Pulpit, Monday 5/10

[Ward Odenwald]

Conditions are looking very good for tomorrow. Who's flying?

[BrianL]

I was just thinking that, Ill be there!

[tomceunen]

I hope nobody flies today, way too gusty near surface. Why take the risk?

Tomorrow I plan Woodstock, it looks light but with the cold Temp I believe it will be just fine.
Let me know who else wants to try Woodstock tomorrow.

Regards
Tom

PG design took another step forward with the new Ozone R10.2 a two liner that has an amazing glide angle. They start winning all the comps.
http://www.flyozone.com/paragliders/en/ ... /07/13904/

[lbunner]

I'm in for the Pulpit if the winds aren't too strong. I'm seeing strong winds again for tomorrow so Woodstock may be the best best. Looking for the Prognosticator to weigh in before I commit. It looks like there will be a number of us flying. Some are thinking of going to Cumberland as well. I'll need to commit pretty early in the morning as it is a haul to Woodstock or Cumberland for me.

[Dan T]

That is a sweet looking paraglider! This is a transition analagous to the advent of the modern topless HG. Since it's resistant to collapses it's probably safer than most PGs as well.

Dan

[XCanytime]

I'll be at the Pulpit early. I think that I've convinced Larry Bunner to come as well . Bacil

[mcelrah]

Tom and Dan,

I wonder when/whether that technology will propagate down the line to DHV 1-2 paragliders...

- Hugh

[mcgowantk]

I am taking the day but leaning to Cumberland. It looks on the strong side at the Pulpit to me. Woodstock is my second choice and it could be fine due to the forecast lift today but winds are generally forecast to be light there.

Tom

[tomceunen]

Hugh, its there already.
David new P2 showed his new Ozone Swift with typical R10.2 stuff awsume glider that beats all of the other 1-2 no doubt!

read also:
Woodstock today
up to 7000ftasl pretty rough, should have been there at 1PM with a red bull to face the turbulances. Got there at 3:45pm I believe, bit late for XC but doable of course. Steve flew as well on his HG.
David launched his awsume Ozone Swift in a lul backwards around 5-6PM in lite conditions. Very good launch and very good landing approach. Let him sled each site first and next we can guide him in some 360. Step by step.
The Swift is brandnew and has some R10.2 features. Very thin lines on top, fiber reinforcements at the leading edge (no rib reinforcements) and very light fabric and very thin risers.
http://www.flyozone.com/paragliders/en/ ... wift/info/
Trendsetters!
Laszlo go Ozone, no doubt.

[XCanytime]

XC flash: Larry 70 miles, 8100' MSL, to New Freedom, PA. Ward 45 miles, 7600' MSL, to Brunswick, MD. Two out landings to the south for me. Brian 1 hour landing in the secondary for the first time. More info later. Bacil

[Flying Lobster]

Hugh, its there already.
David new P2 showed his new Ozone Swift with typical R10.2 stuff awsume glider that beats all of the other 1-2 no doubt!

read also:
Woodstock today
up to 7000ftasl pretty rough, should have been there at 1PM with a red bull to face the turbulances. Got there at 3:45pm I believe, bit late for XC but doable of course. Steve flew as well on his HG.
David launched his awsume Ozone Swift in a lul backwards around 5-6PM in lite conditions. Very good launch and very good landing approach. Let him sled each site first and next we can guide him in some 360. Step by step.
The Swift is brandnew and has some R10.2 features. Very thin lines on top, fiber reinforcements at the leading edge (no rib reinforcements) and very light fabric and very thin risers.
http://www.flyozone.com/paragliders/en/ ... wift/info/
Trendsetters!
Laszlo go Ozone, no doubt.

I assume you're referring to BHPP technologies?

I've been eying the Delta as a possible replacement for my 5 year old dhv2 paraglider. What do you know about it?

marc

[XCanytime]

