Jacks Saturday 8/23

[XCanytime]

Shaping up to be a Jacks day Saturday. Should be worth the drive. Bacil

[CraginS]

I'll be in Ohio for the weekend. Y'all have a good time!

cragin

[hepcat1989]

.

[XCanytime]

Short version: Made Mifflin County Airport. Pics attached?

Parked at the maintenance building

The flight line

Pilot fueling up a twin

[brianvh]

I remember 10 years ago jack's used to be crowded by CHGA/MHGA folks on a good day. Now Fisher's has been lost, and on a SE day only 2 people from our area show? Don't you people remember what a wonderful site this is? AND it's the best H2 site in the entire area. H2s should be applying thumb screws to the observers to get them out to instead of everyone bailing to aerotow.

Sad, sad, sad.

[XCanytime]

Jacks was a hit or miss proposition yesterday. Leisurely drove up and arrived at 12:30P to find Larry Bunner ready to go and Shawn Ray and Bob Buchanan set up. Conditions were light, and there were nice cumies dotting the sky. Larry took off around 12:30P and had an extendo. Bob Buchanan launched and had multiple passes on the ridge, not finding much ridge lift. He was scraped off, and headed out to land. 500' over the LZ he had a nice low save, climbing up very slowly to cloudbase behind the ridge. Around this time other pilots started filing in. Dennis Pagen, Paul from Pittsburgh, Joe and Karen Gorrie, Mark Dunn, and Spoons rounded out the pilot contingent. Larry launched again and got up. Dennis Pagen launched, got scraped off the ridge, and headed out to land. He got a nice low save downwind of the LZ. I got on launch as Dennis was climbing slowly out. There were light cycles rolling through, max of around 10 MPH. I picked a light cycle, and on my first step the glider got pushed down and the basetube almost hit the ground. I got airborne and went quickly to the basetube to gain speed. It was not a pretty launch. The trees at the bottom of the slot are very high, and I did not clear them by a comfortable margin. Turned left, and it was south on the ridge. Flew a far distance to some nice rockpiles that were pumping off ratty lift. Turned back into the south cross and got up in the ratty lift over the rockpiles. Loitered in the area and the ratty lift congealed and I was rewarded with a trip to cloudbase at 5K' MSL. Saw Dennis Pagen above me at base as well. Dennis headed NE, and I followed. We got to base again under another nice lift line of cumies. Dennis headed out into the valley, and I continued NE. Saw a glider very low up ahead. Looked like he was at ridge level, or even below. The pilot found a thermal and climbed out. Turned out it was Larry, and he passed over my head heading SW back towards launch. I got a visual on the Mifflin County Airport, and decided to go for it. I was down to 3500' MSL, and about 5 miles out. Found some more lift and got to 4K' MSL. Went on a crosswind glide to the airport. Shawn came over the radio, and I let him know I was going to land out, hopefully at the airport. I flew over lots of cornfields; there weren't many landing areas available . Arrived just NW of the 6/24 runway at 500'. Checked for traffic visually and on the 122.7 unicom frequency. No current traffic. Saw the windsock was pointing SE. Went on final and had a nice landing in the grass between the runway and the taxiway . Suprised by a ditch between the runway and the taxiway, but had plenty of speed to porpoise over it. Carried off in search of wind shadow, and parked the glider by a hangar building. Big thanks to Shawn Ray for the retrieve.

Bacil

[brianvh]

Okay, more people were there than I thought, and Bacil made the day look better than it was by brilliantly catching a thermal (without the use of instruments). But I still feel Jack's has been underutilized in past years. I rarely read of H2's there since I left the area, and that's a shame.

[lbunner]

Flew Jack’s for the first time on Saturday. I arrived early at 10:30 to straight in conditions at 10-15 mph. The clouds had opened up a little but it was mostly overcast all the way up from Wrightsville. The clouds looked good but I couldn’t fathom that they were lift producing with all of the shading. The vultures were barely above ridge height. Talked to Shawn Ray to make sure I was at the right place then set up across the road. Had to park my SUV in front of the glider as the wind was whipping through the lot. Bob, Shawn and Bacil showed up, the winds still looked good, the skies had opened up even more so I launched around 12:30 and headed left along the ridge. My ridge skills are still a little rusty; I’m not comfortable getting too close, only hit a few bubbles and eventually ended up in the alfalfa field below launch after a 10 minute ride. While tearing down I watched Bob work up from down low. Shawn picked me up and I quickly set up again with Dennis P., Paul from Pitt, the Gorries and Mark among others. Dennis gave me a clue to some of the local conditions and I planned on following him into the sky. We both moved our gliders across the road to launch and somehow I managed to get ready before Dennis so I launched again around 3:00. This time I worked in closer to the ridge and found a few solid bumps that eventually turned into a good thermal to cloudbase around 3300’ over launch. I watched Dennis work up slowly over one of the house thermal spots and took a few pics of the surrounding area trying to get Dennis in one of them. By this time there were 4 or 5 distinct streets lined up along the ridge so I headed northeast connecting with each of them and flying up wind over the valley as I topped out in each cloud I passed under. Cloudbase rose to almost 4000’ above launch and lift was averaging 400-500 fpm. Left the last street and headed to the gap at Lewistown, pretty much got hammered and was barely above the ridge when I turned around to head back. Had to stop and work some gnarly bubbles to stay above but eventually worked back to a cloud street. Cored back to base and headed on toward launch. Bacil passed under me as I cruised to the next street. This one I worked up wind crossing streets on my way to the south and ended up over McVeytown before heading southwest back to the ridge. The clouds dried up to the south and I was back to running down the ridge. Made the decision to turn back once down to 2000’ over as I didn’t want to land out (with no driver), got down to 2000’ and changed my mind to 1500’, almost made it to Mt Union before heading back. Ran the ridge to the first power line cut before hitting a nice thermal back to 3500’ over and bubbled along back to launch comfortably. Spiraled down with good lift still around but had enough. I landed in a cut field with other gliders and slid in on my belly rather clumsily marring an otherwise good flight (got to work on those no wind landings). I have now added Jack’s to my list of excellent Pennsylvania sites. I can’t wait to run the ridge from one end to the other. Shawn and Mark thanks for the rides back to the top. Flight stats: max altitude – 3900’ over, max average climb – 700 fpm, time - 2:50, distance - 43 miles (triangle).

