Pulpit Sunday 11/15

[XCanytime]

Looks like paraglider heaven conditions. I hope enough for HGer's soaring too. Bacil

[DanTuck]

Yup. hoping.....

[markc]

Light winds forecast by ADDS at 3k.... Though with a bit of an increase
at the end of the day, so it might the type of day to run shuttles and make
sure there are enough vehicles in the LZ for second flights.

Also considering Highland, where the 'cast is NW@5-10 .

MarkC

[CraginS]

I'm out of town the next three weekends for family visits, so I hope everyone has fun with lots of flying. Sorry I cannot join you.

Re: Highland - not firm, but last Sunday Sunny told me this coming weekend may be their last for the season.

[Matthew]

Up for flying either site-- worried that Highland may be a swamp after all of the rain.

Matthew

[CraginS]

Up for flying either site-- worried that Highland may be a swamp after all of the rain.

Matthew

Heck, Matthew, last Sunday part of the entertainment was watching to see whether pilots landed in wet or dry spots, and if in the wet, how big the splash was. I succeeded in staying dry. There were a couple of most entertaining splashes.

[markc]

I'm seeing surface casts of NW@5 for the Pulpit, NW@5-10 for High Rock,
and NNW@10 for Highland.

Place yer bets!

Dan and I *did* notice that the Pulpit ridge was sunny as of about 3:30pm
on Saturday, so there might be a bit more drying-out up there, over night.

Maybe try the Pulpit early, and then bail to High Rock if things seem too light?

MarkC

[carweill]

It'll be one of three.

The morning will decide

Carlos

[pnadams]

I just looked at XC Skies (12:30 AM).

Around McConnelsburg it shows the 2000ft winds NW and increasing through the day 10kt at 9AM, 12kt at noon, 16 at 3PM. Cloud cover is around 30% early in the day increasing to 50% by 3PM, all high level stuff.

Ridgely looks like 40-50% cloud cover all day with about 2kt higher winds aloft.

High Rock and Woodstock have the least cloud cover, but light winds aloft (4-8kt at 2000ft) around Woodstock.

Peter

[tdilisio]

Well... heading to highland. Please call me if someone finds out they are not flying today. Will redirect to wherever the crowd is.

[Matthew]

PULPIT PULPIT PULPIT!!!!

Goin' to the PULPIT!

Matthew

[mcelrah]

Headed to Ridgely. ETA 1130. - Hugh

[markc]

I'm heading to the Pulpit: Slight increase in two forecasts, and the
location of the High to the SW, made up my mind for me.

MarkC

[John Dullahan]

9:10 am. Heading for Ridgely.

John D.

[carweill]

Will try the wet lands

Heading to Highland

Carlos

[DanTuck]

Heading to Pulpit. ETA - 11:30

[tomceunen]

Bwaah, H pressure messed us up. Some PG finally flew Dickey's Ridge for a while. Nice and good thermals, small but along the whole ridge. At 4PM all shut down, winter is coming!
Cheers
Tom

[tdilisio]

Went to Highland with about 6 other HG pilots, 2 that I knew were Hugh Mc and John Dullahan. I did 3 tows. The first one was the worst... lots of PIO. Too embarrassed to post a video. Control improved with each successive tow, although far from flawless. Looking forward to next season and working on that. The day was pretty much tow up, and sled down. The wind was almost straight down the runway and smooth.. probably 4-8mph. I managed to find a few light thermals over the trees east of the hangars for an extendo. Most landings that I witnessed were in the dry spots, as were mine. How was the Pulpit???

[Matthew]

PULPIT WAS AWESOME!!!!

Soarable all day long-- for Hangies-- never backed off enough to launch PGs.

I got 2:15 and 1100 over. Cavanaugh got higher and flew an hour longer. Karen flew 2 hours and kicked our asses with 1700 over while me, Carlos and Cavanaugh struggled to get to 1 k over in the same thermal. It went magic at the end of the day so Mark led the way for a ridge run to the south and back. Gregg Sessa and New Dan T. each got about 1:45. Louis soared and Carlos scored two hours. Everyone but Mark launched from the new pad. I launched Louis with just me as wire crew and it was a piece of cake-- even though conditions were strong.

Bacil came out to go on a hike with his wife-- sans glider. Ellis also went for a hike with her dogs in hopes it would back off enough to launch the bag. They returned from the hike just as I finished setting up. So Big thanks to Ellis and Bacil for helping me launch.

It was warm and clear and, well, AWESOME.

