The SAC Friday

[lbunner]

Oh does the SAC look good for tomorrow! North at 10mph, strong lift at 500-600fpm, cloudbase at 7500' msl and convergence happening over the entire peninsula. Can anyone say Campbell? I won't be able to make it as family is coming into town but I'm pulling for you guys! Get there early (be ready by 11:00) and in the air as soon as the clouds start popping. Man, I wish I could be there!

[mcgowantk]

I am going to the sac Friday (unless the weather changes). Anyone want to come along or drive?

Tom

[mcgowantk]

I am in for the Sac and have located a driver, so the pressure is off.

Tom

[mcelrah]

Go, Tom, go! - Hugh

[XCanytime]

News flash! Tom McGowan 85 miles and 7300'+ MSL (cloudbase) to near Elkton, MD. Bacil Dickert 8 miles and 6700' MSL to Bendigo Airport near Tower City, PA. More to follow (pics and verbage). Bacil

[XCanytime]

Got to the SAC just after noon to find Tom set up and ready to go with driver Judy in tow. Skies were thermonuclear on the way up, then it started to dry out around the SAC launch area. Conditions died down to a trickle with an occasional modest cycle here and there. Tom got on the mound once and waited for 20 minutes for a decent cycle but backed off. Around 20 minutes later he got back on the mound, picked a nice light cycle, and had a good launch around 1:30P. He worked hard to get up to the east (right) of launch. Tom squawked on the radio that he was 1K' over climbing in broken lift. He then squawked again that he was 5K' over and heading OTB. I set up and launched with Judy's assistance around 2:45P in a nice light cycle as well. Turned right and worked very hard to get up and over the ridge. Very aggressive turns in pops of lift, flying back at the mountain in the lift line and whipping the glider back around, drawing a racetrack pattern. After flying about 6 of these patterns, I got above the ridge and found some nice lift away from the ridge and climbed to 500' over. Radioed to Judy that she could go ahead and chase after Tom, who was in the flats around Lebanon by this time. Found a great thermal right in front of launch and climbed to 4900' over. The thermal was going straight up. Saw a nice cloud downwind and flew to it. Climbed to 5200' over (6700' MSL) and glided crosswind into the arrowhead valley of Tower City. Searched a bunch in the area, finding nothing but sink. Spotted the Bendigo Airport by Rt. 325, and glided over to it. Let Tom know where I was landing, so he could relay it to Judy for a body ride back to launch. Had a nice landing in the grass right by the big orange windsock. Carried over to the hangar area and met Tim Kelly, a fixed wing pilot/helicopter mechanic doing maintenance on a 1966 model Hughes helicopter. Tom let me know Judy was enroute to pick me up, so I relaxed and had a nice chat with Tim. Judy found her way thanks to the Garmin GPS Tom has on his dashboard. An excellent device for retrieval drivers! Judy got me back to launch, and I led her to I-81 via a quicker route and went and picked up the glider. Tim was just leaving, so we chatted again and I promised to "drop in" on him again near his home in Halifax, PA in the future. Called Larry, who was monitoring the radio frequency and following Tom's awesome flight towards Elkton. He hadn't heard from Tom for a while and theorized he had landed. By this time it was 6P+, so Tom had close to a 5 hour flight! Congratulations Tom. Some pics follow.

Bacil

[XCanytime]

Looking west from 6300' MSL.

Looking east at the better clouds.

The arrowhead Tower City valley.

VOR on top of Peters Mountain.

Bendigo Airport, with the Harrisburg Reservoir visible in the distance.

[XCanytime]

On approach to runway 5.

Tim Kelly and the 1966 Hughes model 269.

Hangar adornment.

[John Dullahan]

Bacil called me a few hours after posting his neat SAC flight report with photos, and said Tom made 85 miles when he went over the back! Together with Larry B's 62 miler from the Pulpit on 30 June, that makes two great XC flights by local pilots within the last couple of days. Well done Larry and Tom!!

