2009 'Ad-Hoc' Pulpit Fly-In : THIS WEEKEND!

[RedBaron]

I'll bring Tikki torches, torch fuel and charcoal.

[eggzkitz]

Bacil,

Maybe us bag pilots can also gaggle up for a little straight line XC?
I think we may have enough for a PG XC day too.
What do you think about the updated forecast?

Cheers,
Jeff

[Jamescob]

Hi daniel !! been a while ... hoping you are well ... there is a few people stiring on my list we will see if they brave the mnt's of the PA outback. LOL!

Dude u so have to come tow with us your little body 2000'-3000' feet of tow to the turn ... i'll get ya a grand if you can keep it pointed at the truck. I would love to see someone thermial out off a tow. If you stay up i'll chase ya down with a back pack and find thermials for ye ...

Slugger

[XCanytime]

Bacil,

Maybe us bag pilots can also gaggle up for a little straight line XC?
I think we may have enough for a PG XC day too.
What do you think about the updated forecast?

Cheers,
Jeff

Jeff,
We are going to have to be extra careful on Saturday afternoon. I see the chance of isolated T-storms between 4P and 6P, the peak heat of the day (duh!). Sunday should be much better in the precip department, but might be stronger in the wind department. Any way, it's going to be nice to have as many pilots as we can show up and see the awesome launch.

Bacil

[SheilaGardner]

Barring unforeseen circumstances - we'll be there. Looking forward to it! Anybody bring kids?? (besides us)

Sheila

[POLISH EAGLE]

Gregory the Greek and I are at the Pulpit. The new lunch looks fantastic. It is blowing at 30 MPH from NW and gusty. We are seating at the campfire and eating polish kilbasa. We will see you all tomorrow. If Jani is planing to be the first to take off from the new spot he better harry up.

[mikel]

I hope ya'll have a great time...
I'll be attending my son's high school graduation...

'til then, Mike

[markc]

The weekend's looking a wee bit on the strong side, and of course the ground's going
to be soaked... But I'm still pretty encouraged by what I see. The truck's packed, glider
loaded, and now I'm sitting back with a sigh and a cold beer.

With any luck, we'll all be doing the same tomorrow after a great day of flying, woo-hoo!

MarkC

[mcelrah]

Just back from the west coast for work. Sallie and I are in for the fly-in. Bag, pipes and tent.

For what it's worth, I authorize reimbursement. Prying a check out of Cragin is a different story.

I've got a cheap bottle of champagne to (1) break on Janni's carbon fiber leading edge - huh? no? - OK: (2) shake up and spray over Janni's head.

Also a camping French press and coffee etc.

- Hugh

[carweill]

Heading out.
ETA after 10:00 am

I believe it will get better in the afternoon.

Carlos

[brianvh]

No reports yet? I guess that means everyone stayed at the Pulpit. That's good!

[XCanytime]

An awesome day at the Pulpit yesterday. It was strong all morning and well into the late afternoon. Dave Proctor was the first to launch off of the new ramp about 1P and he headed OTB. Larry Bunner followed off the new ramp and went OTB as well. Carlos tried to launch off of the new ramp. Mark C. and Krzyzstof bypassed Carlos and launched off of the new pad. Carlos tried launching off of the new pad but backed off after a while. No more launches occurred until just after 4P, when Carlos, Janni, and Matthew queued up for the new pad. I bypassed them off of the old ramp and launched quickly. Struggled a little down by Rt. 16, then flew back towards launch where Carlos was going up. Got up a good 700' over back at launch, then went down to the towers where Janni was specking out. Climbed in a thermal going straight up at the towers to 4500' MSL and started drifting OTB. Gained to 5K' MSL over the second ridge. As I entered the valley just past the foothills of Cove Mt. I gained to 5400' MSL. Saw Carlos and gave him the hand sign "LETS GO DOWNWIND". Drifted a little between Rt. 30 and Rt. 16. Then I decided to try for the golf course near Chambersburg that I landed at on 4/18. The crosswind tack put me in heavy sink, of course. Carlos and I parted ways as I sunk even more heading towards Rt. 30 just west of St. Thomas. Landed in a cornfield next to Rt. 30 and carried the glider to behind an industrial building just off of Rt. 30 for some wind shadow. A worker at the factory pulled up and offered me a ride back up to the mountain. He and his wife and two daughters were treated to a nice launch by Karen. They were impressed. Went back to retrieve the glider, then to the LZ to retrieve the two windsocks I had put in there in the early morning. Lots of happy pilots in the LZ talking about smooth magic air and multiple hours of airtime. We had 4 visitors from the Hyner club in that LZ group. Back to launch but Rt. 30 was closed due to a motorcycle/car collision at the bar. Took the roundabout way back to launch. Retrieved the two windsocks I installed at the bottom of the pad, and I joined Jesse and TR, two of the visiting Hyner pilots, at the bar for some beer and chow. The campfire lasted till 2AM. Fireworks were displayed. Crashed in the truck. Sun woke me up at 7A, and I hit the road at 8:30A. The forecast looked like it would be too strong for the Pulpit today. Some pics follow.

