Woodstock 5/10

[RedBaron]

PS:
It was fabulous to see so many H2's including Cathy and fresh H3's again. Kudos to John Middleton for continuously feeding this community with young, skilled and aspiring pilots. That's just awesome.

[dbodner]

Glad to see you had such a nice flight, Janni

I, on the other, had a great day. After arriving late, I listened to the reports from the air and watched the freight trains coming through. No point in launching yet.

When I finally did in the late afternoon, the turbulence had mostly worked itself out of the atmosphere. Only a couple of bouts of "interesting" air before it all smoothed out. Turned magic, as Matthew said. Flew a little over an hour. Came down early to avoid the end-of-day rush. Other than having to dodge cattle, the LZ had calmed down significantly.

Jodie met me in the LZ with our good buddies Ben and Jerry. Gary carried my glider back to my car. Mark C. bought beer at the Inn. And Jodie drove me home. What's not to like?

[silverwings]

First I want to post that I had a really enjoyable flight on Sunday and chose to land after 2:15 where I got slapped twice on my final. One of my students Greg Sessa was under Matthews supervision for the day and ask that I post the following about his experience.

As one of the newest H2’s, I would first like to say it was great to meet so many of the local pilots. The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, and it was cool to watch and learn from the more experienced pilots. I would also like to extend a few thanks. First, Matthew and Karen, thanks for agreeing to sponsor me for the day! I certainly appreciate the patience while waiting for conditions to settle (which paid off, albeit a little later than expected). And I would like to extend a special thanks to John Middleton for all the help, support and coaching! Without your help, I would not have been able to progress to this point!

Now for the flight….After long time waiting, and a fear a being sent home later in the day without flying, the conditions calmed and turned in our favor as many have already pointed out. After a successful launch, I turned right out of the slot and began to elevate quickly. Shockingly, I hit 2600 ft. above the LZ not too long into the flight (highest I have flown solo to date). The conditions were smooth and enjoyable, but staying conservative, I primarily remained between the fingers. I was simply amazed at remaining aloft for such an extended period of time. Before I realized it, I had been flying for over a half hour, and I decided to set a goal….stay in the air for an hour! I began noticing several pilots descending and landing, but I was a bit shy of the hour mark. Thankfully, Matthew was still in the air, and I figured I could make my goal. As the sun was setting, I reached my goal and hit 60 minutes! Now it was time to head in. It seemed like actual work to bring the glider down, as if it wanted to stay flying longer (much to the opposite effect I am used to). I travelled across the LZ and tried to pick the most open area to land as the friendly pasture grazers decided to spread out all over the LZ. I spotted an opening and performed a good DBF landing, avoiding all cows. The flight was awesome and longest to date! Thanks again to all for an enjoyable experience!

[KathyC]

I was glad to be back at Woodstock and ready to try my approach there again after a considerable amount of time away from the site. After much waiting, but with great company, the time was finally right. (Thanks Matthew!) I enjoyed the nice buoyant air that everyone else has already spoken about. Trying to plan an approach around a lot of cattle was definitely interesting. I was okay with my approach, happy about some things and would change a few things next time. All in all, a wonderful end to a beautiful day! It was also nice to see a lot of familiar faces and as always, to meet new folks.

Kathy

[DanTuck]

Here's the video from the day - http://www.vimeo.com/4602024

Edit: Thanks Mark for making embeds possible! Seems to be fine on IE. Here's the first try -

Edit: Mark's post looks and plays fine but mine looks like it's trying to load but won't.
Edit: Okay, got it. Like you said, the NUMERIC code for vimeo. I was putting in the URL. Thanks again, Mark!

[XCanytime]

PS. Bacil, love your "mission" for the day. That sounds very cool. It must have been hard with such a strong headwind.

