhead about 1000 feet. He was able to land almost 60 miles from launch. That was really fun!
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