1. Conditions
2. The club supporting the site / Le club supportant le site : Soboba Soaring. Please send a donation through Darrel Wood. 25$ will hire a day worker for 3 hours. You can use PayPal with FlyWithDarrel@msn.com or help by working on the site. Give Darrel a call at 951-487-0053.
3. Events / Evénement : No info.
4. Bulletin board / Tableau d'affichage : Soboba Soaring.
5. Articles
6. Schools / Ecoles
7. Lost and Found / Object perdu ou retrouvé : No info.
8. How to get there / Comment s'y rendre :
   MapQuest (Red Star is the LZ) : Regional, Local. Park at the Wild West Paintball.
   From the LZ to launch : Short way, Long way, Long way (schematic).
9. Maps / Cartes
10. GPS coordinates / Coordonnées GPS
11. Shuttles / Navettes : No info.
12. Site frequency / Fréquence du site : 144.925 .
13. Insurance / Assurances
14. Lodging / Hébergement
15. Restaurant : No info.
16. Car rental / Location d'auto : No info.
17. Image
18. Video or Animation / Vidéo ou Animation
19. Cross Country / Vol Voyage
20. Hazards / Dangers

Conditions

We are hoping for light-moderate South West (225 degree) winds.
But if wind is from North East (directly behind) the launch: Launch and LZ are in wind shadow and with sunshine there will be an upslope breeze allowing to soar/thermal up but beware of wind shear at 150 m (about 500') over the ridge if the over-the-back wind is significant.

By order of interest :

• Forecast :
  • San Jacinto forecast (Weather.com): Today, 10 days.
  • Soaring Predictor (updated daily at 7:30 AM).
  • Surface wind speed and direction, at 3 hour intervals - NOAA. Definition : Wind Barb.
  • RASP (Regional Atmospheric Soaring Predictor) for Southern California. The mouse wheel changes the opacity of the RASP data.
  • Wind forecast - San Jacinto (Intellicast.com).
• Current :
  • San Jacinto station (in San Jacinto): Meso West.
  • XC Skies.
  • Visible Satellite Loop + InfraRed Satellite Loop by Intellicast.
  • Radar animation - San Jacinto (Weather.com).
  • Radar animation - San Jacinto (IntelliCast.com) shows relief map.
  • Web camera in Hemet looking towards Mt. San Jacinto. Soboba is behind the two leftmost palm trees.

Articles

• Path to the Sky, by Kenny Klein, 2006/7/1.

Schools / Ecoles

Ordered alphabetically / Ordonné alphabétiquement :

• Jérôme Daoust.
• Speedfly Soboba.

Maps / Cartes

• Google Earth: Local points of interest. A great way to explore this flying site in 3D.
• Google - Satellite: Main Launch, The S, Wild West Paintball + Wash LZ. You can drag the map with your mouse.

GPS coordinates / Coordonnées GPS

Description	Latitude	Longitude	Altitude (ASL)
Wild West Paintball parking	N 33° 49.090'	W 116° 57.706'	468 m	1534'
Main Launch (no hiking)	N 33° 49.159'	W 116° 56.336'	1128 m	3700'
Lower launch (hike up from paintball parking)	N 33° 49.255'	W 116° 57.439'	663 m	2175'
LZ : Wash across street from paintball area

For a great way to explore this flying site in 3D, see Google Earth's Local points of interest in the Maps section.

Insurance / Assurances

• You will need to become a USHPA member and it's not expensive for the 1 month membership. Just contact one of the Schools so you can take the one month membership for 10$. It is good all over the US for the 30 day period.
• Tu devras devenir un membre de l'USHPA et ce n'est pas cher pour être membre pour un mois. Tu as juste à contacter une des Ecoles afin de prendre le membersip d'un mois pour 10$. Ce sera bon pour tous les sites aux Etats-Unis pour une période de 30 jours.

Lodging / Hébergement

• No info.

Image

Pictures I took (click thumbnail to open full size image in a new window)
Photos que j'ai prises (clique la petite image pour ouvrir la photo pleine grandeur dans une nouvelle fenêtre)

	2002/10/19	The "S" launch. Requires hiking.
		Le décollage "S". Requiert de la marche à pied.
	2002/10/19	The main launch.
		Le décollage principal.
	2002/10/19	The towers and the launches.
		Les tours et les décollages.
	2002/10/19	The towers.
		Les tours.
	2002/10/19	The landing zone.
		La zone d'atterrissage.
	2006/5/20	Views of each direction.
		Vues dans chaque direction.
	2006/7/1	Arriving at Soboba from Elsinore.
		Arrivée à Soboba depuis Elsinore.
	2008/10/18	Flying to the casino. Flight details.
		Volant vers le casino. Détails du vol.
	2008/10/18	Convergence over the valley. Flight details.
		Convergence au-dessus de la vallée. Détails du vol.
	2008/10/18	Out-thermalling a sailplane. Flight details.
		Grimper plus vite qu'un planeur dans un thermique. Détails du vol.

Pictures/Images from others (click thumbnail to open full size image in a new window)
Photos/Images des autres (clique la petite image pour ouvrir la photo pleine grandeur dans une nouvelle fenêtre)

221 kB	2004/1	Picture by Darrel Wood, taken over "Wild West" paint ball area.
		Photo par Darrel Wood, prise au dessus de "Wild West" paint ball.

Video or Animation / Vidéo ou Animation

• My own collection.
• The Valley Connection: Interview.
• Speedfly Soboba - Opening Day of the "1050" Launch + Discussion.

Cross Country / Vol Voyage

• Good altitude and convergence flying over the valley (2008/10/18). Got good altitude over Soboba then glided to the casino in company of Joe and Bob (picture) and returned. Detected convergence over the valley (picture), glided to under a sailplane (picture) and out-thermaled him while drifting back to Soboba (picture). Then enyoyed more convergence flying (picture).

Hazards / Dangers

• Coutesy to the owner (Kevin) of "Wild West Paintball" (LZ). Drive very slowly not to raise dust that will fall upon the guns. If you plan to leave your car parked inside the paintball area, be aware that the gates typically close at 3pm and your vehicule could be locked in. So walk to the office (to the right) and let Kevin (the owner) know that you wish to leave your car there to go flying, and see if he can accomodate you. Kevin is very nice to pilots, let's keep it that way.
• Power line dividing the LZ (picture).
• About going over-the-back (OTB) :
  • Alan "alDpal" writes on 2003/11/10 : The area behind Soboba that you thought about going over the (OTB) to sounds like Silent valley which can be distinguished by the large RV storage and campsites. This is the route that has often worked for me to get over the top of San Jacinto (in a sailplane), and or to make the crossing of the Banning pass to or from Gorgonio. The windmill farm you saw starts at the eastern side of the Banning pass. I would highly recommend that both HG and PG show extreme caution on entering this end of the Banning pass or working the North face of San Jac, because you are right, those windmills are there for a reason. Winds there can make for some hairy landings. It is advisable to have a chase crew leading and reporting ground conditions if you are going OTB.
  • "stebbins" writes on 2003/11/11 : Please be careful when going over the back at Soboba. The Banning pass has killed at least one hang glider pilot due to winds, and I am told that there was at least one other death from the same cause. I have driven through it before, and I can vouch for the fact that 10 mph winds at the mouth become 40-50 sometimes inside the pass.
• Shear layer above the LZ. Because of the LZ being close to the base of a steep montain side, there is often very little wind in the LZ. But higher above there is a normal wind flow, so you can expect wind shear as you get into lower altitudes.