Good flying on Friday

[XCanytime]

Woodstock or Pulpit? Anybody else interested in taking Good Friday off and doing some flying?

Bacil

[CraginS]

I've already marked my office calendar for a day of leave.

[Batman]

Looks like Friday is going SW but Saturday afternoon might evolve into a possibility with the slowly evolving forecast. Any thoughts?

[XCanytime]

There is forecast to be plenty of WNW to W winds left over from the big blow tomorrow and Thursday night to last well into the PM on Good Friday. The only question is this between the two sites: Pulpit late or Woodstock all day.

Bacil

[XCanytime]

Heading to Woodstock early to join up with Bruce Engen. Gary Smith is arriving after 12 noon. Cragin is in. Sweet conditions are predicted.

Bacil

[CraginS]

If you don't show, you can't fly. The day at Woodstock was much fly much fun.
Bacil and I arrived about 10 (I actually arrived before Early Day Bacil!). Winds reasonably good, a bit light, but a chill in the air and not a cloud in the sky. Bruce arrived, ATOS in hand. Randy W and then Gary made it onto the crew, too.
Juan arrived with his bag, planning a fine day.
Bacil launched at 12:10. He did a reservoir run, and came back to the main LZ for a 2hour flight.
Helped Bruce launch his ATOS - that is something to see. Neat wing. He reported 6K.
I got into the air at a quarter to two. Stayed near launch, finding lots of small lift, Most of the flight between 200 and 600 over, with max at only 850 over. Two low saves from 150 below launch. Lots of work, lots of fun - landed just after 3:00 for about 80 minutes.
Gary got an hour, reporting 2K.
Mid afternoon Eric S and Dave K arrived from Charlottesville. Eric went first and stumbled into a sled. Dave went up and stayed for a while. - nice flight.
Adam and Homer showed up about 6 after working all day. Poor fellas. Adam snuck in a nice flight under the grey sky. Homer reported tailing winds and broke down on top.
Be sure to check in with the bag men, Juan, Tom, and Lazlo. I heard rumors of way high and way far.

Batman - where did you see that SW idea?

See my blog for longer and more descriptive post on the day. Sorry, no videos this time.

[XCanytime]

It was Good Flying on Friday, as Cragin said. Conditions were perfect at 12 noon, with light cycles just strong enough to be heard in the trees. Gave it a go just after 12 noon and turned right. Found lift in the bowl by Cox Ridge and got up. Hung around the area, climbing to 4000' MSL in a thermal marked by leaves going up; I just followed the leaves. BTW, they outthermalled me . Headed NE to the reservoir and didn't go any further, fearing the dreaded west cross. It was all pure thermal lift; there was no ridge lift to be had. On the return trip almost sank out by Southfork. Was below the ridge by 100' for a good while heading SW, but some lift saved me from landing out and I climbed back to the more comfortable couple hundred over the ridge. Passed by launch and headed towards the Gap. Opposite the Karmy airstrip found some good lift over Little Fort Valley behind the main ridge and climbed again to 4000' MSL. Wave clouds started stacking up in front and behind Short Mountain. The scary kind, the ones that look like flying saucers. Then it happened. While climbing up in the thermal spotted a bird below me and climbing fast. Looked closer and sure enough, it was a mature bald eagle. Was so starstruck I forgot to take a picture of him with my camera and he passed by very closely. I flew towards him to get a closer look and he skedaddled. Made the flight. Headed back towards launch and spotted another bald eagle skirting the ridge with me as I got below the ridge again. Got back up and decided to go in and land. Had a decent landing and watched a wave cloud grow from the Gap to over the LZ. Cragin and Gary Smith joined me in the LZ after they got their tanks full. Back at launch we helped Erik Swanson and Dave Koehn launch into light conditions at 4:30P. Erik zigged when he should have zagged and got an extendo. Dave got up and had a nice soaring flight. Back at the LZ we heard that Juanito got to 9000' MSL in wave and landed in Washington, VA, behind the Blue Ridge! Tom Cuenen went XC and landed out near the Rt. 17/I-66 junction. These guys are awesome. Capped the day with dinner at Cristina's in Strasburg.

Bacil

[eggzkitz]

Wow!!

Great work Tom and Juan!