Updated Radio Etiquette slide from 5-2023 talk and prior XC talks is a good reminder for Site Flying and XC pilots:

Notes taken:

Elsinore Site Guide, Bill Soderquist
-About a dozen locals fly it
-Been landing over by O’Hara’s (terrible place to land if it starts to blow down)
-Mostly top land in cleared areas (via chop and controlled burns)
-The bank may own it, caretaker usually is the only one to come out and interact.

Sites we know are open:

• Palomar - watch out for drilling rigs, look for new parking lot area, walk Palomar before you fly the site.: via Bill H: well pipe, about a 1’ in diameter and 4’ high, requesting that we land to the NW side of the building where HG typically land.  Need to update site guide regarding LZs
• Blossom  - keep it Chill
• Laguna is open if flying the Cliff Launch, but we do not have an Active permit for the State Park and the Upper Launch being in the State Park is technically Closed due to COVID-19 .  The ABSP haven’t cashed the check paying for our permit. The Earthquake Valley LZ is also closed (being in the State Park. All entrances to Anza-Borrego (Earthquake Valley) have been fenced off with tape.  Nothing has been put on our gate at the upper launch.  Rangers unlikely to be cool about us going to the upper launch.
• Otay is probably open

Site that we know are Closed:

• Horse closed
• Little Black closed die to being in a City Park
• Big Black closed

People of the sky, let’s talk about weather!  More specifically, how do YOU look at the local flying forecast?  What sites do you go to, what do you look for on them, and how often do you check?

This is a great overview of how Airspace effects us as HG & PG pilots:

Understanding USA Airspace for Paraglider, Hang Glider and Ultralight pilots

A big thank you to Ty Gunnlaugsson out of Colorado for putting this together!

Elsinore convergence animation / slideshow hr by hr
From XC Skys on a classic day 9-27-18 starting at 9 am till 6 pm.

Watch how the day develops and progresses. The colors are showing top of usable lift and the scale is on the upper right. From blue to green then yellow are the higher altitudes. 

Note that the Eastern side of the Santa Ana Mts / Santiago Saddleback coastal range (that block & hold back the westerly winds and also referred to the E's Back Range) typically develop 1st before the flats heat up to be workable. Many times, it becomes a patience & waiting game while trying to hold onto altitude before crossing over into the flats.  A lot of times, it is beneficial to hold onto the Back Range until the West pushes through. Once the west pushes through, it is time to go with it and try to stay slightly ahead of it as a tail wind, as the cooler west diminishes the Back Range's productivity, and the Flats turn on.

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

Consensus from an SDHGPA discussion on the topic (1-15-14) & (4-16-15):
(Well, these are the things that came closest to consensus. Maybe that was too high a bar.)

1)     Keep in mind that different aircraft and different configurations have different blind spots, and act accordingly 

• Hang gliders cannot see above them or behind them
• Seated paraglider pilots cannot see directly below them or behind them
• Supine paraglider pilots (pod pylons) cannot see below them
• Tandem paraglider pilots cannot see directly in front of them, behind them, or below them
  

2)     Fly in a consistent and predictable manner, such that other pilots can predict your position and flight vector (don’t randomly change direction, speed, or bank angle, especially in close proximity!).

3)     Communicate with other pilots. Wave, make some noise, and use eye contact to confirm that nearby pilots are aware of you. If nearby pilots are not aware of you or cannot see you, act accordingly (give them the right of way). Continually spot and make eye contact with those you are thermaling with. (Do not fly around looking at your wing).

8)     When ridge soaring or entering a thermal, yield right of way to those already established in the thermal (generally yield right of way to those making the tightest turns). Do not fly straight through the thermal. (The sound of loud expletives is a good indication that you are doing this without realizing it.)

9)     If another pilot is coming up below you in a thermal (especially a pilot in a hang glider, who may not be able to see you above them), yield right of way and let them pass. Conversely, if you are rapidly approaching another pilot from below in a thermal (especially a pilot in a paraglider who may not be able to see you below them), yield right of way.

10)     In general, if you are overtaking someone else, you must yield right of way and not force them towards obstacles, other gliders, etc. . . . i.e. If they can’t see you.

11)     Watch where you are going. Clear your turns. Do not fly around looking at your wing. Watch shadows (handy way to tell if anyone is close to you, even in your blind spot). And listen – if you have the “jams” cranking in your headset, you won’t be able to hear other pilots warn you of impending collisions.

11)     (A personal addition from Dave M) – Realize that tandem paragliders are especially subject to blind spots, as our passengers are directly blocking our forward view and all views below and to the front of us.

Understating of this topic will not only lead to a pilots ability to maximize the soaring lift potential of our sites, but also lead to safer flights.

We are continuing to see many pilots flying in inappropriate locations to prevailing conditions at our more complex non simple ridge sites like Little Black and Palomar to name a few. All Pilots need to constantly evaluate wind directions & shifts to perpendicular faces. Do not fly Mt sites by rote.

This material is re-posted from our Members Only section 2015 Thermal and XC Clinic Talks , but is so important to making better safer pilots; we are repeating it here in our open blog section. 

Palomar Example: Showing effective soaring faces and sensitivity to wind shifts.