Come on out and share the the sky with the San Diego free flight crew Saturday June 2nd.  Taco Cart & soft drinks will be provided by the club; feel free to bring booze and any appetizers you'd like to share (BYOB).

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

Please RSVP & take care of Memberships and print parking passes BEFORE driving out if not current.  
​
All memberships are available online, here.  Please make sure you're paid up and print out your Parking Pass before you arrive. Let's work together to keep these wonderful sites available to the free flight community!  (Temp or Annual membership including guests is to help cover all you can eat Taco Cart & have site access). 

Check Current Membership Status

Rough Time Table:
1:00 - Set-up & General Meeting Time / Check in at LZ opens
1:45 - Carpooling to launch starts
2:30 - Site intro on Main Launch
2:30 - 7:00 - Launching (H1-H2 & P1-P2 should be launching later . . .)

~ 6:00 Appetizers (potluck) & LZ festivities Start
~ 6:30 - 8:30 Taco Cart Serving: chicken, beef, & pork tacos along with cheese quesadillas

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!

Current Weather:  ​
​Yep, we have a weather station on launch!

It was a flight just like any other, until it wasn't.

On May 5, 2018, flying my PG on the north side of Palomar Mountain, I deployed my reserve.  This is the story.

Steve Rohrbaugh, Josef de Beer, Steve Prairie and I met in the Palomar LZ just after 11:30.  It was already hot, light breeze out of the west, and scattered high clouds.  We headed up to launch in Josef's car.  I had just been expecting to site fly, but Steve R thought big XC might be possible going north.  He wanted to fly to Marshall.  I didn't think I'd be able to keep up with him or Josef or Steve P, but it would be fun to try.  I fly an Advance Epsilon 7, a B wing, with an unfaired harness, and the three other guys were in pod harnesses with C or better wings.

Up on launch, things looked good.  Wind was variable, but direction was usually good, with the wind mostly light but occasionally strong.  I was ready first, and launched at 12:51.  I found lift right in front of launch and started thermalling up. If you want to follow along, this Doarama (http://doarama.com/view/2115273) captures Steve R's, Josef's, and my two GPS recordings.

For whatever reason, in those first few minutes, I decided to feel for my reserve handle, and re-familiarize myself with just where my hand needed to be to grab it.  I told myself that it was something I should be doing every flight, but I had gotten out of the habit.  Premonition?  I don't know.  But I'm glad I did it.

I was in a good thermal, drifting out of the west, but at 7100 it felt like the thermal, and the west push, stopped.  It felt like I hit a different layer of air, maybe east coming over the back.  I decided to head northwest toward Eagle Rock.  Before I got to the next ridge line, I found thermals again drifting out of the west. At 7300 I headed north over the spine of the mountain, where I found a thermal that started drifting out of the east above 8100. I topped out around 8800, and started heading NW.

I got to Eagle Rock at 7700.  Beyond it, I found nothing but sink and turned around to try to tank up on altitude.  Josef and Steve P streaked past me going NW, south of me and 500 ft higher.  I wasn't finding lift where I was, so I decided to follow Josef and Steve P anyway.  I watched Josef hit some really bad sink as he approached what looked like the NW end of the range.  He started heading more north, and soon found a good thermal, and Steve P joined him.  I wanted to join them too, but didn't think I had the glide, so I headed north before I reached them, and found my own weaker thermal.  I gained 400 ft before it petered out.

At this point I was really perplexed what to do.  If we tried to go NW, we were fighting the west.  It was an over an hour into the flight and I was maybe 5 miles from launch.  Maybe this wasn't going to be a big XC day.  The last good lift was back before Eagle Rock.  I decided to head back that way and hope to get high enough to make the next move.  I left with 5600, but as I headed back, losing altitude, I decided it was too risky to be low on Eagle Rock trying to make it back toward launch.  So at 5300 I turned northeast, heading for what looked like landable ranch land on the way to the 79.

