Hit the road to Bills around 7:30A.? Saw that the normal access road was shut down (getting paved all the way down to the bottom of Sideling Hill).? One other way to get there is to continue on Rt. 915 towards Wells Tannery, like you are going to Fisher Road.? Once you are at the bottom of the hill, take your first right (heading north, which parallels the backside of Sideling Hill), then in the little crossroads of Enid (a couple of miles), take a right onto Enid Road that climbs up the backside of the mountain and intersects the Summit Road around a mile or two north of the launch.? Got there at 10:30A.? Nobody around yet.? Put in streamers in the slot and picked up trash.? Mark C. the first to arrive around 11A+.? Conditions were light, some nice cycles coming in as indicated by the streamers, and a cloudless sky.? A couple of paraglider pilots, John Kelly and Brian Fowler, from Cleveland show up.? A good crowd showed up for the day.? From the Pittsburgh area Pat Halfhill, Pat Brooks, Jim Meadows, Mark Gardner, Sheila and family.? From the mountaineers Jim Rowan, John McAllister, Adam Arkfeld, and Marvin Presley.? Locally Matthew and Karen, Tom Cuenen, Dan and Cragin, BVH, Dave Bodner, Hank Hengst, Joe Brauch, and Jim Hodges.? The PA forestry guy Jim showed up early to watch us clean up the slot and see John Kelly sled in his paraglider.? The flight went well, and Jim departed shortly thereafter.? Around 12:30 Tom Cuenen launched his paraglider, got up briefly, started sinking out, went out to land, and nabbed a low save 300' over the trees, climbing out to a couple hundred over launch.? He then flew all over the valley stinking high at times and was still up somewhere when I left at 4:30P!? The hang glider pilots waited for it to really turn on.? Matthew launched his paraglider and extendoed.? By 2P some good cycles blew thru, but nobody was on launch.? So I got on launch and waited.? Grabbed a decent cycle, launched, turn right abruptly, and maintained at ridge level heading south, dolphin flying, but not getting above.? Hit a pothole and had to head out.? Got some nice bumps along the way, but to no avail.? Landed downhill, flaring late and rolling in.? Mark C., Joe Brauch, and BVH joined me in the LZ.? Jim Hodges was walking the LZ with Matthew.? Jim, Joe, and I climbed the mountain.? 3/4 of the way up we hear Gardner above us hooting and hollering in his Stealth.? He was soaring right above our heads.? By this time it was around 3:30P.? At launch Gardner had drifted back behind launch 500' over, and Pat Brooks was getting up right in the launch slot area in light lift in his Falcon.? Retrieved the vehicle, drove down to Enid, took a right heading north to Rt. 913 east, went through the gap north of launch, took a right on Rt. 655 south, and then took the first right onto Black Mt. Road, which is the road by the LZ.? This is actually shorter by 5 minutes to the LZ versus the way we have always gone to the Bills LZ.? In the LZ were a few more hang gliders with pilots lamenting about their short rides.? In the air were a few paragliders and hang gliders soaring.? Gardner and Matthew in his paraglider were soaring high above the mountain.? A flush cycle hit and claimed everyone but Matthew and Gardner.? They finally ended up landing just before I hit the road at 4:30.? Hopefully it went magic for the pilots who stuck around till sunset 3 hours later.? Although the conditions were light, it was still a nice day to be out in the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside.
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Bacil
Bills Saturday
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Bill's Saturday
Not quite magic at end of day. Brian and John sledded in their PGs. We all did forward launches. I launched last in my PG, turned left and was staying even with the ridge... not losing any altitude... hugging the trees real tight. Thought about flying down to the gap and landing out. But I didn't have my vario or radio. When I turned around to come back towards launch I lost about 30 feet. So I made another pass and headed out to land. Very buoyant end of the day air.
Matthew
PS Who is bustedwing?????
Matthew
PS Who is bustedwing?????
Bill's Saturday
2-part Report
1. Had a great visit with Jim Smith, our PA Forestry guy. He came out early and saw a PG launch and some site clearing. (great work, Mark C, Brian V-H, and Mark G Thank you all).
Jim was quite pleased to see us out there, and I think had good chats with several of us. He is a big supporter of our flying and appreciates the low impact we have on the environment. We talked about ATVs, hikers, birders, and (ugh!) wind mills for electric power.
Bad news.. the wind power advocates continue their assault on the bureaucracy. The owner of the land next to Pulpit launch has been in Jim's office 4 or 5 times trying to get him to support putting windmilss on that ridge. However, Jim thinks that particular ridge is safe for a while from such impact.
Tidbit... the PA Forestry folks refer to Bill's Hill launch as the heliport. It is regularly used for helicopter landings, particularly during fire watch exercises and bug spraying ops. The pilots like it because they take off by flying out of the slot just as we do.. they prefer forward flight over vertical lift.
2. My flight - OH MY GAWD!
Ok, so an unnamed pilot had earlier in the day thrilled the crowd with a sinking launch after 2-step run, but then soared for hours like an eagle.
