CHGPA Annual Fly-in Weekend: Sept 18-19, 2010

[deveil]

bringing about 5 lb of 'country ribs'

[davidtheamazing1]

Hi all, just wanted to amend my earlier post because I'm not going to be able to make the party on Sat I had already committed myself to something in town on Saturday. But I'll come out and see you all on Sunday.

FYI Gary's in charge on Sat!

[SheilaGardner]

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Bringing . . .
vegetarian pasta salad
non-vegetarian pasta salad
spinach dip
BBQ chicken with enough to share at least some
geocaching coordinates of the caches at the Pulpit

Sheila, Mark, Bridget and Charlotte

[deveil]

FYI Gary's in charge on Sat!

yeah right . let's stick with chief lacky

(also macaroni salad)

[flying_story]

I am coming and will bring some kind of garden tomato salad. If the winds look doable, I will take the paraglider to Kirshner's before showing up at the party.

Judy

[Gene]

I'll bring a roadside kill. Do you prefer squirrel, opossum or deer?

[deveil]

'guess it'll be the luck of the draw, but i'd say interstates for deer and back roads for vermin and such.
hittin' the road.

[deveil]

well...i found the job of cookout coordinator to be very challenging and rather than going into great detail, i think i can best summarize as follows:
i showed up. i said, "I am the leader. which way, uhmm, which way did they go?











'

[mcelrah]

Well, the fly-in turned out pretty d*** well for all the "flash-crowd" leaderless unstructuredness of it - and light and variable conditions Saturday and Sunday. Those of us who showed up on Friday were rewarded with long hang-glider flights in strongish north cross conditions. Dave Proctor launched first and flew 37-38 miles to cross Michaux State Forest. Congratulations Dave! I had said the word "retrieve" while explaining that my phone had decided to reprogram itself on the drive to Pulpit, so I had no phonebook. By the time Dave called, I was setting up, but John Dullahan, who had brought his active 8-year-old nephew Conor, graciously agreed to do the two-hour drive. Rich Bryant, a pioneer from the early days of hang-glider manufacturing (Highster), showed up with his U-2 - another long-time pilot getting back into the sport. Dan Tuckwiler had a long local flight. My errand Friday was to observe Jesse Yoder, a H2 pilot with a couple of mountain flights at Woodstock eager to bag another site. After Dave Bodner proved that it was Falcon-able in the strongish conditions, we got Jesse off from the gravel pad. He showed good strong launch runs all weekend and had a nice half-hour flight with an abbreviated pattern to get into the primary LZ and a perfect landing. Mark Cavanaugh had a nice late-day flight as the conditions backed down. I joined him for the last hour on the ridge and we both landed precisely at sunset. We celebrated at Mountain House.

Saturday brought many arrivals (if I leave you out, have mercy on an old man with CRS - "can't remember...stuff"). Valerie Rasmussen, a H2 with a lot of aerotow and mountain experience at Highland and Lookout, came to bag her first flights at local mountain sites and landing zones that aren't necessarily flat. She and Jesse pumped out three sleds apiece to the secondary in the light (sometimes over the back) launch conditions. The enthusiasm of these novice pilots was infectious and contributed to everyone's enjoyment of the weekend. Matthew and Karen, Carlos, Judy McCarty, Luis Chang, Mark and Sheila Gardner and their girls, Gary Devan (Master of Ceremony's), David O'Neal and his father in law, Petr (new PG pilot from Czech Republic who lives in Bethesda), Matt Ingram, Cragin. Everyone - HG, PG, single-surface and topless - took their sleds to the secondary "like men". Greg Sessa had flight of the day with 20 minutes and 200 over on his U-2. John Hopkinson, a wannabe PG pilot, introduced himself and contributed to the feast although he couldn't stay to eat. There was a brief run to Bill's Hill (exactly when Greg had found soarable conditions) only to find it crossing there. Late in the day, Ellis led another defection to Fisher's Road, navigating by sense of smell (no GPS). Mark graciously held the fireworks display for our late return.

Now the fireworks deserve to be dwelled upon: Mark had commented that the annual 4th of July display at the Mall in DC is "boring". Here we have a true connoisseur of the art form who generously contributed a substantial performance which surpassed the federal display in taste and variety, if not in scale. Thanks, Mark! (Afterwards, he carefully segregated the re-usable launchers from the disposable ones so that if the local constabulary showed up to confiscate things, they wouldn't get anything of value.)

Thanks is also due to Gary Devan for serving as grill master. The pot-luck feast came together well. There were lies, damn lies, and flying stories around the fire.

Sunday was a reprise of sleds to the secondary. Dave Bodner made pancakes (yum!). My trike partner Steve overflew launch while we were busy there and caught some pictures of the activity. (Ellis, if you know how to upload pictures to this site, please do.) Chris Hornberger, another prospective H2 who just took delivery of his new Falcon III, showed up with Christa (Krista?), another Lookout H2 and Pulse owner, who will be flying with us soon. It was great to meet all the new pilots, and old pilots interested in joining our groups. Thanks to everyone who cleaned up after the party. Mark C. contributed a very nice bottle of wine for a wine-and-cheese lunch as flying wound down.

The landowner from down the drive stopped by to chat at breakfast Sunday. We should make a goodwill contribution to the driveway, which is newly gravelled (I think we authorized such at a meeting last year, but need to follow through.)

Tired (but happy)! - Hugh

[pink_albatross]

If you noticed a trike flying over, that was Hugh's trike buddy Steve. He took the following pix:

[SheilaGardner]

Wow - what a fantastic Saturday! It was so great seeing everyone and that everyone who flew had great launches and landings - now that's a successful fly-in! Mark Cavanaugh's fireworks display was truly something to behold - absolutely amazing!!! THANK YOU!! Congratulations Gary on doing such a great job on fly-in coordinator In addition to everyone Hugh mentioned - it was also wonderful seeing Dan and Maureen Tomlinson, Ben & LE Herrick and Ellis!
Sheila

[deveil]

hugh is much too kind and generous, but hey, that's just him - he can't help himself. i do however feel a need to set the record straight in that john dullahan would be the one best described as the 'grill master' (now maybe i won't have to hear him complain about tHat fifteen years from now! ). the most i can take credit for was pounding a few nails into the ramp decking.
it was a great weekend. it had the feel of a family picnic where everyone shows up, unloads their goodies then just jumps in and does whatever it is that needs doing when it needs doing. pretty cool.
when the competition for last man standing ended in a four way split and we all hit the sack, one soul continued on alone putting things away and putting things in order - that's why you may have found, as i did, a random mixture of things in your cooler the next morning . i also suffer from CRS as well as the socially crippling CRN - "can't remember names". otherwise i would out the guy and you'd have a competent coordinator for next year. his name deserves mentioning, but someone will have to come to my rescue.

as we're making a group effort to note the faces in attendance, i'll add that it was good to see danny brotto in a cameo performance as danny brotto.
and the gardinator was still the gardinator - coolest dude on the planet. but then He can't help himself either
let me check,did i get my dig in at john?...yeah, okay, it's there.

[deveil]

OH! and the FIREWORKS! THE FRICKKEN FIREWORKS.
they were like...like...LIKE FIREWORKS MAN!

[Dave Proctor]

Friday was awesome. Sorry I had to replace all the hydraulic brake lines on the truck on Saturday (trust me when I say I would *much* rather have been at the Pulpit...or anywhere else for that matter) so I couldn't make it back. Sunday's forecast looked too wet at the Pulpit so since I was already home, I headed the other way to Highland (sorry again I do have to thank Hugh for making the OTB decision a no-brainer (my specialty) with the retrieve offer. At least this was one Pulpit fly-in that actually involved flying the Pulpit.

[dbodner]

one soul continued on alone putting things away and putting things in order - that's why you may have found, as i did, a random mixture of things in your cooler the next morning

So that's why I came back with more beer than I brought.

Our second ad hoc fly-in worked out well. Organization can be nice, but, with good people, it's not necessary.

[Dan T]

It was a really pleasant fly in. It was great to see everybody. A lot of H2s and P2s got to fly and everyone landed safely. The added feature of a terrific fireworks display and nobody winding up in jail and we didn't burn the forest down all made for a terrific informal fly in.

