Woodstock 10/16

[XCanytime]

Looking pretty good for a Woodstock flight this Saturday. Hopefully not too strong on the back side of the departing nor'easter and nice fall colors blossoming. Might even be some wave action. Bacil

[chuckok]

Assuming the Bacilcast holds, and good for a Falcon ...

[XCanytime]

Strong forecast tomorrow at Woodstock. Anybody seriously thinking of going? Bacil

[chuckok]

I think this thread has moved to Woodstock on Saturday 10/16
...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4578

[John Dullahan]

The wind velocity will probably be high, especially in the afternoon - though with Woodstock we won't really know until we are there.

I intend to arrive early, around 10 am, and have a look-see.

[XCanytime]

I think this thread has moved to Woodstock on Saturday 10/16
...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4578

No it hasn't. I posted on Monday 10/11 about tomorrow 10/16 plain as day. Three days later the same subject is repeated. Bacil

[silverwings]

Sorry Bacil, I must have overlooked your post when I started mine. I am optimistic about flying there tomorrow.

[sailin]

If others are going, I will as well. If it becomes H2 Falconable I would love to fly if someone is willing to observe me. Even if it doesn't become H2 Falconable I can help with wire crewing.
Who's going and what time are you planning on getting there???

Jon

[John Dullahan]

Jon,

I had intended to arrive at 10:00 am, but decided to let my visitors sleep in a little, giving us an ETA of around noon. I will be glad to observe you, provided it's not too strong or gusty.

[sailin]

Great John D., thank you. I will see you up there around noon.

thanks,
jon

[carweill]

I'll give Woodstock a try.
It could be blown out. We'll see.


Carlos

[silverwings]

I will shoot for 12:30 ish.

[silverwings]

Quite a few pilots at Woodstock today. Fairly breezy but with more lighter cycles as the day went on. Bacil launched first followed by John D around 3:30. The rest of us waited a bit later starting with Dan Tuck, Carlos, and Randy. I launched at 5:00 and later Gary Smith and Greg Sessa (Falcon) flew. Bacil previously radioed that it was turbulent but by the time I launched it was pretty nice and mostly I was flying at 22 - 24 mph and had a nice 1:15 flight. 3 pilots (including Jon waiting for his observer to return) ended up not flying.

[XCanytime]

Excellent day at Woodstock today. Got there just after 11A to very strong conditions at launch and plenty of clouds showing a 30 knot wind at cloudbase. Waited for other arrivals. Carlos, John Dullahan (with nephew Ben and his girlfriend Eva), and Dan Tuckwiller got there in the next hour+. By 12:30 the winds at base had slowed somewhat, and some lulls started appearing in between the strong cycles. Jon and Amy showed up and we retired to the parking lot to warm up in some sun and wind shadow and talk shop. Randy Weber, John Middleton, Greg Sessa, and Chuck O'Keefe showed up just before 2P as things started settling down even more. The sky had dried up completely by that time. Everybody scurried for space to set up. Tony Dilisio and Gary Smith arrived later on. I launched at 3:30P into a nice cycle and was hit by strong lift out of the slot. Slowly made my way SW to the Edinburg Gap, fighting a prominent west cross on the ridge. Halfway to the gap I saw that John had launched and was heading my way. I climbed in a nice thermal to 4400' MSL a few miles before the gap and up to John's altitude. He pulled VG and left me in the dust. He hit strong lift in front of Waonaze Peak and beamed up into the sunlight. I didn't see him any more; he made it 36+ miles to Massanutten Peak, landing on the SW side of Rt. 33. I spent 45 minutes over the rockpiles in front of Waonaze Peak, slowly climbing up to 3700' MSL and penetrating out towards the first LZs along Rt. 675. Didn't lose much and jumped over onto Short Mountain. There was still a very prominent west cross on Short. I made it halfway down the 8 mile stretch that is Short Mountain before coming to the conclusion that I would run out of daylight way short of the Peak slogging against the cross. So I turned around and jumped back onto the main ridge. Flew back to launch and descended through some major chop over the LZ for a nice landing at 5:30P. Carried the glider over to the breakdown area, where a thermal broke off and the glider shot upward about 3 feet. I had to pull the glider back down by the downtubes . By 6P the LZ had settled down, and the remaining 6 pilots in the air all had nice landings. John, Ben, Eva, Carlos, Gary, and I had a nice dinner at Christina's Cafe, listening to the Rhonda Sager trio perform old classics from the 40's and 50's. Pics tomorrow.

Bacil

[A0213]

Hello,

I enjoyed spending the day with you all! Thanks again for the ‘shop’ talk before you all launched! I have really found it helpful to talk with the individual pilots about their experiences with the sites… and just flying in general. I know with certainty that all of these chats will help me become a more successful pilot in the near future.

Speaking of near future… I have to introduce the newest member to the family… my Falcon 145!! I got the word that it has arrived! I am anticipating that the official hand-off will be sometime in the next few days… I am SO excited!!!

See you all in the skies soon!!!!

-Amy

[XCanytime]

The sea of trees that is Short Mountain.

Looking OTB of Short. Kennedy Peak in the distance.

Looking SW towards Harrisonburg.

Looking NE towards launch.

Jumping back onto the main ridge.

[XCanytime]

Some color in Little Fort Valley.

Moonrise and a glider higher than the moon :-).

[Dave Proctor]

Amy---Congratulations on the crisp, new, bouncing baby glider.

JohnD- Congratulations on running the ridge. Wish I coulda joined you. Hopefully soon.

[mcelrah]

What he said. - Hugh

[DanTuck]

Another great day at WS on Saturday. Conditions were strong at first and I waited it out for awhile after Bacil reported lots of turbulence from the air. I finally launched around 4:30 and found the air to be chunky but not too bad, and actually pretty smooth up above 1K over. The West cross and the winds aloft were pretty strong on the ridge. I slowly headed down to the Edinburg Gap but didn't get high enough to try to jump it. But at least I made it to the Gap for the first time. After that I came back up towards launch and flew around with lots of birds while conditions smoothed out as the sun began to set. I decided to land when the LZ was completely shaded by the trees and flared a little late. Went to my knees for the first time in months, oh well. Still a really fun day.

PS - Congrats on the new bird, Amy! Looking forward to your first flight report.