Friday 5/23 Woodstock

[XCanytime]

Looking good. Gary Smith is heading out after lunch. I'm planning on getting there around 3:30P. Any others interested?

Bacil

[heaviek]

Gary, I would like to meet up with you around lunchtime or earlier if I can get my butt out the door. I'd like to beat the freight trains.
805-816-3160

Kev

[garys]

Bruce and I will be at WS close to 3:00 pm today (Thurs.) and mid day tomorrow. Sat. is looking good too. Can't remember the last time we had a nice 3 day stretch of NW.
Gary
W 540-955-3174x490
H 540-955-3956

[heaviek]

I was torn between today(more convienent) or tomorrow (better forcast). Since you guys are game on for tomorrow also I am going to save my tokens up for friday. Its gonna be sweet!

Kev

[RedBaron]

I'm tempted, what is ETA gonna be?

Janni

[Dan T]

I'll be there Friday noonish. Yee ha!

Dan T

[XCanytime]

Forget about 3:30P. I'm going to get there by at least 2P, if not earlier. Looking super. Gary, might be a good day to try to make it to Brett's airstrip.

Bacil

[heaviek]

Janni and I are carpooling from DC and hope to be there by 12. Bruce is setting up earlier. I told Janni that I am staking my rep that it will be on early and great today.

I am looking forward to seeing lots of pilots in the air this afternoon!

Kev

[Gene]

Packing up and heading within the hour.
Gene

[CraginS]

Current plan is to depart Tyson's Corner close to noon.

[Matthew]

Hmmm... Looks pretty light out there. I sure hope Janni-locks gets up so we don't have to hear how bad the flying is anymore.

Matthew

[RedBaron]

Oh man, it sucked a$$. I looked at the forecast this morning and knew we would find bum scoop conditions on the premises, but Kevin with his endless optimism convinced me otherwise. So we went, real light and cirrus clouds were moving in quickly to form a solid layer of clouds that shut pretty much everything down. I so did not want to fly the Litespeed in light and variable, I just broke down at the end of the day. Kevin launched and chased a few birds, got up with amazing speed and had a disgusting 2 hour soaring flight. Some U2 pilot and Bruce went to get extendos, the rest packed up and went home. A couple of PG pilots with sledders, too. I'm not listening to any of you anymore, I can't recall a single time when I thought it was gonna be pitiful and got proven wrong. It just ain't worth it, I'm so tired of this shit season, there, I said it , I don't give a rat's ass anymore LMAO

[billyvaughn]

Hey Janni
You don't need wind! Just learn to thermal
Best of luck, and don't stay ticked off....there's no surer way to sink out!
Cheers,
Billy

[Matthew]

Come on. If that fat, out of shape, total crap pilot Kevin Carter could get up, why didn't you fly? Jeesh-- Heavy Kevy. The name says it all.



Matthew

[jimrooney]

So tell me again why Kevin shouldn't be optimistic?
His optimism bagged him a couple hours in the air. Your pessimism kept you on the ground.
He showed patience and an understanding of weather conditions (relying on thermals, not ridge lift) and thus stayed up "with amazing speed" for 2 hours.

"oh he's just good"... with not even a hint of thought as to why. No thought as to how he just schooled you. No thought as to what you might learn from this that could possibly keep you in the air longer.

Part of becoming "good" is paying attention to what the "good" guys are doing differently than you and realizing that what YOU'RE doing is wrong and trying to understand why that is.

How about trying to fly when "it's hard". If you only fly when "it's easy", you won't learn.
You had an opportunity to do so... You even had an ace pilot there to guide you... but the tiny price of setting up a glider killed it for you. You robbed yourself.

Jim

[Flying Lobster]

...sounds of whips cracking.

marc

[heaviek]

Boy, I screwed everyone who listened to me. My fav, the FSL, let me down HARD.

I talked a big game, even on launch claiming I was going to get to 6 grand, but it was obvious that something had changed for the worse.

I think Janni is joking. It was hard being optimistic when the conditions were obviously so soft. It turned on like clockwork, but then it just didn't "go to eleven." Janni made a great call not flying. He didn't feel comfortable with the light conditions.

I don't care much about the wind forecast, but the lack of instability really surprised me. Any good theories as to why it was so stable? Did high pressure build fast? Hmmm, maybe I should subscribe to Dr Jack.

So in all fairness the soaring was easy, but it wasn't. It was easy in that plenty of lift was there, but it was hard because the thermal patterns were the erratic demanding type. Not much room for mistakes or thermalling insecurity. The best lift was above the ridge which helps explain some why it was hard to get up.

Lift varied from 50-300 fpm and 3,500msl. Down at signal it was stronger, up to 450 and 4,200 msl. Every single thermal was rough, challenging, broken and intermittent. I got greedy pushing to fully tag the absolute tip of the ridge before heading back. I saw the high overcast moving in but thought I could beat it back to the LZ, that wasn't the first time I was wrong yesterday! I was about 2 fingers short.

Cragin, sorry I cut off our conversation. I realized my window of opportunity was maybe only 5 or 10 seconds longer.

Kev

[RedBaron]

"oh he's just good"... with not even a hint of thought as to why. No thought as to how he just schooled you. No thought as to what you might learn from this that could possibly keep you in the air longer.

Hey Jim, why so sad? I wouldn't have been able to do anything with the thermal Kevin found after he launched. It's cool to see a professional pilot go for the birds and launch in conditions average Joe deems to risky for average Joe's launch skills and climb in a thermal too demanding for average Joe's climb skills. What if average Joe decides to do what Kevin did, blows his launch and breaks his leg? What's your thought on that, Jim? The last time I tried to fly like a big boy I ended up in a tree. The last time I tried to throw a 90 mph fastball I blew out my UCL. Thanks, I rather take Marc's whip. Chance are he's got a few in his basement

[Matthew]

Come one, Jim. Give Janni a break. He's just trying to be conservative in his Lightspeed. Launching in dead air at Woodstock is no easy task. Besides, Heavy Kev, despite his heaviness has a secret weapon.

Kevin has gotten so big, as big as a Sumo wrestler, that he can't fit into his harness anymore. Thus, he now wears one of those Sumo thongs and hooks the thong directly into the glider. He can immediately and intimately feel any change in lift.

An ya'll though they didn't make Ball varios anymore.



Matthew

[Gene]

It was a nice day at Woodstock, to see so many faces and just talk. Hearing all the different reports on the weather and how we came to the conclusion it should be doable. It was a peaceful and beautiful day to catchup on friends and family. And the best part was watching Kevin shoot straight out to a thermal. We just needed a grill going and small keg
Gene

[Flying Lobster]

Boy, I screwed everyone who listened to me. My fav, the FSL, let me down HARD.

I talked a big game...Any good theories as to why it was so stable?

Woodstock effect!

marc

[markc]

Kevin has gotten so big, as big as a Sumo wrestler, that he can't fit into his harness anymore. Thus, he now wears one of those Sumo thongs and hooks the thong directly into the glider. He can immediately and intimately feel any change in lift.

An ya'll though they didn't make Ball varios anymore.

Matthew

Oh, that one is just classic, makes recent travel and missed flying almost worth it!
Anyone else seeing a signature Tex cartoon right about now?

And I second Matthew's opinion, lighten up people! It's not the worst thing if you can't fly
on a given day, nor is it the worst thing to complain about that fact.

MarkC