Pulpit 6/30
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Pulpit 6/30
Larry Bunner feels that tomorrow is the best day of the year (so far). 8K top of lift. I'm joining him early. Great day to take off work early. Any interest? Bacil
Re: Pulpit 6/30
Interest. How early? - hugh
Re: Pulpit 6/30
Larry and I are getting there around 9:30A in order to be ready to launch between 11A and 1P. Bacil
Re: Pulpit 6/30
That's not getting out of work early; that's not going to work. I'll be there! - Hugh
Re: Pulpit 6/30
Hey guys, sounds like fun tomorrow, you planning on going XC?
I can't get the whole day off but is anyone else interested in flying later on in the evening? Both Woodstock and the Pulpit look pretty nice for an early evening flight...I'm only an H2 though so any observers interested in coming along? Drinks on me after! I could load up my glider before work and take off around 2/3pm. I could probably be at either place by around 5 if anyone else is interested...maybe a bit later for the pulpit since I'm coming from DC.
heading to bed now but will check back tomorrow morning
matt
I can't get the whole day off but is anyone else interested in flying later on in the evening? Both Woodstock and the Pulpit look pretty nice for an early evening flight...I'm only an H2 though so any observers interested in coming along? Drinks on me after! I could load up my glider before work and take off around 2/3pm. I could probably be at either place by around 5 if anyone else is interested...maybe a bit later for the pulpit since I'm coming from DC.
heading to bed now but will check back tomorrow morning
matt
Mr. Matt
matthew.r.wilkens at gmail dot com
two zero two four one three eight six seven six
matthew.r.wilkens at gmail dot com
two zero two four one three eight six seven six
Re: Pulpit 6/30
Hey everyone,
So I am heading up to the Pulpit, hoping to be there by 5. Sounds like everyone from the early crowd is going XC so I am hoping to catch one of them after their flights for an evening glass off. Come and join us if you can!
matt
So I am heading up to the Pulpit, hoping to be there by 5. Sounds like everyone from the early crowd is going XC so I am hoping to catch one of them after their flights for an evening glass off. Come and join us if you can!
matt
Mr. Matt
matthew.r.wilkens at gmail dot com
two zero two four one three eight six seven six
matthew.r.wilkens at gmail dot com
two zero two four one three eight six seven six
Re: Pulpit 6/30
Got to the Pulpit at 9:40A. Light conditions and a line of cumies on the horizon coming our way. Bank of cirrus to the ESE over High Rock and beyond. Larry and Hugh show and we set up and wait for conditions to build and the cumies to overtake the area. They do by 1PM so Larry launches and its way north on the ridge. 
Just the conditions I hate. Larry trolls for a good while and gets up down by Rt. 16, the area that always seems to work in a north cross at the Pulpit. Larry abandons the ridge and flies out into the valley upwind and climbs up to base. He heads downwind under a huge cloud directly over launch. Hugh and I ponder waiting for Matt Wilkens to show up to help us off. Finally I decide that I can help Hugh take off and I can decide if I want to try self-launching or not. Get Hugh off around 2:15P and he gets up in the still north cross down by Rt. 16. Conditions lighten up a bit on launch, so I decide to self-launch. Not hooking in, I carry the glider to the top of the pad and try to park it by swinging the left wing around and keeping it low. I don't keep it low enough, along with a breeze under it, and it lifts slowly out of my grasp. The glider turtles on the nose gently and the nose cone gets scuffed up on a rock. Righting the glider on the hill, I take it down to the setup area and inspect the nose. No dings in the keel or xbars. Just the slight scuffing of the nose cone. Repeat the process, this time being more careful and swinging the right wing around very slowly and very low. Success. I drag the glider sideways down the pad by the side wire, through the gravel on the keel and a Finsterwalder wheel a few feet at a time when conditions back off. Get in position, hook in, and watch the streamers and spinner windsock visible to me. Rotating the glider clockwise, I grab a good lighter cycle and go! Hugh succumbs to gravity and lands in the main field. I struggle for a good hour between Rt. 16 and launch going from 600' over at times to below the ridge 5 times! Each time I claw my way back up over the ridge. Finally get fed up and head south of 16, where the ridge curls more NW facing. After drifting almost all the way to The Corner, I head back to the north just a few hundred over and finally find a climb to 3500' MSL and drift with it over the small Rt. 456 valley behind Tuscarora Mountain. The valley is narrow and I lose 300' by the time I'm approaching Cove Mountain on the other side. I just decide to drift over Cove Mountain south of Mercersburg. Don't find anything and have a nice landing in a field with 2" corn sprouting next to Corner Road, about 2 miles due south of Mercersburg. Call Matt Wilkens, and he is in Greencastle getting some petrol. Vector him in for a body retrieve. Thanks Matt! Larry calls. He made it 62 miles to the NW outskirts of York, PA. Back at launch Tom McGowan is soaring at 1K' over. It's still blowing good, and Hugh and Matt are observing the conditions. Retrieve the glider and get back to launch just as Tom is landing in the main field after a nice flight to 5700' MSL. Larry's wife Sue drives Larry back to launch, and the 3 of us grab some chow at the biker bar. On the way out, saw Tom and Hugh leaving. Matt got a nice soaring flight to cap the day off at the Pulpit. Congratulations Matt.
