Why Paraglide in Santa Barbara?

A Unique Environment!

Santa Barbara is very special when it comes to flying a paraglider or hang glider. The mountain range behind the city runs east-west, or more precisely, faces south.

Look at the map; California is kind of tipped to the left so that most of the coast faces west-southwest. Both San Francisco and San Diego look west to see the ocean. But Santa Barbara is different.

When you stand on the ridge behind the city and you look at the highest point on Santa Cruz Island, you are looking straight south. Turn to look down the ridge in either direction, and you're looking east and west.

Why is this important?

The prevailing winds in this region are Northwest on most days - over the back, or "OTB", as we call it. Call Debbie (963-4422), our wind talker located on La Cumbre Peak (3985 msl) any morning early, and you'll likely hear her give you a report of some variation of north wind (WNW, NW, NNW, N, NNE, NE or ENE). The velocity can be anywhere from an average of 2 to 20, with gusts much higher.
     

When the sun comes up, it begins heating the southeast facing slopes, the ones protected from the wind. If the wind is fairly light, by mid morning the solar heating will produce a thermal block. This is kind of like a bubble of protected air on the south side of the mountains that pushes the prevailing wind up and over the sunny slopes that we fly over.

If the wind is light enough (call Debbie again), thermals developing on the south side can produce cycles of wind from that direction sufficient to launch at the Alternator (3760 msl) or West La Cumbre (3920 msl), on the ridge top. Sometimes the south side heating combines with the light prevailing flow to produce a mild convergence, allowing us to climb a couple thousand feet over the mountain range.

On stronger days, we can sometimes still launch and fly from further down the slope at the Skyport/Eliminator (2850 msl) launch, staying a bit out front to avoid the shear.

Too Strong?

If there is more than 8-10 mph of north wind at the top, it is probably not a good idea to fly a paraglider in the mountains. Hang gliders can launch the backside of the range at the Brotherhood or the Back Of The Rack, ridge soaring the north wind then jumping through the rotor into Santa Barbara, looking for the "bounce" where the mountains set up a kind of wave/thermal lift band.

Mesa Convergence

When the wind is blowing northwest on the top of the range, we often experience excellent days at Elings Park (400 msl), where we train new students and experienced pilots come to hone their skills.

Quite often, the northwest wind sets up a "backwind" condition in the morning, where the surface wind is coming from the southeast (see Catalina Eddy inset). This wind wraps around Point Conception and pushes into Santa Barbara from the southwest sometime around midday.

By this time, Elings Park has warmed up nicely, and the opposing winds produce a window of oportunity for more experienced pilots to climb in thermals over the park in the instability that the convergence of winds produces. This can last from ten minutes to two hours, and may "pulse" a couple of times. I have climbed out at Elings as early as 10 am, and as late as 5:30 pm. Sometimes you can reach altitudes of up to 1000 feet over the top of the hill. The longest flight here lasted for more than an hour!

A Perfect Place to Train

Learning to paraglide requires many days of practical skill building. Laying out, inflating and kiting the wing, launching, turns, approach, and landing are routines that we need to practice over and over. The conditions on the mesa at Elings Park are perfectly suited to this activity, as the sea breeze circulation pattern (see illustration below) happens almost every day here. This typically gives us hours and hours of perfect wind conditions to practice kiting and flying. Your confidence to launch and fly a paraglider anywhere in the world will be directly affected by the skills learned and practiced during your training. You can now order a DVD of our students flying at Elings Park by clicking here.

Like the South of France

The weather we experience here in Santa Barbara is very similar to the mediteranian climate that makes the southern coast of France so popular for vacationing tourists. The area is protected from the prevailing wind condition, making almost every day flyable. There are very few days here in Santa Barbara that we DON'T fly! By afternoon, the convection heating of the inland region produces a sweet, smooth ocean breeze that turn on our ridge soaring sites along the coastline.

A perfect paragliding day starts out with an extended thermal flight in the mountains, possibly going cross-country down the range, followed by an afternoon ridge flight at Bates or Wilcox. In summer, these oceanfront sites will often be flyable until after sunset!

As with any flying site anywhere, please check in with a local pilot for a breifing. We value our launches, landing zones and the great community acceptance we enjoy here in Santa Barbara. Please help us preserve this area for foot-launched flying activities by being thoughtful and conscientious. Visit the Santa Barbara Soaring Association website for more information.