Bacil

[XCanytime]

The valley between Cove Mt. on the left and Tuscarora Mt. on the right.

Carlos drifting OTB with me.

Looking down Rt. 30 towards St. Thomas and Chambersburg.

[DanTuck]

Fantastic day Saturday. I believe we had 24 HG pilots and 1 PG pilot launch in total. I'm not even gonna try to name names. If you weren't there, you shoulda been. It was way strong on launch during the afternoon. I waited until sometime around 5:30 and then launched. I flew until I was tired and didn't want to miss a ride back up top. Airtime was 1:45. Of course, Rt. 30 was closed for an accident, could've flown another half hour. But that's quite alright, my tank is full. Hats off the both Bacil and Janni, for calling a perfect forecast and pushing through an awesome new launch pad, respectively. I didn't get to try out the new launch, North cross when I was up, but I will soon. I'd say the ad-hoc fly-in was a great success. Well done gentlemen. No video this time, just a couple panoramas. See ya next time.

[lbunner]

It was another excellent day at the Pulpit! I got a late start and didn't arrive at launch until 1030. I wanted to be ready to fly by then but just couldn't get it going. I had difficulties setting up and had to mess around with the glider a bit. It was honking at launch and a number of people were lamenting about the gust factor. Fortunately Dave P. chose to launch and had a smooth one and immediate climb out. I went next a little after 1 pm (way too late for my tastes) and climbed out to 3300' msl just working back and forth along the ridge. Dave and I connected and thermaled up to 4800' while drifting over the back. Dave decided to stay with it and I headed back to the front of the ridge looking for more altitude. Two wispies were forming out in front and soon I was climbing out at 600 fpm to 6000'+. Dave radioed that he was struggling low and may land. Remembering my last flight at the Pulpit where I lawn darted from 7000' I decided to be very cautious. Dave landed after a valiant effort. I passed over him sinking fast. I was down to 1900' before finally finding something consistent to turn in. Eventually I was back over 6000' and headed east on 30 toward a good line of clouds over the Michaux State Forest. It was an easy glide across, I actually gained 500' and once on the east side connected with another 600 footer to cloudbase at 7650'. I had visions of Cedar Bonnet, NJ (200 miles) a flight I have "flown" in Google Earth many times. The next several thermals I rode up to progressively lower heights. I was telling myself that I needed to fly faster to make the big miles which was a big mistake. The lift was softer past Gettysburg. I finally had to slow down and dig out just west of the York airport. I left the thermal at 6300' and flew straight to the ground 20 miles away. Sue was hot on my tail from the time I left the mountain and arrived at the field before I had the glider torn down. In retrospect, I should have launched at 1130, stuck with the last thermal to the top then picked a better line toward the SE. All in all a satisfying flight with a good landing. Ended up with 71 miles (five miles from home) in 2 1/2 hours. Was home by 4:30, mowed the lawn, weed eated, raked, plucked some weeds and blew all the clippings out of the yard in prep for a week at Highland. Would have liked to party with you all but hey the day was too good to pass up. I'll stick around next time.
P.S. The clouds were working over my house until 7 PM and had risen to well over 8000'.

[hepcat1989]

.

[Dan T]

Great pictures and posts! You guys are making me anxious to get home and rejoin you.

