My apologies to those who could not sneak away.? Another great day at the flight park.? Surprisingly large number of takers playing hooky, Paul and Lauren T, Christian, Alek, Me, Mike? (flying and XC), Erika and even Adam Elchin got in on the ridiculous amounts of lift out there.? Nobody landed before 6pm who didn't mean to do it.? It was something else...? Fairly mellow, but very widespread (like a convergence but too widespread I think).? Most climbs were 2-400 fpm, but earlier I had some 5-600's on the averager.? Got to base many, many times around 5700' or so at 4pm.? Nobody was going XC, although a very big triangle would have been doable since the winds were very light and lift was everywhere.? Paul flew the U2 and T2 and Lauren the U2 as well as Alek.? Winds were switchy and light on the ground and the LZ was turned around 3 or 4 times during the day.? Had to pay attention there.? Great visibility, lots of redtail hawks and other gliders to fly with and some great looking puffies.? Really way, way easy.
?? ? First Soaring flight for Erika and I think she got over an hour with some strong climbs.? I saw her whizzing up past me at about 4500' or so on that tiny little Target.? Nice landing for her as well to cap off and hour long flight!? Tandems came out later and Dawson flew as well as some intro's.? As I left, John Rooney was getting ready to give it?a try, but not sure if he flew because there was still some lift left and the air had a bit of texture for tandems even around 8pm.? Just a perfect day to practice wingovers and spirals and high speed runs and thermalling and just about anything else you might want.? I think Adam E. got much more than 3 hours.? I landed voluntarily at about 6pm and got just over 3 hours.? My "tuned up" Discus is just plain nice to fly.?
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This weekend for the fly-in is looking pretty good I think.? See ya there.
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John
Highland Thur
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
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Paul Tjaden
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Highland Thur
In a message dated 6/23/2005 9:36:22 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, JohnFSimon@comcast.net writes:
Like John said....a ridiculous amount of lift. I'm really upset with myself that I didn't go XC. Huge flights could have easily been accomplished. I actually started on a triangle but about five miles out I decided I wanted to fly the T2 later in the day so I turned around and went back. Originally launched on the U2 160 around 2:00 and blew off 4,500 feet of altitude landing at 4:30 because my shoulders were killing me (much harder flying a flex wing rather than my "old man glider".
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After landing I watched in amazement as John, Adam, Alek, Christian, Erika (and others?) floated and climbed?VERY high?right over the field for a VERY long time. During this time the wind switched from the east to the west and I knew a convergence was setting up with marine air blowing in off of the Bay.
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I still wanted to fly the new Talon so rather than launching again in the U2 I resigned myself to setting up the T2 figuring that the convergence would be over before I could get up to enjoy it.
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I finished setting up and launched the Talon into the westerly wind as John and everyone else was landing. It was 6:20 now and I was pretty sure I had missed out on the REALLY COOL convergence flying. The T2 towed nicely in the fairly still evening air and Windsor dropped me at 2,500 feet in pretty much nothing. I figured if anything was left of the convergence it would have moved further east so I headed towards a few scruffy looking clouds in that direction.
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?I had dropped to 1,600 feet and was just about to give up when my 5030 came to life. It took a minute to find the best of it but then I headed back up topping out at about 3,500 feet next to a fuzzy cloud extending to the north. I couldn't resist playing around in the wisps for a while but then I climbed about 200 feet up the west side of the cloud and headed north.
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?For nearly two miles I cruised along the side of this beautiful cloud with the sun to the west and my?shadow and it's rainbow (my glory) following along to my side. I have flown many hours and lots of miles in my time as a hang glider pilot but this was a pretty special flight.?A real gift that I won't soon forget. Too bad I didn't have a camera.
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After an hour or so I was pretty beat so I headed back over the field but still had trouble getting down through the buoyant air. Boated around and watched Mike Balk and Lauren doing pattern tows below me. Finally put it on a wing tip, augured down?and landed around 7:30.
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I've flown countless days at Highland but never had one quite like this. Hope this magical flying holds on for the fly in this weekend.
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See you there.
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Paul
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Fairly mellow, but very widespread (like a convergence but too widespread I think).? Most climbs were 2-400 fpm, but earlier I had some 5-600's on the averager.? Got to base many, many times around 5700' or so at 4pm.? Nobody was going XC, although a very big triangle would have been doable since the winds were very light and lift was everywhere.?
Like John said....a ridiculous amount of lift. I'm really upset with myself that I didn't go XC. Huge flights could have easily been accomplished. I actually started on a triangle but about five miles out I decided I wanted to fly the T2 later in the day so I turned around and went back. Originally launched on the U2 160 around 2:00 and blew off 4,500 feet of altitude landing at 4:30 because my shoulders were killing me (much harder flying a flex wing rather than my "old man glider".
?
After landing I watched in amazement as John, Adam, Alek, Christian, Erika (and others?) floated and climbed?VERY high?right over the field for a VERY long time. During this time the wind switched from the east to the west and I knew a convergence was setting up with marine air blowing in off of the Bay.
?
I still wanted to fly the new Talon so rather than launching again in the U2 I resigned myself to setting up the T2 figuring that the convergence would be over before I could get up to enjoy it.
?
I finished setting up and launched the Talon into the westerly wind as John and everyone else was landing. It was 6:20 now and I was pretty sure I had missed out on the REALLY COOL convergence flying. The T2 towed nicely in the fairly still evening air and Windsor dropped me at 2,500 feet in pretty much nothing. I figured if anything was left of the convergence it would have moved further east so I headed towards a few scruffy looking clouds in that direction.
?
?I had dropped to 1,600 feet and was just about to give up when my 5030 came to life. It took a minute to find the best of it but then I headed back up topping out at about 3,500 feet next to a fuzzy cloud extending to the north. I couldn't resist playing around in the wisps for a while but then I climbed about 200 feet up the west side of the cloud and headed north.
?
?For nearly two miles I cruised along the side of this beautiful cloud with the sun to the west and my?shadow and it's rainbow (my glory) following along to my side. I have flown many hours and lots of miles in my time as a hang glider pilot but this was a pretty special flight.?A real gift that I won't soon forget. Too bad I didn't have a camera.
?
After an hour or so I was pretty beat so I headed back over the field but still had trouble getting down through the buoyant air. Boated around and watched Mike Balk and Lauren doing pattern tows below me. Finally put it on a wing tip, augured down?and landed around 7:30.
?
I've flown countless days at Highland but never had one quite like this. Hope this magical flying holds on for the fly in this weekend.
?
See you there.
?
Paul
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Yes and yes. I've moved to New York City, but I am in DC area fairly often for work and visiting family and friends. I have yet to figure out where to keep my glider in the city, so for now when I do fly, it will be around here. This morning I drove from NY to Ridgely since my glider was there and I have some stuff to do in DC tomorrow.Scott wrote:I thought I heard Alek was moving away from the area---is that true Alek? Or are you still around?
The flying was amazing. I've heard of days like this, but now I am a beleiver. There was lift all over the place. Since it was really easy to stay up and I wasn't going anywhere it was play time. I tried thermalling using figure 8's instead of circles. Harder, but I was still going up. So I tried the infomous monkey bar technique... major PIO, but . When I had my fill I landed to give the demo U2 a spin. Spun that around for a while getting up to 5400. Slightly goofed on the landing though. If you haven't tried it, what they tell you about that glider is all true - U2 is very very nice!
Alek