Woostock Saturday 5/19

[hepcat1989]

Feel like flying? I'm gonna try and be there around 10ish.
Shawn.

[RedBaron]

I'll be there. Looks like rain and strong for the Pulpit all day.
I'll try to beat 10. I f anybody wants to ride along and share the burden imposed by $3.20/galllon give me a call at 301-986-8680.

Janni

[Matthew]

Can't make tomorrow. Anyone up for Sunday? We're playing polo on Sun. morning and then hoping winds back off for HR or Pulpit later in the afternoon. Otherwise it's back to Woodstock.

ETA at HR 1pm, Pulpit 1:30, WS 2:00.

I'd sure like to fly the PG for a change.

Matthew

[John Simon]

Anyone thinking XC tomorrow? Woodstock or Pulpit... Pulpit looks a bit strong maybe. 'Stock? I need to see if I can make it but will begin laying the ground work and keep my fingers X.

John

[silverwings]

Good possibility I will be going to Woodstock Saturday arriving late morning. (202)409-2574 c

[hepcat1989]

Matthew, I may be able to fly local Sunday.. Pulpit. Let me know your plans.
Shawn.

[carweill]

Woodstock?

I'll check in the morning

Carlos

[Joe Schad]

Strasburg Mayfest is today. A parade will close main street from 2-3pm today. Should be a good flying day at Woodstock. I am planning to take my glider to the parade.

Joe

[gardinator]

I feel the love.......but I must fly with the pittsburg boys today.......
I am hoping they will drag me 100 miles across pa
-gardner

[silverwings]

Looks good for today. Come join us. (202) 409-2574 c.

[carweill]

Heading to Woodstock

ETA 11:00 AM

Carlos

[dbodner]

One more lemming. Headed for the LZ.

[mikel]

Shawn should be here any minute, then we are headed south....

Gotta do that car pool thingy, since the price of petrol is
through the roof...LOL

Hope to see ya'll there......

ETA 11:30 ish.......

'Til then, Mike
304-279-3131

[dbodner]

Great day. Watching the trees on I-66, it should've been blown out, but it wasn't.

Launched around 3 and was worried I might only get an extendo on what should've been a brain-dead day. Finally, the elevator arrived, and I reached my high of the day. After I got my hour in I came down to have dinner with Jodie at the Springhouse Tavern in Woodstock. Surprisingly not bad. Planned on dinner with Janni, but I get no cell reception in Woodstock. Sorry, Janni.

Other people had much more memorable flights than mine, but I was happy.

Thanks Steve K and Cragin for wiring me. And thanks Gary and Dan for trying to help with my busted nose batten tip. Unfortunately we couldn't replace it, so John M came to the rescue with duct tape. Getting my H3 was certainly a milestone. But, I'm not sure it compares with my first flight under duct tape. I have now truly arrived.

3313 over and 1:11.

[davidtheamazing1]

Hey all,
Just had my first soaring flight at woodstock today. Launch was good. Conditions were strong at times, light at other ones... John Middleton was providing instruction via radio. At first I just assumed he wasn't saying anything since I was doing everything right. Then upon further reflection I realized the battery had died about a minute into my flight. Luckily it was a contingency we had planned for, and basically I was on my own to do what we had discussed numerous times.

The whole sky seemed like an elevator. Lift was everywhere. For about 45 mins I was up in the sky going back & forth along the ridge... Probably got a thousand feet over the launch.

Anyways, my primary goal for today was to land properly and to have what most pilots would consider an uneventful flight. After my previous mountain flight (and close arboreal encounter) for me today was about getting the landing/approach correct.

After a while, I followed another glider to the LZ field and came down with a decent approach through somewhat knarley air. Sunny@highland would probably have said to go faster faster. It was a good landing in the sense that I could walk away from it, great because I managed not to damage or hurt anything... but far from a perfect landing on my feet.

Anyways after all the wings were on the ground, John M gave me a prescription for more mountain flights under the watchful eye of an observer. Tomorrow looks like it will be a good day to go back. Any observers interested in watching me at woodstock tomorrow?
-David

[hepcat1989]