Four pilots flew the Pulpit yesterday. I got there just after 9A. Brian Leisenring had already arrived. Ward and Larry showed up in the next hour. Conditions were nice, with a little north in the cycles at times, and a sparse set of cumies were popping. Just before 11A somebody threw a switch and it ramped up pretty good. So I took off from the pad just after 11 into a complete north cross on the ridge. Ran down towards The Corner where the ridge bends more northerly. The lift was choppy and not organized. I decided not to fight the cross to return to the north, and landed out along the valley side of Cito Road south of Cito in a plowed field. Ward came and got me, and by the time we got back to launch, Larry and Brian commented on how mellow things had gotten. Larry subsequently took off from the pad a little after 1P and climbed nicely to 1K+ over trolling for a ticket. Upwind a dust thermal from a field by the JLG plant climbed up with the dust to high above the ridge. Impressive sight. Larry stair stepped his way up to a nice ticket and went OTB. Brian launched next from the pad around 1:30P and it had gotten nastier in the air with the severe north cross returning on the ridge. Brian climbed up down by Rt. 16. Ward got ready and I assisted him in strong conditions on the pad. The two spinner windsocks were key in everybody's launches from the pad. Ward grabbed a lull and was off at 2P. He and Brian trolled around 500' to higher above the ridge. Brian got drilled by some serious sink that seemed to be ready to deposit him in the trees lower down by Rt. 16. He wisely headed out and had a nice landing in the secondary in textured air. I went down and picked him up and just as I got to the secondary, Ward found a ticket to 4K+ MSL and went in search of better landing fields OTB. By this time Larry was bumping up against the Michaux at Mont Alto. I set up listening to reports from Ward and Larry of monster lift and altitudes of 6K' and 7K' plus in the valleys OTB. Brian returned from the secondary and helped me launch in strong conditions from the pad at 4:15P. I headed south again and climbed up to 3200' MSL at times, but the lift was still disorganized after 5P! I went nearly all the way down to The Corner searching valiantly for a ticket, but it was not to be. I radioed Brian that I was coming back north and would try to land at the golf course driving range. I got scraped off the ridge just south of Cito and headed out into the valley in search of a field. The valley was lifting off pretty good, so I dolphin flew around for a while having my pick of lots of fields. Finally put down near the crest of an uphill field next to Union Church Road halfway between Cito and Rt. 522. Had a nice landing around 5:45P and Brian retrieved me. We then set out to retrieve the XC guys, with Brian getting Larry from New Freedom and I picking up Ward from Brunswick. Finding Ward was easy. He landed in a huge cornfield next to Brunswick High School. I got him just after 8P, and we made it back to launch by 9:45P. Went down to the Sheetz and waited for Brian and Larry. They arrived a little after 10:30P, and Larry and Ward swapped info about their flights. A late night for four pilots, but a great day at the Pulpit.

Bacil

[RichH]

Congrats Ward..nice flight!!

[XCanytime]

Heading towards The Corner.

Chasing a redtail back north.

[mcelrah]

Congratulations to all who flew. Thanks for the posts! - Hugh

[lbunner]

My version: On Sunday I communicated with Bacil and Tom on where to go on Monday. The forecast looked good albeit NW and I was chompin’ to get some local air after being on the road for the first part of the year. The blip maps were calling for 5000-6000’ however the dry adiabat on the FSL chart was showing potentially much higher cloudbase should the temps increase above the predicted high a few degrees. I was a little concerned with the direction and velocity for the Pulpit and considered going to Cumberland or Pleasant Gap (3 hour drives for both). Monday morning however, Bacil coaxed me to the Pulpit (didn’t take much). Bacil launched around 11:00 in a good cycle and ridge soared for awhile. It appeared that the trigger temp had not been reached and he soon landed. While Ward went to pick him up, Brian and I sat on launch and watched the first cu’s come over us. Until this point, the winds were strong and sweeping from the north at times. The cu’s dampened and straightened the wind out. Once the crew returned, I launched at 1:12 and boated around out front as a good line of clouds approached. I used the bench method to thermal up over launch by riding the first thermal to 3300’ and and then heading back up wind to a nice building cu. The air was somewhat ratty however I caught 400 fpm that turned into 600 fpm and rode it over the back to 8100’msl (just below cloudbase). I really didn’t have a good plan as I wasn’t sure of the driving arrangements but figured I’d head downwind and take my chances either by calling Sue for a body ride or one of the other pilots. I glided across the valley to the Michaux State Forest and hit two nice climbs along the way (one was at 800-1000 fpm). There were a few cloud markers out there but soon it was all blue. After each climb I headed ENE as the drift was putting me in line with High Rock and the no fly zone. I headed across the forest at Mt Alto at 6500’and had a nice climb right over South Mountain which is half way across. This is the optimum place to cross as South Mountain has a long flat field that faces into the wind. No need to worry this day as I stayed high the whole time. To this point the thermals were nice and strong however I couldn’t quite get comfortable. The air was textured and choppy at times and the sink between thermals was significant to the point where I checked to make sure my PTT wasn’t stuck on as my running commentary was filled with quite a few aarrrggghhhs and fffuuuucccckkkks when I couldn’t find a way out of the nastier stuff. SW of Gettysburg I was down under 3000’ and bubbled along for about 10 miles before connecting with another nice climb back above 7000’. I should have headed NE at this point but was confused a bit as to my location and thought I was on track to make it to my house. Once I recognized how far south I really was I headed NE. I played with a couple thermals but ended up coming down just short of Rte 83 in New Freedom, PA. The straight line distance was 70 miles, 73.38 miles OLC accounting for the dogleg. I was in the air for 2:56.
I feel very fortunate to get to fly all I want now and this year has started out quite well. Sue and I went to Australia and flew in the Forbes Flatland comp. I rented an Airborne C4 13.5 for the 10 days. It was a nice glider but was a little stiff for my liking. After Oz, I sold my old T2C in March and picked up my new one at the end of the same month. The handling on the new glider is even better than the old one, it is the best handling performance glider I have ever flown. I am working toward some lofty goals this year and to date have accumulated 88 hours and 1423 miles. This new glider should get me there. Can’t wait to fly with you all yet this spring.

