Woodstock 4/22

[XCanytime]

A few of us took advantage of the forecast and flew Woodstock today. Peter Kane and I arrived around the same time, just after 1P to soarable air in the slot and an unstable looking sky. An upper level low was forecast to move through the area in the afternoon and the sky showed it. Steve Kinsley showed up shortly thereafter and we all set up. Steve was off first just, some time after 2P, turned right, and disappeared. He planned to land out at Strasburg and hopefully get a ride back with Joe or Zelda. A virga cell passed over us and Peter and I felt a few drops. Around 3:15P Dan Tuckwiller showed and he and I assisted Peter in launching. He had a good launch, turned left, and went right up. Gary Smith showed around 4P just as another virga cell passed from left to right in the valley. As it cleared, I got on launch and grabbed a minor lull in the strong conditions and launched. Just out of the slot got banged around good by strong lift. Turned right and headed NE against a pronounced north cross at 1K' over. Maintained 1K' over until just past Southfork, then lost down to a few hundred over. Dan and Peter caught up with me and the three of us trolled around Signal Knob for a good 45 minutes looking for a thermal to get us high enough to dive downwind to the Front Royal Airport. It was not to be, so we all headed back towards the main LZ. I got scraped off the ridge and had to land at Southfork, while Peter and Dan made it back. Hiked the gear 3/4 of a mile up the private driveway and waited for Dan the Man to pick me up. Dan got me around 8:30P. We made it to Fox's Pizza by 9:30P and enjoyed some pizza and pepsi. Dan busted out of the fishbowl today; this was his first trip to Signal Knob.

Bacil

[tdilisio]

"Dan busted out of the fishbowl today"

Congrats Dan!!! Way Cool.

Glad to hear Peter Kane was able to make it. I know he's been itching to get to Woodstock for quite some time.

Sounds like it was a great day!!!

(Missed another one.... Damn! )

[DanTuck]

Thanks Tony!
That's one of this year's goals in the bag! I failed miserably on the first attempt last week only making it halfway but thankfully I got some redemption this week. Of course the goal was actually the airport but running to the Knob and back was also one of my goals for the season. I launched into a good cycle and headed North right away maintaining about 700' over the whole way up, stopping to turn in lift just a couple times. Just before I got to Signal Knob I thermalled up with an immature bald eagle, I think the same one from last week, you can see him in the video at 2:00. Then finally I made it and got to see that the radio tower is actually red on top. Because of the north cross, the North face of the Knob was working and diving over the ridge right next to the tower was just plain cool. I found a few decent climbs up there but nothing that ever got me more than 950' over launch. I heard Bacil call that he was going to head back so I turned back in that direction and found a nice climb back up to 950' over. But again, it petered out. However, at least I got to start the trip home in the good air well above the ridge. Getting back was uneventful, I didn't get low until the finger just North of launch but found a little climb that got me back home. My camera cut out on the way back but when I got to launch, once again it was blownig in like a fan. Two PG's were boating around in the evening glass and I zoomed around launch for 15 minutes before heading out for a nice no wind landing. Thank you Gary for the ride back up!! Awesome day!!!

[mcelrah]

The thumb-rule I got from Steve Kinsley was to get 2500 above the ridge before jumping over the back. The first time, on a fairly strong day with a bit of west cross a number of years ago, it worked great. I arrived at Front Royal with just enough altitude - in an Eagle! Tried it again a couple of years ago on a gnarly day and got rotored down into the Fort Valley. Was able to maintain on the eastern ridge, but wasn't high enough to make it to FRR, so had to go land inside.

Ditched work Friday and flew a sailplane for 2+ hours with climbs to 7500. Saw what looked like a great blue heron way up there!

Ankle's coming along slowly. Foot launch/landing soon... - Hugh

[XCanytime]

Here's a link to the pictures that Dick Otis took on 4/18 of the Front Royal Airport operations and Woodstock launch. Enjoy. Bacil

http://web.me.com/otisra/Otis/10-04-18_SSC.html