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Palomar de Halloween ICARNAVAL 2017 Report

10/31/2017

Palomar October 28th Fly-in Report

The SDHGPA Fall Halloween ICARNAVAL Fly-in's location was changed from Horse to Palomar due to all weather models forecasting NE winds out at Horse. This set in place some late logistic gymnastics for the large Fly-in. We are super thankful to all those involved to make this switch possible including the Pala Tribal Counsel for squeezing the approval in to their agenda the day of their meeting.

It turned out to be a beautiful day at Palomar on Saturday, the day of the fly-in. About 60 PG pilots along with two HG pilots (Erick and Rich) flew. Scott set up but had an aileron problem and ended up tearing down.

A few pilots struggled up and down a bit. However, most everyone had multi hour flights, getting between 2,000' and 3,000' above take off. Landing conditions were very nice, maybe 7 mph and parallel with the highway from the NorthWesterly direction. That makes for a long and level usable runway.

Winds on launch were light with mostly pure thermal conditions cycling in. This made launching conditions at times quite challenging due to the light base wind being overpowered by prevailing thermal activity creating thermal blocking on launch.

- the Masquerade Flights -

Some Great Costumes on the Ground & in Flight

Costume Award Winners:

Grand Prize: Kim Fyi-UN Missile Test Launch: Kim McJong-un
Most Daring: Tigger 80s Crop Top gone bad: Ira Hayes
Most Original: Fake News Newsy: Moises Bada
Scariest / disturbingly creepy: Tux Morph - Aaron Price
Most Creative: Speed Racer & the Mach 5 : Steve Rohrbaugh

Other Contest Winners:

Spot Landing Tandem: Phil Russman & Dave Metzgar
Spot Landing: Mike Lester
Fastest Sled & Flying as a Rocker: Eddy Borysewicz
Bomb Drop: Brian Stiber

All in All a Great time:

Way-more Great Photos in the Photo Share Galleries

Gary Earl was at the Pauma Casino for the afternoon and came over to shot some great photos after seeing us in the air by chance and has been kind enough to share.

Steve R also uploaded over 150 additional photos to those shot by Gary to following Gallery for viewing & download: https://photos.app.goo.gl/I3Gsl4IPMvrViD8d2

Again, A Big Thank You to all those that helped out to make this Fly-in possible including the Pala Tribe & Roberts Ranch for allowing us to enjoy their great site especially with that late notice of our site change.

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SDHGPA Fall Halloween Icarnaval 2017

10/27/2017

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Palomar de Halloween ICARNAVAL :
- the Masquerade Flights -

Saturday October 28th!! at Palomar
(Location Changed to Palomar)

A Halloween Costume Themed SDHGPA Fall Fly-in

Contest of costumed hang glider and paraglider pilots: exciting, hilarious, original, fantastically creative and daring… ***

*** Costumes must not restrict vision and or flying in any manor nor unnecessarily impede running. Masks will not be permitted during takeoff or flight.

Other Contests:
- Spot Landing
- Bomb Drop
- Time Aloft
- Fastest Sled

SDHGPA FALL HALLOWEEN ICARNAVAL 2016 Costume contest winners: (left to right) Most Exciting: Antonella Zampolli - Falconer Most Hilarious: Rene Falquier - Flying Ring Tailed Lemur Most Scary: Henry Baker the Flying Flasher Most Creative: Kim - Flying Kim Tut (flying with cape) Most Daring: Jason Kinch - no fear Crocodile / Ray Hunter Most Original: Steve Rohrbaugh - Flying Bat Man (flying with cape)

And the Flying is always great in October!

2016 Fly-in Best Time Aloft (2:50) : Josef de Beer - Highest Flight (9.2K) : Phil Weffinger

Post Flying Activities:
Taco Cart and Soft Drinks will be provided by the club!
(Must present SDHGPA Membership Card) . . .

- BYOB & Please also bring any appetizers you would like to share.
- Taco Cart in LZ serving from 3:45-5:45

- Contest Judging & Prizes!

SDHGPA Membership is required to participate in the Fly-in.

Any new late Annual Memberships joining for the Fly-in (after October 26th), will be rolled over into a 2018 Annual Membership. Late membership Roll-over normally starts in November.
(Full Annual Membership or Visiting Pilot membership is valid for this event.)