[mcelrah]

Nice! Thanks! - Hugh

[Ward Odenwald]

Great day at the Pulpit, although it didn’t start out that way. With Bacil’s help, I launched from the pad just after 2 PM into a straight-in 15 mph window after waiting out a 45-degree north-cross cycle for 15 minutes. The next ½ hr on the ridge was basically occupied with trying to stay in short bursts of lift followed by running from equally intense blasts of gravity. At best, all I had to show for it was a series of brief 500 ft gains above launch. Not much fun for a lot of intense work. After watching Brian Leisenring get drilled to the point where landing in the secondary was his only option, I decided that if I was lucky enough to find a thermal large enough to accommodate me I would “turn tail” and head for a large field on the other side of the ridge to end what was quickly developing into a Monday afternoon spanking. About 5 minutes later, I found one (~¼ mile south of launch) and followed it, climbing to 4,300 ft MSL over the second lee-side ridge. I radioed Bacil and Larry (who had already crossed the valley and was now cruising over the Michaux forest at 6,500 plus ft MSL) to let them know where I was. Larry radioed back with advice that I had already burned into my memory after reading his accounts of several of his remarkable XC flights – “try as hard as possible to stick with the thermal that your in cause it just may be your last one of the day!” With this “mind set” I stayed with the thermal until I lost it just west of route 75. After several attempts at relocating it, I headed south/southeast (down wind) toward Mercersburg. Just east of the High School (~ 3,500 ft MSL), I ran into a thermal that was very different from those that I encountered in front of the ridge. It was remarkably large and well organized. After two or three medium banked 360s in 3 to 5 hundred ft up, I slowly reduced my bank angle to near zero and, as a result, flew out of it and back in with a 180 turn. It was still there! Using this approach, I was able to get a rough idea of it size and strength. I climbed to ~6,500 ft MSL northeast of Mercersburg before I lost it and, at this point, my “plan B” was shelved in favor of the original/long-standing plan – get high and fly far! My direction took me just east of Mercersburg and south along the meandering Conococheague creek. Between thermals, I basically flew fast when the sink alarm went off and slowed down for zero sink. The highest climb came just west of Hagerstown in one of the best thermals that I have ever circled in taking me to 7,509 ft MSL. During one of the 360s, the visual readout on my vario maxed! This thermal reminded me of those that Jonny Durand routinely circles in while casually discussing the latest HG competition on his Utube videos (you know, the ones were he talks about today’s task while his vario is screaming in the background for minutes!). From this climb, I flew just west of the route 81 - 70 interchange and east of where the Conococheague feeds into the Potomac at Williamsport. I found the next big thermal southeast of Williamsport at ~ 4,500 ft MSL and rode it back up to 6,800 ft MSL. By now, the thermals had a more southeasterly drift compared to the earlier south/southeast drift so I adjusted my glides to try and maximize any tail-wind push. This direction took me between Keedysville and Boonsboro following route 67. I found the last significant lift south of Boonsboro and stayed with it until Rohresville. My final glide took me to Brunswick MD and I landed in a large cornfield next to their High School at ~ 5 PM. Bacil picked me up and for that, I owe him “big time”, thanks!! Also, Steven Allgaier and his children greeted me after landing and brought much appreciated gator aid and an energy bar, thanks! What follows are some additional stats recorded from my vario, iphone GPS tracker and photos: Straight-line distance, 44.97 miles; total flight time, 2 hrs 45 min; All blue thermals; Max climb rate, 1,612 ft/min; Max sink rate, 2,681 ft/min. The following photos are in chronological order and except for the takeoff and landing images, they focus is on the significant climbs and some of the glides.

[Ward Odenwald]

Next set of 5

[Ward Odenwald]

Third set

[Ward Odenwald]

Last set

[mcelrah]

Way cool! Thanks for the blow-by-blow write up and the photos. - Hugh