Little Black
📍 California , San Diego County · Nearest city: Fairbanks Ranch (6 km)
42 XC score / 100 · takeoff at 344 m · 📍 View on map
Coordinates and external links
32.98800, -117.12200Takeoff orientations
Green = good orientation · Yellow = possible · Gray = not suitable
Why this site has thermal potential
| Factor | Value | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Hotspot density (5 km) | 2 | Low |
| Avg thermal probability | 0.91 | Based on thousands of aggregated IGC flights |
| Solar orientation | 0.28 | Slope faces south in northern hemisphere |
| Own flight history | 0.00 | Thermals detected in platform IGC tracks |
Takeoff description
Many, depending on your desire to hike. USHPA and SDHGPA Membership is Required to Fly Little Black. Site Guide: http://www.sdhgpa.com/sites-guide.html
Rules and notes
USHPA and SDHGPA Membership is Required to Fly Little Black. Information, rules, and guidelines contained in the links below change frequently and take precedence over conflicting information that may be found on the web for this and other San Diego sites: http://www.sdhgpa.com/sites-guide.html
Pilot comments
Excellent training hill thanks to a huge sloped dirt area. When conditions are right one can gain altitude from the first hike-up launch. Little Black is small mountain site located in the Rancho Penasquitos community and offers great soaring conditions from late fall through spring. There are occasionally good glass offs at this site during summer. While not always as consistent for easy soaring as some other sites in San Diego, Little Black does offers a great, challenging, technical, thermaling and soaring proving ground with lots of lessons to learn. Little Black can provide many pilots a very short sledder and leave them scratching their heads, while others that have put in their dues will constantly sky out. Due to this, either you will learn to love Little Black or hate it. Despite this, when Little Black is on, it is on. Little Black often is the best post frontal site in the county and several good XC routes exist. This site is also a great training hill due to the variety of launches available and easy open LZ.
Nearby sites
Stonehenge (Closed) (5) · Iron Mountain (34) · Torrey Pines (San Diego) (8) · Buddha (Closed) (3) · Blossom Valley (46) · Big Black (16)