Please take care of Memberships and print parking passes before driving out if not current.
All memberships are on line and easier with a strong connection. . .

To Check Current Membership Status

Site: Palomar
Where: Palomar Main LZ
SDHGPA Palomar Main LZ - Roberts Ranch, 15482 CA-76, Pauma Valley, CA 92061  map

When:  Meeting in Main LZ around 1 for set-up and dropping off supplies. Then driving to launch around 2:00. However, we do not feel like there is a rush to get into the air unless you are an XC hound trying to go someplace. The late afternoon flights have been fantastic! Also many will be showing up later in the day.

For detailed Site info, see the Palomar Site Guide

The Social Committee would like some help from some volunteers to help coordinate set up and break down. Also, if you have a portable Fire Ring that would be great!

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New SDHGPA Horse Weather Station

10/18/2017

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The 2nd SDHGPA weather station of three that we have have planned this year was installed today at Horse Launch and is up and running!

A big thank you to the efforts of Jeff Brown, David Whitehall, & Bob Barry for the Station installation!

They fortified the old windsock mast foundation out on the front cliff line in front of launch. Then tied in the weather station mast and grounding rods to protect the station from lightning strikes.

Data from the Palomar Launch station is live and is working well!

About the SDHGPA Horse Weather Station

For this 2nd station, we chose a more traditional Davis anemometer wind sensor to save on costs in that it is a bit hard to get to. The rest of the system is similar to the Palomar station. The Horse Station is also solar powered with an appropriately sized battery pack and sends data over a cellular network connection. Data is then sent to the Holfuy Data hosting site and WEB based data visualization.

Data Sheet for the Horse Davis 6410 Anemometer Wind Sensor
Data Sheet for the Palomar LCJ CV7 Ultrasonic Wind Sensor

The Weather Station data can be viewed in several ways:

On our SDHGPA Weather Station page under Whats Happening menu.
On the Horse Site Guide Page
On Several Holfuy.com Station interface pages : SDHGPA Horse Station Data Page, Map Page . . .
Using the Holfuy App that is available for iOS & Android

The next weather station to be installed this year is planed for a Laguna install mid November.

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Palomar Safety Bulletin

10/14/2017

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On multiple occasions with this past Sunday being the most recent, pilots flying into rotor and possible venturi locations have been observed. All should be reminded that Palomar is a complex mountain site and all should review the Soaring notes of the Palomar Site Guide and also Review the Flying Effective Faces article pulled from our XC clinic talks.

Palomar is a complex mountain site

Fly effective faces that are perpendicular to the prevailing wind conditions. Note that on light and variable wind pure thermal days, the effective faces can be constantly changing and influenced by thermal activity. i.e. If the prevailing winds are west, trying to ridge fly the big south face or into the canyons will not be productive and can be turbulent. See Article on Flying Effective Faces and scroll through Palomar examples for different wind directions. Also Note that winds and effective faces will shift to thermal activity and geographic location / topography influences.

Do not fly into the canyons at or below ridge-lines down wind/ in the lee of effective faces. Note that effective faces and thermaling / soaring envelopes (out of rotor zones) typically extend up at the same slope as the effective face.

Canyon crossings should be made only with enough altitude to be able to fly from spine to spine arriving at the next spine with altitude clearance or to an effective face clear of rotor zones.

Do not attempt to ridge soar deep in the canyons of Pauma / Lion Creek below 6K, there are no lading options and are known venturi locations.

Thermaling / soaring envelopes typically extend at Slope of Face (out of rotor zones)

Do not fly into the canyons at or below ridge-lines or cross deep below 6K

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Palomar WX Station - Standing Strong

10/9/2017

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Palomar Launch Wind values are reporting correctly again!!!

Thanks to the efforts of many, the Palomar WX station mast has been rebuilt out of metal and planted deeper.

Big thank you to Chris Cote, Bob Barry, and Jeff Brown for the primary pre work & coordination efforts along with all the crew that helped get the station back to standing tall!

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Meeting Minutes, News, & Articles

Palomar de Halloween ICARNAVAL 2017 Report

SDHGPA Fall Halloween Icarnaval 2017

New SDHGPA Horse Weather Station

Palomar Safety Bulletin

Palomar WX Station - Standing Strong

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