Dave,
Believe it or not, once I got to 5200' MSL above Southfork, all I did was point the nose west under the wispy cloud street upwind and fly straight and level. It was a slow process, but I only lost 900' by the time I got to I-81. I never once turned in lift from Southfork all the way to the winery. I remember reading an interview in the Hang Gliding magazine in 1996 with the world champion at the time, Tomas Suchanek. Dennis Pagen asked Tomas why he left a gaggle during a competition to fly under a line of clouds that were a bit off of the courseline. Tomas said that it was blue up ahead along the courseline, and the gaggle was battling a stiff headwind. Tomas headed off by himself over to the line of clouds, theorizing that the lined up thermals would "block" and deflect the headwind. He was able to make tracks faster than the gaggle and won the day with this one move. All I did was do the same thing to enable me to slog 5 miles upwind to the winery.

Bacil

P.S. Great video Dan!

[markc]

A wild and windy day indeed!

Had to put in a solid day of work on Saturday due to a conference this week.
Which the wind gods must have pitied (or did they?), what with the surfeit of
airtime that was to be had on Sunday.

Launched a bit before 2pm and flew for 4 hours. Good launch cycles. I knew
going in that it was going to be one of those "Don't land until you really have to"
days, with rowdy conditions on the ground. So no complaints here.

Tried punching out into the valley on a lift line, with the hopes of getting upwind
of the gap and then diving for Short Mtn. No dice. Ditto when I tried again, from
closer to the gap.

Got high a bit south of launch, looked over the back at the lack of streets, and
thought "Well yeah, there's Skyline Drive, but with a W/WSW drift... Then what?"

Ditto up north near the resevoir. Although maybe I should have just dived for the
Front Royal airport, it was reachable on glide, probably a 10 minute flight given
the winds!

It was challenging and tiring flying. Can't say that the fun meter was pegged, but
the times I got into the valley over Rt 11 were fun. More of a brush-up-on-strong-
wind-conditions type of day. You really had to work if you wanted to core anything, at
least early.

Topped out at 4100' above launch twice, and 3000' above out in the valley a few times.

And am I sore today! Shoulda followed Bacil to that winery, what was I thinking???

MarkC

PS: Oh yeah, there were wave clouds over the upwind mountains, and seems likely
that wave was responsible for some of the dramatic lift/sink transitions in the
Woodstock valley (though no wave clouds were visible in the immediate area).

[mcelrah]

A word about approaches when conditions are "twitchy" to say the least. I really hesitate to act the role of graybeard so the rest of you jump in. Here's the pitch: although it's good to practice consistent patterns when setting up for landing (I *always* fly a DBF over the tree line making left turns and dive it into the hole at the bottom of the LZ at Woodstock.) - ya gotta be prepared to modify your well-practiced approach if conditions change. Yesterday, I loitered upwind of the LZ for quite awhile waiting for the thermals/trubulence to let me get down. After my last 360, I discovered that I was way low - like just above tree height - and still at the upwind end of the field - not a happy situation. The only thing to do was to abandon the standard approach and head straight for the bottom of the field inside the tree line, conserving enough altitude to use speed on the 180 turn into the wind and land a bit higher in the field than normal. It worked for me (Carlos was watching from the air and said he saw the wind sock switch to south right after I landed). So the moral of the story is that the goal is to end up at flair height pointed into the wind. A normal approach is to be preferred, but do what you have to do to achieve that goal, to include deleting parts of the normal approach if necessary.

Landing downwind has been the cause of a number of painful, difficult to heal spiral fractures of the humurus (upper arm). If you totally screw it up (or if a thermal totally screws you by reversing the wind direction), it's probably best to disengage from the control frame at the last moment, ball up, and let the aluminum take the brunt of it. (This is not to say that you should not "fly through the crash" - fight to salvage the situation to the very end.) - Hugh

[Ward Odenwald]

Hugh,

Here’s one graybeard’s 2 cents/armchair opinion on bring it down on those roller coaster days. When turbulence becomes a major descriptor of the flight, flying a figure eight pattern at the downwind edge of the field (always turning towards the LZ with your eyes focusing like a laser on where you want to touch down) will enable one to adjust for wind drift, lift and sever bursts of gravity. Based on yours and Red Baron’s posts about just how intense the air was during the earlier flights, would it have been better to pick a field farther away from the ridge?

