Not too many pilots who fly the Crestline Ridge get to enjoy the scenery East of
Rim of the World High School by Lake Arrowhead, so I thought I'd share the
experience.
From the start through 2:27 I capture the usual sights. 2:28 I pass the high
school w/ Lake Arrowhead visible in the background. I skip the video of Santa's
Village, which serves as a benching up point for altitude to glide across the
wide ravine toward Smiley Park. 2:45 I catch a powerful thermal in the middle
of scenic Smiley Park and by 3:02 it gets pretty robust but I top out. 3:32 I
head past Running Springs with Keller Peak in my sites.
I have a second generation magnetic camera boom on my left wing, hold a Canon
Powershot S95 running a CHDK interval script and shooting one 10Mpx still every
6 seconds. I want to reach Keller Peak (15 miles East of Crestline launch) and
take some high resolution photos of its beautiful face and peak. :15 I have
the SW bowl of Keller on glide and I am aware that if it's not "On" in the bowl,
I will be going down rather than up and home. It's a long, low glide from there
to the Seven Oaks Dam and LZ near Mentone. Ah, the lengths and depths some of us
will go to "get the shot"
From 4:38 thru 5:44 I am trying in vain to bench my way back up and reverse the
direction of the glider so my left wing mounted boom points the camera at the
mountainside. Thereafter, I am on a long, low glide towards the dam, and
reservoir which is holding a substantial amount of water from recent rains. As I
am working the few scraps of meager lift along the way, Owen is out on the front
spine, East of the dam. Owen later told me he allowed himself to get too low and
was stuck for an hour in a Sisyphus-like struggle to keep his glider aloft in
quest to tag Mt San Gorgonio and return to Andy Jackson Airpark.
7:31 I approach the rim of the dam which to me feels and appears to be 250'
below me. According to topo and flight data, it's really more like 6-800' below.
Not being one to give up that easily I find myself working the lift on the East
side of the dam and 8:32 I cross the wash to try my hand at the West side. I
have limited success and being that I am fighting a cold and feeling pretty run
down. I throw in the proverbial towel and head to the Mentone bailout by the
beehives. Did I mention the beehives? 10:49 they are bouncing off of my face,
harness and camera. Silly me, it was so hot that I didn't want to lower my visor
before landing and luckily I was not stung. 11:19 I edited in some stills from
my Canon S95. The script I am running is supposed to set the focus on infinity
but the camera is glomming on to me and so the background it a tad soft.
My 15-mile, one-way flight was a tad over 94 minutes while Owen's nearly 60-mile
out and back lasted almost 5 hours. Another T2 pilot, Tom S. made it to Keller
and back and joined me in a thermal near the high school while he was returning
and I was just getting started. Owen and I, et al have been trying to recruit
Tom, a formerly active cross country pilot to venture back into the fold and it was a
welcomed return. I'd mention Rebardan's spectacular flight to San Gorgonio and
beyond and back, but he was flying an Atos VX while the rest of us were
struggling on our rag wings. ;-)
