Sunday, 10/31

[Ward Odenwald]

Both Woodstock and the Pulpit are looking soarable with non-threatening winds aloft. Whose flying and where?

[uplandann]

I can go to Woodstock on Sunday...

Ann

[Luis]

I will like to go to woodstock

Luis

[rasmussenv]

It does look like it may be really nice! And as early as 11am, which is nice with the early sunsets. Heck, maybe I'd even be able to be back for the trick or treaters!

My car is still loaded from yesterday, and I'd love to go to any location that a willing observer will be! Please post or PM me or call my cell - seven oh three 576 two nine six 0 - if you are available to observe.

[Ward Odenwald]

Going to Woodstock, ETA 10:30.

Ward

[uplandann]

Will there be an observer there?? Hugh? Bacil? Anybody?

Forecast looking good:

(NWS)3 Miles ESE Woodstock VA (I got this by clicking mouse right on top of the ridge, also comfirmed with ADDS graph)
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 58. Northwest wind between 8 and 10 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Winds aloft, around 20-30 knots around 2pm, and backing down quite a bit by 4pm. The hourly forcast graph shows WNW shifting to NW around 3pm (weather underground also shows WNW after 11am, shifting to NW sometime between 2-5pm).

I am planning to arrive around 12:30pm.

Ann
five4oh four1four 4five5zero

[sailin]

Hi all,
I am very interested in tomorrow too!! Are there any observers heading out that would be willing?????
thanks,
Jon

[dbodner]

I'm seriously thinking of going. Is anyone else seeing high winds aloft, too?

[mcelrah]

I'm in, will observe, maybe PG too. - Hugh

[uplandann]

Alright! Thank's Hugh!

Ann

[Matthew]

We're in. I can Observe HG and PG, if suitable.

ETA 1pm.

Matthew

[uplandann]

Who would be willing to coordinate a ride back to the top if I get a flight? I'm planning on being there around 12:30p and need to leave by 6:00p... Valerie? I think you wanted to be home in time to meet trick or treeters... what's your plan?

If you want you could give me a call: 5four0-4one4-four55oh
Ann

[rasmussenv]

Hey, Ann - you'll learn no one gets abandoned. I certainly can help - I plan to try to leave my car at the bottom - but I bet others can as well. It all depends on who is at the bottom when you are ready to go back up, but I think you can rest assured someone will.

[sailin]

Alright!!
ETA around noon

thanks,
Jon

[carweill]

Heading to Woodstock

Carlos

[rasmussenv]

What a spectacular day! Lots and lots of gliders in the air. I got a 1:45m soaring flight and had a safe, if not gorgeous, landing (as did most I witnessed).

For the details: I arrived about 10:45 at the launch site. There was already a small crowd - about eight vehicles– Dan Tuckwiler and others setting up, at least one glider very close to being ready to launch. I didn’t stay long, dropped my wing, then headed down to the LZ to position my vehicle, hoping I’d catch a ride back to the top with someone checking out the LZ. As I reached the LZ I saw that a glider had launched – not sure who that first one was.

On the way to the LZ I called Ann and Jon, but they were both an hour out. At the LZ I found three friendly folks from Kitty Hawk Kites – they had just checked the LZ out and took off to the top. There were several streamers set up – I don’t know if they are the ones to thank or who set them. I pulled out my harness and other equipment, and before I had fully unloaded, prepared to wait and read the paper, Peter walked up. He is a PG and was at WS for the first time, having moved to ?Charles Town WV? in June. He has 13 years flying all over the world, most recently living in California. I knew he and Hugh would have fun talking. He was hoping to fly, gave me a lift to launch and immediately was able to connect with Hugh. It never ended up being the right conditions to PG.

Back at launch, the crowd had grown, a couple of Kitty Hawk folk in single surface had launched. I helped wire crew Bacil as I was setting up. He immediately radioed that it was choppy and I shouldn’t launch! We think a gust hit just as he launched (to give him that negative impression), as it didn’t seem bad. It was another 45 minutes or so before I was ready, and had crewed a few others who were clearly smoothly flying, including Dan Tuck, Ward O, and Gary ?. I had a comfortable launch at about 1:30 – under the observation of Hugh, and the help of Joe Shad, and ? argh – I think Jon. Thank you again! I heard before I launched that Matthew and Karen were at the LZ, but hadn’t gotten to launch before I took off.

During my flight I stayed very close to launch – getting as high as 5000 msl at times, and easily staying at 3800 msl or more. Lots of 360s, thermalling high. A nice group along the ridge. Listening to radio it was clear that Bacil and Ward and Dan Tuck were heading off to elsewhere

I soared for 1hr45m, observing from above many more launches following me. There were easily eight wings or more at any time soaring the ridge – and some had left to go afield. And there were several wings that took off after I landed. At the time I headed in to land, I’d guess there were 16 vehicles along the road near the path to launch, most with ladders / other HG support equipment, and another several up at the path to the observation tower. And about 4 or 5 at the LZ.