I launched late, in very light conditions, and gave him a stiff competition for worst launch of the day. I went off with left wing low and high nose. Damn, that was dumb! Got turned left, aiming at the trees, and initial turn correcitons were not effective. Pulled in, turned right and popped over the trees at teh bottom of the slot.
Headed on out, and flew through 2 or 3 small bumps that I did not think big enough to work tha tlow. Hit one bogger one at teh norht end of the LZ, jsut before enterring final glide. Flew long on teh LZ because of that. Feedback from teh peanut gallery later was that they though I could hav eworked tha tone and goten up. Oh, well. I flew. ANd I confirmed I have winter break cobwebs I need to dust off.
I will!
cragin
p.s. Damn Tom Ceunen is good! Soaring all over the sky in negligible lift day, and then top landing!
1. Had a great visit with Jim Smith, our PA Forestry guy. He came out early and saw a PG launch and some site clearing. (great work, Mark C, Brian V-H, and Mark G Thank you all).
Jim was quite pleased to see us out there, and I think had good chats with several of us. He is a big supporter of our flying and appreciates the low impact we have on the environment. We talked about ATVs, hikers, birders, and (ugh!) wind mills for electric power.
Bad news.. the wind power advocates continue their assault on the bureaucracy. The owner of the land next to Pulpit launch has been in Jim's office 4 or 5 times trying to get him to support putting windmilss on that ridge. However, Jim thinks that particular ridge is safe for a while from such impact.
Tidbit... the PA Forestry folks refer to Bill's Hill launch as the heliport. It is regularly used for helicopter landings, particularly during fire watch exercises and bug spraying ops. The pilots like it because they take off by flying out of the slot just as we do.. they prefer forward flight over vertical lift.
2. My flight - OH MY GAWD!
Ok, so an unnamed pilot had earlier in the day thrilled the crowd with a sinking launch after 2-step run, but then soared for hours like an eagle.
I launched late, in very light conditions, and gave him a stiff competition for worst launch of the day. I went off with left wing low and high nose. Damn, that was dumb! Got turned left, aiming at the trees, and initial turn correcitons were not effective. Pulled in, turned right and popped over the trees at teh bottom of the slot.
Headed on out, and flew through 2 or 3 small bumps that I did not think big enough to work tha tlow. Hit one bogger one at teh norht end of the LZ, jsut before enterring final glide. Flew long on teh LZ because of that. Feedback from teh peanut gallery later was that they though I could hav eworked tha tone and goten up. Oh, well. I flew. ANd I confirmed I have winter break cobwebs I need to dust off.
I will!
cragin
p.s. Damn Tom Ceunen is good! Soaring all over the sky in negligible lift day, and then top landing!
flying as a vulture
Cragin and all the others thanks for recognizing my flight.
I hope you all can be proud on that we 'free flight pilots' more than once can feel like real birds, soaring through the air!
Little flight report:
When I took off the cycle was already blowing a while. Normally I was waiting for the next but because it took so long I launched.
I tried to circle agressive at the right side next the left side but no luck. I flew last year the 1st of April at Bills and remembered the thermal just before landing. It was still there! Flying slow and centering is the key. With some height I flew off to the right, accelerated but hit immediate turbulance and needed my whole body to stabilize. I soared the ridge and get very low just before the highway. Before landing I got another low save. Next I opted to avoid the ridge as much as possible. I love XC overland flying and Bills Hills - Valley worked well Saturday. I constantly set little waypoints ahead that I tried to mark. At the inversion (+6000 feet) I met several vultures cruising the valley. I noted strong lifts >1200feet/min that dragged me to the inversion. I also hit big sink and the common spring turbulant zones a lot.
So after a bad season uptill now and a red-eye flight from Las Vegas (too much wind to fly at Jean's Ridge at friday) we drove home with a satisified bird feeling!
See you all soon again!
I hope you all can be proud on that we 'free flight pilots' more than once can feel like real birds, soaring through the air!
Little flight report:
When I took off the cycle was already blowing a while. Normally I was waiting for the next but because it took so long I launched.
I tried to circle agressive at the right side next the left side but no luck. I flew last year the 1st of April at Bills and remembered the thermal just before landing. It was still there! Flying slow and centering is the key. With some height I flew off to the right, accelerated but hit immediate turbulance and needed my whole body to stabilize. I soared the ridge and get very low just before the highway. Before landing I got another low save. Next I opted to avoid the ridge as much as possible. I love XC overland flying and Bills Hills - Valley worked well Saturday. I constantly set little waypoints ahead that I tried to mark. At the inversion (+6000 feet) I met several vultures cruising the valley. I noted strong lifts >1200feet/min that dragged me to the inversion. I also hit big sink and the common spring turbulant zones a lot.
So after a bad season uptill now and a red-eye flight from Las Vegas (too much wind to fly at Jean's Ridge at friday) we drove home with a satisified bird feeling!
See you all soon again!