Atypical August at Diablo

Post frontal conditions in late August at Mount Diablo. Atypical? Apparently not for 2010. Gerry, Bob and I have to check out this blessing, so off the Towers Launch under some nicely developing clouds.

Conditions are what you would expect on a day like this ... weird, as I work out front.
Bob and I climbing below a big Q.
A parking lot full of cars at the summit, as we soar high above.
And play in the todays big sky.
After about an hour we head out and plummet like stones. Westerlies had kicked in forcing us to work lee side trash behind the quarry before landing in rotor at the Plateau LZ after an unusual and fun late August day. Enjoy the video.

Diablo Hang Gliding in August from Matt Epperson on Vimeo.

Fear and Flight

Flight, in its purest form, riding dynamic air currents on engineless wings while soaring above the earth, brings emotion which is simply, indescribable. If I were to try, I would use feeble words like magical, excitement, wonder and elation in an attempt to portray being alate. Although rarely mentioned by aviators, such delight however, comes at a price. I have to admit, on occasional I feel apprehension, anxiety and even downright fear. Maybe notice of an accident, a personal inflight incident or some unjust inner sensation of this dark side which is otherwise surrounded by joy, yet certainly part of flight.


Today, while starting my takeoff roll in typical, summertime right cross-tailwind conditions on runway 34 at WSC, my right wing drops immediately and despite full opposite rudder and aileron deflection I weathervane off the runway while dragging my wing in grass as I head for the ditch. POP, like a gunshot, I pull the release, aborting the takeoff without conscious thought. PHEW. Despite an underlying apprehension, takeoff attempt two goes flawlessly. But, as I near the mountains on this 30 mile tow, turbulence increases and I'm dealt frequent slack line. Winds are in the upper 20's and I'm hitting lee side rotor. I request tow above ridge level and release at 500' AGL, immediately get flushed, work lee side thermals and climb back above the ridge.
The lift is disorganized and turbulent. I'm frequently going weightless, my landing gear is slamming into the gear doors beneath my seat and one hit sends my camera into the canopy, but despite this I'm able to climb, here in the lee.
A beautiful sight to the North, of forests, mountains and even a high lake bring some peace.
I spend about an hour working the lee, unable to go anywhere as it seems surrounded by sink. I notice a column of smoke near Indian Valley Reservoir. No, wait, its not smoke, WOW, its the biggest dust devil I have ever seen. A giant column rising thousands of feet into the air gives an image of todays potency. Lucky for me I can't get there, take the hint and head out. I plummet through lee side sink and approach the foothills where the air becomes calm, PHEW again.

Next comes the valley, but there seems to be a layer of "real" smoke. Its clear past, at the Buttes, and here near the foothills, but the middle seems obscured. WSC calls advising a fire SE of the airport with surface visibility deteriorating to 1500.' ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

My two alternates, crop duster strips, are clear below, but smoke is on the way and by the time I descend I could have poor visibility at an unfamiliar, tiny strip. Nah, I check my transponder, call traffic advisories inbound and race towards WSC. Close, I notice the fire is out and I can hang on until the clear edge reaches the airport for an uneventful landing. PHEW again ... again.

When fear and flight mix, one needs to ask if the fear is justified. If yes, resolve or prevent the origin. If no, reflect and question. Soaring is a wonderful game, played in the sky, but most certainly played for real. Well, is it worth it? For me, YES IT IS.

Beating the Heat

With a heat spell over Northern California I head to Mount Diablo where I'm greeted with closed park gates. Ah, fall is on the way and there is high fire danger. Oh well, it's more of a beach day anyway and I wasn't exactly looking forward to the 100+ degree breakdown at Diablo. Why drive to the beach when you can fly. So, I take a little trip over to Mount Tamalpias where I punch off, en route Stinson Beach.

Sledding down the mountain.
A nice view of the timber and grass covered Mount Tamalpais.

Over Stinson Beach.

Looking North towards Bolinas Lagoon.
Banking it up over the beach.
A nice easy landing on the sand where Teri meets me on this perfect beach day.

