Jacks Mountain Memorial Day
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Jacks Mountain Memorial Day
Light East winds. Not the greatest forecast but the only possibility I see if you don't want to get stuck in rain. Who's willing to take a risky gamble?
#1 Rogue Pilot
Re: Jacks Mountain Memorial Day
People got sledders at Jack's, but one person, let us say, got a little extra hangtime.
Didn't rain at Hyner all weekend, you sucker. Just a few drops total.
Didn't rain at Hyner all weekend, you sucker. Just a few drops total.
Brian Vant-Hull
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theflyingdude
- Posts: 358
- Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 11:40 pm
- Location: Cumberland, MD
Re: Jacks Mountain Memorial Day
Sounds a bit enigmatic. Care to expound?brianvh wrote:People got sledders at Jack's, but one person, let us say, got a little extra hangtime.
Didn't rain at Hyner all weekend, you sucker. Just a few drops total.
JR
Re: Jacks Mountain Memorial Day
Not my place to give details. A P-2 went into the trees during launch, no damage to glider or pilot, but significant hang time.
If it was a highly experienced pilot I'd have fun with an exaggerated account, enhanced by the convenience of I wasn't there.
If it was a highly experienced pilot I'd have fun with an exaggerated account, enhanced by the convenience of I wasn't there.
Brian Vant-Hull
Re: Jacks Mountain Memorial Day
I should modify: the pilot climbed down, wasn't up for hours, but was still hanging longer than anyone else.
Brian Vant-Hull
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theflyingdude
- Posts: 358
- Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2005 11:40 pm
- Location: Cumberland, MD
Re: Jacks Mountain Memorial Day
Having never flown a PG, I have no real knowledge base, but I would speculate that launching a PG there would be difficult with the guardrail in the way. I'm surprised that site would be rated P2 just for that reason.
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pink_albatross
- Posts: 599
- Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2005 12:20 pm
- Location: Ellis from Arlington
Re: Jacks Mountain Memorial Day
my personal PG view:
you can launch either from the parking lot or from the slope.
Launching from the parking lot is tricky, but pretty safe, as you have plenty of time to kill the wing before you step over the guardrail. If there is sufficient wind, straight in, it is supereasy to kite it to the edge, leisurely step over the guardrail and take off. It's tough and can be quite difficult to get the wing to that point though, especially with any kind of cross, but it is safe (unless it's honking in which case a P2 shouldn't take off anyway). Of course the hot shots can do a running reverse in light winds and hop over the guardrail while turning around, all while keeping the wing nicely aligned and inflated. You can ask Hugh how to do that particular maneuver (wish I had a video of that).
From the slope: it's actually much easier to launch from the slope, with the wing leaning on the guardrail or laid out on the slope. The slope is so steep that your wing doesn't have far to travel to be fully overhead. The dangerous part is the footing. The skree is so loose and the slope is so steep, that you have to have quite a bit of confidence in your balance to stand down there. As you know there is glass and sharp metal things at the bottom there and rolling down the hill is -urgh- a scenario you don't even want to think about. But launching a PG from there is much less technical than from the parking lot.
If a pilot should get picked up while doing a reverse, that pilot should fly the glider out of the slot *before* turning around... But that's a scenario which applies to any launch...
-- ellis
p.s. the guardrail dips to knee high in the center (one of my knees)
you can launch either from the parking lot or from the slope.
Launching from the parking lot is tricky, but pretty safe, as you have plenty of time to kill the wing before you step over the guardrail. If there is sufficient wind, straight in, it is supereasy to kite it to the edge, leisurely step over the guardrail and take off. It's tough and can be quite difficult to get the wing to that point though, especially with any kind of cross, but it is safe (unless it's honking in which case a P2 shouldn't take off anyway). Of course the hot shots can do a running reverse in light winds and hop over the guardrail while turning around, all while keeping the wing nicely aligned and inflated. You can ask Hugh how to do that particular maneuver (wish I had a video of that).
From the slope: it's actually much easier to launch from the slope, with the wing leaning on the guardrail or laid out on the slope. The slope is so steep that your wing doesn't have far to travel to be fully overhead. The dangerous part is the footing. The skree is so loose and the slope is so steep, that you have to have quite a bit of confidence in your balance to stand down there. As you know there is glass and sharp metal things at the bottom there and rolling down the hill is -urgh- a scenario you don't even want to think about. But launching a PG from there is much less technical than from the parking lot.
If a pilot should get picked up while doing a reverse, that pilot should fly the glider out of the slot *before* turning around... But that's a scenario which applies to any launch...
-- ellis
p.s. the guardrail dips to knee high in the center (one of my knees)