Highland sept 28-29

[jimsmess]

Heading to Highland for the weekend , looks like it should be a nice weekend
Jim M

[Brit_in_SoMD]

Me too.
Heading up tonight so can get some practice tows in tomorrow morning.

[wmelo]

I am also planning to spend the day there.
Walt

[FlyingFelix]

I'll be there, hopefully on the better of the 2 days (Sat. or Sun.)

[krryerson]

I am planning to be there on Sunday,
Knut

[jimsmess]

Good day at Highland, if you had the pateints to wait for it. Cloud streets were awsome looking from noon on , but did not produce until around 3:00. Greg and Richard did several tows only to return to the field shortly after. A few of us took off around 3:00 and stuck pretty good, base was at 4300. The NE wind and the spacing between clouds made it hard to get upwind to the next cloud, came down and gave it another try. The wind had layed down a bit and allowed us to get from cloud to cloud, base had risen a few hundred feet , which probably helped on the upwind glides. all in all a nice day, pilots Richard, Greg S,Travis, Greg [from Va] Doug R[Pa] Sunday looks better
Jim M

[FlyingFelix]

I'll be there tomorrow. Looking good as of now.

[FlyingFelix]

Gorgeous day to be out. Cloud streets early on then a blue hole setup above the airport. Around 12:30 I took an extended sledder together with a super-fun (as in scary) tow - strong bubbles scattered around by strong winds..
Finally the winds died down and got another flight in around 3:30. Awesome hour long flight, cloud base twice, finished off with a sweet landing by the car.
Great day, except for the INSANE traffic going back home...

[markc]

I figured I would give Highland a try today because the forecasts were calling for lighter winds on Sunday... But the 'casts were bogus once again! Winds were 8-13+ on the ground instead of the max-at-5 they'd been calling for the night before, major sigh.

I decided to wait the winds out, based on Jim M's report of how things had developed on Saturday. As luck would have it, there _was_ a window in which we got some lighter cycles, maybe 3-ish to 4:30-ish. That's not to say that it was easy.... In fact, the first couple hundred of my tow ranks up there among rowdiest/weirdest that I've had at Highland. Luckily for us, towmaster-extraordinaire Jim R was flying the tug, and he really made a huge difference today, lemme tell ya!

After my slack tow-line, pop up, above the tug, below the tug, suck it in, push-out and climb, sheesh-what-a-tow, trip up to 2500..... I was determined not to sled-out because I didn't want to go through *that* again! *smile*

Finally connected with the monster that we were flirting with on the way up, and took it from 1800 AGL to 4000 AGL. ("phew, I can land now, and NOT fly again!")

Found a second thermal upwind, taking that one from 2400 AGL to 3500. That was about it for me, though I did get to chase after a fully-mature bald eagle at the east end of the runway, that was extremely cool!!! Landed in formation after Jim M, circling over the lima-bean field and then zooming in for a landing to the east, landing just past the bonfire pit and within a few feet of my vehicle. Very fun!!!!

Good turn out today: Rich E, Felix, Cragin, John M, Greg S, Knut, Jim M, Walt, Joe G, and at least three others whom I've probably met multiple times before (brain cells ain't what they used to be, sigh). Bridge was closed on the way back, so I diverted to Jetty's on Kent Island for brews and dinner (darn good crab cake, btw!). Craig stopped by as well, and we killed time until the traffic was moving again. Course, there was another accident on the way home, just after the Rt-50/I-495 interchange... Yikes, what a pain, shoulda blown off work to fly again tomorrow!!!!

MarkC

[CraginS]

Been waaaay too long since I have been high in the sky, so I joined the Sunday crowd at Highland. My last training hill days were last December, and my last high flights were June of '12, so I knew I had cobwebs and rust to shake off. Early launches were all quite rowdy during the first few hundred feet of tow, so I waited until after 3:00 to fly. That didn't help; had one of my toughest tows, ever. Thanks to Jim Rooney for most skillful tug management, avoiding either one of us releasing the rope at the middle of the field. From there it went well, and then became a solid sled. I did have a safe, clean landing, although a longer final than planned, using every bit of the field.

Flight photos are on my blog, http://craginsflightblog.blogspot.com/2 ... again.html

[FlyingFelix]

Had to attach some pictures from yesterday's flight.
Notice the tug's position in the first one! The tug fell out out the thermal I was climbing like crazy in. Rattiest tow for me yet, and I've had some interesting ones before...


Than a pic at cloud base, made it to 4250 MSL, at some point I crossed the river than came back.


Last pic - flaring right behind MarkC. Got to break down by the car

[krryerson]

Great pic's Felix.
I had two tows and on both found good thermals taking me from 3000 and 3500; but did drift fare... . In the end, did not find much thermal upwinds and got two ~30 min flights. Probably screwed it up, based on my choices... .
Nevertheless, still a great day and finished off at 3PM to take the Intermediate pilot rating test. Are now successfully back in the H3 Intermediate pilot ratings, after 20 years.
Yes, traffic was terrible, that fire on the bridge was silly and got home at 10PM.
Knut

[Roger]

Wow Felix! How you and Jim managed to not break the weak link from that position is amazing.

[Danny Brotto]

How Jim managed to maintain control of the tug is what is amazing.

Never been that far over a tug in a hang glider so I've got to wonder what it looked like and felt like from the tug pilot's perspective. Being so high on tow lifts the tugs tail and makes things interesting up front I'm sure.

I can tell you if I would be anywhere near that high on tow while in my sailplane, the tug pilot would have been in a world of hurt. More likely he would have dumped me well before then.

Did Jim have anything to say after that?

Danny Brotto

[FlyingFelix]

Yeah, that tow sure was interesting to say the least.
I remember thinking "I probably need to release NOW" when I saw Jim waaay down there, however with the rope being slack and not sure I could release I tried to fix it and it worked - I pulled in all the way and tried to stay right behind him while keeping enough slack in the rope so I don't pull his tail up (there was no tension on the rope, it was well curved and so his tail never got pulled upwards), when he finally started climbing I did my best to maintain a somewhat slack line and get behind him so I don't suffer a shock when the line got tensioned again - it all worked out great, no weak link break, no nothing.
Jim said it was interesting but no problems at all. He's an awesome tug pilot. We've been in dicey situations before and managed to fix it without problems.