Flying Tuesday (5/13) or Wednesday (5/14)

[hang_pilot]

I'm available and interested. Anyone else up for the chase?

~Daniel 301.275.6584

[garys]

I'm in for tomorrow (Tuesday). Gary W 540-955-3174x490 H 540-955-3956

[hankh2rbc]

I'm in as well.

Hank
H 540-933-6146
C 540-333-1863

[theflyingdude]

How was the flying at Woodstock on Tuesday? It was very northerly in Cumberland, perhaps even NNE at the surface.

JR

[hang_pilot]

Hi, JR (all) -

It was light and northerly, with straight-in cycles as thermals came through when Steve Kinsley and I arrived at launch around 1pm. Became pretty much l&v by the time we were set up and ready to go. The thermal cycles were now shorter and weaker. There were clouds early, but they dried up and it was completely blue when we flew. I went first and showed Steve what not to do. Flew straight out hoping to find something at the north facing armpit to the right of launch. Lost a lot of altitude flying out in sink. Managed a few 360's in light and broken lift out front, also over the LZ and was quickly on the ground. First mountain flight on the Litesport. Seeing my lack of success, Steve tucked-in close to the ridge and got up at the rockpile. "Up" meaning ~200 over. He lost that and got up again, quite the show. This time he went looking for better lift and shortly joined me on the ground. I guess he got around 30 minutes. I think I've lost my mid-week mojo. I thought even if the winds were light, the thermals were going to be strong enough for good flights. I was wrong.

Finished the day with beer and snacks on Joe's porch.

~Daniel

[RedBaron]

I've added you to my list Daniel. It's the don't-plan-on-flying-when-these-guys-say-it's-gonna-be-good list. Right now it's you, Matthew and Bacil, yup sure glad I don't have to read your posts anymore, they upset me too much

[Matthew]

Complain. Complain. Complain.

This wind is too light. This wind is too strong. This wind is too cross....

Wait!

This all seems familiar?

Doesn't it Yanni-locks?

Matthew

[Danny Brotto]

Gee, I don't know... I've over 1000hrs in hang gliders yet my short extendo (and the whole day in general) was very gratifying. It was quite interesting seeing the weather change in such unexpected manners. We all need to (and continue to) get these experiences under our belts.

Yanni, you got to effectively manage a launch crew on 2 separate occasions in “interesting” launch conditions not to mention the good landings in textured air. You learned to double-check that hang check. That’s called gaining experience (or maintaining currency.) Either way, time well spent by all IMHO.

On a personal note, I was flying my Harrier 147. The gang at HR was quite cognizant of the bumpy conditions and I anticipated such during my flight. While I knew that I was being pushed around, I felt quite comfortable in the Harrier. I like my U2 lots but I think it would have been much more of a handful in those conditions. Maybe Brian VH is on to something with his affinity for Falcon-flight? For tooling around on the ridge in moderate conditions especially on short ridges, maybe SS is all we need… or maybe even preferable? Hmm…

Danny Brotto