San Diego Info

Waypoints

WPT - Official waypoints for SoCal XC League
KML - 2016 Google Earth list of all waypoints for SoCal XC League

Resources

JPG - Typical XC Routes
JPG - Helpful Retrieve Map
XC Route Webcams

Sites

There are two taskable sites that we have for the XC league in San Diego, Laguna and Horse Canyon. We are hoping to add Palomar in the coming years but due to LZ issues we cannot safely have a task there yet without upsetting land owners.

Laguna: East facing early morning site, overlooking the Anza-Borrego desert. Strong winds often cause the site to be blown out. The site works best with East wind tapering off to West wind which sets up an amazing N/S convergence. The site works best in Spring and Fall, generally too windy at other times of the year.
Horse: 30 minutes South of Laguna is Horse canyon. Strong west winds can blow the site out but can also be home to some good convergence and cloud flying on the right days.
See the club website for all details

Organization and Retrieval

Pilots coming from the North usually try to carpool either from Julia or Santa Ysabel. In Santa Ysabel the best place to drop a car is Dudley's Bakery (30218 CA-78, Santa Ysabel, CA 92070). MAP
Pilots that park at launch make sure to leave your keys or code with someone so that pilots arriving back early can shuttle cars to a more convenient location.
Retrieve drivers after leaving launch and locking the gate should immediately preceed down to the Julian grade and drop into the Volcan valley (San Felipe Rd). From there one can head North and sweep any early bailouts and the other can potentially head South around Granite and grab any pilots that landed in the LZ.
LZ options and communicating to drivers: There is only AT&T in the LZ area so pilots that land should try to radio to pilots flying that they are in the bailout. In turn pilots still flying can relay to retrieve drivers that there are pilots landed in the LZ.
North of Granite mountain has very little cell reception until you pop-out into Warner Flats area. Use that opportunity to check your phone for new messages if you are on retrieve.

Weather Tips

Laguna: Generally forecast always looks good 1-2 days out so it's hard to forecast more than day of.
Laguna: If the forecast shows no West wind coming through at any point in the afternoon it will almost surely be blown out from the East.