High Rock Fly-in: Sept 26-27 : POSTPONED : now Oct 3-4

[Matthew]

Just got a call from Brian-- he says it's Brain Dead Soarable at the Rock right now. 10am.

Matthew

[bustedwing2]

Nasty looking dark sky everhead at the moment,came up about 15-20 minutes ago,turbulent air,lots of rotor at my house,it's heading toward the Rock. RichB

[bustedwing2]

The wind settled down,must have been a gust front,lot of blue sky to the south now,still overcast overhead and to the north,Bedford,Hagerstown.Chambersbutg,and altoona soundings all show between 275 and 285 at 13 to 17,radar is not showing the overcast in McConnellsburg,it is showing stuff towards Harrisburg. RichB

[XCanytime]

There is carpet on the pad at the Pulpit, delivered by yours truly this morning at 9:30A. Already soarable and strong. Got in the air during a throttleback at 11A with the help of two birders Bob and Alex. Got 1:45 and 800' over in a sky that showed no good lift from north of launch to south of launch. Down by The Corner a nice line of cumies developed, but it was SW on the ridge and the ridge curves to the NW down to The Corner. Did not want to land out down there. Had a nice landing in the main LZ and climbed the mountain up the gas line clear cut, then linked up with the Tuscarora Trail to launch. Took 1:15 for the trip. Before I headed up Krzyztof launched with the help of some hikers and got up. I ran into the hikers on the trail as I headed to launch. They were going to be picked up at Rt. 16. He got 1400' over and went OTB to LeMasters. Stopped by Smithsburg on the way back and saw 4 gliders in the air at HIgh Rock at 4:45P.

Bacil

[XCanytime]

I fear the Pulpit is going to be blown out and high rock will almost certainly need ropes and a full crew. Woodstock looks to be in the sweet spot today.

Dan T

The pad was not just implemented for the paragliders' benefit, but also for the hang gliders' benefit. In my opinion, it opens up a window of flying in fresh conditions that did not exist before. Solid ground handling skills and launch skills are a must.

Bacil

[mcelrah]

Brian, Mark, Dan Tuckwiler, Dave Bodner, David Churchill, and I met in the HR LZ SATURDAY evening for drinks and dinner. Wind was still SW else we would have considered a full moonlight flight. (Note: need to allow a car to be gated in and use it to shuttle gliders up. Enjoyed Mark's lighted Frisbee, throttled back on the alcohol in order to rise early for flying before the wind got too strong. Strange animal made odd noises in the night; Brian rose and pegged cans of Coors Lite ("ya mean Coors regular ain't already lite?") at it.

Bodner prepared excellent perked coffee and pancakes. Mark and I went up to investigate wind at 0930. STFI @ 10-12 but rising. Called for reinforcements. Brian Dave B. and Dan launched us at around 1030. All will attest that Cavanaugh said something about landing after an hour to help the others launch. There was distinct west cross and with 3/4 VG on my U2 160 I was sometimes penetrating at single-digit speed (like when a thermal was sucking me back). Couple of sailplanes were at the top of the stack back by the towers. I got to 1800 above launch in lines of lift under clouds upwind, went out toward route 65 north from Smithsburg to Waynesboro in order to get down. Wind was still strong west at 1000 over the LZ. Landing required S-turns oriented toward the wind (90 degrees cross to the long axis of the field). The trees were throwing up lift. Pronounced gradient once below the tree-line. Cavanaugh flew for 4 1/2 hours (we had plenty of wirecrew). Dan Tomlinson showed up on his motorcycle just to help. Jim Rooney showed up on his way back from a family wedding.

Bodner got up on the block at mid-afternoon, but it was just too gnarly to launch, so he backed down after a 20 minute trial. Late arrivals included Matthew, Karen, Glenn, Greg the Greek, Peter Adams and Janice. There were lots of wuffos; Brian was feeling teeny-bopper suck to attempt a launch.

Brian, Dan Tuck, Dan Tomlinson, Rooney and I rediscovered the "Low Rock" pizza joint down at Fort Richey for a late lunch.

Around four, Matthew started the launch train and everybody flew (including Dave B.). I took a second flight in the Sport 2 and Brian flew his Ralph Sickinger memorial Falcon.

There was a short apres-vol party with veggie burgers, salmon burgers, cake and fruit. Carlos had cut short his flying at Woodstock to drive all the way to High Rock for the party - now there's loyalty!

Emma Jane remarked that the donations were going to pay taxes, so thanks to all who showed up.

