Woodstock Thursday

[uplandann]

Forecast shaping up for WS Thursday WNW 10-20 (average 14).
I could be up there to help 1:30p-3:30 p ...

Ann

[garys]

Bruce and I are in. ETA 2:00 Gary Smith; Cell 540-686-0351

[rlweber]

I plan to arrive late- eta 5:30 pm.- Glassoff time.

Randy

[uplandann]

Great! see you there around 2p.
Ann

[chuckok]

Shooting for 4:00 if I can break away from work.

[chuckok]

Snookered! Work in the way!

[XCanytime]

Gary Smith, Bruce Engen, Jon Brantley, and Randy Weber flew Woodstock today. All soared nicely, with Jon getting his first soaring flight in moderate turbulence. Bruce flew his Falcon 225, Jon his Falcon 195. After some business in Herndon, I got to launch around 4P and was able to give body rides to Gary, Bruce, and Jon after they landed an hour+ later. Looking forward to Jon's report. Bacil

[uplandann]

Jon, congrats on your first soaring flight! It was great meeting Gary (and SubDude the hang-dog), Jon, Bruce, John C., Basil ... and I think I met Randy although I thought there was a 'Tony' but I'm a little bad with names. I appoligize if I called you Tony, Randy

Anyway, it was great to assist with three of the launches: Gary, Bruce, and Jon, and see how it's done. Wish I could have stayed longer.

Ann

[sailin]

Wow what a day!!! I got my first soaring flight today at Woodstock......it was amazing and I am still completely stoked about it!!!!!

First I want to say a big thank to John Dullahan who graciously offered to observe me even though he wasn't going to be flying today. John,It was a pleasure to meet you and I can't wait to fly with you sometime soon......thank you! I also want to thank Bacil, who even though he wasn't flying today, gave us rides back up to the launch. I also really appreciated all the post flight talk with you Bacil, it was very helpful.

I arrived at launch and set up around 2pm. John met me up there about 3pm and we begin to analyze the conditions. It was blowing fairly strong but without all the freight trains rolling through like on Friday. There were plenty of nice launch cycles and Gary S. started it out with a very nice launch. Bruce was next on his Falcon 225. After watching him for a short while on his big Falcon, I was up next. I had a nice straight in cycle that wasn't too strong and I was off the ground. Last Friday I was really focused on having a very conservative first Woodstock flight and didn't try and soar, so I flew pretty much out of the lift band and headed north (right) after launch, cruised down the ridge for a bit and then headed to the LZ ( a short but sweet flight .
Today, I turned north again after launch but stayed in the lift band this time (still conservatively out in front of the ridge so I didn't get blown over the back) and I started to climb. I headed further north to the north finger ( I think this is what Dan had referred to it as) and I started to really climb, and then really climb some more! I couldn't hardly believe it....first time I was ever really going UP. I pretty much just moved back and forth from the north finger to back over launch, with the area where the north finger hits the main ridge being good consistent lift. Although I never felt like I was getting blown over the back......I was parked several times while flying just better than trim speed. I had a couple of uncommanded turns that kept me honest as well. After a while I figured that I should probably come down so I headed over to the LZ with LOTS of altitude. I didn't have a vario on my glider but I talked to Bruce afterwards and he said he maxed out around 4200 AGL and that I was probably around 4000 AGL ......higher than I've ever been!!! The air over the LZ was very bumpy. I saw Gary S do what I thought was a set up for landing and so I circled high above to watch what he was going to do so I could put it in my playbook for my landing.........after a few minutes he headed back over to the ridge and began to climb again. At the time I figured he had just decided he wanted to fly some more so he headed back to the ridge....WRONG.....he didn't like the rowdy air over the LZ and was going to try later. Not knowing this I started my descent to set up my landing. It was pretty bumpy all the way down ........right up to about 10 feet off the ground. I did my DBF making sure to keep a lot of speed up coming in on final and ended up with a nice landing on my feet with just a couple steps. It was a perfect ending to an awesome first soaring flight for me. All in all it was a 1 hour and 10 minute flight for me!!!!!!
I think I am going to be stoked about this for a long time!!!
Thanks again to everybody,
Hope to fly with you all again soon,
Jon

[sailin]

Ann it was great to meet you too and a big thank you for wire crewing. Hope to fly with you soon!!

Jon

[mcelrah]

Congratulations, Jon - guess you're hooked now!

Felicitations to all who flew and assisted.

Ann, glad you made it out. There may be a training hill opportunity this long weekend. Watch this space...

- Hugh

[tdilisio]

I thought there was a 'Tony' but I'm a little bad with names. I appoligize if I called you Tony, Randy

There was a Tony there... due to a ground handling error resulting in a torn leading edge... he opted not to fly .

[tdilisio]

The only video for this day that came out was of Bruce E launching his 225. Sorry folks. The one of my ground handling problem was too zoomed in to make sense of.

[Matthew]

Sail Tape-- it comes in all colors-- put it in your kit bag-- also, white parachute cord-- use it to replace torn batten strings.

Matthew

[Danny Brotto]

Torn batten strings? You need a new glider.

Danny Brotto

[Matthew]

And don't forget packing tape and duck tape!!!! Actually Gorilla tape is better than duck tape!


Matthew