Flying 7/18-19

[silverwings]

What do you all think about flying this weekend?

[markc]

I've got things that need doing on Saturday, but Sunday July 19th is looking
possible for me. Current 'cast is calling for W@5-10 at the Pulpit, which
is pretty ideal if the usual "add 10mph for the Pulpit" rule holds that day.

MarkC

[tdilisio]

I think that's a fantastic Idea. .... count me in.

What site is looking good? WS prediction looks a little on the light side... Pulpit? Time?

[mcelrah]

Since Sallie is in WVA on the FiFi (+ Carlos) PG training weekend (with my PG), she made me promise to be home for dinner with our son, who is returning from Scout camp. So I will go to Ridgely today (Saturday), get the right-length hang-strap on the Sport 2, and stay local. Got the duty at the sailplane club tomorrow, then 3 days of sailplane training at Front Royal. "Days spent at the airport are not subtracted from your lifespan." - Hugh

[Matthew]

Count us in for Sunday. No TFR and lighter winds. It's already blowing here in Tacky Park at 8:30am Sat morning.

Matthew

[silverwings]

I think Ridgely on Sunday is the place to be.

[mcelrah]

It was pretty windy at Ridgely Saturday. A singles group took 17 tandems (!). Good for the Highland crew, since they apparently did not have a good June. I took three tows, had a 1400 foot climb on the second one. Lift was elusive on the first and third. Spent a lot of time reaching upwind to stay at the airport. Ratty in the pattern on the first return. Left early - maybe there was a glass-off... - Hugh

[silverwings]

Forecast looks more favorable for Sunday. That probably where I will go. Not really teachable on Sunday according to the forecasts.

[markc]

Hmmm.... They've backed the Pulpit forecast back to 5mph (surface)
and the hourly is showing WSW and SW for the afternoon... OTOH,
forecast high is 76 and the dewpoint spread is nearly 30 degrees. Hmm.

MarkC

[Matthew]

Pulpit or Ridgely?


Matthew

[markc]

Yeah, tough call... I've got this gut feeling that says the Pulpit could
be good, but the light 'cast is holding me back a bit. *Usually* it blows
5-10 harder up at the top, except when it doesn't.

MarkC

[carweill]

Heading to Ridgely. (Janni already on the way)

High cloud base L&V dry.

Carlos

[markc]

I guess I'll follow the herd.... Latest surf obs show pretty convincing SW on its
way to the Pulpit, and I just don't want to gamble _quite_ that much. See you
at Highland!

MarkC

[RedBaron]

Ridgely was kick ass. Kick ass tow, kick ass climb, kick ass sink and kick ass cloud suck. With the SW drift being stronger than anticipated I abandoned my plan to fly to the beach and went N instead. Had to jump a street to avoid Dover airspace just to find myself en route with a nuclear power plant. Convergence building up on either side of the Eastern shore with a big massive blue hole in between. I was riding it for as long as I could (I was above cloudbase at 5300' for 5 miles without ever turning) but decided not to fly over the plant, which broke my heart since it looked really sweet that way. Struck out into the blue flying the ground, which gave me another two good climbs before I had to put it down at Townsend. Picked a good field but got the wind direction wrong. Landed with cross/slight tail and flared so soon that I zoomed up at least 8 feet. Both legs gave right away when I came down with the glider still vertical. Sprained the big toe of my right foot for my first HG-related injury, yeh!

My personal best Ridgely flight. 31 miles straight line.

Hey Bacil, look at what you're missing out on. Jeez, give towing a chance you misguided ideologist , flying the Eastern shore rules!

[Matthew]

Good job Janni. John Simon went 18 miles. So does this mean that you'll stop whining about how a region 9 XC comp would be unfair because of pilots like John Simon?

We had a very pleasant day at Ridgely. I didn't bring my glider becasue I wanted to get home early on a Sunday night for a change. I can set my glider up in about 35 minutes in he mountains. For some reason it takes two f-ing hours to get ready at Ridgely. I can't figure out why. Anyway, David Rice very kindly lent me his Falcon after he had a couple of pattern tows and a 45 minute flight. I broke a weak link at 1500' and then got vacuumed to the ground. I rented the Sport 2 for my second flight and got 1:40 and 5K. Karen also flew for about an hour and a half. We both had trouble getting down. I think everyone had good soaring flights-- Mark C., John Dullahan, John M., Heather Simon, Bob, KIrk and Carlos (though it took him four tries). The tandems were also soaring together. Got home at 7:45 even dealing with returning beach traffic. We found a good sneak around to get out of most of the traffic. Give me a holler if you want the beta.

Matthew

[KirkLewis]

I had my longest flight ever... 2hrs 40 min =P It was a lot of fun, at times it was similar to the convergence flight I had. I spent a lot of time at cloud base, got to 5800. It was chilly. The clouds did some interesting things at times with columns of mist. I did some wingovers and flew with lots of people. Got a cool shot of Bob (crew Bob) as we flew through a break in the clouds and he went on glide for an XC flight. I'm figuring out the video editing software so I don't have anything to post yet.

[Paul Tjaden]

Hey Janni,

I flew a similar track many years ago and had what I considered my first flight to the beach although it was the Delaware Bay instead of the Atlantic but it was still a bunch of water. Matthew had been following me and went down a few miles earlier so they picked me up. The Nuc plant you are talking about is on the other side of the bay at a pretty wide place. Also, there are no decent LZ's for many miles beyond it. As far as I know, Ric Niehaus is the only HG pilot to have crossed the bay. He said he flew right over the cooling towers and looked down into them. You'd probably get a visit from an F-15 if you did that today.

Paul

[drice21037]

I had a great day on Sunday. It had been a while since I'd flown so Sonny recommended a check flight in the morning. He said, "Take me to 1,500 feet and bring me back down without scaring me and you'll be good to go." I figured I was home free; Sonny doesn't seem like a guy that scares easily.

The tandem went well and Sonny was only mildly unnerved so I took two solo pattern tows after that. Then, after a bit of a rest, I took a full tow a little after noon. The tow was a bit active so I was hoping to find lift immediately. Instead I was back to 1,500 and headed to the airport. Then I saw a bird far beneath me so I headed in that direction and found some broken lift that I took to 3,000. Boated around with Adam in the tandem for a while and stretched the flight out to about 45 minutes.

Not bad for the first day back!

It was great to see everybody again.

[RedBaron]

Great job Dave and welcome back!

So does this mean that you'll stop whining about how a region 9 XC comp would be unfair because of pilots like John Simon?

No. I would have flown 5 miles going in that direction.