The concrete structure at High Rock is showing a good deal of erosion under the concrete cap on at least three sides. The first stairstep is pretty unmanageable with the surrounding surface so much lower. Several feet of the cap on the back side have disappeared (wuffos probably throw the chunks off as they come loose). Glenn seems amenable to providing technical consultancy about how to effect a repair (build forms and pour in concrete with a significant admixture of aggregate?). Someone needs to follow up with him on the phone (he does not do internet) and we need to assemble a work party - he should only be the supervisor and we should provide the unskilled labor. The received wisdom appears to be that we could do this repair without getting formal permission from Washington County - they might be upset with us if we just let the structure deteriorate - but a courtesy call to the director of public works, parks and planning would be in order (maybe they could provide some help, machinery...). Need to get this done before it gets too cold for concrete to set - another winter's freeze/thaw cycling will make the job a lot harder...

- Hugh

[brianvh]

amazing air for the evening flights. I wish John Harper (who also showed up on saturday night) had stuck around for saturday, but that's a long drive home for him. I stopped at Shawn McDuff's for an overnight myself. It was good to sit around a fire and swap stories and beer induced fantasies.

Emma Jane says flights at the Rock have dropped off considerably the last two years. I know we have a great new launch at the Pulpit to play with, but remember that the Carbaughs depend on us financially to make ends meet. Also, the newer pilots may not know that she literally credits the hang gliding community with saving her life. She went into deep depression after her first son died in the mid 70's, and what finally brought her out of it was when she looked out her window and saw a strange contraption fly overhead. After nearly a year of avoiding even her friends, THAT pulled her out to go talk to someone. It was Jerry Lanham on the first flight off the rock, followed by a huge hippie community of pilots (rolling joints on her kitchen table, throwing sleeping bags on her living room floor when it rained). It was that community that revived her and keeps her going. Remember to stop by and lend not only your flying donations but your time to sit and talk. She misses everyone terribly.

[dbodner]

It was a great weekend after a tough week. I got nothing done that I planned to: read my book, get a haircut, trim my beard. But I had a lot fun. Add Mike Lee to the list of those making a cameo. He showed up early in the afternoon on a motorcycle.

I think some of us (me) are out of cliff-launch practice. But, I got off on my second attempt and had a great flight. Even my radio worked; I was so happy. 1:32 and 1,633 over. I was ready to land after an hour but took a good 20 minutes to lose altitude over the LZ.

I hated leaving Sunday evening. I wanted to stick around for another round-the-campfire bullshit session. But, I was getting sleepy. Fortunately, the morning's coffee was still hot in the thermos.

Just to add fuel to the ad-hoc versus scheduled fly-in debate, Emma Jane thinks this year's ad-hoc fly-in reduced our attendance. She may or may not be right, but there it is.

[Matthew]

Next year is the High Rock 35th. I propose we start planning now for a big CATERED bash-- third weekend of September with a rain date of following weekend.

Matthew

[bustedwing2]

I second that motion. RichB

[davidtheamazing1]

Why not do it earlier in the summer when we have more light?

[mcelrah]

Hey, David, I am trying to move the discussion of the High Rock structure needing repair to the BoDplus list, but since I changed to gmail, I may not be able to post there anymore. Could you introduce it? - Hugh

[brianvh]

I wouldn't call this fly-in 'ad-hoc' so much as initially cancelled, then Dave/CHGHPA stepped in to do a potluck which was postponed due to rain. Setting the party for saturday night rather than sunday after the initial postponement would have helped, but it would still have been smaller than normal. Given the sudden reshuffle the potluck idea was the best that could be done, and kudos to Dave and company for stepping up to the plate. I might suggest doing another potluck party with donations when the ramp is worked on to help shore up the finances a bit.

[Matthew]

It's still light outside till at least 8pm the third weekend of September. If we do it mid-summer and a lot of people fly late in the day, then they are still breaking down thier gliders at 9+pm and not eating till close to ten PM.

Plus, camping when it's hot and humid is no fun.

Matthew

[dbodner]

Plus, camping when it's hot and humid is no fun.

Matthew

Oh, yeah? How would you know?

Actually, I agree. Rich and MHGA may want the HR fly-in back. And Rich definitely didn't want to do it in the heat of Summer.

I, too, want to toss kudos to David C. for taking the lead on this year's fly-in. He stepped forward and made the hard decisions that needed to be made.

