Bachelor Party at Club Highland, Thursday

[hang_pilot]

Weekend f/x looks ugly, so I'm considering flying on Thursday. Probably at Highland unless someone wants to convince me to head to the mountains. This will be my last flight as a single man, Charlotte and I are getting married over Memorial Day weekend, so think of it as a bachelor party of sorts.

Blue skies,
~Daniel

[lbunner]

I'm game for the mountains. Where shall we go?

[mcgowantk]

I am looking at Thursday too. The nam blip map shows some over development in pa but I don't see that on the other forecasts. It also forecasts surprisingly strong high lift given the rain this week.

Tom

[lbunner]

The FSL data shows a big day tomorrow. Predictions for Middletown show cloudbase at 9700'!!! Looks like a Sac day to me. Let me know what you think.

[John Simon]

Looks like a big day on the eastern shore too.. I might be able to talk my wife into letting me go long, but only for god, country, glory or beer. Campbell field? Anyone? Buehler? Anyone? McGowan? Anyone? Bunner? Anyone? Region Niners? Anyone? If anyone is interested let me know, otherwise I'm sure to show up at 1pm and lollygag around all day at 6000'!

Cheers,
John

[hang_pilot]

John, I'm game. I'll arrive by 10:30.

Larry, the Sac seems like the right choice, but I think I need the 3 hours I'll save (round trip) by heading to Highland. Sorry, hope you sky out and go far!

~Daniel

[stevek]

I'm in.

[mcgowantk]

It looks great to me for the sac and highland. I have to pass due to multiple family commitments. I will have to try my luck Friday

If i was going, it would be the sac.

Have fun!

Tom

[carweill]

Might be able to take the day off

Will know tomorrow

Carlos

[Danny Brotto]

I'm planning to fly on Highland for Friday,

Danny Brotto

[carweill]

Heading to Ridgely

ETA 11:00 AM

Challenge to Larry, SAC to Campbell Field?

Carlos

[RichH]

Going to fly at Blue Sky both thur. and Fri. forecast is looking very good today..and good tomorrow ..Hope to get some good thermals today!!

[lbunner]

John Simon, Daniel, Carlos and I picked a task from Ridgely to Pittsville (east of Salisbury airspace) then Campbell Airfield. We all connected above the airport in the strongest thermal of the day at ~700 fpm and headed SSE. Carlos landed south of Denton as we three continued on. Both John and Daniel's radios weren't working so we had no audio communication. John and I stayed together for the next 5 climbs. I lost John when he hit a nice climb and got high above me. We were topping out below cloudbase in the 4000-5000' range. The lift would slow down up high so we would push on. As we headed south the clouds were spreading out and shading more and more of the ground. After a long glide to the turnpoint, I was down to 1700' with 90% shading in front. I hit some small stuff and began turning, saw some birds, headed to them and slowly started climbing out when John came in under me! Great, we connected again. After the long glide, I decided to ride this thermal to the top. John got impatient and left at ~4000' while I stuck with it and topped out at cloudbase (~5500'). I followed his track to the south as we needed to stay 5 miles out from Salisbury. The ground was completely shaded now and the only good clouds were much farther south. We both landed along highway 12 a couple miles apart about 63 miles from Highland. Of course and hour after we landed the sky opened up and the cloudstreets looked awesome going to the southwest. Daniel dug out of a hole from down low and ended up landing just north of Salibury for his personal best ~40 miler. He also had the longest flight duration wise landing almost an hour after John and I. All in all it was a good day. Reliable radios would have improved our chances of getting across the shaded area. I use the Steve Prater PTT system, it is very reliable and cheap at $40. You all should have one. Thanks Carlos for retrieving us. Next time you will be with us and then will have a real adventure!!

[hang_pilot]

I made it 36.5 miles (a personal best) from Ridgely.

As Larry mentioned, in what might have been the greatest accomplishment of the day, we managed to get all four of us (John, Larry, Carlos and me) synched up in the same rippin thermal above the field. That never works out.

John and Larry set off on course from around 4500 AGL, Carlos held back and I followed after topping off the climb. I crossed the Choptank south of Denton on glide. Watching the two aces getting low ahead of me, I held back this time in some zero air until I saw them climbing again. I came in under them at 1800 right as they were heading on glide again and slowly climbed up to 2500.

Next, I made an impatient move and headed downwind looking for something stronger. I nearly flew into the ground and had to spend 30 minutes of intensely focused groveling between 900 and 1200 feet over a big field. Finally, a cloud came by and some vultures showed me from where it was drawing and I climbed out to 3500 when the cloud dried up and disappeared.

Over the remainder of the flight I had another vulture-aided save from 1400 near Federalsburg and two trips to cloudbase. Crossed the Naticoke at Sharptown and headed more easterly to avoid the Pax River airspace that was hot. Landed in a huge field near the town of Mardel north of Salisbury at 4:30.

A friendly local gave John and Larry beer and a ride in my direction. Carlos was kind enough to pick us all up – thanks, again – and we had dinner at the apparently famous Old Mill Crab House http://www.oldmillcrabhouse.com.

Heather, Windsor and Sunny flew at the field.

A good time was had by all.

Blue skies,
Daniel

[John Simon]

Nice write up Larry and Daniel. We all started in a great thermal at Ridgely above 4500'. I was lowest so I left and it was on! We had a great day and it was very fun up there. More challenging as we went south for sure. I got low once or twice and had to dig out and that's when I watched Larry go overhead about 4000' above me. After hooking back up, I made the mistake of leaving early and not topping out. The shaded ground was a killer and we should have waited it out together (I will get a new headset soon!). Sorry.

Landed in a nice field and the farmer came out and gave me a golf cart and a six pack of Bud light! After I broke down, I drove on over to their barn on a gorgeous old plantation (owned by the family that owned Holly Farms) and hung out drinking beers for 1.5 hours. Very pleasant. Larry was only 2 miles up the road and the farm manager arranged a 20 foot trailer so he could load our gliders and drove over and picked up Larry. He then drove both of us up to Salisbury where Carlos had just picked up Daniel. Super nice guy.

Then off to a fine meal at The Old Mill Crab Shack and back to Ridgely to tell our lies. Great day. Much fun.

John

[lbunner]

I failed to mention that John had the longest flight of the day however I was closest to our goal at Campbell. How can that be (figure it out)?

[mcelrah]

Congratulations to you all and especially to Daniel on his PB. Also big congrats that Charlotte is finally making an honest man of you!

Had a good tandem clinic at Currituck Wednesday and Thursday. Got the coveted T-1 which permits me to practice with rated pilots - also working on conversion from AT skill to FL in tandem.

- hugh

[John Simon]

Congrats on your T1 Hugh. Tandem is a great way to spread the joy of our sport to others.

John