I started hitting big sink.  I began to think I would have to land at the ranch furthest in.  At about 1000 AGL (3700 MSL) I got my low save, a nice 200-300 FPM thermal drifting out of the west. As I climbed, it got stronger, 400, 500, up to over 900 fpm. About 2 minutes before it all went to shit, I actually thought to myself "For a 1000 fpm thermal, this is really smooth.  One of the smoothest strong thermals I've been in in a long time!".  I had it centered, wasn't hitting any rough edges, and was rocketing up. As I climbed above 8k, I started contemplating my next move.  I could see Steve R to the east of me, slightly higher, heading north.  I also saw Josef about my altitude, but back to the south.

As I climbed through 8500 the lift was weakening, but I was still climbing at 200 fpm, still smooth.  I saw 8800 on my altimeter and then I heard my wing rustle and I went weightless.

Now I should say that I really, really wish I noticed everything that happened in great detail and remembered everything that I did, in the proper time line.  But I don't.  I remember thinking at one point that I was two seconds behind everything that was happening.  By the time I realized what the wing was doing, and thought about what I needed to do, the wing was doing something else.  So I realize that what I report may not make sense, because I could have the timeline wrong.  And I make no claim that I reacted with the right inputs at the right time.  I will admit that as a pilot with lots of experience in the normal flight envelope, once I got outside that envelope, I was a bit lost.  I very well could have made the situation worse.  Or I could have just failed to adequately correct.  Or maybe I hit turbulence that would have gotten the best pilot's wing folded up.  I honestly don't know.

Anyway, I went weightless, and it felt like I dropped about 6 feet.  I remember thinking "Oooh, that was a big one", but I wasn't terribly concerned as the harness picked up my weight again.  But that was immediately followed by what felt like getting whipped around (or maybe I went weightless on one side of the harness).  I grabbed the risers out of the instinct to grab something to hold on to.  I know, not the right reaction.  And then some moderate G's and then I watched my wing fly down in front of me, below the horizon.  Luckily it didn't keep going past about 20 degrees below the horizon, but I thought "Oh Shit", like when you're at the top of the roller coaster and you know the fall is coming.  I knew I was going to fall down between the lines, and I tried to remember the right thing to do.  I thought, you've got to time some strong brake input to keep it from surging again.

So what happened next is a bit of muddle.  It seemed like before I could make that surge correction I was planning, I was getting yanked around.  The next clear thing is that I was in a spiral. As I spun around, I could see the wing about 30 degrees above the horizon, pointed mostly down at the ground.  The left half of the wing was folded under.  I knew that I was dropping fast, but I also knew I had been at 8800 feet when this started.  I knew I had some time to try to fix the wing, but I also remembered the warning about pilots blacking out from g-forces in a spiral before they could throw their chute.  I didn't feel like I was anywhere close to blacking out, but I also thought to myself that I should not go too long before hucking.  So I tried to fix the wing.  The left wingtip was kind of balled up, tangled in the center lines, flapping.  I pulled a lot of left brake, hoping that might pull the wing out of the tangle.  Nothing happened.  I started to look for the stabilo line, but started to think, "I don't know if that will untangle that mess, maybe I should just chuck the reserve". Right then Josef yelled over the radio, "Throw your reserve!, throw your reserve!"  I thought, if I'm not sure I can fix this, and someone else thinks I can't, it's time.  I reached for the reserve and pulled.  It was harder than I expected (the G-forces increase the pressure the deployment bag is under).  The handle came out, but still no chute.  I had just pulled the handle out to the extent of the web strap connecting it to the bag.  So I grabbed the strap and pulled again.  I'm thinking "Throw the reserve into clear air", but all I had in my hand was flapping fabric.  I'm wondering what happened to the reserve when poof, it opens and everything slows down.  I'm guessing all this took about 4 seconds (from deciding to pull to getting it out).  OK in my situation, but way too long if I had been close to the ground.

From the GPS track, I'm guessing the chute opened at about 7400 feet.  And it was about 50-60 seconds between the first collapse and chute opening.  My maximum descent rate was over 2400 fpm.

Once I was under canopy, I radioed to the others that I was under canopy, was OK and was going to land on the north side of Palomar.  Both Steve R and Josef started flying in my direction to be ready to mark my landing location and assist if they needed to.

