N 34 11.586,W 117 19.414,Andy Jackson Flight Park, San
Bernardino, CA, USA

Jonathan Dietch <res007jc>
writes:

Http://vimeo.com/album/203537 
or
http://www.youtube.com/user/NMERider?feature=mhw5#g/c/201A25D0DB73055D

On Sunday I flew a 69-Mile triangle from Marshall Peak, 33.9 miles end-to-end
and a few miles deep. In the video I top-launch from Marshall Peak and Owen
joins me for a few turns until he goes off on a different XC route. I climb out
over the Crestline cut-off then head for Pine Flats. From there I head across
the Cajon pass with only modest altitude. I arrive at the East end of the
Cucamonga Peak/Mt. Baldy spine and spend a considerable amount of time and
energy scratching my way up along many different bowls, knobs and spines until I
nearly climb even with 8,800' Cucamonga but not quite. The scenery is
spectacular, especially considering that it's in Los Angeles County! I head as
far West as I feel comfortable some 19.8 miles from launch where I climb to
8,300' then decide to head back rather than trying to tag Kagel in Sylmar as I
had planned. I get flushed gliding back and have to stop and work my way back up
so I can make the Eastward crossing of the Cajon Pass and get back on to the
Pine Flats ridge.

I catch a boomer as soon as I'm on back on the Pine ridge then take a detour to
get a nice view of Silverwood Lake before heading along the Crestline Ridge
toward Keller Peak some 14 miles East of Marshall launch. I make a fairly fast
glide toward Smiley Park and easy crossing at Running Springs. I arrive low at
Keller Peak and find myself scratching hard and fail to get above the peak
before I take my bus ticket home while I still can.

I head South toward the front range hoping to get high enough to head East
toward San Gorgonio but all I get is flushed. I finally find myself with a long
glide back to Andy Jackson Airpark that's often showing me arriving below ground
level given all the sink. It's a tight squeeze along the front range and I'm
often too low to glide home.

I finally catch a nice column a few miles East of Marshall that I hope will
allow me to glide over my launch point, but again it's no dice. I arrive in
front of Marshall a hundred feet below the ramp and throw in the towel as I've
been in the air 4-1/2 hours. I head out over the LZ and spend several minutes
off camera working on my hand transitions that I have historically blown and
broken down tubes as a result. I come back on camera as I'm in the staging area
over the LZ and set up my pattern.

I'm tried and punchy and go a tad long and slow on my downwind and base legs. On
final, I skim past Rob McKenzie who's in his training glider hauler with two
students and greet them accordingly. I pull in for ground effect, transition
well for a change, then skim and flare correctly. I make my feelings known after
4 hours and 43 minutes aloft. I come back on camera in the breakdown area just
as fellow XC pilot Bruce comes by to give me the E-Team greeting right before
the battery dies.

I did over 40,000' of climbing and 91 miles of straight gliding during the
flight. I narrated fairly often and conserved battery life and memory as much as
I could on my GoPro HD camera that I have mounted on my chin guard. I went
through the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes of flight video and found that 93
minutes gave a very good glimpse into the world of XC flying as I know it.
Later, I edited that down to 39 minutes and added a few minutes of animated
tracks.

It's in four parts on both YouTube and Vimeo Interactive flight track is
available here:
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/309343