Bacil
Just the conditions I hate. Larry trolls for a good while and gets up down by Rt. 16, the area that always seems to work in a north cross at the Pulpit. Larry abandons the ridge and flies out into the valley upwind and climbs up to base. He heads downwind under a huge cloud directly over launch. Hugh and I ponder waiting for Matt Wilkens to show up to help us off. Finally I decide that I can help Hugh take off and I can decide if I want to try self-launching or not. Get Hugh off around 2:15P and he gets up in the still north cross down by Rt. 16. Conditions lighten up a bit on launch, so I decide to self-launch. Not hooking in, I carry the glider to the top of the pad and try to park it by swinging the left wing around and keeping it low. I don't keep it low enough, along with a breeze under it, and it lifts slowly out of my grasp. The glider turtles on the nose gently and the nose cone gets scuffed up on a rock. Righting the glider on the hill, I take it down to the setup area and inspect the nose. No dings in the keel or xbars. Just the slight scuffing of the nose cone. Repeat the process, this time being more careful and swinging the right wing around very slowly and very low. Success. I drag the glider sideways down the pad by the side wire, through the gravel on the keel and a Finsterwalder wheel a few feet at a time when conditions back off. Get in position, hook in, and watch the streamers and spinner windsock visible to me. Rotating the glider clockwise, I grab a good lighter cycle and go! Hugh succumbs to gravity and lands in the main field. I struggle for a good hour between Rt. 16 and launch going from 600' over at times to below the ridge 5 times! Each time I claw my way back up over the ridge. Finally get fed up and head south of 16, where the ridge curls more NW facing. After drifting almost all the way to The Corner, I head back to the north just a few hundred over and finally find a climb to 3500' MSL and drift with it over the small Rt. 456 valley behind Tuscarora Mountain. The valley is narrow and I lose 300' by the time I'm approaching Cove Mountain on the other side. I just decide to drift over Cove Mountain south of Mercersburg. Don't find anything and have a nice landing in a field with 2" corn sprouting next to Corner Road, about 2 miles due south of Mercersburg. Call Matt Wilkens, and he is in Greencastle getting some petrol. Vector him in for a body retrieve. Thanks Matt! Larry calls. He made it 62 miles to the NW outskirts of York, PA. Back at launch Tom McGowan is soaring at 1K' over. It's still blowing good, and Hugh and Matt are observing the conditions. Retrieve the glider and get back to launch just as Tom is landing in the main field after a nice flight to 5700' MSL. Larry's wife Sue drives Larry back to launch, and the 3 of us grab some chow at the biker bar. On the way out, saw Tom and Hugh leaving. Matt got a nice soaring flight to cap the day off at the Pulpit. Congratulations Matt.Bacil
Re: Pulpit 6/30
Pulpit 6-30-10
It was classic post frontal conditions at the Pulpit. All the weather resources predicted good wind (albeit a bit cross at times), strong lift in the 600-700 fpm range and high base (predicted over 7000'). The only ingredient missing was a clear path downwind. The frontal passage stalled just south of the Maryland line where a high bank of cirrus ran east west. Hugh and I picked Elkton as the goal and were stoked to give it a go. Craig Williamson volunteered to pick us up if we headed his way however we weren’t sure how this was going to work as he had a doctor’s appointment to deal with. I launched at 1:00 and had to dig out from below launch twice. On this day, the air over the mountain was very ratty, it reminded me of the mountain air out west where you climb flying upwind for 5 seconds, decide it's good to turn and then get dumped on the back side. The ticket for me at the Pulpit is to get up over the ridge, get aligned with the clouds coming in and then head upwind under the clouds to connect with a good climb. I hit one out over the valley that at times was over 800 fpm while drifting back toward the mountain. Cloud suck was strong as I passed over launch and I diverted to the edge before heading over the back. There was strong sink between the clouds, at times over 1000 fpm but it was short lived. As usual, it was soft around Chambersburg where I was down to 2700' before connecting with 400 fpm to 3800' before I lost it. I headed further east and connected with a climb at a solid 350 fpm with a few turns up to 900 that I just couldn't stay in and rode it up to 6000'. Good clouds were now in front of me over the Michaux State