Mendocino Mountains in the Blue

A dry, hot and relatively calm day for Northern California. Maybe summer is finally starting, I better go fly. With no clouds to mark the lift, tactics change to intuition and my personal favorite, using luck. This means I'll have to poke around a bit, return back to previous lift when necessary and keep my glides relatively short.

"22Z" gives me a lift out to the Mendocino Mountains.

Off tow at Goat a feathered flyer marks my first blue thermal of the day. I climb nice and high above the ridge.
North to Snow Mountain for another big climb before heading to St. John.
Looking straight down, high above St. John Mountain.

Back to Snow before I try several routes North making it a little past Sheet Iron. I find the lift is working better each attempt further West so I change my plan and head towards Hull Mountain. Approaching Rattlesnake Canyon I notice the road on the left leads to a barren Timberline Launch on this midweek day.

I fly into Westerlies and sink nearing Rattlesnake Canyon and turn around before reaching the likely lift over the summit. Leaving Lake Pillsbury I notice strong gust lines coming from the West and figured I just saved an expensive tow out of Gravely Valley.
I head back East where I hook up with the open class ASH-25 "FNX" and climb over the West slopes of St. John looking towards Snow Mountain.
I finally look at my clock, WOW it's 4:15. Maybe an overload of fun, but I had no idea that it was getting so late. Just enough time for an attempt racing South. I follow my route to Goat and stop for only the best lift. I continue South past Goat and find a nice thermal over the North shores of Indian Valley Reservoir.
Further South over the confluence of Cache Creek and Bear Creek.
Late in the day after a final blue climb I race home to WSC at 115 KT for the last 20 miles and get it on the ground just after closing. Thanks to WSC for waiting, it was a lot of fun.

Struggle Over Goat Ridge

A quick consult with Dr. Jack this morning doesn't provide much joy. Oh well, he is occasionally pessimistic. Off tow at Goat, I struggle, but eventually climb comfortably above the ridge.

Today, this particular spot seems to be the most consistent thermal trigger on the mountain and I spend a lot of time above it. Notice the half dozen vehicles?
I enjoy watching people float around Lett's Lake on this warm summer day.
The turbulence increases, the lift fades, episodes of weightlessness become frequent, glider control is difficult and I am starting to become queazy for the second time ever. Enough, I'm too low but off to Snow Mountain anyway. I arrive well below the peak and can't work my way on top. Sinking slowly down the SW slope I head back and glide past the foothills of Goat, pretty low below the ridge line in the distance.
500 feet above glide and 35 miles out from WSC which is beyond view looks a little intimidating.

One could say today was a failed struggle for cross country. One could say today was a successful struggle at staying aloft for 2.8 hours. I say, I struggled, I made the airport and I returned the plane the way it was when I took off. Here is a clip from the beginning of todays flight.

Landings are Mandatory

Off Juniper Launch on Mount Diablo I found small bullet thermals which would disappear into thin air, on this building high pressure, mildly marine influenced summer day. Because I scratched the West side to its full extent, I would soon be coming down, once again at The Thousand Footer and could expect the standard turbulence, being that it's midday in summer. After a conservative, lift up my feet for the last oak tree approach, I got a pop and ended up a little long, over the fire road as shown below. Remember takeoffs are optional, landings are mandatory and days like today, make me really appreciate my Sport 2.

Diablo and The Thousand Footer from Matt Epperson on Vimeo.

Yolla Bolla Mountains

Pilots tell stories of soaring the Yolla Bolly Mountains in an isolated wilderness with countless peaks and abundant lift. The stories have made them and mainly Yolla Peak a constant goal of mine. The problem is, they are usually guarded by a big blue hole over the lowlands South and although I've come close, I always retreat with my tail between my legs. All I need is a spectacularly good day, discipline and to fly the ASW-27B like I stole it. Today is that day.

Off tow at Tree Farm I quickly climb from 6.5K to base and head North following a cloud street splitting Snow Mountain and St. John.

Approaching Alder Springs I notice Hull is developing nicely to my West. Maybe I'll fly by later, but for now, I've got a goal.
I reach Black Butte, the last high ground before the big blue hole so I top out at 11.5K.
The Yolla Bolla Mountains are wonderfully developed, all I have to do is get there. If I'm lucky I won't hit sink and should make the glide. I just have to suck it up and commit.

