Sat 04/10 : Woodstock or Pulpit?

[markc]

Been looking at the 'casts, and I'm leaning towards an early-ish day at Woodstock
on Saturday, based on what I'm seeing now. What are others thinking?

MarkC

[DanTuck]

Agreed on the early day at Woodstock. I think Bacil and Gary plan to get there before 9:30A. Of course 9:30A is flat out early, no -ish about it. I'm gonna shoot for the same. Give me a call if you want to meet in the LZ or something.

[carweill]

What about Pulpit?
It doesn't look too strong there. Woodstock could be too light. At least right now.
Tomorrow could change some

Carlos

[Danny Brotto]

Too light at WS? Too strong at Pulpit? HR just right... ahhh.

Danny Brotto

[Luis]

so where are you going guys?

i am ready to go

[markc]

Hmmmm.... The Pulpit forecast has been backed down. I guess that the models
are thinking that the Low in the NE is going to move on out at a good clip.

Race down to Woodstock and hope that you don't miss out on the last NW puffs,
or mosy up to Pulpit and hope that the winds back off as predicted. Hmmmm....

Leaning towards the Pulpit now... WIll load up the truck and then take another
look at things.

MarkC

[Luis]

Ok

[markc]

I think I'm going to gamble on the winds backing-off at the Pulpit
by the afternoon.

The latest readings at Altoona and Johnstown don't show any gust
factor (they did at 7:00).

MarkC

[POLISH EAGLE]

I agree with Mark so I will be going to Pulpit. If it is going to be to strong at the Pulpit we can bail out to High Rock. Krzysztof.

[Matthew]

Following the lemmings to Pulpit--- ETA noon-thirty.

Matthew

[carweill]

Pulpit it is !

Carlos

[DanTuck]

The early birds showed up at Woodstock starting around 9:45 under cobalt blue skies and straight in soarable conditions. The faithful included me, Bacil, Gary S, Steve K, and Bruce E. We got set up and decided to wait awhile for some heating because it had backed off a bit since we got there. As the wind continued to back off, Gary bagged it and opted to get some things done. Bruce finished getting set up and launched about 1:20 into a good cycle. We could see him through the trees and he found lift up North a little bit and got up over the ridge. Bacil went next with a very nice launch and hooked into some lift and was soon gaining as I went to get hooked in. Steve helped me down into the slot and once again there were no good cycles coming through. Actually no cycles at all. It was really light, just wafting in, but at least it was coming in. I stood there waiting for 10 minutes, just like Wed last week. Then Steve pointed out a turkey vulture cruising out front which then started to go up and began to turn. As Steve and I watched, he hooked into a nice thermal and was climbing fast. I decided to go for it. It was still just wafting in so I picked up, got level, and launched heading straight out to the vulture. I found what he was in and got up over the ridge and I could see Bacil and Bruce already a couple miles North of launch. I stuck with that thermal up to 750' over the ridge and found a little bit more lift here and there but not much that was very organized. I soon found myself at launch height and tried to tuck it in to the non-existent ridge lift. I tried the SW facing bowl on the first North finger, no dice. So I went out to land and was staging over the corner of the field at 400' AGL when I got a couple beeps. I decided to turn in it since I was right where I needed to be to land and for the next 10 turns I was basically averaging zero sink. Finally it started to turn on and I gained a couple hundred feet. About then Bruce had come back and was low, saw me climbing and came over to join me a few hundred feet below. Unfortunately, the ladder was coming up right underneath me so there wasn't much for him to work with. But I managed to climb 800' in that thermal back up to 100' over launch. My first genuine low save! But the fun didn't last long, I searched for more but didn't find it and had to go land. Had a nice landing after 30 minutes in the air. Bruce had just landed before me after getting an hour and 2,000' over and then we saw Steve launch. He found a few burbles and got an extendo and had a really nice landing. A PG pilot named Ron launched and got up in a few nice ones and then came out to join us in the LZ and then joined the club. Welcome! I hung out in the LZ while Bacil retrieved his glider after landing out near Tom's Brook and then came to give me a lift up the mounatin. Thank you sir! I hear the Pulpit was great! Anyone up for some more there tomorrow? It's lookin pretty good!!!

[MRWilkens]

Nice flight report Dan, sounds like it was a fun day, wish I could have made it.

I'm game for the Pulpit anytime tomorrow (and testing out my new DIY suction-cup glider rack) if any observers are available and willing to assist me? It's looking good all day there...

Matt

[XCanytime]

Dan summed it up good. I took off a little past 1:30P in a light cycle, turned right, scratched a good bit between the power line clear cut and launch, then finally climbed in a thermal in the bowl at Cox Ridge to 340' over. Headed NE and dolphin flew with a strong quartering tailwind until I got to near Southfork. Got scraped off the ridge and slowly sank to a nice landing in the huge field on the right side of the mansion. It was fenced in, and soon two guys showed up with trimmed branches on the back of a John Deere vehicle. I used the usual "sorry I landed on your property, I just ran out of air" routine. They just kinda stared at me, so I thought oh crap, they are going to read me the riot act. But they slowly warmed up, and ended up giving me a ride to Mill Road. With helmet in hand, I walked all the way from Rt. 11 to within 2 switchbacks of the top before the paraglider pilot Ron Hott's brother John gave me a ride the rest of the way. Went and got my stuff from Southfork; luckily the gate to the mile long driveway was still open . Went back and gave Dan a ride up to the top. It was a fun little XC flight, albeit a little short in the time department. That strong quartering tailwind got me to Southfork 5 miles away in 10 minutes. Still it was fun to have to work to get up in the challenging conditions.

