Woodstock Sunday 3/16

[XCanytime]

Heading to Woodstock. ETA 12 noon just as the sky starts breaking up and the winds start wafting in. Bacil

[markc]

Thinkin' about it...

MarkC

[carweill]

Well I'll check it out


According to NAM
at 1700ft 14:00 18knots
17:00 20knots
20:00 21knots

Actual numbers are usually lighter

ETA 1:00PM

Carlos

[Matthew]

Waiting for 11:15 am forecast update before making decision.

Matthew

[dbodner]

I'm heading out.

[lbunner]

Looked like a great day when I cruised through the area around 1230. Unfortunately I left my glider in Chattanooga (on purpose) and am now without a flex wing for a few days.

[XCanytime]

It was a pretty good day. Got to launch around 12:30P and the conditions were not bad at all. Winds were light to 15 MPH straight in, cumies were dotting the sky, and the sun was out in full force. Set up quickly and launched first about 1:45P. Took a few passes to get up over the ridge. Headed north to Signal Knob, getting bopped around in ratty, turbulent lift. John Harper joined me up at Signal Knob. We both turned around and headed back towards launch. John stepped on the accelerator while I poked around just south of the reservoir and got to 4300' MSL. Saw Bruce Engen in his ATOS heading NE to Signal Knob below me. Lost a bunch near the launch and passed below Shawn Ray, who was heading NE. Found ratty lift under a cumie out in front of launch and got to 5000' MSL. Being out of flying shape coupled with the cold convinced me I had had enough and I used the 4200' AGL altitude to drift SW between the ridge and Rt. 11. Made it to a field between Woodstock and Edinburg that I landed in 5 years ago. Super field, literally an airstrip. It had a pond at the downwind edge showing plenty of wind, with the windlines completely covering the pond. Had a nice landing around 3:30P. Real thermally in the field (duh!), making the carry out a little challenging. The lady that owns the field remembered me from 5 years ago. Dan Tuckwiller made the retrieve. Thanks Dan. Back at launch Gary Smith and John Middleton had just launched into elevator air. Matthew, Karen, Mark C., and Dave were pondering the strong conditions. John Harper showed up after being retrieved from New Market, around 28 miles from Signal Knob. John reported not much lift on Kerns Mountain and the winds northerly. Hit the road and got a call from Bruce. He made Harrisonburg and landed not too far from Shenandoah Airport, around 54 miles from Signal Knob. On the way home wave was all over the sky.

Bacil

P.S. Good Friday looks good.

[davidtheamazing1]

After Basil headed back, Lazzlo showed up for paragliding on a tip from Ellis earlier. The first thing he said was "yeah right", and told a few jokes about listening to Ellis while gusty freight trains rolled thru. As predicted, strong conditions prevailed but it calmed down a bit towards the end of the day.

Launched after Mark C and John M in about 10mph and elevatored into the sky. A few moments of punchy air but mostly smooth high above the ridge. Cloudbase seemed to get lower the higher we all got. The clouds had shut out the sun but for about 20 mins, it peeked through a blue spot, and illuminated the entire valley with a yellowish, golden glow.

Turbulence coming into the LZ was a bit punchy at tree level, but pulled in and landed fast into steady air, right between the feed buckets. I have a terrible sense of time once I'm in the air but guessing i was up for just shy of an hour. Went up to get my car and put my glider away after sunset.

Good crowd considering the temps. Everyone got up if they wanted to. You should have been there!
-David

[Matthew]

Actually, David launched after Gary Smith. It calmed down at 6pm after the PG boys left, 7-9 with gusts to 13. Still too strong for PGs at Woodstock. Karen launched after David, then me and finally Mark C. Thanks to John Harper for sticking around and to Ellis for launch assistance, taking our car to the LZ. I got about an hour and 1500 over. Mark C. found a lift line out into the valley to 2200 over. Beuatiful sky. Karen flew with a flock of birds. The air was pretty smooth-- till about 7pm. Winds picked back up and it was punchy all the way to the ground. The LZ was a land mine of cow patties-- I lucked into a relatively straight cycle just as I transitioned to give me a nice one step landing between the mines.

Kathy C. also showed up to check out the LZ and launch. She ran out of daylight and winds never back down enough for her first flight there.

Karen and I, Ellis, David, Kathy C. and Mark met up with Carlos for dinner at the Strasburg Inn.

Matthew

[kcarra]

I stayed low and out front to be able to land quickly since I was already cold when I launched. The light was gorgeous and the flock of large birds was really cool. But the funniest image of the day for me was David Churchill's de-tensioned glider taking off down the LZ hill twice with David Bodner madly chasing after it. The glider seemed determined to get away.

Karen

[dbodner]

First flight for me on the slightly used Sport 2 I got from John M. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best conditions for a first flight. The glider wanted to fly before I even got to the launch point. I potatoed a while on launch waiting for something straight that wasn't too heavy. I finally found what I wanted. Per comments afterward, the wind gusted just as I started my launch. I was in the air in 1 or 2 steps, and I elevatored straight up. I remember seeing a tree uncomfortably close to my left wing. I threw my body to the right to clear the tree, then had a bumpy ride out of the slot.

Throughout the flight I had good control of the wing, except when going fast I started PIOing. That made me want to put off landing. Fortunately, there was no shortage of lift. I purposely didn't get as high as I could. Still, I topped 1800 over launch and flew 1:20.

I practiced turning and playing with the VG. In general, I had a harder time flying straight than turning. In fact, when turning, it felt rock solid. Some of the problems were due to the active air, but I can't downplay the importance of my newness on the glider. Still, I eventually increased my comfort with the glider and decided to land. I gave it some gas on the downwind, and, before I wanted to, I ended up in a hard left turn. Rather than risk another PIOing at the wrong time, I decided to complete the left turn 180 degrees. I ended up landing toward the SW, maybe 90 degrees from the wind. It wasn't the prettiest landing, with an uncommanded 180 degree pirouette on my feet. But, no damage to glider or pilot. Folks at launch thought I was threading my way through the cattle. Don't think I was, but I did have to avoid the feed troughs.

About the launch, Gary didn't think I popped the nose. Still, I should've pulled in more as I elevatored. I'll hope for sweeter conditions for my next flight. Comments?

[Lauren Tjaden]

Hey David B,
I think you will LOVE the Sport when you get used to it. I absolutely adored mine.
When you mentioned the PIOing it brought to mind something Rob Kells (of WW) told me when I was demoing the glider. He mentioned that particularly when starting on that glider, you should pull a little VG for landing and approaching, so it doesn't get too light and squirrelly. He said it should be 1/4 to 1/3. He also said it was easier to tow it or foot launch with the same amount. I used to tow mine 1/2 VG and land with 1/4 in normal conditions.
Don't know what you were using -- this might be of some help. Wish I could fly beautiful Woodstock with you (but I'm SUCH a weenie about the cold now). Happy thermals.
Lauren

[brianvh]

Spoons from Hyner once suggested practicing PIO flight up high so you can get used to it and won't freak if it happens on landing. Pretty obvious I guess, but it's good to make a point of practicing what you can where it's safe.