Woodstock Monday?

[markc]

Looks like Monday could be a decent Woodstock day. I'm trying
to re-arrange things so that I can take some/most of the day off,
if things look good. I'm hoping for a fall-colors type of day, and
probably wouldn't go unless there's a decent amount of sunshine.
Anyone else thinking about it?

MarkC

[CraginS]

I could be tempted. Stay in touch!
`

[CraginS]

i'll have my gear at McLean in the morning. If it looks good, can probably depart for WS lunchtime or shortly after.
Post here or email craginsh@gmail.com

craig

[tdilisio]

I'm ALWAYS interested in flying... if the conditions are within the H2 limits. Arranging the escape from work might be a little difficult today. Will need a couple hour notice at least.

Please keep posting.

(Disclaimer - I am NOT interested in flying if conditions are outside the H2 limits.... but you can bet your ass I'll be THINKING about flying)... 24x7x365

[markc]

I'm feeling pretty good about Woodstock: The front is pushing through in northern VA
right now, which bodes well for moderating winds this afternoon, rather than a ramp up.
No guarantees of course.

The forecast of NW10-15G25 is pretty much a classic 'Stocker cast....

I can hit the road by around 11 or so. Craig, Tony, are you in?

MarkC

[CraginS]

I'm looking at departure around 12:30 from McLean, if we go. I'll reserve committing for a couple more hours, but the truck and glider are in front of the building.

craig

[tdilisio]

I still have to drive from work (Herndon) to Stephens City, load up the glider/gear and head out.... so I'm looking at getting there about 1-2 PMish.

NOA says "West wind between 14 and 16 mph"....
Weather.com says about the same.....
windmapper.com says 7-12
forcast.weather.gov says 12-15

The only show stopper I see for H2's is current conditions at Winchester.....
Winchester METAR reporting current conditions as 10G19 from 300deg.

Anyplace else I can be looking?

[markc]

Ok, let's see what happens with the 10ish forecast updates, and
of course, the progress that the front makes between now and then.

MarkC

[CraginS]

[attachment=0]WestSkyMcLean0810271000.jpg[/attachment][attachment=0]WestSkyMcLean0810271000.jpg[/attachment][attachment=0]WestSkyMcLean0810271000.jpg[/attachment]My window in McLean faces west. At 10:08 I am seeing a depressingly solid grey overcast with low ceiling.

[hankh2rbc]

Sky looks just like that over woodstock as well. Forecast shows 10-15 G25 continuing through the night and 20-25 G40 tomorrow. Don't thinks there's much of a chance of a back off this evening.

Hank

[markc]

Ok, the 10am surface forecast is unchanged, still NW10-15G25 . And the hourly
weather graph shows no gust factor.

The ADDS forecast at 3k is on the strong side, but no stronger than many
a good Woodstock day. Note, however, that the midnight map shows conditions
picking up, so that means we will have to keep an eye on things once in the air.

Hagerstown, Winchester, and Martinsburg are not showing anything over 24mph.

So I think it's a go! However, looks like we won't have any sun until late in the
afternoon.

Craig, sounds like we can get away sooner than Tony, when do you want to hit
the road?

--mark

[markc]

PS, take a look at the satellite, and you will see that the line of
clouds does not have to go vary far for Woodstock to get some
sun. The hourly graph is calling for 51% cover as of 4pm.

MarkC

[CraginS]

Mark and I will be leaving our respective workplaces in the 12:15-12:30 time frame, with plans to meet in the LZ and leave a vehicle.

Neither of us are flyable this coming weekend, so we are willing to gamble on a do-able WS day, and will accept our sleds like the men we are, if need be.

My cell is 703-772-6660.

Tony, and anyone else joining us, please pass your cell # to us either on here or by calling our cells with yours and leaving a message.

Cragin

[markc]

Although the 3k forecast doesn't show much of a back-off overnight,
the real strong stuff isn't supposed to be coming in until early tomorrow
morning. So if we're lucky, we'll have a bit of a window this afternoon,
and hopefully some sun!

