My LA Adventure

I saw an ad for an interesting glider for sale in LA, so I decided to take a roadtrip and check it out. The glider was a LiteSport 5. My impression of the glider was that it would be a little harder to fly than what I was used to (a pulse 11m), and that I would be a little light on it, but not too bad. Anyway, I drove down to Sylmar flying park, just outside of LA (that was a 6+ hour drive- solo!). I soon met a couple of the local pilots hiding in the shade. After introducing myself, Irwin and Larry gave me a very comprehensive introduction to the LZ; given how restricted the LZ is, I was very appreciative of all their pointers! Anyway, my timing was perfect because a truck was going up to the Kagel mountain launch half an hour after I arrived. I put my Pulse on the truck and drove up with 5 other pilots. On launch, one very nice pilot (I want to say his name was Arthur, but my memory is playing tricks on me) gave me a good intro to the launch and told me where the best lift was. I launched and had a very turbulent half-hour flight. I only got a hundred feet or so above launch and it was hard to stay up. But that seemed to be the order of the day; apparently Kagel is better in the fall and spring. Landing however, was a breeze; with the right approach, it's a very pleasant place to land.

After landing, I had the pleasure of meeting Joe Greblo. He's a great guy and I from what I can tell, a terrific instructor. He also took on the unenviable task of talking sense into me. He eventually convinced me that I was biting off more than I could chew with this new glider. So, instead of trying out the new glider the next day, I took another flight on my Pulse. This was a shorter flight, but I still had fun. Though the previous night, I had camped near a "shortcut" into LA; I was woken up at 3am by speeding semis going down the abandoned road I found.

Anyway, I decided to break up the drive back into smaller chunks, so I drove to Dunlap for the evening. The next day, I launched Dunlap and had my best flight there to date. I launched at about 2pm or so and in no time, I was up to 7000'. I tried making my way to Delilah, but I turned back about half way there because I found tons of sink. Got back to 7K and tagged Suntaag before going back to launch. By this time, the launch bowl was very turbulent. I had already had a good flight, so I decided to call it a day and land. I keep forgetting that I need to have a really strong flare at Dunlap- I came in on my wheels (I thought I was past that!). Anyway, that was my LA adventure.