rotating the bike in the air as you discovered is just fine to line the bike up with the landing ramp
Must be nice to ride in California
I once, when i switched from 2 stroke to 4, rode my KTM off a loading ramp, big pile of dirt at a riding area that was designed to back up your truck to and roll the bikes off, well i thought it would be cool to ride off this thing and drop the 3-4 feet to the ground, land on both wheels- NOT - I closed the throttle and thought i would just float off this thing at about 5mph ( as if a 300 lb bike is going to float) and the front wheel nosed over and I went into the bars pretty hard - but them good ole marzocchi forks kept me from going all the way over - but that was when i learned that closing the throttle on a 4 stroke is not smart unless you want the front to drop right now.