Forest and they were working great as I exited the forest at over 5000', cruising between Rte 30 and South Mountain. The clouds now were to the north of me so I headed in a northeasterly direction to connect up with them. My PTT had failed so I had no communication with Hugh and Bacil. I decided the flight to Elkton wouldn't work due to the high cirrus in the path and focused now on flying home to East Prospect, Pa. I found one nice climb over Gettysburg where I thermaled with a beach ball sized mass of green weed up to 6500’ and diverted to the north again to get another ride under a cloud to 6200’. I paralleled Rte 30 now and could see York in the distance. North of Hanover I had the highest climb of the day to cloudbase at almost 7300’. There were few clouds now to the east and I went on a long glide to the west edge of York where I made a bad decision to fly to the NW to connect with a cloud. I sank like a rock and rather than chance flying over the city with sparse landing areas I headed north toward cut hay fields hoping for one last climb. It didn’t happen and I landed in a nice field at 4:30. Of course, the clouds formed over the top and to the east as I tore down. Bummer only 12 miles from home! I called Sue to see if she would retrieve me and she just happened to be in York! Excellent! She pulled up just as I finished hauling the gear to the road. Overall, it was an outstanding day with 3:25 in the air and 62 miles (72 HOLC). Next time I want to do it with other pilots.
It was classic post frontal conditions at the Pulpit. All the weather resources predicted good wind (albeit a bit cross at times), strong lift in the 600-700 fpm range and high base (predicted over 7000'). The only ingredient missing was a clear path downwind. The frontal passage stalled just south of the Maryland line where a high bank of cirrus ran east west. Hugh and I picked Elkton as the goal and were stoked to give it a go. Craig Williamson volunteered to pick us up if we headed his way however we weren’t sure how this was going to work as he had a doctor’s appointment to deal with. I launched at 1:00 and had to dig out from below launch twice. On this day, the air over the mountain was very ratty, it reminded me of the mountain air out west where you climb flying upwind for 5 seconds, decide it's good to turn and then get dumped on the back side. The ticket for me at the Pulpit is to get up over the ridge, get aligned with the clouds coming in and then head upwind under the clouds to connect with a good climb. I hit one out over the valley that at times was over 800 fpm while drifting back toward the mountain. Cloud suck was strong as I passed over launch and I diverted to the edge before heading over the back. There was strong sink between the clouds, at times over 1000 fpm but it was short lived. As usual, it was soft around Chambersburg where I was down to 2700' before connecting with 400 fpm to 3800' before I lost it. I headed further east and connected with a climb at a solid 350 fpm with a few turns up to 900 that I just couldn't stay in and rode it up to 6000'. Good clouds were now in front of me over the Michaux State Forest and they were working great as I exited the forest at over 5000', cruising between Rte 30 and South Mountain. The clouds now were to the north of me so I headed in a northeasterly direction to connect up with them. My PTT had failed so I had no communication with Hugh and Bacil. I decided the flight to Elkton wouldn't work due to the high cirrus in the path and focused now on flying home to East Prospect, Pa. I found one nice climb over Gettysburg where I thermaled with a beach ball sized mass of green weed up to 6500’ and diverted to the north again to get another ride under a cloud to 6200’. I paralleled Rte 30 now and could see York in the distance. North of Hanover I had the highest climb of the day to cloudbase at almost 7300’. There were few clouds now to the east and I went on a long glide to the west edge of York where I made a bad decision to fly to the NW to connect with a cloud. I sank like a rock and rather than chance flying over the city with sparse landing areas I headed north toward cut hay fields hoping for one last climb. It didn’t happen and I landed in a nice field at 4:30. Of course, the clouds formed over the top and to the east as I tore down. Bummer only 12 miles from home! I called Sue to see if she would retrieve me and she just happened to be in York! Excellent! She pulled up just as I finished hauling the gear to the road. Overall, it was an outstanding day with 3:25 in the air and 62 miles (72 HOLC). Next time I want to do it with other pilots.
Bun