Bacil

[XCanytime]

Heading up the ridge.

The Southfork complex.

The SW facing finger next to Southfork.

Some local wildlife, the Eastern Painted Turtle.

Cattle grazing on the range.

[XCanytime]

A powered parachute (paraplane) tooling around next to Rt. 55.

[Matthew]

Good day at the Pulpit-- but it's SPRING AIR baby! Carlos led the charge and beamed right up. Cavanaugh followed and hooked one to 3700 over but decided not to go with it-- the FOOL!!!! Kristoph and Luis joined the fray. We all launched from the new Janni pad. I was lifted right off my feet during my launch and then proceeded to get lower and lower as did everyone else. I was 300 below the ridge on my way out to the LZ before I found something to scrape myself back up. I got 1K over and 1:40. At times it was like riding a bull during the first hour of flight-- and I've ridden bulls! Krisptoph and Luis landed shortly after I launched and Carlos landed about a half hour later. So it was just me and Cavanaugh battling the ridge trying to get high enough to go OTB. Did I mention that Cavanaugh could have done so right after he launched.

With conditions getting a little more mellow I went out to land so I could return and Observe Greg Sessa. After I landed, Cavanaugh did find an elevator and landed at the school on the back side of the ridge.

It was still honking at launch -- gusts to 23. But it started to quiet down with gusts only to 17 and Greg and Karen launched. They each got 90+ minute flights. It eventually quieted down enough for me to launch my PG for a 40 minute sunset flight. It took two tries to get the bag wing up and away-- the wnids had shifted to the North instead of the South as predicted. Once in the air it was smooth as glass.

Big thanks to Kieth Rosenberry -- a Hang 3 from the early 90s who plans to retunr to the sport in the Fall -- for wire crew assistance.

Matthew

[g.sessa]

Matthew summed up the day well. In my case, patience paid off. I launched late in the day into good, solid wind conditions. I moved down the ridge and stayed primarily between the landing zones where I found decent lift. Although I stayed about 200-400 ft. over most of the time, I was able to elevate to around 550 ft. over for a short while. I shared the sky with Karen for about 1 hour and 45 minutes before heading in to land just before sunset. I ended up over shooting my targeted landing slightly as I was pushed with a bit of a tail wind, but I landed on my feet with just a few steps. Overall, it was a fun day! Thanks Matthew and Karen for a great day of flying and for observing!

A video of the day can be found below. Looks like I’m going to have to get a longer lasting battery and memory card if my flights continue to be this lengthy.

[DanTuck]

Nice video Greg,
Here's video of my flight at Woodstock.

[markc]

Awesome vids guys, they really got me re-psyched about Saturday's flying!

And it was a very interesting day.... Funny how different a ridge can be, within just a few short miles.

I reached the highest point of my flight (3700' above launch) just minutes after launching from
the Pulpit, near the spines to the south. I looked OTB at the cloudless blue sky... Then I thought
about the fact that this was my very first bonafide spring flight of the season (no snow, yay!)....
And decided I wanted some airtime before embarking on the first XC of the year. So shoot me
Matthew!

After topping out, I punched into the valley and found a light 100' up thermal at about 1000' above
launch. It drifted me into the southwest-facing portion of the ridge to the north of launch, and
that's where I spent the next hour or so. The wind direction had clearly changed, and I reached
3000'+ above three times at various points along that portion of the ridge. The flying was easy,
but looking back towards the south I could see that pilots were low, and I think that flush cycles
claimed several.

Although I had good lift, all of the thermals topped me out *just* over the back, and then petered out.
I didn't have a climb, and if you've looked at that area (SW to NE vector), then you know it's a bit
gnarly-ville. No way was I going in there without something solid.

So then I made a big mistake, heading back toward launch, and then south. Pretty soon I was co-altitude
with Matthew, and we were both struggling for any type of gain at all. The cores were tiny, capricious,
and moving really fast : The best I could manage was maybe 1200 over, but 400-500 was more typical.
And it was constant search-mode, not a moment to relax.

Eventually the light bulb went off: "Well, if it sucks here, then go somewhere else!" .

So I headed south, crossing Route 16, to the rock piles and ledges that are down that way. With
drift out of the SW, I had hopes of hooking a thermal that would drift me right towards Parnell
Knob (no worries about gnarlies). Eventually I did find one, and it was a huge relief to be 2k+ over
launch again after all the struggling. I drifted with it, basically planning to put it in at the elementary
school at the intersection of Rt 75 and Lemar Road. And that's what I ended up doing: it was
late in the day and nothing was happening in the valley. Many thanks to Carlos & Luis for cruising
down the mountain to pick me up!

I don't have any photos from my flight because I was too busy. But I do have a shot from my
breakdown area at the school, and a few of Matthew and Karen enjoying late-day magic air. Enjoy!

MarkC

What a nice place to break down!

Karen at the top of the stack, in her namesake 'KC' glider

Matthew builds a sunlit wall

Oh no! Sun-suck!!!

Matthew in a flawlessly clear sky

And climbing up to fly with Karen

A speculating spectator: Could I?