[Lauren Tjaden]

Nice, Bun! Everybody else, too. Jack's used to be my very favorite mountain to fly.
Lauren

[Batman]

Brian - lest you forget ... a few years ago ... gas wasn't $4 a gallon. Hang Gliding vehicles aren't normally known to be great gas mileage cars, and I won't own a hybrid until the my a Jeep Wrangler Hybrid. Travel costs have been a huge influence on my flying this past year. It used to be no thought to drive 3 hours to sit and wait all day. Now its too expensive to drive 3 hours and NOT fly.

[Dan T]

and the solution is.... (drumroll) Carpool! No brainer huh?

Brian and others are right. Jacks is a great HII site. I rarely went there because it was an exceedingly long drive from 25 miles south of DC, but it was always worth it when I did. So all you HIIs, kick those lazy jaded observers out of bed in the morning. Offer to pay for half the gas and a beer on the way home and you'll both be glad you did.

I guarantee you it ain't nearly as far to Jacks from where you are as from where I am.

Dan T

[lbunner]

I agree Dan. The weather tools we have today provide much more reliable information thus making it a much higher probability that you can soar. Dr. Jack, NWS, NOAA, Windmapper etc all give a good clue as to whether it is worth the drive. I have flown and managed to stay up every day that I have gone out this year. On Saturday, I checked my multitude of sources and was very confident that Jack's would be soarable (and I didn't even talk to the prognosticator!). I was considering Ridgely but after reviewing the data knew that Jack's was the better bet. One improvement for me would be to link up with other pilots. I discovered on launch that Bob had driven up from Baltimore within ten miles of my house. If I'd known that I could have split the gas with him and saved us both some bucks. Anybody have Bob's number?

[XCanytime]

To operate efficiently you need to know whether it will be worth the drive. And that means figuring out the weather ahead of time. As Larry pointed out, there are many sources of data that enable the pilot to figure out a day in advance whether the next day will be soarable or not. However, this vast amount of data often impedes rather than helps. From the article in the August 2008 magazine Dennis Pagen is quoted as saying " A lot of people spend too much time looking at the weather instead of going out flying. Too much information inhibits the everyday pilot. They'll look at the lapse rate and it won't be to their liking so they go mow the lawn, and they miss out while we are skying out". In a simpler vein, if one keeps a history of weather patterns year in and year out, they find that the patterns repeat themselves year after year. And they know what to look for, and can tell with high accuracy if the day is going to be worth it or not without looking at too much information. And there's some crazy idiot who, solely out of benevolence and altruism, keeps giving 3 and 5 day lookaheads for the weekend days that look pretty good so that pilots can get a jump start on preparing. If anything, contact Larry and follow him whereever he goes. His record is impeccable.

Bacil

[RedBaron]

Jacks was a hit or miss proposition yesterday.

Larry took off around 12:30P and had an extendo.

He was scraped off, and headed out to land. 500' over the LZ he had a nice low save, climbing up very slowly to cloudbase behind the ridge.

Dennis Pagen launched, got scraped off the ridge, and headed out to land. He got a nice low save downwind of the LZ.

The clouds had opened up a little but it was mostly overcast all the way up from Wrightsville.

[theflyingdude]

Jacks was a hit or miss proposition yesterday.

Larry took off around 12:30P and had an extendo.

He was scraped off, and headed out to land. 500' over the LZ he had a nice low save, climbing up very slowly to cloudbase behind the ridge.

Dennis Pagen launched, got scraped off the ridge, and headed out to land. He got a nice low save downwind of the LZ.

The clouds had opened up a little but it was mostly overcast all the way up from Wrightsville.

Nothing ventured - nothing gained! It sounds like most of the folks who chose to fly Jacks that day ended up getting reasonable airtime and a few even got some x-c miles. It's even more rewarding when it's not automatic and you have to work for it.

JR

[lbunner]

Janni, if you were there I am sure you would have soared and gotten in some miles. It wasn't brain dead easy but it was good!

[brianvh]

yeah, gas prices suck. Even with my honda civic I wince everytime I fill up the tank. Carpooling is clearly the answer...and it means the non-drivers can drink more afterwards!

[mcelrah]

Bacil,

What kind of radio do you have that you can check 122.7? Or is this a capability I have on my Yaesu VX-150 that I've just been too lazy/dumb to discover? Can you transmit also?

- Hugh

[XCanytime]

Hugh,
I've got a Yeasu FT-11R, purchased in 1995. It receives from 110 to 180 MHz. It only xmits on the 2M band, from 144 to 148 MHz. That is what is so nice about the radio, that you can receive the aviation bands. Comes in handy at any untowered airport that you plan to land at.

Bacil