Post-frontal day with plenty of clouds, but a bit low cloud base round 6-7K most of the day. My wife offered to drop me off at beginning of unpaved road, so I can launch early and simplify retrieve. My PG friends from San Francisco Dmitry and Vladimir as well as Haytham joined me. We can't all fit into Prius, so Haytham have to hike from LZ, which he did even faster.
On glide from Kagel
Launched at 12:02 into light cycles and have to wait for 20 minutes for weather to develop. I jumped from cloud to cloud and even though base was ~5K no issues until Big T. Typically Big T works great, but today it didn't produce much and I have to stay and search for a lift. After Lukens got to 6.5K and even higher than nearby cloud.
Above the cloud near Lukens
Next section from Brown Mount to Monrovia Peak typically very fast and easy flight was super slow this time because of shade and enormous clouds with base lower than Mt. Wilson. After Monrovia it was all sunny again. Contrary with typical struggle in these low foothills after Azusa there was plenty of clouds mapping tops of the thermals.
Last challenge was crossing Cajon pass. Cucamonga peak was obscured by clouds and I only can get to 6.7K, which made crossing very interesting. There was also not much of a typical west tail wind. I get some bumps near 15 & 215 highways intersection down at 3000 ft (1000 ft AGL). Staying in bubbles I slowly drifted into the mountains working my way up. When low it's the best strategy to stay even in zero lift and wait for next pulse. 5.5K was more than enough for final glide into Andy Jackson LZ.
Marshall LZ
What's interesting about this flight is that I never get above 7K, so such flight is possible on a low base days, but speed would not be very fast. Thanks a lot to Frank for giving me a ride back to home!
Finally I was able to link these 2 sites with a great flight. Usual 10:00 am meet up at LZ and we was ready to fly at 11:00, but conditions did not look optimal with some cycles coming from north and some from south. On the switch day I would like to have at least 20 min of consistent wind from south before launching, but this was not the case today. In fact poor HGs who choose to launch from Crestline that day was not able to launch because wind never switched. Despite north cycles I decided to launch at 12:22 (actually Tavis was 30 seconds ahead of me) with few other pilots including Russ, Eric and Paul. It was a good timing because north wind got stronger and other pilots including Ziggy stuck on launch for another 30 to 60 minutes. I climbed right to 8300 ft and start my journey westbound. Russ was first to cross, but stuck near Glen Helen and me, Eric and Tavis was able to catch up.
Eric crossing highway 15
Jonathan was rushing to Pine Mt., getting low there, flying all the way back to Cloud, recovering and making a second lap also catch up with us around that time. He choose deeper line toward Cucamonga peak and I joined him, while everyone else took more south line over the crest. Our line was better because wind was from the north and we stay on windward side, plus it was shorter. Then we all meet over Cucamonga except Jonathan who already crossed Mt. Baldy Rd. and had serious lead on us (does hang gliders fly faster or what?). We topped out around 11K and went over Ontario Peak. Beautiful scenery, especially snow on the peaks. I noticed blue Delta 2 flying deep line and was pretty sure that it's Ziggy flying with me. Only after we made it to Kagel I learned that it was Paul. Same glider, same color and the same flying style leaving thermals early and committing to deep lines without landable options.
Baldy Mt. (middle), Ontario (left)
There was north to north easy wind, so pushing upwind toward Baldy was out of the question. Next section was the most difficult part of the route, I know it very well from my previous Kagel to Marshall attempts. Surprisingly all of us made it though, but via different lines. Front points typically very windy and you can stuck there forever, so I and blue Delta 2 choose deep line, Eric and Tavis went to the front and Russ split the difference. We got a good climb with Paul after crossing highway 39, but still not enough altitude to glide directly to Monrovia on the back ridge and made slight detour toward Mt. Bliss.
Looking south toward Azusa
Monrovia Peak ahead
Now I was in the lead and pilots who took front line have to climb out from low altitudes and catch up. Time was 15:45 near Monrovia Peak and I start worrying about SW breeze. It could materialize any minute and that's pretty much end of the game. I pushed bar and stop taking thermals with few exceptions where they was absolutely necessary.
Mt. Wilson
As it turned out taking climb near Big T to 7.6K was important for making goal. It's near Big T where I first encounter SW breeze, strong and laminar air blocking thermal activity and slowing down my progress. I can't even clear Trash and have to go around and ridge soar to the top. But finally I flew by Kagel launch:
Kagel
Jonathan was first to complete the route landing at 16:30 after tagging West Towers as well, I was second at 17:30, then Tavis 5 minutes later and finally Paul. Russ was only 1 mile short from LZ, he landed in front of Trash and hiked to LZ. Eric landed in Big Tujunga Canyon. I also met Greg Kendall (HG) near Monrovia Peak who flew opposite direction from Kagel to Marshall.