Ward

[Matthew]

Why was anyone surprised that the air was punchy and landing mid-day was tough? The ideal forecast for Woodstock is 15-20-- and no gusts. The Mother's Day forecast was 15-20 with gusts to 30 mid-day. The wind forecast called for the gusts to kick in about noon and back off after 5. I was actually a bit amazed at how many pilots, especially those in lower performance gliders, launched without a care in the world that the air might be rough. The idea of launcihg in rough air and then waiting it out to land is also somewhat of a puzzle to me. What happens if something goes wrong and you need to land? I've know of people who had to land becaue of various harness problems-- couldn't kick in, shoulder line became untied, etc. -- or pilots becoming airsick, needing to go to the bathroom, noticing a bad turn in their glider. I'm not saying that you should limit yourself to easy air. But my rule of thumb is don't launch in anything that you aren't prepared to land in. And this works the other way too-- the air can become more turbulent during the flight. So you must regulalry reassess conditions while flying. If you do't think that you have the skills, experience and mindset for a turbulent landing, then don't launch into turbulent conditions.

Matthew

[RedBaron]

The WS primary is a small field with tree lines all around setting constraints that make Figure *8's a dangerous proposition in anything but low performance gliders. A massive wind gradient to boot you might find yourself diving straight into the ground. On strong W days you have to deal with rotors coming from the SW tree line that turned me and another pilot into a smear on the ground some time ago. I avoid this field like the plague on strong days.
Starting high on a long downwind leg helps me a lot adjust for altitude problems on a rowdy day, simply by speeding up or slowing down.

[XCanytime]

Here are a few more pictures my daughter took from the ground at the winery. Enjoy. Bacil

Up high in the sky.

Entering the field.

On final.

Ground handling is tough!

[brianvh]

Bacil has a daughter? Do tell.

-Brian (safely out of smacking distance)

[markc]

The idea of launcihg in rough air and then waiting it out to land is also somewhat of a puzzle to me. What happens if something goes wrong and you need to land? I've know of people who had to land becaue of various harness problems [...]
Matthew

When I'm evaluating conditions on a strong day, I consider two main areas:

a) What does my experience tell me about the day?
b) What risk level am I willing to assume?

I've been flying Woodstock in fairly strong conditions for almost 15 years. I look at things like the
rate of the frontal passage, the predicted wind velocities and gust factors, the isobar map,
and satellite images (which can provide a clue about wave conditions). This past Sunday,
what I saw wasn't substantially different from many other days when I've had good/enjoyable
flights, or at least tolerable flights, on a glider of a particular performance class. Also considered are
the maintenance level of the glider and harness that are to be used.

Given all of those factors, and a look at the sky to see what was happening aloft, my decision
was to give things a try, even though I knew that it was the type of day when I might want to
postpone the landing until after conditions had mellowed.

But even with a level-headed evaluation of the risks of a given day, it is certainly possible
that conditions can change, and that one can be surprised.

Is it possible that the forecasts could be wrong, and that there would be NO mellowing of
conditions over the course of four hours?

Sure, of COURSE that could happen!!!

And that is where risk-level decisions come into play. If I believe that the chances of
the winds NOT backing down are relatively high, and if I have familial obligations such as
being a parent of young children (just an example)... Then I might decide that the potential
risks of flying are not worth gambling on.

Conversely, without those obligations, I might decide that the risks are worth assuming,
and decide that flying is appropriate for that day.

Bottom line: I don't think that there is a hard-and-fast rule that one can use to decide
when it is/is-not appropriate to fly at sites like Woodstock on a strong day, once a pilot
is past his/her Hang-II.

Ask questions!

Talk to other pilots!

Talk to your instructor!

Be INCREMENTAL when it comes to flying in new/more-challenging conditions!

