Sunday Aug 3 : Where To?

[markc]

Looking to me like it might be a bit too light for Woodstock, a bit to strong
for Highland, but *just* *right* for The Rock.

Course, who knows what they'll be saying by morning.

FYI: The High Rock TFR kicks in at 2:45pm, so it will have to be a fairly
early day if we go there.

MarkC

[mcelrah]

I'm awake. Talk to me! - Hugh

[RedBaron]

It's blowing like stink here in bethesda
= too strong at HR
= good at WS

But then I see NNW everywhere, ugh!

I also think Ridgely is going to be sweet....Let's fly to OC

[Ashley Groves]

I'm in.
Good day to try for the beach.

[Matthew]

HIGH ROCK!


Matthew

[RedBaron]

Too North for HR

[RedBaron]

Just talked to Adam. They think it's gonna be sweet this afternoon...

[mcelrah]

My family might like Ridgely better... Maybe HR early then reset to ridgely? I'm crazy, I know... - Hugh

[hanging3]

I'm up for somewhere...will be checking weather.

[Matthew]

Bay Forecast

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM EDT THIS MORNING
THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON

TODAY
NW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 20 KT THIS
AFTERNOON. WAVES 1 TO 3 FT.

[stevek]

I think it will be sweet at HR, Ridgely. Joe Schad and I are heading to the Rock on the grounds that we haven't been there in quite a while.

[markc]

Looks like people are heading to the Rock : Alek B ande 2 others,
Matthew and Karen, Janni, me, Glen, Gregory, and Chris.

MarkC

[mcelrah]

Hitting the road immediately. - Hugh

[cs]

Four snapshots of a PG over the backside of Woodstock on Sunday, August 3rd, approximately halfway to Luray.

Snapshots were taken from a classic wooden Slingsby Capstan T.49B sailplane by pilot SN.

http://www.skylinesoaring.org/INCOMING/DSCN0332.JPG

http://www.skylinesoaring.org/INCOMING/DSCN0333.JPG

http://www.skylinesoaring.org/INCOMING/DSCN0334.JPG

http://www.skylinesoaring.org/INCOMING/DSCN0335.JPG

[RedBaron]

HR was a good call, good conditions and many had epic flights, except for me. I sledded and I'm still bummed out.
Cavanaugh, Karen and Bertram from NY did exceptionally well and showed amazing thermaling skills. It was very painful watching you guys from the deck

[charlieg]

Paraglider pictured in Hugh's post was Tom Coenen. He flew all the way from Woodstock to Shenendoah -- about 4 hours and 25 miles.
Charlie

[Matthew]

Seventeen pilots flew High Rock on Sunday.

Me, Karen, Janni, Kristoph, Gregory the Greek, Glenn, Carlos, Mark, Alek and his friend from NY, Brian Hardwick, Steve, Joe Schad, Hugh, Dan Tuck, David Bodner, David C.

It's been a long, long time since that has happened.

With the TFR looming at 2:45, I launched early and got above launch only briefly for a twelve minute flight. Joe Schad and Glenn followed with similar flights. Karen, however, hooked a thermal at 400agl over the LZ and proceeded to stay up high and out in the valley till just before closing time. Most of the other later launching pilots also stayed up. If the TFR hadn't kicked in, we could have flown till sunset.

Matthew

[Ashley Groves]

Ridgely was pretty nice. I flew 2 hours and went 33 miles. Further distances could of been had, but I wanted to push crosswind and go for the beach.
Big cummies, coud base just above 4K. Just hopped and skipped betwwen them. I got sloppy at the end and decked it short of the beach, but it was definitely doable. I think some sharp pilots could of come out and spanked a rusty hack like myself.

Christian was the only other pilot who showed, but he stayed local as he did not have time for a retrieve. It was a bit odd to be the only pilot on the weekend with such sweet conditions. Could base, party of one.

Big thanks to Bob for retreiving me. And all the other folks at highland that made yesterday posible, of course.

Ashley

[markc]

After strafing the spectators on launch a final time, I headed out to the LZ at 700' over launch.
Without a turn, I was 1400' over launch when I reached the field. So I headed upwind in search
of sink. Found a little, not enough... Continued upwind... Only to run into lift again! Argh, talk
about too much of a good thing on the one day that you can't actually use it.

Headed back toward the light sink and started spinning in it. I had my eyes glued to the vario,
mapping out the core of the sink, which was a first for me. Eventually had to stall and dive the
glider because things weren't happening fast enough. More typical conditions kicked in when
I got down to a few hundred over the field, so I ran my approach and put down just as the TFR
started. Phew!

I had hung out on launch until about 1:30, helping wirecrew. Once Carlos (who'd flown earlier),
Joe B (not flying that day), and David B (still debating) were on the cube, I figured it was time
to give things a try. Thanks for the help guys!