Under canopy, the glider was winding itself up.  I don't think I had a riser twist when I hucked (I'm not positive), but by the time I established that the reserve was open, the risers had twisted, and as the wing flew in a spiral (the left wing tip was still stuck in the middle lines) it was twisting all the lower lines into a rope.  This was a good thing, I figured, because if it kept going, the wing would be forced smaller and smaller.  As it was, sometimes the descent was smooth, other times the wing would grab some air, yank me forward, and create some penduluming between it and the reserve.  As I got lower, I grabbed the "rope" of twisted lines, and started hauling the glider in.  I got to the end of the "rope" where the lines fanned out, and wasn't able to grab the fanned out lines, so I stopped hauling in, and started thinking about where I was going to land.

With incredible luck, I was heading straight for a dirt road.  I actually thought I might land right on it, but in the last 500 feet, the wind shifted from west to north, and I missed the road by about 50 feet.

I remember thinking, bend your knees, get ready for a PLF, and roll with it.  As I got to 50' AGL, I realized that the slow spin of the reserve meant I was going to land going backwards.  At about 15', I looked over my shoulder and saw a bathtub size boulder right where I was headed.  "Oh fuck", I thought.  I let go of the wing, heard branches crack, and then I was on my back, heart pounding, looking up at the sky, with no pain.  Kind of comfortable, as a matter of fact.  I immediately radioed to Steve and Josef that I was down, was OK, and if nobody saw me move for a while, don't worry, I was just going to lie there for a minute and catch my breath.  And I did.

I was very lucky.  I had been set down right in between two boulders.  My only injury was a slight scratch on my right elbow from one of the boulders.  By landing backwards, my harness (stuffed with my camelback, hat, and glider bags) took the brunt of everything.

Josef radioed that he was going to fly back to launch, get his car, and come get me.  Luckily, I had cell coverage, so I was able to identify the road I was by (Cutca Valley Truck Trail), and radio the details.  I even called my wife to let her know what happened, before she heard any rumors from someone else.

Then I had to decide what to do next.  My reserve had drifted over some bushes to the south, and my glider was hung up on bushes to the north, with my harness in between.  The bushes were 6-10 feet tall.  I thought it would be almost impossible for me to gather the wing and chute without help.  Besides, I was just not up to it.

I admit to being surprised at how much the whole thing affected me.  For up to half an hour, I was literally shaking.  I had only been flying an hour and a half, but I was very tired.  The adrenaline rush had taken a lot out of me.

For reasons that make no sense now, I wanted to get to the road in case someone came by.  I thought, find a clear path to the road, take out a manageable amount of gear, and then come back for the harness, glider, and reserve.  So I grabbed my helmet, instruments, water, and jacket, and looked for a way to the road.

It is hard to convey just how thick the bushes were.  I spent a few minutes trying to see if there was an obvious path out.  No. I put on my gloves and started breaking branches to clear a path. It literally took me about an hour to make it 50 feet to the road.  I got more scratches from bushes than from my landing.

By that time, Paton W had stopped by the Palomar LZ, heard what happened, and volunteered to drive my car to come get me.  That was great news.
​

My plan had been to drop the first stuff at the road and go back for the glider, reserve, and harness.  But I had no energy for fighting my way back through the brush.  Also, I worried that the road I was on was behind a locked gate.  So I decided to start hiking out, and come back for the glider later.  I turned on location sharing on my phone, and started walking.

The next day, I recruited my son-in-law, and Josef volunteered as well, and we went back.  With the three of us (and brush cutters) it was pretty easy to retrieve all the gear.  Even so, it was a long day.

So, what do I conclude from all this?  One, I was very lucky. Lucky that I had altitude.  Lucky that my chute worked perfectly, even if I didn't.  Lucky to not hit anything hard on landing. Lucky to be so close to a road, in bushy but moderate terrain.  As I hiked out, I saw plenty of other places I could have landed that would have been hell to get out of.  Lucky to be flying with friends who saw what happened and helped out.

So, what the hell caused all this?  I think all day, we were seeing different layers of air moving in different directions. I'm guessing that at 8800', I hit the east shearing over the lower level west.  But I don't know for sure.