Larry, do you have to deal with any airspace issues on that route home?

Dan T
9 days left in Baghdad

[RedBaron]

How did the new pad work for those that were able to get a straight in one?

The new pad works great. Everybody had good launches and everybody went straight up, except for one PG pilot who apparently "lost" his brake or something. No signs of low level turbulence or clearance issues whatsoever. Also, the new pad seems to be more hassle-free in stonger air than the ramps. From now on I think I'll only launch from the ramps in marginal conditions. A big success, as was the entire Fly-In. Kudos to Bacil for making a good call, and kudos to both MHGA and CHGPA for making the funds available. I think we got our money's worth

[mcelrah]

Congratulations to Janni for pushing the new pad construction through and to all who contributed to a fine fly-in. It is my honor to report that Janni has agreed to accept the office of CHGPA president, even though he expects to return to Germany in a few months. This will have to be solemnized at the next meeting on 15 July, but I would like to begin profiting from Janni's energy and leadership in this role immediately. I will stay on until then in "emeritus" status to smooth the transition to the all-new Board of Directors, get us through the overdue USHPA chapter renewal, and break in Dan Tuck as the new treasurer when he moves back to the DC area late this month. Vice President David Churchill would be well-positioned to fleet up when Janni leaves - another infusion of energy to the club leadership.

Saturday, I had to wait until 1650 (4:50 PM) to launch from the new pad - with full wirecrew in the strong conditions. Immediately got in a nice fat thermal near the towers and monkey-see-monkey-do followed Matthew, climbing to 6000 as I drifted over the back in the thermal. Worked crosswind down 995 just for familiarity with the landmarks, found another thermal north of Upton - and enjoyed watching Matthew struggling below me for quite awhile (I know: one shouldn't have these feelings...). Crossed 81 north of Greencastle and landed on the south side of 16 beyond the big Grove factory for 18 miles and 55 minutes. Thanks to Rick Holz for picking me up, along with Matthew and Daniel.

Sunday - Sallie and I, Ellis, Peter Adams, Sheila,Bridget and all the dogs took a walk along the Tuscarora trail to the pipeline cut. When we got back I suggested to Ellis that it might be OK for launching paragliders, but she wasn't interested and suggested I set up my hang-glider. (Ellis had the first and only successful assisted PG launch from the new pad at sunset Saturday. She used speed bar to penetrate, then I saw her doing wingovers over the primary LZ...) Daniel launched first in a lull, but by the time I got up on the new pad it had already ramped up and there were no such lulls. With Peter, David Bodner, Dan Tuckwiler, and Mark Cavanaugh crewing, I got off in not much of a lull and caught a gust elevator up a hundred feet right above the pad. Daniel and I worked the ratty ridge lift/sink and the clouds were working, but I saw him dive away from a big dark one and I did too after a wire slap. He got right back up and took the cloud over the back, but reported afterward that it was turbulent under it, so he ended up landing near Upton. I stooged around on the ridge for an hour waiting for a prettier cloud (maybe I just got used to them), finally found one near launch and took it to 5500 as I drifted over the back. Repeated my 995 and 16 strategy - there did seem to be a good deal of north in the wind - found another thermal north of Upton and hopped from cumie to cumie till I was thermalling at 1000 or so over Waynesboro (constantly looking for suburban landing fields). I was blowing directly toward Emma Jane's but the thermals down low were shredded in the wind and I landed 2-3 miles short. 2 hours/24 miles per Google Earth. When I turned into the wind to land, I was just hovering down, pulled in to clear the fence (with plenty of altitude) to my chosen pasture near route 997 south of Waynesboro, and flew the control frame right to the ground. It was a struggle hauling the glider upwind to the road, where the homeowner kindly opened the fence so I could break down in mowed grass right beside the road. He and his wife were excited that I had flown from Cowan's Gap and offered me a hamburger because it made such a good story that I had just dropped in for a burger. Thanks to Daniel for coming to pick me up. Janni and Mark were still waiting for it to back down at 5 PM when we got back, but as far as I know it never did. PG pilot Dennis Drenner showed up to check out the site; we'll hook him up with the PG group.
- Hugh, president emeritus

[dbodner]

For second time recently, I opted to forego the mid-day winds and flew in the calmer evening air after launching from the new pad. I was rewarded with easy flying for as long as I cared to stay up. The only downside is that I barely broke 1000 above launch, so going OTB was out of the question. Generally, I hovered around 400 over. There was a fair amount of traffic to negotiate, which, I suppose, is a fairly happy problem.

