Finally. an Eliminator to Parma Flight

January 3, 2009

I've been putting this off for quite some time. Eliminator appears to be the most popular launch for HGs in Santa Barbara. But launching from Eliminator means landing in Parma Park. I'd been to the LZ there only once before this day--and it was a little intimidating to this H2/near H3 pilot. So I've been putting it off and flying from Altinator, which has an easier LZ--although I will say that walking the glider down to launch at Altinator is quite precarious.

Well--Saturday, we decided to meet at the Altinator LZ. Jen came along to drive--and as it turned out--provide moral support. On the way over the San Marcos pass, it was clear we had a low cloudbase, but lots of tall cumulus clouds. It was not looking good from the LZ either. The cummies are great--and would indicate plenty of lift, but they were clearly lower than launch. We put the gliders on my truck and headed up to launch. Things didn't look much better there. The front peak was almost completely obscured by clouds. We could either sit there and wait for it to change, or we could head over to Eliminator, which is a few hundred feet lower and a few miles east.

When we arrived, there were 4 gliders set up. None of the pilots were local--but one happened to have been an instructor of mine up in Hollister and was taking a SoCal tour. He had never landed at Parma either but had just walked the LZ before going to launch. He had planned on taking a tandem passenger--but opted not to after seeing the LZ. John spent a couple minutes pointing out the features of the landing zone to me, and we watched one pilot who had just taken a sled ride down land in lower Parma. Conditions looked decent, so John started to set up. As I was trying to decide if I was ready to fly there, my old instructor kept talking about how small the LZ is. It really didn't help--but I decided I would launch. As I set up I was getting pretty nervous. I'd heard so many complaints about the Parma LZ.

Everyone launched. I shot John's launch, then put the camera on my keel. John and a visiting pilot managed to find some lift and stay up for a while. I hooked in, did a hang check with Jen's assistance, and took my place at launch. Eliminator is a really steep launch, which I like. It's a fun way to leave the ground. I flew the basic recommended flight plan over the power lines, over the "round house", and down the ridge towards the park. Every time I felt some turbulence, I got excited thinking this was going to be my elevator up--only to hear my vario tell me in its terse voice that I was in turbulent sink. It's an easy glide to the LZ so I just enjoyed the scenery, which is simultaneously beautiful and tragic. The flight path from Eliminator takes me directly over the western edge of the Tea Fire burn zone. As I looked below me from a 1500 feet or so above ground level, I could see magnificent mountain homes reduced to a piles of cinders while other upscale retreats remained untouched. I look around a little but had to make sure I had plenty of altitude for my first Parma landing.


My First Flight into Lower Parma from henderthing on Vimeo.
(click link for HD)

Arriving over the LZ with several hundred feet to spare, I finally found some lift over one of the houses. I circled 10 or 15 times for a net gain of only a couple hundred feet. Once I lost that buffer, I unzipped and got ready to land. What can I say about my approach? It was wonky. I did a U-turn onto final (no base leg--no good reason either) only to find myself still too high. So rather than level out of the U-turn, I added a steep, tight 360, which I exited on final with plenty of speed. This is where I made the same mistake from a few flights ago in Cayucos. While I had the bar pulled way in, I tried to move my hands to the downtubes. I seem to not realize that this will cause me to pop the nose every time. My nose popped up and to the left, causing me to gain altitude and lose airspeed. I yanked the DTs towards me and got back on course for a decent landing. The pilots who had previously landed were in the neighboring (upper) LZ watching the whole thing. They knew it was my first time and gave me a little cheer.

Overall a fun flight with some mistakes. The main thing is, I'm not averse to flying Eliminator anymore.

Airtime: 13 minutes