A great day at Woodstock today. I arrived at 1PM to soarable air and cumies under a high solid cirrus deck. In a short time Homer and Adam showed up. Been a while since I've seen them at Woodstock. We set up and I was first off around 2P and climbed right out in smooth lift in front of launch to 4800' MSL. Headed NE in a north cross. Dan Tuckwiller contacted me by radio from I-66 and I convinced him to retrieve me as I would try for the airport again. Dan pulled off near the I-81 junction as I slowly made my way up to the reservoir. At the reservoir I was down to 2500' MSL and looking for a ticket. Saw very west looking winds shaking the trees below me. Found some ratty lift that drifted me east towards the radio tower. The lift got organized and I climbed quickly thru 4000' MSL drifting due east. By the time I got to 4400' MSL I radioed Dan to head to the airport. I climbed to 4900' MSL before heading downwind. Made the airport easily and listened to the Unicom frequency of 123.000 MHz. Saw that it was N to NW again down low. Staged on the north side, slowly losing altitude. Heard somebody squawk that they were inbound from the south. Heard them squawk again, so I scanned the pattern and saw no one. Then I looked down and saw a helicopter skimming along the power line clear cut 500' below me. Glad that he was low, and I was much higher. Just as I'm descending through a very turbulent layer, Dan pulls up to the parking lot. I flew the glider just to the right of the runway all the way to the ground. Even at 2' off of the ground the wing was doing some walking. Landed on the wheels with very little groundspeed. The airport manager, Reggie Cassagnol, came out to greet me with Dan. He remembered me from landing at the airport back in 2007. He invited Dan and I to do a static display at an airshow at the airport on 9/11/2010. Back at launch Steve Kinsley had just pulled up. Steve reported Homer and Adam getting to 6K' MSL out in the valley. Steve and Dan set up while strong cycles came and went through the slot. Dan and I agreed for Dan to land out at the Sandy Hook area below Strasburg while I reported conditions on the ground as he came in. Dan and Steve had great launches in quite strong conditions. They both were patient and took mellow cycles in between strong ones. I made it to the gigantic LZ by the bridge as Dan descended from 4K' MSL. He had a perfect landing in thigh high corn stubble. We were 2 for 2 . Joe Schad was there waiting for Steve. We saw Steve a few hundred above the ridge, then we didn't see him. Dan and I went back to get his car, and this time we made Fox's Pizza while there was still daylight left . Congratulations Dan on your first out landing at Woodstock!
Congratulations on excellent flights. Bacil, special congratulations on making the airport again; now we have to land there sometime when the sailplane guys are operating! - Hugh
Yahoo!! Nothing like setting a goal and making it! Steve had suggested a field by Strasburg that he lands in but it's a good ways out from the ridge so you need altitude to make it. Bacil and I discussed the flight plan and now I had a goal. When I got on launch, the sky was starting to clear up and it was very strong. But there were launchable lulls, they were just short so you had to time it right and be ready to go. I ran hard and sped out of the slot only to be shotgunned skyward as I cleared the trees. One of the strongest elevators I've felt. The first 800' was pretty rowdy but I was through it very quickly and into some pretty nice air above it. I didn't wait around and headed North from launch at 800' over. I didn't hit any thermals as I went but by the time I got to Southfork I had climbed in solid ridge lift to 2,200' over. On the way I noticed a bird tailing me, and wouldn't ya know it, it was an immature baldy. And then I noticed there was a second one with him, both following along very close but not being aggressive at all. They were messing with each other, barrel rolling and stuff, but they seemed to be just playing. I did one 360 the whole way and that was just to try and get the eagles on film. However, by the time I passed Southfork (the 5-mile mark), the ridge lift was gone, and I started slowly sinking as I continued toward Signal Knob. We had a NNW cross on the ridge so I was hoping that the part of the ridge near the Knob would be working since it curves around to face more to the North. I was down to 1,200' over by the time I got there, and sure enough right around the curve the ridge turned back on. I climbed back up and found a nice late day thermal that I took back up to 2,400' over (4,250' MSL) where it was freezing and decided to head out to land. I followed a great line out to the field which was 2.5 miles from the ridge and had only lost 250' by the time I was out there. It was way fun cruising over the edge of Strasburg burning off 3,000' of altitude. I flew over the High School next to the field as they warmed up for their baseball games and set up a nice approach. It was a little rowdy between 200-500' AGL but it smoothed and I touched down ever so softly trying not to poke a hole in my sail with the corn stubble. Success!! Thank you Steve for the field and thank you Bacil for the advice and radio comm. Huge day for me! I have a couple pics of Bacil at the airport and some video of my flight that I'll post later when I get home. Here's the field -
My batteries ran out when I headed out to land so I didn't get the Canada geese that I scared off when I was on final. But I did catch a glimpse of the two eagles that were chasing me on the ridge. The pic of Bacil in the air is the only one that came out at all since I was blindly shooting out the window as I drove up.
Congrats on your XC Dan, I wouldn't mind heading to that LZ sometime. I've landed at an LZ north of the river at Strausburg but haven't headed out to the one you were in, look like I need to head out that way and explore. Anything is better than the primary
. Joe Schad was there waiting for Steve. We saw Steve a few hundred above the ridge, then we didn't see him. Dan and I went back to get his car, and this time we made Fox's Pizza while there was still daylight left 
. Congratulations Dan on your first out landing at Woodstock!