The more interesting aspect of this whole thing is how I performed.  I didn't panic, which is good.  I don't think I did anything terribly wrong, but I'm pretty sure I failed to do some right things when they needed to be done.  We all like to think we have "the right stuff".  Maybe some of us don't.

My one and only SIV clinic was in 2011.  Way too long ago.  In fact, my chute hadn't been repacked in a couple of years.  It's easy to get complacent.

As for the future?  I don't know.  I love XC.  But something like this changes the risk/reward calculation we all do when we decide to fly.  Next time I might not be so lucky.  My instinct is to jump back on the horse that threw me.  But it gets really hard to say "It won't happen to me" when it's happened to you.

​Jeff Brown

Leonardo of the 3 tracks:  http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/compare/1955600,1955099,1953590

Steve R's side bar comments: Jeff is correct in speculating that he had hit a strong East shear overriding the West at around 8.5-9K.

If you view Jeff's track, Jeff was thermaling up in the west side of the convergence. The thermal that I had prior to Jeff's but more south east of Eagle Rock was similar. We were Thermaling up in the westerly coastal air mass flow in areas that were protected from the stronger lower level winds. North into Temecula and flowing up the Aguanga Valley was the typical lower level winds that scrub and cut off the thermals.  The trick for this route is to make the jump from the West side to the East side of the Convergence before the lower level cuts off the thermals, or make the jump over areas under the influence of the lower level cutoff wedge.

Jeff's thermal path (Red) location graphically in relation to the main convergence line.

My own thermal, like Jeff's, was the strongest thermal of the day for me and I had heavy banked up in it to load the glider in this thermal. As I was passing through this shear layer, my own glider was heavily being pitched and surged to the point of almost doing asymmetric spirals while while thermaling with active piloting and still going up 500-800fpm.  In strong thermals and potentially turbulent ones like this, I find it is best to throw efficiency out the window and load up your glider in a high banked turn with lots of wt shift.

Followup note from Jeff:

I had a good chat with Phil Russman about what could have been happening with my wing during my incident.  He said a big surge (wing flying down past the horizon) is usually caused by stalling and/or spinning the wing.  I doubted that scenario because I never pulled a lot of brake.  In fact, I was thinking "get your hands up" and don't pull a lot of brake.  So that led Phil to propose that probably, some part of the wing collapsed and got behind me, and then as I fell and re-loaded the lines, it started to shoot forward just as I was putting my hands up.  That sounds very reasonable to me.  So, as far as the first part of the incident, I made two mistakes; not looking up at the wing to see what was going on, and releasing the brakes just when I should have been applying them to stop the surge.

After the big surge, when the wing was below the horizon, I think that the line-loading went to zero as I fell down between the lines.  Probably, with the wing completely unloaded, the left wing tip folded under.  Again, I didn't keep my eye on the wing.  If I had seen the cravat and immediately applied right weight shift and some right brake, I might have kept the wing from winding up into a spiral.  Phil says once you have a "stuck-tip cravat" wound up in a spiral like that, it is very difficult to remove.  Even if right weight shift and brake couldn't keep the glider flying straight, a slower turn and lesser G forces would have given me time to find the stabilo line and try to pull the cravat out.

Given the first couple mistakes, once the glider was wound up in a spiral with a stuck tip, throwing the reserve was the right thing to do.

My intent in writing up my account is not to suggest that unknowable crap will happen to your glider while you're flying.  I believe that if I had reacted promptly and correctly, I would have lost a bunch of altitude, but not had to throw my reserve.  My intent is for all of us to learn from my mistakes.

Jeff

Come on out and share the the sky with the San Diego free flight crew.  Food & drinks will be provided by the club; feel free to bring booze and any appetizers you'd like to share (BYOB).

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

Please take care of Memberships and print parking passes BEFORE driving out if not current.
​
All memberships are available online, here.  Please make you're paid up and print out your Parking Pass before you arrive. Let's work together to keep these wonderful sites available to the free flight community!

To Check Current Membership Status

Current Weather:  ​
​Yep, we have a weather station on launch!

