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PG Site Record at Mt. Diablo By Eric Reed - April 17, 2001 (Diablo to Patterson) I got to Juniper around 2:00
and was off by 2:20. Looking back I wish I'd made the decision to take the day
off a little earlier. I was Wind talker was giving windspeeds like 1mph but on launch it was more like 5 to 10 and a bit northy. Mostly sink after launching until I got to the ridge across the street from the regular LZ. A nice climb off of that ridge (with a hawk at very close quarters for part of the way) took me pretty much to cloudbase at around 5,200' a bit south of the summit. A sailplane was searching for lift below me (valley south of the Summit) when I set off down Blackhawk ridge, mostly hopping cloud to cloud. Really beautiful. Sneaking up higher than base in weak ridge lift on the upwind side of a very defined cloud was spectacular. Caught one last nice climb off the end of Blackhawk ridge and continued east towards Byron with some clouds to follow. After Los Vaqueros reservoir things got less straightforward; chasing bits of lift under half dead clouds and bouncing between 2,500 and 4,000. Having landed near there two weeks earlier I was anxious to find a way to top up on altitude before going on glide. But after about an hour of farting around gaining as much as I could I went on glide towards Tracy. Wind was NW over the mountains and became progressively more northerly down and out to the central valley. No lift on my glide, I was down to my last few hundred feet just southwest of Tracy. Gliding over one brown dry field . . . and then another. Fairly committed to my landing approach into a due north wind of around 12mph, maybe 150' off the deck I hit something. With a quick scan downwind I revised my landing options and circled. Another 30 times around and I was back at 6000' cruising south. 30 miles out of Juniper at 5:30, warm evening light, wind at my back, clouds to follow again and 580 at my feet. One of those rare times on a long cross country when the stress and decision making quiet down and there's room to savor. A few small climbs, and a lot of generally buoyant air stretched my glide out for 40 minutes adding another 17 miles for a nice landing on the west side of I5, 5 miles west of Patterson. I packed up while the local Bull made sure I knew who was boss, and caught a ride back to the Dublin Bart from an nice Indian truck driver in a turban playing loud Hindi movie music. He spoke just enough English to understand that I wanted to go to Bart but not, I don't think, to understand what the hell I was doing out there. Flight time 3:52. Distance 47 mi. Editor's Post Script: I understand that, in 2001, Ed Stein flew 87 miles from Diablo and he flew 89 miles from Diablo in 2003. |
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