[mcgowantk]

This was another great day coming from the cold front that passed through on Tuesday. I couldn't get out until Friday and Larry's emails and call gave me the push to try every avenue for a driver and get time off from work. One of our trusted drivers, Judy, agreed to go and we got an early start for the Sac. The clouds were forming by 9:30 over the mountains as we drove up. On launch, clouds were thick to the west and north but sparse over the mountain. The drift looked NE (athough you need to take a NW direction to head to the Eastern Shore and to avoid some restricted airspace 17 miles south). I set up and was ready when Bacil arrived. Wind in the valley was due east but I got out on launch anyway hoping a good thermal cycle. I waited for a good 20 minutes and the windsock in the bottom of the slot showed east or SE - not north. Generally conditions were light so I didn't give up but I did back off the take a short break. Ten minutes after backing off launch, I saw the streamer in the main field now showing NNW. I got back up on launch in within 5 minumtes had a good cycle to launch at 1:30. A big thanks to Bacil for taking the time to help me off. I went right and found a light thermal immediately. I worked it for all it was worth and as I climbed over the mountain, it pulled me over the back into a good climb. I stayed with it unil 6300 msl and went downwind.

Clouds were light and drifting out of the NE but everytime it was time to go, I had a wispy to my SE. I generally stayed pretty high and got to 7000 msl when I made it into the flats. Climbs out in the flat were lighter but I stayed pretty high until I reached the next low moutain ridge about 35 miles out. There I got down to 3500 msl until an eagle showed me the best climb of day. I had 700 fpm to 7000. During that climb i noticed that whenever Larry called on the radio to see how I was doing, I would be climbing well! Thanks for the good juju Larry. I also spoke with Craig Williamson on the radio during my flight who had heard from Larry that I was over his house and I spoke to Christian who was having a good day at Ridgely and was attempting a triangle task.

I had one low save from 2400 msl once I was southeast of Lancaster. I was on a good line for Elkton and a flight down the eastern shore, but conditions seemed to be weakening. I could have flown over I-95 at about 500 feet but could not see an LZ further south. I landed in Maryland but just a stone's throw from Delaware slightly NE of Elkton at the intersection of Route 2 and I-95 at 6:20 pm. Breaking down there appeared to be an old airstrip in the center of the cut wheat field and driving out we noticed a sign for Airport road, so what do you know. I believe the total distance was about 84 miles but 3 don't have a good measure just yet. Made base once at 7300 msl and had lots of 300 fpm climbs but a few stronger pulses. Thermals seemed to pulse quite a bit and you needed to move around to keep climbing- which contributed to my slow speed downwind.

I did launch a little late but conditions were not launchable to around 1:30. I am sure it was soarable much earlier but the winds were not cooperating. I also had a slight crosswind on my flight but having clouds to shoot for made the task of flying to Elkton very doable. The Sac is a great site and offers really nice XC potential. We should be using it more often.

I wanted to thank Larry for calling me during the day to encourage me to keep going and to thank Judy who played an important part of our team and did a great job retrieving Bacil and me.

How did everyone do at Highland?

Now that I have had 24 hours to recover, let's do it again!

Tom McGowan

[John Simon]

Nice flights guys! Congrats.

Friday was something pretty sweet on the Delmarva and we almost went big. Ward, Christian, Joe G and myself arrived and we had some thoughts of conquering the Big Campbell problem. Alas, we could not find a driver and as I had to be somewhere VERY early on Sat., I declined to launch on the 104 mile run as I could not afford to miss this commitment in Mass. So.... some of the us (Christian) suggested a nice little triangle and we looked at a 60 miler and a 49 miler. We anticipated 12-15 mph winds from the north so chose the smaller.

In the end, due to work issues I could not launch until later. Christian and Joe did launch and Ward was landing. Joe did not have a radio and as I finally got in the air, Christian set out on course. I chose not to follow (work stuff) and would regret my decision. Joe and I had nice flights while Ward worked to get up higher. We hooked some nice ones and flew for about 1:30. Lift was ridiculously widespread once you got up and very pleasant. 6600' was about 2-300 feet below base. Visibility was outrageous and we had just beautiful flights. Joe flew later for another hour or so landing about 6?

Christian meanwhile had set out upwind and he crushed it. All the way to Massey and back to a point East of Highland and finally on home for a beautiful 49 mile triangle all alone.

I wimped out with work worries that didn't pan out in the end and missed a nice triangle. Campbell will have to wait for another day, but there are few like last Friday.


Regards,
John

[mcelrah]

Congratulations, all! Inspiring! I got close to 4 hours in the air in two sailplane flights Friday at Front Royal with climbs to 7400 (got called down after an hour on the first 'cause someone was waiting for the club ship). I am grateful that the Campbell trophy remains available - maybe the stars will align and I can tag along. (Or I wouldn't mind being the second or third to accomplish that...) - hugh

[pink_albatross]

wow
Congratulations!
-- ellis