Pulpit Saturday July 7

[eggzkitz]

Bacil, great call on the weather!
Matthew, 22 miles! very impressive!!! I should have followed you!

Great day. My bag flight was great until the flush cycle that I couldn't escape. I have a saying about cloud suck... when you find yourself going up everywhere without trying, think to yourself: "I am not this good... look up" Now I need a new saying for when I find myself plummeting out of the sky no matter where I turn "I am landing... look down"

Oh well. Great to have flown with you all and thanks so much for the retrieve Matthew.

[Flying Lobster]

Nice flight Matt!

marc

[hang_pilot]

Daniel Broxterman and his driver girlfriend Charlotte arrived just in time to see the helo take off from the parking lot and head to Chambersburg?

What a sinking feeling, arriving at launch to find a med evac helicopter on the scene. I say, "oh I hope it's not Bacil, nobody else would probably be flying yet." Charlotte reaches over and gives my arm a comforting squeeze. Man was I happy to see Bacil standing on the ramp along with Shawn rubbernecking at the drama.

I was third HG to launch after Bacil and Dave. Climbed to 2000 over pretty quickly and then lost 2100 in the flush cycle that claimed Matthew and company. I was happy to find some zero-sink near Rt 16 and just scratched away in a small space until conditions turned on again and I went over the back, my first (intentional) out-landing from a mountain site.

The cloud I climbed out with started to dry up and I glided in the direction of Greencastle (swimming hole) and another cloud that helped me hang on but didn't give me much love. I was up against a big blue hole, fighting a slow losing battle with gravity and in a moment of impatience just decided to f*ck-it and go on glide with no plan other than an easy retrieve in close proximity to a cool dip on a hot day.

On the way to the field I had chosen, I flew over a big flag showing WNW and I set up in that direction. On final I started picking up scary speed and then, BAM! Took out both downtubes, bruise on left tricep (downtube?) and right forearm (ground?), neither bad at all. While I was unhooking, the wind was still lifting the glider from behind; it sure seemed like it was 180 degrees from when I staged. A streamer might have helped...

Good girlfriend Charlotte came and got me and we went for a swim. Really nice place, Antrim Township Park. The sweet spot is short walk up from the bridge.

1:32
16 miles
7228 MSL max

Congrats to Matthew on the awesome PG flight, best or 2nd best from that site.

Pictures are here, but you might have to have an Ofoto login:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhoto ... 419&page=1

[hang_pilot]

Pictures are here, but you might have to have an Ofoto login:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhoto ... 419&page=1

O.K. that's not going to work. Anyone know how to post a link with Ofoto so that people can view a gallery without me having to invite them individually?

[Dan T]

Daniel what direction did you land and are you sure you saw the proper direction of the wind indicator? I've never seen in turn completely around in that valley. I have noticed that it's possible to interpret a flag backwards after a tiring flight and a quick look. I've always found pointing back towoard the ridge to be a pretty reliable bet barring any solid information to the contrary.

Dan T

[Batman]

Saturday was my second venture back into the mountains and first at Pulpit in quite a while. I waited until later in the day and launched about 4:00. Had a strong launch and just as I yelled clear, my wife called on my cell phone so the launch crew was serenaded with the Batman theme song. Unplanned, but I definately need to explore those possibilities! After launch, I cleaned up and turned left and tucked into the ridge lift. Made it about halfway down between launch & LZ and hit a nice fatty and climbed up to 1500 over. Boated around for a bit and got down to about 1000 then hit a screamer. Vario showed 1283-up peak lift as I cranked it over and went to 3000 over. Needed to get on the road so headed out after an hour. Landing was a bit squirrelly and I turned final 3 times due to wind shifts. Got popped in the LZ so pulled in for speed. Decided to land downhill into the wind towards the corn vice screaming across the LZ towards the trees. Got it down about 5 feet before the corn ... thank God for wheels and toe-brakes. Nice to be back at the Pulpit.

