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PG Epic Flight From Mission Ridge By Eric Reed - April 6, 2003 (Mission to Gilroy) Sunday. Fabio picks me up at home so I can leave my car on its spare doughnut in the garage. A wavering decision at the 80/880 junction points the car towards Mission. We drive the last couple of miles to the parking lot mostly for the hell of it. The Mission mission looks doomed since the Ed Levin wind talker’s been rising steadily during our drive and the latest reading is an excessive 17 average. Shortly before we arrive in the Mission parking lot, Helena calls to tell us that it’s perfect at the coast. The logical thing would have been to cut our losses and get some nice soaring in at the dumps. But there are two rides about to leave for the top and a handful of optimistic paraglider pilots who don’t have anything better to do than drive to the top of a mountain on a wing and a prayer. On launch it’s nowhere near the reported 17. Probably averaging 10 or 12 and the forecast isn’t calling for strong or increasing wind. Perhaps the 17 was an anomaly or a bit of a localized phenomenon. Dave Bingham shows up in his Stemme and does laps up and down the ridge as if to say, come on in, the air’s fine (for a sailplane anyway.) It really does look reasonable and John Wilde is first in the air. I’m next, I think at 2:22 and Kathy, George and Shankar are not far behind. There’s lots of relatively weak lift under the dark and wide clouds, and not a lot of sun on the ground below us. Slow lazy circles, punching upwind and starting again. It’s great thermalling with a sailplane, especially someone you know and trust (you don’t get much eye contact.) You can start thinking about the air movement in much larger swatches. Kathy finds a nice one near launch and I join her for a while. After yesterday I’m not particularly itching to leave but as I get higher, the lift seems so easy and I start to get tempted. Around 3pm I hit the 3000 foot mark as I drift towards the towers and decide to keep going, but that’s about it for usable lift for a while. Near the radio antennas there are some little bits of lift, but with the vario making useless and chaotic sounds, nothing that helps me much. South of Ed it’s blue but there are good clouds out over the valley so that’s where I go. From the antennas I head S or SSW towards 680 (remember, the mountains, the highways and the whole road grid have a NW-SE orientation.) Shortly before Calaveras Rd out in the valley I get down to 1000 MSL before finding some weak lift I can circle and drift in. I’m in and out of it a couple of times and after a half an hour of fishing and circling I’m back at the now 4000 ft cloud base and another 6 or 7 miles south. I’m now inside the Ried-Hillview class D perimeter but above the airspace ceiling with 2000 feet to spare, enough (with the nice tailwind) to cross with some room to spare. I spend a little altitude heading straight south (somewhat cross wind) following a route with a good cloud line, and one that keeps me from following the ridge line up the dead end valley in that area. Immediately to the east is a blue hole. Farther east there are also good clouds but they look committingly deep into the hills. At about 3200 ft. I find some weak stuff and circle and drift my way out of Reid-Hillview perimeter without losing any more altitude. Then gliding more to the south and a good climb off of the hills that are immediately east of where 101 meets 82. Back to cloud base, then staying high and under lift, crossing to the west side of 101 shortly before Morgan Hill. I chase the remnants of the street south into the foothills on the west side of the valley (SW from Morgan Hill) but I can’t get to anything without committing myself to a windy landing in the hills which doesn’t sound like fun. So I turn back out and cruise down the valley with most of my remaining altitude. It’s landing heaven underneath me, almost everything is big green fields. I land at 4:54 on Santa Teresa Road on the northern outskirts of Gilroy. Less than two hours after leaving Mission, I’m 37 miles out and, unbeknownst to me about 2 miles from Phyl’s daughter’s house where Phyl is spending the afternoon. Fortunately this fact is knownst to Mark Bernier or becomes so after he coincidentally speaks to Phyl moments after hearing where I am. Mark hooks us up, Phyl chases me down and invites me for a really nice meal with his family, many of whom are pilots and former pilots of different stripes. Afterwards Phyl drops his granddaughter in Union City and then drives me all the way back to San Francisco. Thanks Phyl! Also, thanks to Mark Bernier, Fabio, George and Andy S. who all offered to come get me if I got stuck. |
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