Mike and I met up in West viginia to ride together. On the way to Woodstock we talked about flying together to the north to try and do some XC.We arrived to see quite a few pilots setting up.Looking through the magic mirror I seen David Bodnor, Carlos, Dan T.,Steve K.,Bruce E.,Cragin,John Simon,Steve P.,John M.,His student David the amazing1, and Gary Smith. Bacil and Janni were in the air. I waited for Mike to get back up after dropping his amazing Toyota Forerunner! ( Amazing description to follow.) I helped wire off Gary, Dan and Carlos. I got ready and launched alittle before 2 with help from Bruce, Cragin and Mike Lee on drums. ( Thanks Guys!) You rock! I had to scratch and claw at first to hang in there getting -250 after launch and thought this can't be! Shit!Then it came on and I had then got to 2000 over . Mike launched and flew for a while to get up and went up north . I flew above him and told him on his radio " alright man, Let' Do This Thing". So, off to Signal Mountain we went.Lift was easy and I found many 800to 900FPM"s.(If not higher!) I was stoked to see so many landable fields in the bends of the river if need be. Just like Bruce, Gary and Bacil had told me. Mike and I flew together and tried to talk to each other on his radio. ( I had trouble hearing him) Some woman would chime in from time to time to help monitor our flight. Thanks lady! I lost Mike from view as we got down by the ressivor so I turned back around and worked two rock piles up to around 3000 over and thought about heading back to the main LZ . I then heard Mike asking me where the hell I was and told him while flying with one arm in the middle of the base tube in 800 FPM! ( That was a handful!) I turned back around and headed towards the field he had landed in. I couldn't see his orange falcon at first because of some trees, but then I spotted him in a nice big tasty field . The field was cooking off and a bit wicked to get down, but landing was fine in 3ft tall grass. Gary was nice enough to pick our stoked asses up with cold beer to boot! Thanks Gary! We then went on the quest to pick up pilots. Dan T. first at the airstrip near the gap , next John Simon on short mountain. On the way back up to launch was Cragin. Yes, we all squeeked in Mike's amazing hang gliding vehicle. 6 gliders on top and John Simon crushing my left leg and Cragin crushing my right! Dan was at the window sucking air. That was a Toyota commercial! I flew for about an hour and 15mins for my first XC.
Felt damm good!
Peace, Shawn.

[CraginS]

Mid-week, it looked like the weekend might get a bit damp. Luckily, the forecast changed for the better as Saturday approached. I got a late start on the morning, arriving at Woodstock launch about 1:30. Bruce, Mike, and Shawn greeted me in the parking lot. Plenty of pilots there - I had to wait for someone to launch before I could claim a set up spot. The winds were a bit strong at times, with swirling in the slot, so I was not worried about rushing into the sky. I set up right behind John M. and Steve P. As the afternoon went on, I assisted in a number of launches.. some good, some not so good. However, everyone got into the air safely.
As I finished my set up and pre-flight, two families with kids came over to ask questions. I enjoyed playing hang gliding answer man. One of the dads is an Army paratrooper, so he was asking about altitudes and need for oxygen. He has never done any recreational skydiving, though, so was not familiar with nuances of our sport. He sure kept the pre-teens in line for proper courtesy when asking their questions. I did encourage them to give it a try (HG, that is) next trip to Kitty Hawk.
I was the second to the last launch of the afternoon. Steve K. helped wire me off at 3:45 into a nice straight in cycle. We did get one of the wuffo dads to stabilize the other wire. Once I was in the sky, Steve launched, leaving the tourists to watch a while from launch.
As others reported about the day, there was lift aplenty. I hit the lift as soon as I exited the slot. Rode that up easily to about 2K over launch, working slowly back and forth between the fingers. I stayed a bit out front, but saw that John M. was another 1-2K above me, back behind the ridge. One other glider, Steve K, I think, took turns seeing who could be higher, playing between 2K and 3K over launch. We both found plenty to work with, including out front across the river. I eventually topped out at 4875 MSL, a very satisfying max altitude. From there, I went out front, and stabilized at about 3100 to 3300 MSL for about 20 minutes.
When I had been up for about an hour, I decided to work my way down. Landings in the main LZ had looked perky, so I decided to use that as an excuse and make my first bridge field landing. The set up was straightforward, with a downwind over the field on the south side of the road, base over the front yard of the house there, and final into the long axis of the field. I think I may have been a bit lower than optimum as I crossed the power lines in the front yard, but had good control and speed. Landed with a clean run out about half way down the field, and carried back over to the end by the bridge. Total flight time was 70 minutes, and I am quite happy with both the launch and the landing.
Great thanks to Mike L, and his already full complement of passengers (Gary, Dan, Shawn, and John) for squeezing me and my harness into the Amazing Toyota for a ride back to the top.
This was a great day to be out. My flying schedule has been terrible this year - my last previous mountain flight was November 18 at the Pulpit - a full six months of time away from the mountains! I'll be working on improving my timing this spring and summer. The wife says she likes when I fly... I come home so much happier with life.