In the air, I found one really good core (with Karen and Steve to pimp off of!) which took me
to 2700 over launch. With the clock ticking, there really wasn't much I could do with it. I
suppose running downwind to get outside the 10 mile radius might have been possible... But
I don't like being rushed.

Kudos to Karen for her low save!!

MarkC

PS: It was a High Rock day like we haven't had in a LONG time. Very fun to have so many
pilots up there, mingling with the bikers, the Mennonites, and the families-and-kids.

[silverwings]

Had a pretty good class at Kirshners with 3 first timers. All students got a bit of flying in and we used the main hill. Did some mowing before, during (at a break), and after teaching. The wind was fairly co-operative but at times crossing from the N or even NNE but realy improved around 4:00 PM. After class we stopped by the Pulpit to find NO hg's and only Juanito and couple of Pg's waiting for it to get lighter. This was about 6:15 and the wind was coming in slightly cross right at 12 - 15. My guess is it might have gotten nice for the Pg's a bit later.

Re: Why there were not many pilots at Ridgely, the bay forecast was for fairly breezy conditions and this might be why some wouldn't have gone.

[davidtheamazing1]

Sorry for all of those twelve pilots who launched earlier and hit the deck. I hucked off about an hour before the TFR and had no trouble staying on the ridge and got maybe 1000 over in some occasional thermals. I wasn't flying with a clock, so I went out to land when Matthew came on radio and told me I had 15 mins left. I circled near the LZ for about 10 minutes and looked back to see the ridge below me and realized I was only going up! I followed Mark into the LZ and sadly dived through the lifting air for a landing pattern straight into the midfield dip. Chicken little was wrong...yesterday the sky was lifting!

[XCanytime]

Where to? How about the Pulpit? Soarable from 10:30A on. Plenty of straight in cycles to choose from. Only the Pulpit faithful showed up despite repeated pleadings even 3 days prior : Larry Bunner, Shawn Ray, and yours truly. Larry and I arrived at 10:30A. Already soarable as indicated by the redtails and TVs soaring back and forth and climbing out. We set up to building conditions. Shawn showed up after 11A. He and I launched Larry in around 15 MPH around 11:30A, and we watched Larry slowly climb up to a few hundred over. He got below the ridge by Rt. 16, headed out into the valley, and climbed back up to near base at 5800' MSL. We watched him dive back upwind to tack to the north for a better line to fly home to near York, PA. Meanwhile I was expecting at least some company from a few travelers from down south. By 1P there were no arrivals, Shawn had chores on his mind, so we waited for a calm period before getting me up on the old ramp. Had a nice launch in straight in conditions and climbed to 200' over. Thanks Shawn for the assistance. Never got above 300' over even with trolling all around from launch to 16 and back. Decided to gamble and head out in the valley where some nice looking cu' was forming over the golf course. Never found much and landed on the driving range of the golf course in turbulent conditions at 1:30P. Got hit by an xwind as soon as I flared and the left corner of the control frame hit the ground hard enough to put a bend in the downtube and a slight bend in the basetube. Shawn picked me up with all my gear except for the glider; we left it in a grove of pines. Back at launch we got word from Larry that he had landed 8 miles north of McConnellsburg off of Rt. 522, and had hitchhiked to the Rt. 30/Rt. 522 junction. I picked up Larry and we got my glider from the golf course and headed to launch. There were at least 200 bikes at the bar; it was happening there! Hit the road around 3:30P, leaving easily soarable conditions, but the bent aluminum halted any further flying.

Bacil

[Matthew]

So, basically it was good everywhere on Sunday.

Matthew

[XCanytime]

Right. A few places you could even fly past 2:45PM, all the way to sunset BFD

[lbunner]

Yeah, it was sweet! The drive over from Wrightsville had me debating the decision to go to the Pulpit vs Raven Haven as the wind looked like it had a lot of north in it. However Bacil the prognosticator convinced me it would be great so the Pulpit it was. Launch conditions were slightly cross from the north but it would blow straight in when the thermals came through. Shawn and Bacil helped me out onto the ramp and it was blowing in so I launched and ridge soared for awhile while I got my ridge thermaling instincts back. Finally hit a nice ripper at 700 fpm to 4800' before heading out over the valley. Decided to try and head north to get a better angle on flying back home and hit another good thermal to 5870' still several hundred below c.b. Tracked north again toward a good looking cloud. Hit strong turbulence 700 down and then 400 up twice but felt it was better deeper under the cloud. Eventually lost it all and landed at the base of the Tuscarora ridge. In hindsight I should have stuck with the ratty lift or stuck to the ridge but hey I'm a little rusty. Still it was alot of fun, can't wait til next time cuz now I've got a good line on how to fly from the Pulpit to my house 76 miles to the east. Monday looked even better!