Sunday Woodstock

[John Dullahan]

I am indebted to Marc F., Kelvin, and Gary Smith for assistance in preflight checks and wire-crew feedback. The west cross and thermal activity resulted in streamers pointing all over the place. Although I waited until there appeared to be a generally-favorable streamer majority, a wing dropped and touched the ground during my run, and the air did not provide the usual lift, making for a lower then usual tree clearance leaving the slot.

Once clear of the slot, there was ample lift, and the quartering tailwind from the west cross allowed a rapid flight towards the north point. Bacil, who was about 2,000 over when I launched, also headed north. Pushing out in lift and speeding up during sink provided a 2500 gain at the north point, but when I turned around, the strong left cross made it look like I wasn't moving. Only the GPS provided some encouragement, with a 12 - 15 MPH indicated ground speed. However, that was with about 2/3 VG and fairly substantial pull-in. While flying at about 3,000 over launch, I noticed Bacil, flying at about 500 over in his lower-performing Eagle, actually pull ahead; indicating the winds aloft were much stronger. Dan T. had launched by this time, and made impressive altitude gains.

It was a slow flight back to launch, and on to the Edinburg Gap, where I arrived with about 1,000 over launch. I headed towards the large field to the nw of the gap (the bailout if I didn't gain altitude) and although I was continuing to make slow headway, I did not encounter major sink and arrived at Short Mountain at about 100 over that ridge. Lift was not abundant at that point, so when I found some, I did the first figure eights of the flight and gained about 500 over SM; enough to continue towards the sw point, climbing as I went.

With 3,500 MSL, I made the jump back to Kerns Mountain, and maintained between 2,800 to 4,000 MSL to Newmarket Gap, where the jump was slow but uneventful, though my ground speed had increased to 22 - 25 MPH. I did lose some altitude just before Laird's Knob, the last gap before Massanutten Peak, and as I lost more while crossing, I started looking for bailout fields. However, just before I was going to bail out, I climbed again, all the way up to 3,000 MSL at the Peak. I saw a small town the to the sw in the distance, and some promising clouds on the way, so I headed that way. My ground speed increased to 27- 30 MPH; still much slower than going downwind, but the clouds were working, I made the first 360's of the flight, and eventually I arrived over the small town with about 3,500 MSL (the GPS said it was Grottoes). I had been flying fast against a quartering headwind for about 3 hrs 30 minutes, and was starting to get a little tired, so I landed in a large field just to the north of town for 56 miles (from the North Point), and a flight of 3 hours 42 minutes.

I am indebted to Jody Bodner, who graciously passed my location to Bacil, and also to Bacil, for finding my spare keys and making the long retrieve.
John Dullahan

[mcelrah]

Congratulations, John, on a great flight with lots of challenges.
Cheers - Hugh

On 30 May 2005, at 21:42, John Dullahan wrote:

> I am indebted to Marc F., Kelvin, and Gary Smith for assistance in
> preflight checks and wire-crew feedback. The west cross and thermal
> activity resulted in streamers pointing all over the place. Although I
> waited until there appeared to be a generally-favorable streamer
> majority, a wing dropped and touched the ground during my run, and the
> air did not provide the usual lift, making for a lower then usual tree
> clearance leaving the slot.
>
> Once clear of the slot, there was ample lift, and the quartering
> tailwind from the west cross allowed a rapid flight towards the north
> point. Bacil, who was about 2,000 over when I launched, also headed
> north. Pushing out in lift and speeding up during sink provided a 2500
> gain at the north point, but when I turned around, the strong left
> cross made it look like I wasn't moving. Only the GPS provided some
> encouragement, with a 12 - 15 MPH indicated ground speed. However,
> that was with about 2/3 VG and fairly substantial pull-in. While
> flying at about 3,000 over launch, I noticed Bacil, flying at about
> 500 over in his lower-performing Eagle, actually pull ahead;
> indicating the winds aloft were much stronger. Dan T. had launched by
> this time, and made impressive altitude gains.
>
> It was a slow flight back to launch, and on to the Edinburg Gap,
> where I arrived with about 1,000 over launch. I headed towards the
> large field to the nw of the gap (the bailout if I didn't gain
> altitude) and although I was continuing to make slow headway, I did
> not encounter major sink and arrived at Short Mountain at about 100
> over that ridge. Lift was not abundant at that point, so when I found
> some, I did the first figure eights of the flight and gained about 500
> over SM; enough to continue towards the sw point, climbing as I went.
>
> With 3,500 MSL, I made the jump back to Kerns Mountain, and
> maintained between 2,800 to 4,000 MSL to Newmarket Gap, where the jump
> was slow but uneventful, though my ground speed had increased to 22 -
> 25 MPH. I did lose some altitude just before Laird's Knob, the last
> gap before Massanutten Peak, and as I lost more while crossing, I
> started looking for bailout fields. However, just before I was going
> to bail out, I climbed again, all the way up to 3,000 MSL at the Peak.
> I saw a small town the to the sw in the distance, and some promising
> clouds on the way, so I headed that way. My ground speed increased to
> 27- 30 MPH; still much slower than going downwind, but the clouds were
> working, I made the first 360's of the flight, and eventually I
> arrived over the small town with about 3,500 MSL (the GPS said it was
> Grottoes). I had been flying fast against a quartering headwind for
> about 3 hrs 30 minutes, and was starting to get a little tired, so I
> landed in a large field just to the north of town for 56 miles (from
> the North Point), and a flight of 3 hours 42 minutes.
>
> I am indebted to Jody Bodner, who graciously passed my location to
> Bacil, and also to Bacil, for finding my spare keys and making the
> long retrieve.
> John Dullahan
>
>
>
> John Dullahan
>
>
>

[randyweber7]

On Saturday I managed to squeeze in an evening flight at Woodstock
after the winds shifted. I launched at 6:30 pm. Everthing shut down
around 7:00pm. I had family obligations for the next two days so I was
grateful for the flight. However, upon landing I found that one of my
apparently useless, but cool looking, winglets had disappeared. I
searched the lz and did not find it. Remembering Gary Smith's amazing
story (finding his winglet a year later, after seeing it on a video
shot from the air) if anybody finds a stray winglet in the Woodstock
area let me know.


Thanks,

Randy Weber