Flying today Sunday March 9?

[Dan T]

It looks like Woodstock could be a possibility today, if it's not too cold. Does anyone know if the road is open?

Dan T

[silverwings]

Apparently a number of pilots are going to give it a try today and probably the road is open. I will shoot for getting to the LZ around 3:30 PM. Others will probably be there much sooner but my guess is the winds are still going to be strong until late afternoon.

[mikel]

Winds are still roaring in the valley......
time 11:00

'til then, Mike

[carweill]

I'm heading out

ETA Woodstock 1:30PM

Carlos

[mcelrah]

Arriving mid-afternoon. - Hugh

[markc]

I think I'll give it a go... ETA about 2:15.

MarkC

[Joe Schad]

Very nice crowd at Woodstock today. Bruce Engen had his VX and was second to launch. Tom McGowan, Gary Smith, Dan Tomlinson, Carlos, Larry, Basil, Mark C, and others were there early. We waited till near three before Tom launched. He had to scratch for a while but got up and stayed up. Bruce was second and went right up. I believe larry was next but it might have been Basil. I followed and got up easily. There was a rather significant south cross. I managed only 1650 over for the day and had trouble penetrating when I got high at the start but it seemed to ease off later. After trying to head south I turned around and went for Strasburg. Landed in a new field directly south of the High School parking lot. I had a rather muddy field but the landing was good and I walked my glider to the parking lot to break down. Zelda picked me up and I met Bruce for dinner at the Mexican resturant at the Ramada Inn on rt 11 north. There were a lot more folks there after I launched.
Great day

Also there were a number of paraglider folks there early and one flew mid afternoon. Not sure if any others flew later.

Joe

[XCanytime]

Joe captured the essence of the day in his post. Once again, Woodstock never fails to suprise us with the predicted and actual conditions. The throttleback of the winds started much earlier than forecast, more like a 12 noon start to literally dead on launch for most of the 3 1/2 hours until the general turn-on at 3:30P. While we waited, SW winds aloft and on the surface were witnessed, with locals thermalling down the valley and the wind shadow orientation on the square pond. Once El Sol had cooked the valley good, the overall wind direction aloft became more west and the surface more NW, thus enabling a fusillade of launches to commence. This was Larry Bunner's first time flying Woodstock, and he was rewarded with a 3+ hour flight. Hang 2 Dan made his first mountain flight today. Congratulations Dan.

Bacil

[brianvh]

Get Dan on the horn to report! We want to relive the experience.

[silverwings]

The Woodstock effect was sure in force on Sunday. In looking this morning at the recorded wind velocities at Winchester on Sunday from 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM it ranged from 14 MPH - 20 MPH. Amazing that at launch it was reported to be amost calm for several hours 12:00 - 3:00! When I arrived at launch in 4:15 it was looking nice and was happy to get my student Dan Tuckwiller off later for his first mountain flight. I got to launch last at 5:50 into 8 mph wind and found lots of up air. Flew down toward Edinburgh gap and back. Headed out to land but took a while to get down ending my flight just under an hour.

[DanTuck]

I'm still smiling!
I talked to John in the morning and we agreed to meet in the LZ at 3:30. I got there early and no one was flying which worried me a little. After 10 or 15 minutes though, I saw the first pilot launch. And then another. And then another. And then a PG! That's good news for me!! When John got there, we walked the LZ and talked about the desired approach. Then it was off to launch! At the top, I met Hugh, who was getting set up as well as a few others. (Sorry, but I've already forgotten some names. First mountain launch, you understand! ) I got set up and at this point I still didn't know if I would get to fly or not. Just when I was thinking that, John came over, checked my parachute and told me to get my helmet on. Sweet! I'm gonna fly!! Janni was on launch as I got hooked in and I eased over behind him. All of the launches that I had seen so far were great. Janni's was no exception and I really wanted to keep it going with a great launch of my own. I stepped onto launch and set it down. A couple seconds later a nice cycle came right in so I picked up to see how it felt. Everything felt good, John said it looked good so I yelled Clear! and began my run. I ran hard and paid no mind to the fact that I was running on uneven rocks. It was not the grassy hill that I'm used to! But it was no big deal and I had a nice launch. I flew out, turned left and cruised a little bit. I turned back and could see that I was definitely not gaining altitude but also sinking slow enough that I could enjoy the air a little bit. And yes, there was lift everywhere. I'll learn to work it eventually! I made several passes and then decided to head out to the LZ. I realize that I should have done that earlier but things worked out. I came in to the LZ low and had a pretty ugly approach but it was the best I could do for the first time. I swear I'll work on that!! I came out with muddy knees but fortunately I steered clear of the cow pies. Woohoooo!!!! Success!! I can't believe I flew off a mountain yesterday!!!!
Well, that's it. I might as well quit my job now instead of getting fired.
Hi, my name is Dan, and I'm a hang gliding junkie!
Thank you so much, John, for getting me so prepared for this that I wasn't nervous on launch in the least bit. It's been so much fun training and I have so much more to learn. Thank you all for the encouraging words out there, especially Bacil.
I can't wait to get back out there!

[Lauren Tjaden]

NICE!!Congratulations, Dan, and thanks for sharing.
Lauren

[mikel]

WAY TO GO, DAN !!!

Hope you get many more....

'til then, Mike

[mcelrah]

There is no 12-step program for this - you'll just have to keep flying... - Hugh

[markc]

Here are a couple of pics that I took while wire-crewing. Tweaked
the forum a bit... When you click on the thumbnail for an attachment,
the larger version will now display in either a new browser tab, or
a new browser window (depending on how your browser is config'd).

I'm kind of holding back on high-rez photos, until/unless there
seems to be a demand for them...

Cheers,

MarkC

PS: It was a good day! Nearly 2.5 hours in the air, many bald eagles
along the ridge (though down low, unfortunately), topped out at
about 2300' over launch, and had to work to get down at the end of the
flight. Woo-hoo!

PPS: Major congrats to Dan Tuck. It only gets better from here!