Woodstock 5/9

[XCanytime]

Looking good. North Mountain Vineyards is offering Mother's Day Brunch again . Bacil

[XCanytime]

And I plan on trying to land there again too . The day is looking stellar! Bacil

[silverwings]

Unless there is a big drop of expected wind speeds for Hagerstown for Sunday (so I could teach), I will most likely be coming!

[dmoneil4]

Are any of PG observer going to Woodstock on Sunday. If so please let me know.
David ONeil new P2 pilot.

Email dmoneil4@gmail.com
cell 4104045838

Thanks a lot in advance

[Joe Schad]

Forecast looks a little strong for Sunday. I will check it out again in the morning.

Joe

[BrianL]

Got the glider on the car for tomorrow. Hoping the gusts die down a little, if not the pulpit is looking alright for Monday

[silverwings]

So whats the consensus at to whether it will be doable on Sunday? I am interested.

[Ashley Groves]

Interested.

[Matthew]

Got my fingers crossed - forecast still calling for gusts of 30 for Sunday. Yikes!

Matthew

[carweill]

Watching the weather

Carlos

[John Dullahan]

Today's Woodstock forecast calls for NW surface winds 15 to 20 MPH with gusts up to 30 MPH. However, winds at Woodstock, admittedly in the town and not at launch, currently are west at 7 MPH, and the "Woodstock" effect, though not guaranteed, frequently results in much lighter winds than forecasted in the Shenandoah, and even aloft. Bacil and I are going to give it a shot early afternoon. Any other takers?

[Dan T]

I'm considering it, but it looks to be on the edge of trouble. If it's blowing there like it is here, which it often is, I wouldn't want to be in the air right now.

After 6:00 PM looks like it could work and that still leaves 2 hours until dark. How late will you guys stay?

Dan

[DanTuck]

I'll be there midday, hoping for a late afternoon/evening flight.

[Matthew]

NW 15-20 gusts to 30 today.
NW 15-20 gusts to 30 tonight.

Too dangerous for me.

Matthew

[Ashley Groves]

I think it is worth a shot.
I should arrive around noon.

[silverwings]

I am tentatively thinking of getting there late afternoon around 4:30 PM with hopes that it might be doable around 6:00. Others who might want to hook up at the LZ. (202)409-2574 c

[Batman]

After Joe's incident on a day that was supposed to ramp down, I've learned to respect the wind more at Woodstock than I used to. Forecasts of gust to 30 is to rich for my blood. I fold ...

[Dan T]

Probably smart Chris. With no ramp down in the forecast, it's an invitation for a sucker punch. I'm passing too.

Dan

[DanTuck]

I showed around 1:30 and and John D and Ashley were setting up. Conditions were very nice at that point so I began setting up. About a half hour in, the velocity began to increase and the gusts were getting louder. Before I was finished setting up, it was too strong so we relaxed and waited hopefully for an afternoon backdown. Bacil arrived after awhile without a glider, purely to assist us in committing aviation. As we waited Gary S arrived and got set up. It was around 5:00 when it finally began to ramp down. Ashley was first off, timed a good cycle and went straight up followed by John soon after. I was up next and it was still strong so I waited for awhile for a mellow cycle. It came, and I took it, even still getting rocked around a little in the slot. I flew fast out of it and once clear, it was up, up, up! There was lots of lift but the velocity was definitely strong and you had to watch yourself. But the air was actually pretty nice and there was never any trouble penetrating so at 1,500' over I pulled on 3/4 VG and headed away from the ridge out into the valley. I climbed for the first two miles out, getting to 3,100' over launch way out over the valley in smooth lift, never turning once. So I kept heading towards Woodstock and started sinking. I got almost on top of Rt.11 and then turned back towards the ridge. Hit some sink on the way back but when I got within a mile of the ridge, I hit the lift again. I flew a little into it and turned around, got high, and flew back to Woodstock again. Then it was back to the ridge, in lift most of the way. I heard Bacil on the radio say that he had driven down to the main field and I was cold so I decided to land. I set up my approach in the upper left corner like always and started my downwind. Like always, I pulled on the speed and then I ran into strong lift, and then in an instant, I was in down-air, my right wing unloaded, immediately followed by strong lift and the re-loading of the right wing. Serious wire twang and sail POP!!! At the same time my vario is screaming and I'm climbing, so I turn onto base out of the lift, extend it and turn back for another base leg, then turn right onto final. I flared a little early but held it and landed nicely on my feet. Wow! That was freaky! Bacil actually saw the wing unload from the ground! It's a good thing I was flying fast through that. But other than that, it was a nice flight. Gary and Ashley landed shortly after that and John made it down to New Market. Huge thanks to Bacil for coming out just to help advise, wire crew, and drive our happy asses back up. Nice day to be on a mountain.

