Hyner Cloud Dive 9/1

[XCanytime]

Attached are pics of the awesome cloud dive that 8 pilots partook of this morning at Hyner.

Bacil

Sunrise

Hyner facts

It's in the hole!

On base, lined up for Runway 34

[DanTuck]

Great pics Bacil. Hyner was lots of fun as usual and if you haven't given yourself a half an hour sometime after dark on a clear night to stargaze from launch, you are really missing out. The air is so clean, the stars are simply incredible. Cragin and I were even treated to a shooting star just before we left after retreiving his truck. Well, I was one of those lucky 7 to do the cloud dive and also one of 4 the morning before. Cloud dives 2 days in a row. Sweet! I only got video of the first one though but I got 4 flights in altogether. I'm satisfied. It was great to see so many familiar faces up there - John M, Cragin, Shawn, Bacil, Bob, David C, Brian VH, many more, great flying with you guys - and it was a great turnout overall. Shoulda been there!

http://www.vimeo.com/1648480

[CraginS]

[Hop over to my flight b(L)og for the video and photos that go with this report]
http://craginsflightblog.blogspot.com/2 ... ay-at.html
After about ten years of urging from John M and others, I finally got my tail in gear and hit the road for a holiday weekend at Hyner View. Very glad I went; sorry I took so long to do it. Hyner View is indeed a free flight national treasure. Kudos for the Pennsy club for maintaining top relations with the state govies for launch access in the park and the local landowner for a HUGE LZ with the most spacious camping and landing accommodations you can wish for.
We had a quite reasonable contingent of Capital club faces on hand over the weekend. John M with Marnie, Rich C, Shawn R with Melina, David the Amazing with Victoria, Dan Tuck, Bacil D with Judy, myself, and, if the New Yorker will let us still claim him, Brian V-H. Overlapping Brian into the Maryland contingent, we add Bunkhouse Bob and Steve C.
PA locals included Shawn M, Tom G, Bob B, Dennis P, Bill U, Spoons, Joe & Karen G, and a supporting cast of dozens more pilots with innumerable spouses, kids, dogs, and camper trailers in tow.
I had thought my own weekend had the longest commute reported to reach Hyner. However, Brian V-H's looping trip from NYC outdid me. I left the house at 6:45 a.m. and pulled into the LZ at 5:00 p.m. Ok, there was the interlude with the flat tire on the Beltway 15 minutes from home, followed by the purchase and installation of four new Bridgestone Duellers and a particularly troublesome 4-wheel alignment in Springfield. On the road again by 11:30, I pulled into the LZ at 5:00. I visited launch, but due to the extreme N to NE cross wind, did not set up.
On Sunday I flew twice, first with my Pulse about 4, and then with the U2 a bit after 6. Although there were several soaring flights, there were a lot of sleds. I was proud of eking out a dozen minutes on the Pulse, and padding a sled to 4 minutes with the U2.
I joined the cloud dive contingent Monday morning, for my first such experience. It was great, and I did, indeed, see my glory. The snapshot grabbed from my video shows the glider shadow over my left shoulder. The photo does not do justice to the rainbow halo that surrounded the shadow.
I will report that my launches were all good strong runs in light or no wind. On Sunday I landed in the upper field, visible to the picniccers at the swimming pool. For Monday's morning sled I brought it in right in front of the pilots' campfire.
In the evenings, I visited several campfires and enjoyed the many friendly folks. I will admit to bypassing the midnight to two shift up in Two-Town. Sunday night, I also stayed away from the kareoke up at the pool. Reportedly, not all the pilots refrained from it.
My return drive was greatly improved by map advice from Dennis P - I do learn much from him beyond his great flying and weather books. Only 5 hours to get home, and avoided all the I-70 holiday mess.
Thanks to all the great Hyner crowd, It was super fun, and I will get back there again.