MarkC

mobile: 301-807-5414

[tdilisio]

As bad as it looked starting out, it actually was a great ridge soaring day. Could of used a lot more sun... or ANY sun would have been nice, but the winds were on and off. Nothing more than 10MPH at launch, but I waited for a calmer cycle to launch in... probably about 3-5MPH. I thought it was a good launch... went out, and started going up. I think the highest I got was about 2300 over launch at one point. It seemed the higher I got, the more rowdy it was. I think I soared for about 45-60 minutes, then started getting cold... and the sun was going down for the day, so I headed for the LZ. It was a chore getting down, stuffing the bar until my arms were tired, resting a minute, and stuffing it again. Must of taken about 20 minutes to lose the 2000+ ft. Landing was pretty rowdy as well... nothing bent or broken. All in all well worth playing hookie for a half day.

The colors were beautiful from altitude, although it looks like they are about past prime time viewing.

Mark launched first, me second, then Craig.

Thanks to CraiginS for being my observer/wire crew, Ellis and Hank for wire crewing and everyone for the advice/coaching. I appreciate it very much. Had a blast.

Craig and Mark can fill in the blanks...

Till Next Time... fly safe.

[markc]

Wow, what a strange day! Started raining hard on I-66 after I hit the road... But luckily I had heard from
Ellis that it wasn't raining at Woodstock, so after a phone consult with Craig ("Are we NUTS?"), we decided
to press on, and hope. Lighter clouds on the horizon offered some promise.

We got up top around 2:45, after linking up with Tony in the LZ. Hank and Karma's truck was there, but
the glider was still on it. Hardly an encouraging sign. Still, we set up, as the winds went from light,
to moderate, to strong. Uh-oh. H & K swung by after a hike, as did Ellis. Lots of debate about when the
real ramp-up was going to arrive.

I threw the glider together as fast as I could, and as luck would have it the conditions started getting much
more reasonable. So I jumped into the glider, headed to launch, and.... It was REALLY light. Super light.
I potato'ed for close to half an hour, because it simply didn't look ridge soarable. And of course it was totally
overcast.

So I let a bunch of 5-7mph cycles go by, with lulls in-between that I couldn't believe. But eventually I got
tired of waiting and took one that seemed a bit better, heading to the north out of the slot. And although
I had to struggle for a bit below launch, I was able to scrape my way up much more easily than I expected
Woo-Hoo!!

My best for the day was about 2100' above launch. Pretty sure we were flying in light wave : At one point
I was 1300' over at launch and picked an upwind line. Didn't turn once as I flew out past the river and into
range of Route 11. 200fpm mostly, some 400fpm, totally constant, up to 2100' over.

And yet there were also times that I ran into 1200' down during the flight, out in the valley, or on the ridge,
wherever. No lennies visible.... But definitely wave going on.

I flew for about 1:45, with maybe a little bit of VG from time to time, nothing radical. Toward the end of
the flight I noticed 37 degrees at about 1200 over: It was chilly!

Attached are a few photos. Craig, sorry buddy, none of my shots of you turned out. Unfortunately, it was a
tough day to be free-handing a camera; most of my photos were out of focus. But those below turned out
halfway-ok. If anyone needs a high-rez version, just let me know.

Back up top at around 8pm, Craig and I enjoyed a beer and listened to the wind blowing hard & strong.
The ramp-up had arrived, but not before we got to soar!

MarkC

[CraginS]

What a great day to play hooky! Thanks, Mark, for tempting me out. As reported above, I was last off the mountain, running off the rocks about 5:25. I topped out at nearly 3,800 MSL, looking down on Mark and Tony, and then up at the cloud base (total overcast) which was approaching too fast and too close. Hmm, yeah, I think maybe I was on the edge of some wave.
A lot of bar stuffing got me down to 1,800 MSL, where I thought I could relax and boat around. Nope, trim mean tup, not level. Bar back to the knees.

Flew out into the valley at speed, and set it down through some really rowdy crud in the red barn field along Moose Lodge Rd. Landed right at 6:00, and was all packed up and ready for Mark when he drove out from the main LZ.
Congrats to Tony for his first cold weather mountain flight.
A SUPER thank you to Ellis and Hank for coming out and helping all three of us launch.
Notably longer and more detailed version at my (b)Log, complete with video from the air (yes, with music). Be sure to hop over there for the video if nothing else.

[pink_albatross]

I guess it was a good thing I didn't pull my bag out after all. I was suspecting something like wave might be the case.
Then again... maybe I could have gone for a nice long LZ -- landing at Dulles maybe

Good to see you all out there!
-- ellis