[markc]

I did tell Dan Tuck that I would fly for an hour and then head back to launch
for a "we need crew" signal. Just a wave from the cube, and I'd put it down to
help the other early-AM pilots. Honest, I swear!

Ok, so maybe the hour mark was more like 1:15.... Then I had to get back down to
launch, even though the lift was simply RIDICULOUS! I'm diving, coring sink,
stalling, spinning. Best I could get down to was about 300' over (for, like,
10 seconds!). But no Dan (I'm looking for the shades and the gray jacket). I yell
down.... Probably just made a couple of bikers and spectators look up and go "Huh?" .

So I gave up for a while, but still hung around launch, cycling in and out of the
valley. Finally got lower and saw pilot-types in the area, including Dan. Asked
again if crew was needed, but got a "no", crossed-arms indicator.

Phew! I can stop fighting and go back up again!! Thank God!

The lift was outrageous, everywhere you flew. I think I was in the air for 4:20,
topping out (and running away) from one dark cloud at 3800' over. Broke 3k over
several times, and during one climb was watching the averager go through 600, 700,
800 fpm. Instantaneous lift was better than 1200' fpm up, completely sweet.

Flew with the sailplanes early in the flight. Chased after a turkey vulture for
a while (and man was he pissed!). Topped out in one thermal, looked up, and there's
a hawk above me. Flew out into the valley a bunch of times, strafed launch,
threw the glider around (for me that is) to give the wuffos on launch a show...
What a fun flight!

And I was completely EXHAUSTED on landing. Very sporty in the LZ, with strong West
cross dumping off the treeline. Ran a standard approach, above the gap in the trees,
turned onto final, and got dumped pretty hard as I flew down the field and into
the wind shadow of the trees. I knew that the west cross was going to make it tricky
coming around onto final ("Come on, bring it on!!"), and I handled that part pretty
well. But the magnitude of the gradient caught me by surprise (when it shouldn't
have!). If I'd been flying XC I would have selected a WAY better field than the
primary.

Recovered from the dive, got upright, and my feet under me. Barely had the energy
to run a couple of steps, and the basetube touched. But I'm not complaining too much.

(If I had it to do over again, I would have set up back behind the end of the LZ and
then burned it in on a very long final, to avoid the base-onto-final turn which takes
you into the treeline windshadow at a poor moment on a strong West day.)

After some coffee (thanks Dave!) and a snack in the LZ, I put a beer in my back
pocket, my ear buds in, and hiked up to launch. Once up top, conditions had improved
and I helped crew for seven launches. It was braindead soarable, and we were in
assembly-line mode Felt a little like the old days for a while....

If there was any downside it was the turn-out. High Rock hasn't been flown very much
in the past two years, and Emma-Jane was definitely disappointed.

I know that pilots were at multiple sites yesterday... If you also fly The Rock, you
might want to consider sending a donation to the Carbaughs, in recognition of the
many years of support that they've given us.

Monday was a two-syllable day at work: Me fly! Long time! I happy! Back sore!
Me tired! Go away!



MarkC

[DanTuck]

Thanks to all who made it out to the Fly In despite the so-so forecast. It turned out to be a great day!
We actually had talked about getting up early and going to the Pulpit and attempting to truly Fly-In to High Rock for the party.
But I ended up oversleeping and deciding it would probably be blown out there by 10:00. However, as we still sat in the High Rock LZ in the morning undecided, the wind was still SW, even S. But Mark and Hugh checked launch anyway.
We thought they were messing with us when the report was "brain dead soarable". It was true! Sweet! But I also knew that the ramp up was happening sooner than we thought so we'd better get on launch.
By the time Mark and Hugh were ready to launch, it had already ramped up and 3-man wire crew was a must.
Actually, Mark did mention that he'd fly by launch and I could give him a signal whether it was even launchable for us.
Now that I think of it, I do remember hearing Mark yell something when I was over by the gliders. hahaha. But later I did give him the "hell no, I ain't launching in this so keep right on flying, buddy" wave.
Anyways, things started to ease up a little and everyone launched, everyone soared. I got to 2,000' over a bunch of times but kept drifting over the towers and having to leave thermals.
And for the first time it was actually hard to get down! I seriously thought you all were just rubbing it in when you'd tell me about this after I had sledded. It was kind of neat but tiring!
Still high on the approach but it was very hard trying to set it up with that much lift so low to the ground. I still got it down and hit the flare. And an hour and forty minutes helped me get a lot more in tune with the glider.
I'm getting there. Here's some footage from the flight -