The winds were light. I met up with Dingo in the parking lot, he had about 20 minutes of work remaining. Eric & Eric a couple of new guys showed up & I gave them a quick rundown of the site. Don't land in this area, stay out of the water, these are the launch sites, watch out for these rotors. Don't get blown back. It was a quick site intro.
Dingo finished his work & we decided there was no reason to sit around in the parking lot. It is better to go for a sled ride from the church instead of sitting around waiting for the winds to pick up. Although Dingo kept a good attitude about the winds I didn't think they would pick up in time for us to fly. One of my biggest indications was the birds, flapping their wings as they flew by.
We headed off to the church, JJ joining us. The winds seemed perfect up top. My immediate thought was it's perfect, time to fly! Dingo & JJ had their safety briefing while I spread the wing out & launched. I immediately hit sink & headed to the north facing bowl. An earlier flight indicated that it was west at the launch but immediately turned north once you got away from the wall. Sure enough I hit a bit of lift, not much but enough to get my wing even with the cliff. Hitting no more lift I headed back towards Mussel Rock scratching as close as possible. My thoughts were that the guys would not launch but then as I got away from their sight of view I hit booming lift. I turned around & the lift got stronger. My wing was even with the cliff again & before I knew it I was above the cliff and power lines. I headed straight for Dingo & JJ hooting & hollering all the way. As I went past them I realized that the winds were stronger & very northy. I headed away from the cliff, power lines, homes & streets, all the dangers that lurk behind launch.
It was cold when I suddenly realized I left my gloves in my harness. There seemed to be plenty of lift. Dingo & JJ geared up & launched. I was a good 300 feet above launch by this time. The cliff is about 600 feet putting me at about 900 feet AGL. I blew hot air into my hands as they became increasingly colder, believing I would have to cut the flight short I headed out to sea all the while climbing. I don't recall bumpy air on the way up. Suddenly everything became quite, the air became smooth & I felt a definite change in temperature. Temperature inversion I immediately thought. Lift was everywhere. It didn't matter where I flew I was climbing. I had entered a blue shear.
With the warm air my cold hands were no longer a problem. The air was clear, there was not a cloud in sight. JJ climbed to my altitude & headed south. It was the weirdest experience watching JJ climb in big ears. I followed him but at about the parking lot I noticed a shift in temperature. It became increasingly cold & I could see JJ, no longer in big ears, sinking ahead of me. I turned around & headed back into the warm air rising along with it. JJ continued south making it to the trailer park before turning around & setting down at Cheeta. Dingo & I continued flying out to sea. It was much safer than sitting right over the cliffs. The winds picked up enough that I pulled out the speed bar & for the remainder of the flight tested my forward penetration. I tried flying to Ft Funston as I would have loved to fly over it at above 1000 feet but the winds seemed very strong & although I was penetrating I was moving forward extremely slow. I tried finding the north end of the cold air but decided to stay within the safety of the dumps & the rising warm air all around me.
The view was fantastic, the air smooth & warm. Although I didn't have an altimeter I along with those at the parking lot came to the conclusion that I was easily at the class b airspace limit. Looking back I could see the 3 Crystal Springs Reseviours, all of downtown San Francisco and a tiny edge of Treasure Island. Dingo made it to my altitude then started spiraling. I couldn't figure out why he would leave the smooth warm air & continue flying. The sun was easily up for another 30 - 45 minutes. I watched him spiral all the way down, setup for landing & land. I was the only one flying at this point. The winds below were extremely light therefore nobody could take off from the dumps. Later I would find out that Dingo's speedbar broke & thus the reason for his spiraling out of the strong winds.
It was extremely quiet. My only concern was that I was at the bottom limit of the SFO class b airspace. I watched for airliners taking off from SFO not finding any sign of activity on the runways or taxiways. Although I could hear the low hum of an airline engine, scanning the horizon I didn't notice any airplanes. I then caught myself looking around for an airliner before realizing it was just the sound of my lines cutting through the air. It sounded like an airliner in the distance, complete with changes in the sound of the engines. I later realized this was my wing speeding up & slowing down.
First I felt a few bumps then the cold air. I was descending through the shear. I noticed the sound of the waves below as my wing became very active forcing me to stop taking in the views & fly the wing. Once I broke through the shear that was it. I was in complete sink. I thought about top landing at the church but the air was so bumpy I decided to land next to Dingo in the kiting area. Flying through the bumps was like flying in the mountains. At about 300 feet or so the bumps stopped & the winds eased. I came in on a no wind landing next to Dingo, addrenaline pumping through me, the flight not being the sledder we thought it would instead becoming one of the best paraglider flights of my life.
These photos are from earlier in the year. Although I didn't have a camera with me, Dingo video'd the entire flight.
Awe! I'm in Awe! This was Crystel's first paraglider flight. She's flying the orange wing in the center.
Dingo, Me, Crystel & Jimmy. Photos by Rick.
Crayola
Starthisle 2009. Woodrat Mountain near Ruch, Oregon. Memorial Day Weekend trip. Am having a blast learning to fly in the mountains & thermals.