[Matthew]

DO NOT LAND DOWNHILL STRAIGHT INTO THE WIND AT THE PULPIT BACK LZ. LAND NORTH OR SOUTH SO YOU DON'T GO OVER THE SMALL DROP-OFF INTO THE DITCH OR INTO THE CORN. YOU CAN LAND DIAGONALLY IF YOU SET UP WAY IN THE BACK CLOSE TO THE MOUNTAIN. IF YOU HIT THE CORN AT HIGH SPEED YOU CAN DO SOME SERIOUS DAMAGE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR GLIDER.

YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO PULL OFF A CROSSWIND LANDING IF YOU FLY THE PULPIT.

Matthew

[Batman]

That was my initial intent, but changes in wind direction and thermals cooking off gave me a last minute change of plans. Getting the nose popped up hard, caused a dive which produced too much airspeed. Better than worry about carrying me too far across the LZ crosswind and into the trees, I figured I'd either get it down prior to the corn or just do a flare into the corn in worst case scenario. It wasn't my first choice, but I was in too low to make 90 degree turns so I just rode it out. Matthew is right when looking at the big picture, but Mother Nature had other ideas near the end of my flight.

[theflyingdude]

DO NOT LAND DOWNHILL STRAIGHT INTO THE WIND AT THE PULPIT BACK LZ. LAND NORTH OR SOUTH SO YOU DON'T GO OVER THE SMALL DROP-OFF INTO THE DITCH OR INTO THE CORN. YOU CAN LAND DIAGONALLY IF YOU SET UP WAY IN THE BACK CLOSE TO THE MOUNTAIN. IF YOU HIT THE CORN AT HIGH SPEED YOU CAN DO SOME SERIOUS DAMAGE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR GLIDER.

YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO PULL OFF A CROSSWIND LANDING IF YOU FLY THE PULPIT.

Matthew

Matthew is right. You should never try to land downhill, into the wind because you're just going to glide and glide and glide until you run out of room (unless the slope of the hill is very, very slight). Uphill - downwind or cross hill - crosswind are better choices.

JR

[hang_pilot]

Daniel what direction did you land and are you sure you saw the proper direction of the wind indicator?

Hi, Dan-

I'm pretty confident about the landing direction, WNW, because I had good references at the intersection of I-81 and Rt. 16 (I landed right there in the field behind the Comfort Inn).

The main lesson for me, but suggestions are welcome, keep assessing conditions throughout the approach. I had a long final over a huge field, I could have made an adjustment to my final direction if I had realized what was happening earlier and reacted quickly.

Anyway, puting aside the normal CHGPA-forum self-flagellation (that's directed at me, not you, Dan) for a moment: I had a really fun flight, got stinkin' high and made it more than 1/2 way across the valley on my first OTB at Pulpit. Pretty cool day!

Best,
Daniel

[Lauren Tjaden]

Hey Daniel,
It sounds like you had a good wind indicator with the big flag, but that the wind switched at a lower altitude. I check the wind direction and speed at 1000 feet and then try to check it a second time as I get lower -- somewhere under 500 feet, where it's getting to be a pretty sure thing that I'm going to land. It often changes at least some change in direction. (If you have a GPS it's pretty easy to figure out. The 5030 has this cool little windsock on the screen, but any of them will register groundspeed, so you just land the direction you are going the slowest.) The sea breeze can make the wind switch REALLY low and you can get screwed by a thermal anytime, but if you have time to check again it's a good idea.
I'm glad to hear you are concentrating on the positives, though! Very cool about your XC. It is always an adventure. Everyone is rocking up in your country this spring and I am jealous of you all -- hopefully you can teach me a thing or two on my next trip north.
Lauren

[Dan T]

Daniel, I didn't mean to imply that I was questioning your judgement, rather I was relating my own hard experience. One of my favorite quotes is, "experience isn't the best teacher, someone elses experience is." That is certainly true in our sport. If your decision was to turn back and land wnw (the basic launch direction) you can be assured that it would have been my decision barring consistent and significant evidence to the contrary, right or wrong. I've probably landed otb at the Pulpit 25 times or more and have never seen a significant afternoon wind in that valley 180 degrees out of the prevaling launch direction. You stumbled into some bad luck at the end of that flight and I'm glad it was no worse than a little bent metal and bruised ego. In any event I want to congratulate you on a great first Pulpit OTB, congratulations! It's always a pleasure flying with you.