For detailed Site info, see the Palomar Site Guide
​
If you haven't flown here before or checked out the site guide this past year for updates, please read the site guide prior to arrival.  It may save you from landing in a burial ground or from wandering into rotor, or it may even help make your flight epic!

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

Thank you to all that responded to the Survey!

It helps to direct what we as Club Members want the Club to be and set some direction. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns about the SDHGPA & its direction, please let us know. by talking with one of the Bard Members or come to the meetings. If you offered to help or are willing to help, please reach out and we will try to get you involved.  Help is always appreciated. 

We will try to incorporate the higher requested meeting topics into this calendar year meetings

Quorum of Directors present

Site Brief - Bill Helliwell
Laguna - all new State Park folks, Bill talked to a temporary ranger about existing permit, sent to Heidi, got form letter on how to apply for a permit instead of info on existing permit, tried to clarify. We have heard nothing. Assuming permit is still valid. Chief Ranger position appears to be open.

SDHGPA Calendar & Upcoming Events:
Activities & Calendar was discussed and set for the Next 3 months:
 
SDHGPA New Year Fly-in & Awards @ Palomar - Saturday, February 3: 

1. Annual Windsock Flag Replacements per usual plan and two Masts to be placed on order in the next few weeks for windsocks at Palomar, Little Black and Horse. (motion Passed)

2. Increase Temp Membership Dues to at least cover costs of Fly-ins and keep the no excuses low Annual Membership of $40. Proposed Membership structure: Week $10, Month $20, Annual $40. After review of other clubs in CA and surrounding states. SDHGPA remains one of the least expensive while including the most sites. (Motion Passed) ​ 
Dues adjustment discussion: We’re low for clubs with actively maintained sites. Maintained sites with outhouses, groomed launches, etc, are usually much more. Suggestions to have daily fees for visiting pilots floated, but detractors pointed out that daily fees are unlikely to be paid daily without site monitors to collect. Noted that primary purpose should be compliance rather than income, to decrease risk of uninsured accidents. Steve R proposed week should be $10, month $20, year $40.

​Round-up of other Club Dues for comparison:

• Crestline/ AJ (single site): $100 annual, $10 / day,
• Symar/ Kagle (single site): $75 Annual, $40 month, $10 /Day,
• Saboba (single site): $65 Annual
• Santa Barbara: $30 Flat Annual but is also structured that all need to fly with a site guide/ instructors for + $/day (locals included even at the training hill for kitting there) and the club has very little overhead as they only carry insurance for the training hill. 
• Central Cal Dunlap/Tollhouse: $100 Y, $10 / Day
• Bay Area PA: $30 Annual + $20-40 per site sticker (fly more sites, pay more and some sites have higher overhead costs)
• Marina (one site): 30Y flat  (little to no Maint) + need to pay a State Park fee to use the site.  $195 annual pass
• Rogue Valley HGPA: $60 Annual local, visiting pilot annual $30, visiting pilot 7-day $20
• Arizona: $50 Annual, $25 M, $10 W, $5 D
• Utah HGPA: $50 Annual, $25 week, $5 day

4. Improve Palomar Launch surface to minimize line snags from exposed sharp rocks and weed snags. Motion was modified to put together a proposal looking at several alternatives from Heavy Erosion Control Matting typically used in Road Bed construction, Road Base Aggregate infill, Native GD infill. Anything installed will need to blend in with natural surroundings the majority of the year.  (Motion Passed)

​Discussion Notes: Palomar needs a DG fill on launch, to cover stubs and rocks. AstroTurf from worn football field was suggested (However, would need to be a natural color and blend in with the surroundings so recycled field turf wold likely not meet the pre approved criteria) Or Landscape Fabric (in beige/ light brown color) Or 3/4 in gravel. No carpet. All options have good examples of effective use at launches here or elsewhere, but must be acceptable to the tribe. In our Palomar Use Agreement , Artificial turf is pre-approved in concept, but would need to be in a “natural color.”   James Goodpasture (Pala Tribe Program Manager that worked on the original launch improvement project) might have leftover DG or gravel from a nearby site. Steve R will call to check on cost and delivery options/cost. Seems like using a tribal source and DG/gravel rather than artificial material like AstroTurf, carpet, or landscape fabric would decrease potential rejection by the tribe? Note: Additional Improvement project proposals beyond Site Maintenance need to be cleared through the Tribal Council. 