A straight glide with no sink and I reach the cloud edge, climb to base and head off to Yolla Peak.

The Mountains are absolutely beautiful and lift is everywhere. I dolphin fly and explore the entire area turning both Anthony Peak and Eagle Peak without making a circle.
I head further North and make it to Blackrock Mountain (T15).
Back to Yolla Peak (Mount Linn) for a couple circles, just for circling sake.
The wilderness is awesome but its time to head back. I fly a couple miles East of Hull on my Southbound leg and check out the hang gliders, very cool. My detour to Hull causes a bit of backtrack because of cloud streets and another blue hole. I eventually continue past the Mendocino Mountains to Cache Creek at the Rumsey Gap.
And turn on final glide to WSC. A spectacular day and personal best, two turn points of over 180 statute miles in four hours. I know many comp pilots will laugh and double that speed, but for me, with my hang gliding stop at everything and fly conservatively mentality, it feels great. The Yolla Bolla Mountains is the great playground in the sky I imagined.

The Devils Surprise

The Devil typically lies dormant when the sea breeze blows, during the summer months. However, with all indicators to the contrary, he can provide a pleasant surprise, with bountiful thermals, on any given day. I don't mean to allude, today was far from epic, I never got above launch, but, I pleasantly soared below an atypically thick, 2500' marine layer.

With only a trivial amount of optimism, I launch Juniper on Diablo, grab a handful of cord, point my toes and aim towards Macedo Ranch in Alamo.

On the way I see birds circling and fly through three seconds of solid lift for a second time. Thats it, I scrub the plan for Macedo, roll into the grassy brown hills and get rewarded with thermals aplenty.
The thermals continually top at 2500' as I enjoy my West side soaring with the hawks. After feeling content, I top out above the Thousand Footer and head off towards Pine Canyon en route to my original destination, Macedo Ranch.

Crossing Pine Canyon with decent altitude I enthusiastically turn towards Wall Point Road.

As I hoped, I find more lift. It tops out lower than the lift over the mountain, but, provides another nice surprise.
This side is certainly softer, so I work my way out in the burbly lift. A nice view back towards Pine Ridge and Mount Diablo.
Circling over Macedo Ranch I notice a decent drift to the North. Another big surprise today, South surface wind. This is the one direction that doesn't work at Macedo Ranch unless you like landing on roof tops. Oh well, at least I'll have a moderate uphill slope to tune up my downwind landing technique.
I turn final with a ton of ground speed.
And float high up the hill. Today, I use the technique of stopping my forward momentum quickly, by planting the nose cone firmly on the ground. Although this an effective way to stop a glider, I think with enough practice I could eventually use my feet instead. Even on tailwind landing up to ten, given a moderate slope. Although, I hope to not get much more practice at this. You can't pick your surprises, some are good and others, well, it's only a grass stain.

Fishin For Thermals

My friends at Oakland send a ballon into the sky, bright and early each morning, just so us bay area hang glider pilots can get an idea how lucky we might be on any given day.

With little exception, the data doesn't change much during the summer as it indicates a well established, persistent marine layer sitting about 1500'. This tends to drive all the big trophy thermals into the mountains of the Sierras and Mendocinos. However, the weak, little and slow thermals still hide in the local hills. They're illusive and hard to catch, but still fun. I launch Juniper on Diablo and if there is one here, I'm going to find it, so I try to sneak up on them from behind on the upper ridges.
No luck with the upper mountain. Burma Ridge is home to many a thermal, so I'll fish here.

All the way down the mountain without a bite. Then, right over the 1000 Footer LZ I get a nibble.

It's a little guy, but today I'm a poacher and I'm climbing.
North Gate Road and those ridge lines might have something bigger but I'm not letting this guy go.
Well, I slaughter the devil out of that little guy and buy myself a couple minutes on the sled ride, realizing one thing. The only thermal trigger on the mountain is over the LZ, it's midday summer and it's going to be poppy coming in. I get the speed on and slide it through the oak trees, nice and low.
I still get a good pop, but fortunately I'm on a Sport 2 and get it down before the hilltop, on two feet even, cool.