Woodstock Sunday (9-22-13)

[garys]

Looks lke it is shaping up the be a good Woodstock day this coming Sunday.

[Matthew]

Might be able to show up late-- 5ish-- with the PG.

Matthew

[XCanytime]

Should be darn good. Enjoy. Bacil

[bahamianflyer]

I will be there before 12

[sailin]

I'm in. ETA around noon.

Jon

[mcelrah]

Me, too. - Hugh

[rlweber]

Classic post frontal Woodstock day! ETA 1:30 pm

[andybalkphysics]

I will be there also.

[wmelo]

After spending my Sat at Taylor Farm, I am looking forward to flying at Woodstock or Pulpit.
Giving the fact, most of you are going to Woodstock, I will follow the flock

walt

[mcelrah]

I've decided to shift gears and take Sallie for her first ride in the motor glider. There will be other unpowered gliders on the ridge today too - we'll be the high-wing glider. I'll monitor 146.500 if anyone wants to talk. I'll warn the sailplane folks that foot-launchers will be out, too. - Hugh

[Matthew]

Karen and I met up in the very empty LZ around 4:30 to drop off a car. One HG (Jon) and a couple of PGs were in the air. We arrived up top to find Gary and Joe S. breaking down when the winds were coming in somewhat strong. They reported that it had been L&V most of the day with lots of PG pilots flying and that the winds had only recently picked up. I would have re-set up my HG in a heartbeat. Ellis was at launch waiting for a light cycle. One came and she launched and beamed right up-- yelling down that it was pretty bumpy. Rod, P2, launched next, and also went up. I followed in my PG and found the air to be very, very active.... and strong! I stood on the speed bar and inched half way out to the LZ climbing the entire time. There was plenty of lift-- so as long as I stayed out front I was fine-- getting back on the speed bar every so often. I mostly flew between the two fingers North and South of launch. I tried to go to Strasburg but gave up after being parked over the finger to the North for a while. It sometimes felt like I was in wave with big lift lines going out into the valley. So I just pointed into the wind, went up and enjoyed the view. Flew for an hour and a half with 1500 over. I didn't make a 360 my entire flight-- it would have been insane and I would have instantly been blown over the back. BTW-- several PGs were blown over the back!

Matt Ingram, a P2 from France, and Karen didn't fly. Jim McClave launched a little before sunset as I was heading out to land. There was still tons of lift. Even out in the valley beyond the LZ it took me 20 minutes to get down!

Others can report on their adventures.

Matthew

[sailin]

I arrived up top at 1130 to find complete overcast and a light trickle of wind mostly out of the north. Uuugghhh. Shortly thereafter I was met up top by Gary and Joe to share in my disappointment. So we started hang waiting in hope of better things to come. After an hour or so and only sparsely blue holes coming by, we could see things looked better across the valley in West Virginia. Hopeful that the better looking skies would bring better conditions we waited, and waited. A couple of PG sleds around 2pm didn't bode well for us. A couple of other HG pilots came out but didn't like the look of the conditions and headed out. Could hardly blame them at the time. It took forever for the blue to make it too us. When it finally did it brought about a nice change. We had our first true cycle but there were still some quiet and still lulls that seemed to last much longer than the cycles. By around 230pm?? A couple of PGs launched and were able to stay up....but it was very finicky at launch still with variable cycles followed by quiet and calm. I waited a little bit longer and moved into the slot around 330pm to try and find a good cycle. After a bit of a wait I found something that was straight enough and strong enough to launch in. I didn't go straight up and had to make several passes before I got established above launch. Once above launch the lift was there. I pushed up north towards the knob for most of my flight as there was a north cross most of the flight. The finger spines were all working well and I topped out at 4600'msl several times. Base was a bit higher. Saw at least one PG up there. I had super fun flight. It was a great opportunity for me to get to know my U2 more and I was very pleased with her What had started out to be a overcast kind of dull day was now a beautiful afternoon with blue skies and cumulus clouds all around the ridges and valleys. Definitely not classic post frontal, but definitely classic Woodstock beauty. There were tons of birds about and I even spent some time with a Bald Eagle just to the south of launch. Towards the end of my flight, as Matthew mentioned, things definitely got stronger. When I decided I was going to head out to land I wasn't too keen on the idea of the Primary LZ. Although its better than in a west cross, the changing conditions and north cross had me thinking of other plans. I put the improved glide of the U2 to good use and headed out, slightly upwind, into the valley to a big field on the upper end of Moose Rd. I had a nice landing on an uphill section of the big field. I was quickly greeted by the friendly landowner and his daughter. We talked for a bit and they were most welcoming. The landowners daughter even got a picture with my glider. Big thanks to Karen for coming to pick me up !! Thank you!!!
Also of special note was that Tex Forest was there. Many of you may know him. He seemed to really enjoy being back on the mountain and around all the wings!! Hopefully he'll come back out!
For a day that started out looking pretty questionable, it sure turned into a good one.

Jon