World famous Elsinore hang gliding venue threatened by power lines
Diane O’Malley
Special to the Village News
6/9/2005 8:32:14 PM
It’s 10 a.m. at ground level in the Elsinore Valley and temperatures are already heating up, signaling the first heat wave of the season. A group of hang gliding/parasailing enthusiasts gather under the large oak tree canopy behind the Ortega Oaks Market, waiting for the air to heat up although the soaring forecast isn’t promising. Yesterday Mother Nature offered a potential 10,000-foot ride into the sky, but today she tops out at about 3,400 feet. No matter — the Elsinore Hang Gliding Association (EHGA) members know the thermal forecast can be fickle and they hope for the best.
After a last-minute check of the rigs stored on top of the trucks and a short winding drive up the Ortega/74 highway, soon the members of the EHGA, or the “E” team, and pilots from all over southern California and even France today are overlooking the entire inland valley mosaic laid out below from the Mt. San Jacinto Peak and Idylwild to the crisp outlines of the scattered hills and mountains from Horsethief Canyon to Temecula and beyond. The phrase “picture perfect” must have been coined here.
“It’s a way of life,” says Jay “Spike” Scott, who started flying in 1986 and is president of the EHGA. “It’s a very rewarding sport and is statistically the safest form of aviation recreation.”
Fliers come from Orange County and other parts of southern California or even decide to settle in the valley to take advantage of the unique world-famous flying conditions. The Santa Ana Mountain range at the Ortega Highway is home to a unique natural phenomenon called the “Elsinore convergence.” A cool mass of ocean air flows over and around the mountains into the valley as valley temperatures increase and collide with the warmer valley air to create a multitude of thermals that fliers glide into to reach up to 15,000-foot heights in the east Elsinore ridgeline.
“We study the weather,” says longtime Elsinore flier Larry Walss. “This place has its own micrometeorology and we can fly 300 days out of the year because of the nice weather. It’s so predictable because of this Elsinore valley convergence that we can take off from a 1,400-foot hill and within a few minutes be climbing our way to 10,000-15,000 feet.”
Fliers began to frequent the Elsinore valley in the early 1970s. The first flights were taken from the Lookout Restaurant off the Ortega Highway overlooking the lake. Back then, successful flights lasted approximately 45 seconds. Depending on soaring conditions, modern flights can last for hours and take a flier cross-country as far east as Idyllwild or west all the way to the ocean.
As the sport grew in popularity and word spread around the world about the extraordinary natural conditions, the launch sites were moved to their present-day location off South Main Divide Road with the permission of a US Forest Service special use permit. The “E” team maintains two launch sites, a site called the Edwards Launch (used mostly in the winter) and the summer launch simply known as the “E” for the “E” painted on the rock by high-schoolers many years ago. Located on privately owned land, the fliers also maintain the landing zone, or the LZ, at the foot of the mountains which features the ancient large oak tree, picnic tables and parking area with fees generated by memberships for mowing, Porta Potty service and general improvements to the areas.
Regulars, newcomers and foreigners gather on the same foot-wide strip of land to take off. Once they’re in the air, it’s a communing experience.
Local flier Mickey Sarraille takes to the sky as often as he can. Flying since 1982, Sarraille learned how to hang glide off sand dunes in Mexico. What makes his experiences truly inspirational is that he has only one leg to push off and launch himself and his glider into the sky.
A motorcycle accident when he was 17 left him with one leg 28 years ago. Despite the challenge, Sarraille was determined to learn how to hang glide. “I didn’t know if I could do it,” he said. “I didn’t know if I could run off a hill and the guy who taught me used to help me launch. It took about a year before I could do it by myself…broke free of the mother hen, so to speak.”
“Every flight, you’re not sure what it’s going to be like,” said Sarraille. “That’s part of the fun. It’s an adventure. Every day is different — the lift is in different places.” According to locals, other handicapped fliers also take to the skies from Elsinore with a little help from friends.
A French pilot employed by Air France sets up his parasail chute a few gliders down from Saraille’s. Here for his second visit to the Elsinore area, Frederic Paillet heard about the extraordinary flying conditions from another Air France pilot who flew at the site. During his stopovers, he has flown at other southern California gliding sites including Crestline and Torrey Pines as well as international sites in Rio de Janeiro, Spain, Mexico and France. “A friend of mine comes to fly here,” he said, “and gave me the name of an Internet site to show where it is.” The Elsinore valley site is well-known to many gliders throughout the world, he says.
Families with children gather to watch loved ones take off into the wild blue yonder, the acrobatic stunts of experienced gliders silhouetted against a clear blue sky, friends banter back and forth and catch up on the news before taking off and loyal designated drivers take vehicles back to the landing zone or head east to follow a traveling hang glider across the sky armed with radio walkie-talkies.
The unspoken question on everyone’s minds these days is, how long will this nirvana last?
Looming in the background is the proposed Lake Elsinore Advance Pump Storage (LEAPS) project co-sponsored by the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District (EVMWD) and the Nevada Hydro Company, Inc. The project is backed by Congressman Darrell Issa, who re-introduced the Cleveland National Forest Responsible Electricity Transmission Act in early 2005. Its purpose is to designate an electricity transmission corridor within the Cleveland National Forest to aid LEAPS construction and proposes to supply 500 megawatts of hydroelectric power to the state’s growing population and also help stabilize Lake Elsinore.
The current application submission to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) outlines the LEAPS project and amounts to almost certain elimination of the hang gliding/parasailing recreational sites as proposed.
The entire LEAPS project consists of four component parts: build a lake reservoir in one of two possible canyons at the top of the Santa Ana mountain range, build a powerhouse at the bottom of the mountains, build an underground pipeline or penstock system connecting the upper reservoir and Lake Elsinore so water can flow down to the lake to generate electricity and flows up to the reservoir during off-peak hours, and the construction of the transmission lines to carry electricity from the grid to the powerhouse and back again.
The project designates transmission lines placed directly in front of the hang gliding launch area.
“We’re not against the project,” said Scott, who filed for intervenor status along with environmental and citizen groups. “It’s how they are proposing it. It’s basically up to us to protest it to preserve our interests. They’re making us fight for our existence and that’s not right. We’ve been here for over 35 years.” Hang gliders are requesting the transmission lines be put underground in the launch site areas.
“We’re getting ready to do the environmental review of the project, which is expected to last up to 18 months,” said EVMWD spokesperson Greg Morrison. The preliminary stages of the project have been ongoing since 2001 to prepare the application for FERC and get public feedback. Once the environmental review studies are completed, public hearings will be held again.
“The main reason we were attracted to this project was the fact that it could save Lake Elsinore for the first time in its history to stabilize the lake level instead of being prone to Mother Nature,” Morrison said. “The hydroelectric project would require the lake to be maintained at a minimum level of 1240. Before this year’s rainy season, the elevation of the lake was only at 1234.”
The hang gliders’ fate will be at the mercy of the FERC decision, according to joint applicant Nevada Hydro Company, Inc. President Peter Lewandowski. “We’d like to accommodate them,” he says.” It’s going to be a federal decision and they will have numerous competing interests. We have suggested alternatives and the hang gliders have worked with the EVMWD to try to formulate a project that would allow for both uses.”
“Elsinore has long been a recreation area where people come from all over the world for moto-cross, hang gliding, parachuting and many different activities,” says EVMWD Board of Director Chris Hyland. “We shouldn’t be ruining the dynamic recreational area that we have.
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South Main Hang Gliders
Posted - 01/02/2006 : 06:57:05 AM