5. Laguna Site Intro as we have done in years past in conjunction with an XC clinic. (Motion Passed) and added to the Calendar

​7. Chapter Renewal and related application & activities need to be completed by the end of Jan to assure no gap in coverage: Risk Management / Risk Assessment for club insurance renewal. New forms required to streamline USHPA processing. Bill and Phil are going to do it. Giant cut n paste adventure, with some new items to cover. Mar 1st Insurance renewal Date, but there is a potentially long processing time upstream and Chapters are proceed on a 1st in 1st out queue so trying to complete by end of January so that we do not have a laps in coverage.

Data from the Laguna station is live and is working well

About the SDHGPA Laguna Weather Station

The Weather Station data can be viewed in several ways:

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

Both the Palomar and Horse Weather Stations withstood the strong sustained winds all week Dec 4th through the 9th. This is the 1st time the stations have displayed magenta, beyond red, wind speed shadings.

​

Here are some data snapshots from the Week. The above Palomar graph represents 1 hour average base wind with peak gust. You know the wind was strong from the reported 47.7 mph 1hr averaged base wind on the 7th at 10:30am.

The Palomar Station reported 50.8 mph Base Wind (15 min average) ​ with gusts to 69.4 mph at 10:18 am on 12-7-17. 

The Horse Station reported 39.7 mph Base Wind (15 min average) ​then gusts to 60.8 mph 15 min later at 8:26 am on 12-7-17. 

Note that some of the variation between the two stations is due to placement locations and less than ideal locations for reading NE winds due to being in the lee and rotor conditions. Although the sensors are different, the wind speeds were well within the operating specifications for the sensors.

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

Nominations for 2018 Board Members opened and the following nominations were slated:

• President: Steve Rohrbaugh
• VP: Jeff Brown
• Secretary: Dave M
• Treasurer/Sites Director: Bill Helliwell 
• Safety Officer: Bill Davis
• Co-safety Officer: Phil W

​Nominations will remain open until voting closes

SDHGPA Board Election Voting opens on Jan 2nd and closes Jan 14th. 

Member votes will be collected by mailer e-mail Ballot Form responses to nominations slated during the Nov 16th General Meeting. Write in nominations will be accepted. Election Ballot Forms will be sent to SDHGPA 2017 Full Members and 2018 Full Members as of Jan 2nd. Each current Full Member may make one Ballot submission.  All Ballot Forms must be submitted before 12 midnight Jan 14th to be counted.

Website SDHGPA Site Category Classifications
In the SDHGPA Site Guide and listing of SDHGPA managed sites, we have sites listed under the following categories: 

• SDHGPA Primary Sites: These are sites that SDHGPA actively manages and works with the Landowners / Agencies with agreements in place to maintain and works on active Site Preservation for the sites in addition to providing landowners with additional insured coverage through USHPA. 
• Secondary & Other San Diego Sites: These are sites that the SDHGPA does not have full control over or agreements in place to fly, but does annual Risk Assessments, Accident Investigations and is in communications with landowners / agencies. The SDHGPA works on Site Preservation for these sites and may carry additional insured coverage for Chapter activity and site preservation reasons. 
• Infrequently Flown: (not maintained or recommended) These sites are not maintained as active flying sites, but the SDHGPA does annual Risk Assessments, Accident Investigations for these sites.
• Closed Private Sites:  do Not Fly these sites that require specific “by invitation only” permission.   The SDHGPA does not manage or maintain these sites but does provide information as requested by the land owners to indicate the sites are closed private sites, and perform annual Risk Assessments, Accident Investigations for these sites.

Blossom Status: Club voted to keep Blossom Valley in the “secondary” site category owing to lack of direct control over activities there. The Club will continue to do do site risk assessment, interface with landowner and agencies and carry Blossom as an insured site for the % of Club & USHPA members that Fly the site.

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.