.A little over an hour after I launched I heard Ann do a radio check, launched shortly thereafter, and she went pretty much straight to the LZ. She probably had the nicest landing I ‘saw’. I stayed up until she was close to broken down, and saw another couple head in to land, and then went in myself. An hour and 45 minutes is plenty of flight time. Gary and another (my memory escapes me) were on the ground with Ann when I landed, and Gary D was there as well, talking to Ann. I flared and landed running, but not hard enough (flare nor run), I guess, as the nose dropped forward. Ah well, ugly but not a problem. And every landing I saw was similarly problematic. The LZ didn't have really bad conditions - but somewhat switchy.

As I started to break down, I got a call from Ward. He reported he and Bacil had landed safely beyond the Gap (sorry – I am not a cross-country person, and don’t know the geography). He reported Bacil had no cell, had called him from a farm, and Ward was going to look for a ride to get closer to I-81.

Soon after this, just as Ann and Gary and Gary were about to head back to launch, we saw a landing that, from our perspective, looked scary – not oriented at the right angle / height. Dan Tuck, who had landed a little while after me, went running to it (followed by us), got there first and found the pilot had landed safely on the land closer to the river, below the trees circling the LZ. I don’t have the name of the pilot. He was perfectly fine.

All this time (it was getting to be 4 or 5 by now) and Hugh had been assisting and had not had a chance to set up and launch himself. Ann, Gary and Gary took off to help Hugh finally launch, and Carlos had landed by then and headed up with them as well as I continued to pack up. When I finished and headed towards I-81, I called Ward to make sure he was not stranded. By this time he had gotten a ride with some friendly folk who promised to get him back to launch. As I didn’t have a way to reach Bacil, and had started/ended early to get by to trick-or-treaters, I trusted these cross-country folk to find each other.

As it ended up, I got home just before dark settled around 6:30, in plenty of time for the trick-or-treaters and regret rushing away since I’ve had a total of SEVEN! And it is now 8pm. As it ends I wish I'd have stuck around as everyone finished their flights. Still. Super day – just glorious. Others will have other details.

[uplandann]

What a great day! I got my first flight at Woodstock, finally! Smooth launch, straight(ish) flight to LZ, and a smooth two step landing. What a surreal experience. I haven't been that high in four years and had forgotten what it was like being that high, and having that much space beneath my feet was, well, a little terrifying, but exhilarating! Very weird air 200feet over the LZ, and got a little taste of that weightless thing as I went up then dowwn very quickly. I remembered Hugh's and Karen's advice about how to set up my approach and had a very smooth landing uphill.

Safe and happy on the ground, I looked up to the ridge, I saw at least seven other hang gliders soaring contentedly in the ridge lift. Most that stayed in the lift had flights around two hours (more or less). Valerie soared for an 1hr45min. Gary Smith, Carlos, Dan T. all landed while I was breaking down in LZ and had flights of around two hours.

One pilot with a purple glider (was it Karen's... no, hers was purple and pink...)was setting up their approach to the LZ when they took a very sharp turn and disappeared behind the trees! But there was no crashing sound... what happened? Several of us went over to investigate and expecting to see a glider in a tree or something.... Turned out it was one of the pilots from Kitty Hawk. His landing was uneventful with no damage to glider or Pilot! He had landed somewhere between the tree line and the river! His name is Alex. He said he thinks he got into a rotor behind the trees...

After checking on the pilot, Gary S., Gary D. Carlos rode back up the mountain with me. I crewed for Hugh and another pilot and gave the dogs a good pet before heading to my car. Met Ellis as I headed home down the mountain.

Thank you Hugh for your sage instillations (and everyone who crewed for me) and helping me get off the mountain safely. Thanks Joe S. for helping me get that nose batten in! Thank you Gary S. for loading my glider, and Gary Devan for driving my car down. Also, 'thank you' to the person who helped me with my radio and, where you on my keel too helping set the attitude?

Hope you had a nice flight and landing Jon.

Who were the pilots that went over the back, Bacil and Ward? Hope everyone had smooth landings.

Can't wait to do it again!

Maybe we should call this The Halloween Fly-in!

Ann

[Matthew]

Yes. A great day at WS! Karen and I met up with Tony D and Jon in the LZ at 1:15 and then took the long ride up to launch... stuck behind a bazillion leaf peepers going up and down the road and getting stuck trying to passs each other. Ugh!!! It took almost 45 minute to get up to launch . We never saw Valerie or Gary Smith or Ward. A bunch of KHKers were there. As noted, one blew his approach and landed in the flood plain on the other side of the tree line of the LZ--- next to the river. Another got blown over the back and put it down somewhere--- both reported to be OK.

