Ridgely Sunday

[mcelrah]

John Middleton, Carlos, Cragin, Christian, Viktor and a bunch of "Redwing" guys from New Jersey. Busy in the pattern with the grass runway running the opposite direction as the hard one. Big turboprop cropduster in the pattern, and then there were the skydivers. Line for tows got long around 1:30 so Zack fired up the yellow tug to augment Jim in the red one. I continue to tow with the "Tad" double-action mouth actuated emergency release system. (Normal release is by barrel release.) First tow behind Zack was a little rowdy - I think he tows a bit faster, but the blue thermals were pretty strong at that time, too. (Main issue for me with the Tad release is that the model I have is a "one-point"/"from the shoulders", which is still a relatively new thing for me. Since one gets pulled through the control frame some - and you have to do a pushup on the bar to tow faster, I feel it is hard to avoid cross-controlling - i.e. trying to steer by moving head and shoulders vice hips. I may explore a fancier Tad 2-point system to achieve "best-of-breed"...) In any event, both Zach and Jim dropped me directly in thermals yesterday - thanks, guys! There were cumies on the horizon the the east, but none around Ridgely - musta dried out about halfway across the DELMARVA Peninsula. Off the first tow, the thermal off the west end of the runway was good for 5300 and 45 minutes, when a sink cycle made it rain gliders. Second launch behind Jim at 3 PM was slower, I think, and calmer. Climbed about 800 feet over the construction site, then chased Christian over Sparks Lane to a thermal that took me to 4300. At about 4000, I was joined by an immature bald eagle who came in about 10 feet directly under me, then swooped close for a couple of passes. Milked the construction thermal a few more minutes for 1 hour 10 minutes. Both my landings were safe but unsatisfactory in the L&V conditions on the ground - weak late flares, glider flew ahead of me to the ground. It was great to be back in the air! - Hugh

[silverwings]

I enjoyed my flight also getting towed up around 1:00 a bit before Hugh after a couple of pilots were showing that you could stay up. I got two good peirods with lift that got me to 5300 AGL and 4300 the second after getting down to 1300. Was quite cool above 4000 and wish I had put on my full gloves to start with until waiting till the last part of my flight (biking glooves dont provide much warmth). Flew for 1:45 and as Hugh indicated there was good lift at times and big sink at times. It was good seeing a few friends from Hyner that day.

Saturday turned out to be teachable at Kirshners though was quite cross at first from the NNE. We got about 1 1/2 hours of decent direction around 3:00. I was first thinking we were going to get skunked and might only get a little ground running in but luckily it improved.

[CraginS]

I arrived a bit early at Ridgely, bringing my old Pulse, since the UltraSport is getting some new parts.
I had forgotten how much more bar pressure the Pulse has than the US. First tow got too high on the tug, so pinned off around 1300 feet. Relight for the second flight, to full tow, but still rowdy.
More complete report on my blog at
http://craginsflightblog.blogspot.com/2 ... n-930.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/yof58c

Be sure to check the new helmetcam video. Only about 3 minutes. By popular demand, actual commercial music sound track this time.

[davidtheamazing1]

I also showed up at the end of the day with my glider, tail fin and flying equipment. My Eagle 164 had never been towed before so Jim rigged it up and then test flew it before declaring it solid. I got towed up by Zack for a smooth last flight of the day.