I think all of the pilots familiar with XC flying when driving on highway 210 (or 10) along San Gabriel mountain range was at least thinking about Kagel to Marshall flight or vice versa. The best time for high altitude flights on the front range usually in the spring when Santa Ana (north) wind switch to south and there is no inversion around or later in the August or September after monsoonal moister and summer hit generates some thunderstorm activity.
Earlier this week there was very strong Santa Ana, wind was gusting up to 70 mph and Friday supposed to be a switch day. But gusty wind also resulted in the Etiwanda fire near Rancho Cucamonga and corresponding TFR (temporary flight restriction), which was exactly on the course line and put the end on Kagel to Marshall flight plan. Alternative option was to fly OTB (over the back) and follow highway 15 with SW wind. I did similar flight 2 years ago, but at that time I did not plan it, just follow HG's which means late start as well as not optimal route since I had no idea where I'm going. Now I have all time I need to prepare.
Aaron and Tavis agreed to join and Katie volunteer to drive. We meet at 9:45 at Kagel LZ and was on launch at 11:00. Good strong cycles, birds climbing easily all indicators pointed to the good day. I launched first at 11:27 and climbed right away to 6.5K, Aaron and Tavis launched shortly after and we all headed to BigT. I expected some SE wind, which means you arriving to lee at BigT, but it was not too bad. At BigT we spend some time making sure day is developed enough.
Climbing behind BigT. Mt. Lukens on the right
After few climbs we got to 8.5K (12:35 pm) and start our transition toward Mt. Gleason, but that altitude was not enough. We have to stop near Iron Mt. and search for one more climb, we spread around we found good enough thermal drifting in the right direction, eventually arriving to Gleason at 7.5K (1:10 pm). This is prominent peak and the best place to tank up. I was worry that we may encounter north wind here, but fortunately it was south already. We climbed to 11.5K and continue along the ridge. Aaron and Tavis stopped to check out some light staff, but I continue to nice looking SW facing mountain behind Angeles Forest Hwy and get right into +5 m/s climbing to 12.7K. Tavis was next and got into the same thermal, but Aaron missed that one and have to scratch low for awhile. Drift was from the NW, but not too strong. From that altitude we can easily cut across no mans land toward Juniper Hills.
Crossing San Gabriel Mountains
Tavis had slightly less altitude and decided to search on west side, while I pushed forward along ridge crest and finally found next good thermal, which took me to 14.4K with drift mostly from the west (good). Now I was all by myself. Just before Wrightwood I left mountains and went for the flats (3:00 pm).
Wrighwood ski resort and Mt. Baldy (with snow)
To my disappointment wind was from the NNW and my progress was very slow. Near Phelan I run into convergence and had my best thermal of the day to 15.1K. In the Victorville drift was from the west down low and from the north up high (4:30 pm), so I need to adjust my strategy. In the main time Aaron caught up with Tavis and they both decided to land near Spring Valley Lake in Victorville. I continue north along a dirt road (Stoddard Wells Rd.) periodically reporting my status to the crew. Thermals was getting lighter and wind was from west, while I need to fly north, altitude was dropping more and more. I was hopeless to make it to Barstow hopping from one hill to another, ready to land on dirt road at any time. Then I saw small village and paved road (Hwy 247) just to my right, which was down wind and at the same time found light thermal. Now I could cut the corner with my LZ on the nice green field few miles east of Daggett.
Daggett and Hwy 40
I landed at 6:47 pm. My friends was watching my progress on SPOT page and was there before I even unhook harness.
Original plan was to fly from Kagel to Marshall, but day was too weak for such task. I started at 11:37 and first half an hour was straggling to maintain couple hundred over launch. Then Jonathan join me and we left for the east. It was difficult to establish on Big-T (as usual), but after 3 attempts I finally get up there and catch up with Jonathan. Then we glide to Little Lukens, get up there and continue to antennas. Most of the canyons until Lukens are landable, but next gap over highway 2 is wide and land there is problematic. It was obvious that we don't have enough altitude to jump toward Mt. Wilson, so I turn around and flew back. When I arrive to Kagel day turned on and it was easy to move around. Here is a Jonathan's video of the day:
