Hyner Labor Day weekend
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Hyner Labor Day weekend
The weather is looking quite good for Hyner this weekend. Comfortable days and cool nights. Lesser winds on Sunday and Monday. Should be a good turnout. If you haven't flown Hyner, this is a great opportunity to experience fun days and way fun nights. Bacil
Re: Hyner Labor Day weekend
Normally I'd be turning cartwheels about this weekend, but alas, I am so overburdened with work I can't go. But it looks great and my heart breaks to think of it. Take Bacil's advice and go.
I'll have to settle with one day at the Ellenville fly-in. Not the same.
I'll have to settle with one day at the Ellenville fly-in. Not the same.
Brian Vant-Hull
Re: Hyner Labor Day weekend
Hyner View treated lots of pilots pretty good on Sunday. I got to the LZ around 12:30P, listened to the locals talking about going up later, and decided to check into the motel and then head up, even though I saw 2 gliders already soaring above launch! The sky was pretty overdeveloped, and it was reported to be pretty breezy on launch. My wife and I checked in, then headed up. I quickly set up and got ready to go just as it got light on launch and a sink cycle brought down the 2 pilots I had seen soaring earlier, along with a few others that had just launched. I finally got up on launch around 3P and went immediately with a few pilots slowly climbing out over the bowl in front. Found some lift over the finger to the left and immediately climbed to my highest altitude of 160' over of my half hour flight. The lift quit, and I spent the rest of the flight below launch flying back and forth from the finger and its point to the ravine to the right of launch. I worked very hard at trying to get up, as Joe Gorrie patiently waited on launch for me to find a climb to above the wall. At one point I radioed to my wife "Are you enjoying the show?", and she radios back "Are you going to try to get any higher?" 
I had to laugh about it later 
. Anyway, I got scraped off the point, then decided to soar the ridge over the river. I made a dozen passes or so in some choppy lift along the river's edge, then got scraped off of there and went in and had a nice landing to the north. A bit later it got better, and it glassed a little, enabling pilots to enjoy smoother air. Later a new level of low was achieved at one of the campfires that appalled even the seasoned veterans. Monday morning there was a very thick fog bank, so even at 8A I decided to go up and do a cloud dive. Two others, John Wiseman and Dale Robinson, were already set up when I got to launch at 8:30A. Tom Curbishley was also there but did not set up. The winds were blowing lightly out of the south above the wall, but the streamers along the runway stayed limp. John launched first just before 10A and had a good run towards the limp streamers and got airborne. He then hit a sector of air that was blowing down the mountain (there are no streamers further down the mountain that may have shown this) and robbed him of airspeed. His glider sank some and terrain followed for a second or two, then "flew" out of the sector of air that robbed him of the airspeed (thus returning that airspeed nearly instantaneously to him). That restored airspeed, and even more airspeed gained from gravity (thank goodness the slope is steep!), restored the lift lost and increased the lift to enable John to fly a nice trajectory away from the ridge. I stepped up and commented to Tom that I hoped to do better. I did the same, despite my agressive run and good AOA. Dale wisely broke down after seeing the two less than optimum launches. The ensuing cloud dive (John's first) was very enjoyable, and flying through the misty air was relaxing. John and I had nice landings, and we analyzed our identical launches. Most pilots packed up and left, since the winds were blowing out of the south. My wife and I enjoyed a nice lunch at Sportsmans with Tom, who was on his way to the Pittsburgh area for business for the rest of the week. Tom hopes to link up with members of the Daedalus club and fly one of their sites after his work gets done. We then hiked around Hyner Run State Park and chatted with Rich Donahue, the sole remaining pilot in the LZ. Rich said that some locals were flying the Super Bowl site, so Judy and I set out to check out the site. By the time we got to the area where the Super Bowl is located, I saw no pilots in the sky, so we turned around and spent some time enjoying the Labor Day festivities on the riverfront in Lock Haven. A live band, plenty of food, and trinket shops abounded. We stayed for around an hour, then back to the Sportsmans for a nice dinner.
Bacil
I had to laugh about it later . Anyway, I got scraped off the point, then decided to soar the ridge over the river. I made a dozen passes or so in some choppy lift along the river's edge, then got scraped off of there and went in and had a nice landing to the north. A bit later it got better, and it glassed a little, enabling pilots to enjoy smoother air. Later a new level of low was achieved at one of the campfires that appalled even the seasoned veterans. Monday morning there was a very thick fog bank, so even at 8A I decided to go up and do a cloud dive. Two others, John Wiseman and Dale Robinson, were already set up when I got to launch at 8:30A. Tom Curbishley was also there but did not set up. The winds were blowing lightly out of the south above the wall, but the streamers along the runway stayed limp. John launched first just before 10A and had a good run towards the limp streamers and got airborne. He then hit a sector of air that was blowing down the mountain (there are no streamers further down the mountain that may have shown this) and robbed him of airspeed. His glider sank some and terrain followed for a second or two, then "flew" out of the sector of air that robbed him of the airspeed (thus returning that airspeed nearly instantaneously to him). That restored airspeed, and even more airspeed gained from gravity (thank goodness the slope is steep!), restored the lift lost and increased the lift to enable John to fly a nice trajectory away from the ridge. I stepped up and commented to Tom that I hoped to do better. I did the same, despite my agressive run and good AOA. Dale wisely broke down after seeing the two less than optimum launches. The ensuing cloud dive (John's first) was very enjoyable, and flying through the misty air was relaxing. John and I had nice landings, and we analyzed our identical launches. Most pilots packed up and left, since the winds were blowing out of the south. My wife and I enjoyed a nice lunch at Sportsmans with Tom, who was on his way to the Pittsburgh area for business for the rest of the week. Tom hopes to link up with members of the Daedalus club and fly one of their sites after his work gets done. We then hiked around Hyner Run State Park and chatted with Rich Donahue, the sole remaining pilot in the LZ. Rich said that some locals were flying the Super Bowl site, so Judy and I set out to check out the site. By the time we got to the area where the Super Bowl is located, I saw no pilots in the sky, so we turned around and spent some time enjoying the Labor Day festivities on the riverfront in Lock Haven. A live band, plenty of food, and trinket shops abounded. We stayed for around an hour, then back to the Sportsmans for a nice dinner.Bacil