[silverwings]

Marney and I arrived Friday evening taking a bit longer to get there because of traffic toward Frederic and in Pa. Did 3 flights on Saturday, 2 on Sunday, and 1 Monday late morning before starting back. Flew PG twice, Condor twice, and U2 twice with an amazing flight on Sunday with my U2 getting to 6250 AGL (with t-shirt) and flew as long as I wanted being 2:10. Hooked a good thermal off the point that took me up to 5800 then later another to the higher altitude. Wish I had been dressed properly cause it was chilly! The scenery is incredable when you get high there. A number of others had high flights on Sunday and a few got some decent soaring on Saturday. Another enjoyable trip to Hyner.

[brianvh]

Hyner did what Hyner always does: launchable throughout the thermally part of each day despite any cross. Craziness in the LZ.

Left NYC about 10:30 on friday intent on missing traffic and headed up to Ellenville to pick up my new XC for it's first flights....Hyner has the most forgiving launch in the known universe so is perfect for test flying. Halfway to Hyner I realized I had forgot my harness. DOH! Turned around and left new york around 5 pm. Amazingly the traffic wasn't a problem - only one backup. With dinner and detour arrived around midnight.

Back when I was flying a lot I could switch between single and double surface with impunity. Now I find that the falcon has let me get away with some newly developed bad technique without me even noticing it. Seems I'm letting the nose come up after I start my launch run. I think the falcon starts flying sooner so I'm off before the nose problem gets out of hand. So in the XC I was mushing down and skimming my way out of launch. If I wasn't at Hyner I would never have gotten away with it. Thought I could fix the problem easily but it seems to be persistent and will have to spend time on the training hill. Can't hit the flare window on that thing either. have really regressed.

The Hyner fairies were looking even more ephemeral than ever. You're just gonna have to come to Hyner to find out what I'm talking about. The russians set up a sauna by the river, and reported hitting temperature extremes they had never experienced in Russia. More explaining, you'll just have to come. Kraphouse Karioke was also new, and alternated between painful at a distance and hilarious up close. I'm sorry I followed Dennis Pagen on an abortive dinner expedition and missed T-bone's full body portrayals of Bruce Springsteen and Joe Crocker. Tom Gartlen and my hydrogen soap bubble experiments fizzled, will keep trying.

Anyway, it was launchable each day, and many people had incredible soaring flights. Cloud diving has become chic again, and we actually had eight pilots on monday morning (Bacil left out the PG since it's not as obvious in the setup area). During the Sunday morning cloud dive Mike the Paraglider Brit demonstrated that if you have GPS you don't even need to wait for...sorry, didn't see anything, never happened. But it was amazing. Tandem cloud dives both days.

So don't listen to North doomsayers. If it's light just ignore any forecasts and come. A good NW forecast (like what we had on saturday) just means the launching goes quicker, and it doesn't stop even if light over the back.

[brianvh]

I should add that the cross Cragin mentioned developed in the evening, for those who keep track of forecast statistics.

[Richard Hays]

Great pics Bacil. And........not that this is an orginal idea but.........

We should definately ( has it been done already?? ) get airial pics of the local LZ's !! This would be an impressive instructor-Observer tool for our H-2's. Looking at the Hyner LZ shot really struck a chord with me and having shots of High Rock, The Pulpit and others included in the site guide or as hand-outs would be awesome.

General avaiation does this with aerial shots of airports. Even some sailing publications have aerial views of how to enter certain harbors, inlets etc.

Whaddy'a think? I'm gonna post this separately too.

Rich Hays

[XCanytime]

Upon closer inspection I did get "half" of the glory at the bottom in the following picture. I will get the whole glory on the next cloud dive. Bacil

Half the glory

[hepcat1989]

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[hepcat1989]

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[CraginS]

Shawn,
that link failed, but I got to your video using
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=lUwZ7OuUois

By the way.. way cool - you got your glory, at time 1:02 - 1:05. Excellent!

I am sure Bacil is jealous.

[hepcat1989]

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[brianvh]

Shawn - that link worked fine for me. That video was awesome! But only 2 minutes long, guess you were eager to reach those clouds, huh?

Gotta figure out a way to shield your mic from wind noise, but I loved the clunk-a-clunk-a-clunk as you walked off the field at the end.

[hepcat1989]

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