[Ashley Groves]

Whatis with all the negative posts?
Classic Woodstock condition, lots of lift, 360's were optional to go high and far. An early launch could have had large XC miles potential.
Wind thermic but straight in al lauch. light in LZ. Conditions inappropriate for H2, but fairly middling compared to the hype.
Cold with lots of fun-factor.

[Matthew]

Not trying to be negative-- just realistic. A forecast of 15-20 with gusts to 30, even considering the Woodstock effect, is outside the SOPs. If there was a diminishing forecast into the eveneing (or one that took out the gusts to 30 part at night), I would've been there. But there wasn't and I'm not willing to take that chance. Glad you all had safe flights.

Matthew

[John Dullahan]

Yesterday the trees along route 66 were waving their limbs all over the place, giving pause to any rational pilot with aviation in mind. However, at 12:30 pm the "Woodstock effect" was in evidence where the winds at launch were straight in at 7 - 9 MPH with gusts to 12:5. (Reading taken from well forward in slot from hand extended in the air). At 1:00 pm it was still straight in at 7 - 10 MPH with gusts of 13 MPH; but at 2:00 pm it ramped up some showing 12 - 15 MPH with a very occasional gust to 17 MPH. Ashley, Dan Tuck, Gary Smith, and I, based on the forecast, were mindful of possible higher winds at altitude and waited until after five to launch, when wind direction and velocity were similar to the 2:00 pm readings. I launched after Ashley into abundant lift which, as Dan mentioned, extended well out into the valley. I flew well away from the ridge to about halfway to Strasburg, then turned around, and at about 5,600 ft MSL flew past and well in front of Edinburg Gap. My flight path was just SE of Route 11, did not go below 5,000 MSL and wind velocity did not increase noticeably with altitude. At about 7:15 pm I reached New Market with 4,800 ft MSL but decided to land anyway. I would not have reached Harrisonburg before 8:00 pm, and I didn't want to complicate the retrieval. Thanks Bacil for ferrying pilots back to launch, and also Ashley for the retrieve.

[Batman]

The only negative post on my part is being a participant in a forecast for declining winds, launching with a good friend and watching the winds ramp up unexpectedly and cause him to be out of flying for over a year. Nothing negative with giving respect to conditions and erring on the safe side. Although the "Woodstock Effect' does happen, it does not diminish the actual winds, just how we feel them at launch. It is quite obvious to me from Dan's write up of his approach that the turbulence was there to be found. It only takes one injured person to ruin a days flight, no matter how many bullets you dodged from the actual conditions. As I said, since Joe's incident, I've taken on a new respect for the "Actual" winds vice the Woodstock effect.

[XCanytime]

As a spectator of the flying conditions at Woodstock on Sunday, I have to give props to John Dullahan for his diligent analysis of the winds at launch. He had his trusty Kestrel windmeter taking observational data and writing it down, logging the data and time stamping it! The cloud drift aloft showed winds at altitude were not bad. This is springtime, and the conditions that were experienced at Woodstock happen every spring of every year. I am not advocating flying in nutso air, but for goodness sake, it is unnecessary to continually armchair comments when you are not at the site. I know an accident happened on 4/29/07 at Woodstock in strong spring conditions. While it was not a pretty event, that doesn't mean that something like that is going to happen every time there are forecasts similar to that day. And the pilot who the accident happened to had not flown in the mountains for a long time and was not current in those conditions. Remember, forecasts are just that. Forecasts. All pilots that flew Sunday were realizing the risks. All pilots had high performance gliders with VG. They also had me questioning the first pilot who took off did he really want to fly in this air? He did, and so did the others. Yes Dan hit turbulence on his downwind leg at 6:45P. But let me tell you, Dan is one heck of a pilot, and he was flying the right speed and has the SA to navigate through such an event with plenty of margin. I hit major turbulence in early May of 1995 coming in to land at Woodstock AFTER 7PM. It is all about SA and leaving yourself an out with plenty of margin.

And one more thing. Weather.com for Woodstock had winds diminishing from 6PM on until sunset. But remember, it's just a forecast.

Bacil

[DanTuck]

Here's video from Sunday's flight. I got a new GoPro camera for the keel which has a plastic waterproof case. When I got high and it got cold, the case fogged up so the video is not the best. And I didn't realize I had turned the other camera off before I landed. Bummer cuz it would have been interesting to see the turbulence on the wing. Next video'll be better, still figuring out the new camera. Anyhoo, fun flight, it was neat to see the ridge from a totally different perspective. And thanks Bacil.