Matthew

[mcelrah]

Joe Gregor was also at Highland flying his Talon in the breeze which contained no lift, however. I took a couple of tows in the Sport 2, but the main event was a lesson in the Decathlon with George Boudreau. Much easier to land than the Husky. He gave me well more than an hour (thanks!). At the end, I did three loops! - Hugh

[DanTuck]

Pulpit was great! I got 1,200' over and about 1:30. There were red tailed hawks all over the place, very cool. Shared a thermal with one and shared a thermal with Mark! I got some good video I think. I'll watch it tomorrow and post something.

[markc]

Oh yeah, today was definitely good! Though there was a moment after cresting the first ridge west
of Frederick MD, when I went.... "Oh no! Glider sucking fog! No sun, light winds, nooo...oooo...oooo!"

(It was quite the fogbank, and I had visions of the valley at launch being completely socked in until
early afternoon.)

But as luck would have it, launch and the valley in front were in bright sun when I pulled up at 10:45am.
Big sigh of relief, and then I started hustling to set up. Greg S arrived not long after me, and then Ellis,
Dan Tk, Carlos, Luis, Matthew and Karen, and Bacil. So it was a good turnout!

Greg and I ran a shuttle and dropped some streamers, then headed back up top where first he, then
myself, then Dan were the first off. I probably got in the air around 1:30 or so, and found the conditions
to be pretty challenging initially. Seemed like you needed a combination of aggressive crank-n-bank,
and slow-and-easy conservative, within the same thermal.

After floundering for a while I finally started getting some cores, topping out at 1700' over three times.
We were really hoping to team-fly and bring some pilots OTB for the first time, but we were never all
in the right place at the right time.

I strafed launch, soared above the bikers at the Mountain House, and then headed south late in the day.
A few pics of my flight are attached below; wish I'd been able to take more of the other pilots, but
we were gaggling pretty close at times, not the best time to be free-handing a camera.

Dan, Greg and I enjoyed a brew back up top and watched the last of the fading sunset color. It was
still totally soarable. Then on to Casa Rico in Frederick for dinner with Karen, Matthew, Luis, Ellis,
and Carlos. Great (though long!) day, really glad I flew.

MarkC

[g.sessa]

Great day of flying at the Pulpit! As Mark stated, the day started with a nervous drive up due to the fog, but surprisingly upon arrival, the conditions were ideal for launch. I launched first and had a good launch from the new pad. I did, however, catch a good punch right away that lifted my right wing just after take off. I was able to recover but took this to mean I might be in for a rough flight. I caught the escalator up while moving down the ridge closer to the primary and the feelings of having a rough flight quickly subsided.

The coolest part of the flight happened after about 10 minutes when I managed to sneak up beside a soaring hawk. I actually thought at one point the hawk was going to hit my hang glider as it drifted closer and closer. I was hoping my camera caught this, but it was just above the angle of sight. I don’t think the hawk realized how close it was to my hang glider until it was maybe 10 feet away and it looked over. I think I startled the hawk! At this point it seemed to panic and immediately demonstrated its ability to respond and dive quickly. I, of course, could not follow, but I did catch the diving bird right in front of me on my camera.

The rest of the flight I spent fighting for altitude. Although, I did manage to stay up for an hour and 45 minutes, I had 3 or 4 times I strongly considered heading in to land. Fortunately I found lift each time and recovered. I was able to reach a 1000 over at one point, but this was short lived. Most of the flight was spent only a few hundred over.

Overall, it was a great day! Congratulations to Mark and Karen for topping out the highest for the day! Also, thanks Matthew and Karen for agreeing to observe me for the day!! I really appreciate your help! And thank you Carlos for providing us with a lift back up top!

[silverwings]

Smithsburg report:
Rich Hays with 5 students, me with 3, Matt Wilkens and Ward were in attendance expecting good conditions with the forecast. Well they were wrong, it was light, cross, calm and down during the day with no cycles up the hill. Rich's students basically did running and ground handling. My students got to fly when it was calm or light cross and all did fine for the conditions. Matt did 4 flights and I did one. Around 4:00 it stayed consistently light down so we called it quits. It's surprising to read the Pulpit was good.

[Matthew]

Hi John,

The same thing happened to us a few years ago when Karen first got her Sport 2. We were at Smithsburg and it was light and cross from the south whenever there was any wind. Danny Brotto and couple of others were there too. Karen got in a few flights on the Sport 2 and then it just shut down. We thought about continuing onto the Pulpit but figured it would be a waste of time. Cavanaugh and Joe Brauch were there-- we tried calling and got no answer. That's because they were flying their asses off all day.

So it seems that sometimes the wind makes it the Pulpit and then just stops-- go figure.

Matthew