I think the new pad is a success. We had some pretty heavy-duty and turbulent winds, but the pucker factor for wire crew remained low. There seemed to be less wing funkiness going on than would've been experienced on the ramps. The pad also seems to be able to handle slight crosses reasonably well, as long as you're not too far back. I did see one pilot get hammered by turbulent air as he launched. I'm sure he would've wanted a little more altitude as he left the pad, but it was never scary. The trees down below were never an issue.

[pink_albatross]

Pix from this weekend can be found in this album: http://picasaweb.google.com/pink.albatross/May2009#
there are also a zillion doggie pictures in there. Please ignore.
-- ellis

[lbunner]

Yeah Shawn (Stevie Ray) that was me! I scrambled from down low and it paid off. Dan T, no airspace worries until Philadelphia.

Ciao

[SheilaGardner]

What an absolutely fantastic weekend! It was wonderful seeing friends I haven't seen in awhile and also almost having a FiFi contingent! Karen and Ellis both flew while Christy and Rich showed up on their motorcycles to say hello. It was great catching up with all the DC-area folks as well as making new friends - - what a talented bunch! Also a nice surprise seeing people I haven’t seen in ages – Rick Holtz, Doug and his lovely wife from the Windriders, Jim Rowan and Lisa (his fiancee!), Jesse, Danny Brotto and of course all the DC-area folks.

Unfortunately the girls were sound asleep before the awesome fireworks display thanks to Mark Cavanaugh and fellow pyros The campfire comrarderie was wonderful as usual. Of course I totally had the flying-bug again (never really stops, actually) – my current goal is to fly at the High Rock fly-in but I need to sell my small Ultrasport and get a small Falcon or Sport 2 first, so we’ll see.

Anyway – great to see you all, congratulations on the awesome flights and kudos to all the hardwork that went into the new pad!

Sheila

p.s. – Oh! Almost forgot – those wheat pancakes cooked on the griddle Sunday morning were awesome!

[pink_albatross]

I ended up doing some imprompty camping. Thanks to Sallie and Hugh for supplying me with a sleeping bag and thanks to Dave Bodner for supplying all of us with coffee in the morning!

And very many thanks for everybody who helped me launch Saturday! With all you failsaves - the ones ready to jump on my PG in case it got blown back and the one who held on to my shoulder straps (I am so sorry I didn't catch your name!) in case I should get picked up. And thanks to Rich for the ride back up!

Ha, and many thanks to Janni for the nice new launch. My PG actually fits with plenty of room to spare on either side.

I think everybody ended up helping out everybody last weekend.

What a wonderful bunch of people we have in this club.
-- ellis (feeling sappy)

[SheilaGardner]

What an absolutely fantastic weekend! It was wonderful seeing friends I haven't seen in awhile and also almost having a FiFi contingent! Karen and Ellis both flew while Christy and Rich showed up on their motorcycles to say hello. It was great catching up with all the DC-area folks as well as making new friends - - what a talented bunch! Also a nice surprise seeing people I haven’t seen in ages – Rick Holtz, Doug and his lovely wife from the Windriders, Jim Rowan and Lisa (his fiancee!), Jesse, Danny Brotto and of course all the DC-area folks.

Unfortunately the girls were sound asleep before the awesome fireworks display thanks to Mark Cavanaugh and fellow pyros The campfire comrarderie was wonderful as usual. Of course I totally had the flying-bug again (never really stops, actually) – my current goal is to fly at the High Rock fly-in but I need to sell my small Ultrasport and get a small Falcon or Sport 2 first, so we’ll see.

Anyway – great to see you all, congratulations on the awesome flights and kudos to all the hardwork that went into the new pad!

Sheila

p.s. – Oh! Almost forgot – those wheat pancakes cooked on the griddle Sunday morning were awesome!