I am not a fan of critiquing our fellow pilots performance in an open public forum such as this one. I do not think that it is constructive. I apologize if anything I said could be interpreted to the contrary.

Dan T

[Danny Brotto]

Daniel

Okay, so the flag was blowing WNW (on your approach?) And you wacked into a ESE wind. As you broke down, what was the wind doing? Was the ESE a temporary situation or was it really ESE on the ground the whole time?

Not much you can do in when you are on final and the wing switches 180 but a controlled wack; rolling in on wheels count as a near whack

Last time I flew Kennedy, I landed into the primay somewhat obstructed flield about 3:30 in the summer afternoon. I had a hard time rolling the glider into the field due to a thermal kicking off. This extended my downwind so far that when I finally rolled into final into the wind I was staring at maybe making it over a barbed wire fence... but maybe not. Not wanting to play with barbed wire, I took my chances at wacking in downwind and turned 180 to the prevailing wind. God the ground was rushing past fast but I flared to a perfect landing... into a head wind!? Dig that. The wind was rather switchy and really it was the luck of the draw that things worked out that way. I though I was gonna eat dirt.

Of course, ther ehave been many times that, setting up into a headwind resulted into a suprise tail wind and the ensuing 50/50 chance of a (power) wack.

If you are going to go XC, your landings must normaly be perfect because you may encounter conditions that wiil test your skills and sometimes try to eat you.

That being said, I would typically accept my choice of OTB field at the Pulpit than the ball diamond field there any day. Also the old primary (now secondary?) IMHO is just very difficult with today's gliders. In the old days with Ravens and Lancers okay, but you are playing roulette going in there mid day with anything modern... including Falcons.

So what were the prevailing conditions after you landed?

Danny Brotto

[stevek]

DO NOT LAND DOWNHILL STRAIGHT INTO THE WIND AT THE PULPIT BACK LZ. LAND NORTH OR SOUTH SO YOU DON'T GO OVER THE SMALL DROP-OFF INTO THE DITCH OR INTO THE CORN. YOU CAN LAND DIAGONALLY IF YOU SET UP WAY IN THE BACK CLOSE TO THE MOUNTAIN. IF YOU HIT THE CORN AT HIGH SPEED YOU CAN DO SOME SERIOUS DAMAGE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR GLIDER.

YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO PULL OFF A CROSSWIND LANDING IF YOU FLY THE PULPIT.

Matthew

I agree with point about landing direction. However, I have seen people fly into corn at a pretty good clip and all that happened is that they mowed it down. No damage to glider or person. You stop pretty quickly. Not trying to promote corn as a landing option.

[Flying Lobster]

DO NOT LAND DOWNHILL STRAIGHT INTO THE WIND AT THE PULPIT BACK LZ. LAND NORTH OR SOUTH SO YOU DON'T GO OVER THE SMALL DROP-OFF INTO THE DITCH OR INTO THE CORN. YOU CAN LAND DIAGONALLY IF YOU SET UP WAY IN THE BACK CLOSE TO THE MOUNTAIN. IF YOU HIT THE CORN AT HIGH SPEED YOU CAN DO SOME SERIOUS DAMAGE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR GLIDER.

YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO PULL OFF A CROSSWIND LANDING IF YOU FLY THE PULPIT.

Matthew

I agree with point about landing direction. However, I have seen people fly into corn at a pretty good clip and all that happened is that they mowed it down. No damage to glider or person. You stop pretty quickly. Not trying to promote corn as a landing option.

And you then become a "child of the corn."

Remember to flare early over corn--in other words do a "pop-corn."

Alright, enough of the corny jokes.

marc

[hepcat1989]

... _ _ _ ... Nice flight Daniel.
Shawn.