Dan

[DanTuck]

A great weekend! Friday was the good day but all 3 days were flyable. I had a nearly 3 hour flight on Friday topping out near base at 2,800' over launch. Saturday I had an extendo and landed my U2 in secondary for the first time. After circling in zero sink about 400' over the field for 5 minutes, I gave in and set it down with no problem. Then I watched as the Gardinator landed his Talon perfectly in the secondary. Pretty impressive. Sunday I had a sled straight to the secondary but this time my approach was better and my flare was exactly on the crest in the middle of field. It was very nice to see such nice launches and landings throughout the weekend from all pilots. The H2s' and P2s' enthusiasm was indeed infectious, and it was great to see some excited new pilots, especially with such solid skills. The food was tasty, the campfires were cozy, and the fireworks were fantastic. I have 40 GB of video and pictures to go through but I did slap together Mark's fireworks show. More video to come but until then, enjoy.

[pink_albatross]

Darn it. I stumbled on this too late, but it maybe something to keep in mind for next Pulpit fly-in:
house for vacation rental: 3 bedrooms, 1 Bath, historic home, 4 miles south of the pulpit. $125 a night. sleeps up to 6 people:
http://www.vrbo.com/187393

they even mention the "jump off" point for hang gliders

Very nice fly-in. Great to see everybody! The everybody-bring-something-to-share policy worked out very nicely.
And the fireworks were awesome!

[kcarra]

The everyone-bring-something worked almost too well! We were giving away bags of potato chip "prizes" to the last people left on Sunday. Even then I took a bunch of stuff to my office on Monday.

Ditto on the lots of fun stuff!

Karen

[SheilaGardner]

Just confirming again about John Dullahan being chef extraordinaire! In addition to fellow Fifi's - it was wonderful to see John and meet his adorable nephew and how great that Judy, Cragin and Danny were able to show up even tho it was later!

Gary - PLEASE don't stoke the gardinator's ego - his head is about to pop as it is Having said that - totally agree

Sheila

[John Dullahan]

Sheila,

It was great to see you, Mark, and your really cute daughters again. Conor's mom only reluctantly allowed him to come with me - she assumed it would be only rough and grown-up HG/PG types in attendance. I allayed her fears by showing her some photos of him with your girls, including one which Conor was supposed to take a photo of a launch on Friday, but took a video instead; not bad for an 8 year old! He still can't stop talking about the weekend, and I think the girls were a big part of the attraction!!

Here's the Picasso link to the video and photos (note Conor's sound effects:) You are invited to view a photo from John's photo album: Pulpit Sep 10

If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?u ... feat=email

[jyoder111]

I had a great time at my first CHGPA event. Everyone was welcoming and generous and it was a blast flying from the Pulpit for the first time. A special thanks goes out to Hugh, John, and Matthew for observing, and to everyone who helped as wire crew. Valerie and I were in good hands. Thanks to everyone who helped shuttle us back and forth from the LZ. I got one soaring flight and five sled runs over the course of the weekend! A great package deal for a H2.

Here's a youtube video of one of my sleds, in case anyone's interested. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K701R0XzXUQ[/youtube]

-Jesse Yoder

[deveil]

everyone ... jumps in and does whatever it is that needs doing when it needs doing. pretty cool... one soul continued on alone putting things away and putting things in order... but someone will have to come to my rescue.

i've put out inquiries but haven't been able to specifically determine the guilty party, so would the 'guilty party' do me the personal favor of sending me a pm and i'll pretend i got your name from someone else - i'll make it convincing. hell, i already made up lies about the gardinator (how's that sheila )

[mingram]

I was the last man standing/guilty party, but I need no recognition. Everyone pitched in their unique skill. Mine just happened to involve iPhone distraction, iPod tunes, and a midnight, OCD, cleanup effort.

I had a great weekend and can't wait to camp out at the Pulpit again. What a fantastic site and group of people. Thanks to all who came and helped make weak weather conditions a lot of fun.

Matt

[deveil]

nah, i don't think it was you i was thinking of - but thanks anyhow.

people were so wanting to give sOmeone credit for things having worked out well that i thought i could at lEast make an attempt to point them in the right direction.

gary

OCD ain't necessarily aLways a bad thing.