And learn.

MarkC

[Matthew]

I disagree. There's a very simple hard and fast rule-- don't launch into conditions that you aren't ready to land in. Many of the Hang III+ pilots in our area have the skill and experience to land in very turbulent conditions. Therefore, if you are capable of and ready to land in nasty turbulent conditions, then launch into those conditions. If not, don't.

Matthew

[RedBaron]

Mt rule of thumb: If the chance of survival is 50% I'll do it just for kicks. Because flying on the edge is good for ya'! Many factors go into my risk/reward calculation: Wind gusts have to be smaller than the Vne of my glider and birds shouldn't tuck and tumble (it's best if they're not out at all). Last, if another pilot has launched before me and not died right away I know I might be okay.

[brianvh]

Hell, if the trees ain't ripping loose I figger the LZ will still be there when I land.

[RichH]

Woodstock can be a very difficult location to fly in high and even slightly crossing winds. The river below has cut multiple ridges in the side of the mtn and has caused rolling hills close to the river (landing area). If you choose to launch in such conditions 20+ be awear that you will encounter tubulance at launch and below if the winds are not straight in...A good rule of thumb is to climb the tower to check on wind conditions since winds do and will roll and eddie straight in at launch. Also, I firmly believe in the standard aircraft approach in such conditions. I have seen to many pilots hit trees in turbulant conditions doing figure 8's at the end of the landing area..practice your aircraft approaches in a large familiar field and get use to adjusting your base leg and final turn based on conditions ( refer to Dennis Pagens book on flying skills)...RH
P.S. Woodstock is a wonderful place to fly and the ridge supports great flights to the north and south and over the back..

[brianvh]

" I was actually a bit amazed at how many pilots, especially those in lower performance gliders, launched without a care in the world that the air might be rough."

I'd MUCH rather be in a single surface glider in turbulent conditions. They are less susceptible to uncommanded turns. People say high performance are better because they fly faster, but single surface flies fast too, just at a steeper angle. Landing in turbulent fields in a high performance glider terrifies me, but I've rarely felt that way on a draggy glider.

[RedBaron]

I'd MUCH rather be in a single surface glider in turbulent conditions. They are less susceptible to uncommanded turns. People say high performance are better because they fly faster, but single surface flies fast too, just at a steeper angle. Landing in turbulent fields in a high performance glider terrifies me, but I've rarely felt that way on a draggy glider.

Fly a current generation topless and see the light Brian. Glen's 225 handles worse than my baby.

[RichH]

Which glider is not as important as the judgement of the pilot in control..believe me I have made some judgements that did not always work out well for me and almost every single close call or incident I have had in Hang gliding resulted in flying in high wind conditions..I'm not saying not do it but add it into your risk caculation before flying and realize it adds another dimension to the day. I have in the past launched into high wind conditions knowing that I would not want to land in those current conditions (Many x-c days are like that)..but by the time I was flying in conditions such as that I had hundreds of flying hours practicing my landing techniques..Still with all that said, I've been bitten a time or two !...Also the months of April, May and early June typically have the strongest thermal conditions of the year..and on those high lapse rate days expect turbulance low to the ground..especially on final..If you are forced to land on such a day at mid day ( strong thermals w/strong winds 20+ @ launch) I would advise to use the method that Dennis Pagen outlines in his book (aircraft approach)..and it would be advisable to add more speed into your final approach..RH

[Dan T]

There is a simple way to greatly improve the likelihood of having a good safe landing in those conditions at woodstock.

Just land out.

There are numerous large fields all up and down that ridge line. Near the gap there are big ones right in front and a huge one next to Hwy 11 in front of the Budget Host Inn or something like that. Two fingers north there is a big one with a little rise on the south end, great for those west cross days. There is nothing like a long straight fast final to reduce the pucker factor.

dan t

[RichH]

Dan liked your video..I love flying that ridge..and your right there are great landing fields every where out from the ridge..RH