I didn't get to launch till 4:10 and had an easy trip up and back to Signal Knob on the North Point of the ridge-- staying 2200-2500 over the whole way up and back. I tried to get Karen, who was higher than me, to follow, but my radio was being fritzy. It was wonderful on the ridge with long lift lines that extended way out in front-- conversely, it was quite nasty trying to get down with bullet thermals kicking off in the valley. At one point while trying to lose altitude I gave up the fight and took one of the thermals back up. Landed a couple of minutes after Hugh at about 6pm.

Karen, me, Hugh, Joe Schad and Zelda, Carlos, Jon, Bacil, Dan Tuck and David Bodner shared our tales of glory over dinnner at the Strasburg Inn.

Matthew

[mcelrah]

I had a nice 55 minute flight with Dave Bodner launching right before me at about 4:50. Thanks to Gary Smith and Carlos for coming back up and helping me get down to launch, and to Ann and Jon for wirecrewing. Thanks also to Peter Hume, a PG pilot who didn't fly but crewed earlier in the day - and to Gary Devan, who, as he often does, drove out with no intention of flying just to help out. What a guy!

I found widespread gentle lift to 2300 over launch (5500 msl) went halfway to Strasburg, then came back and pushed out into the valley trying to get down. Went 3/4 of the way to route 11, with slow penetration into the wind even with 3/4 VG. Exceeded 50 mph in GPS groundspeed coming back to the LZ and had to work to get down. Kept spiraling, but whenever I straightened into the wind to maintain position on the upwind edge of the LZ, the energy from the spiral would cause me to zoom back up. Tried to burn it in on downwind and base, but still found myself too high (saw the trees thrashing at the bottom of the LZ, so that may have had something to do with it). Had to get creative with my pattern to avoid the cows, arrived at ground effect with a lot of energy, did a trial flare resulting in a slight pop-up, then flared for real with a skip-step landing. Only after one of the Kitty hawk guys said I had had him worried did I notice how close I came to his parked glider.

Got partially broken down, then caught a ride with Carlos to get my car. Ellis had been waiting up top for conditions to be paraglidable, but alas not. A bunch of us celebrated at the Strasburg Inn. Enjoyed seeing Joe Schad's Zelda after a long time. Congrats to the guys who went XC, to Ann on her first mountain flight in a long time, and to Jon and Valerie on successful soaring flights. It was cool to see the Kitty Hawk folks getting to fly the mountains. Linda Salamone's daughter Dana was among them and had a nice launch. This was my third straight day of driving out to the Shenandoah and back from Maryland - had duty at the sailplane club Saturday - so I'm pretty tired, but happy.

- Hugh

[DanTuck]

Super fun day. I launched around 1:30 and almost immediately found a great thermal just to the North of launch up to 3,500' over. It was cold and hazy up there and I cruised around while Ward launched and got up. After hanging out near launch for some time, I started to venture South with Ward, trying to catch up to Bacil who was already crossing the Edinburg Gap. It was a West cross on the ridge so the going was slow but finally we made it down to the gap. Found decent lift by the rock piles and climbed up to about 3,700 MSL. I left the ridge in a great lift line heading right in the direction we wanted (I think) with Ward follwing close behind. By the time I got to where I thought it was okay to turn left and actually cross the gap, we had climbed to about 4K MSL. But we got pretty well drilled getting across losing about 1,500'. I climbed back up on Short Mtn. working the steep faces and bowls cut into the ridge. Eventually I got back up to about 3,500 MSL which is about 7 or 800 over that ridge and continued down to the end of it. Didn't find much lift and could see that Ward was doing a bit better than me back North a little ways. From only a few hundred over Short Mtn., looking back at Kern Mtn. is uh, ridiculous. It's a massive sea of trees. I wasn't about to try to jump that gap without another couple grand so I tried to find some lift down there but I couldn't. I didn't stay around too long looking and started to head back North beneath Ward who was still heading South and quite a bit higher than me. Okay, new goal - make it back to launch. I found some good lift at the other end of Short and got back up to 4K MSL before I made the jump back to the main ridge. I actually found lift in the middle of the gap and made a few turns as I drifted in. Back on the ridge it was pretty bulletproof. I stayed above 3K MSL the whole way back. Up near launch I found another great thermal that was barely drifting. That one got me back up to 5K MSL where it was very cold. Finally beat, I tried to land. For like 30 minutes. It was seriously difficult to get down and when I eventually did, there was crap lifting off everywhere. I got popped on final, then had a wing lifted while flaring and had to run like a track star to keep it under control. My flight was 2:35 and that was the first time I've crossed the Edinburg Gap and flew on Short Mtn. I'll count that as my longest distance flight, to the end of Short and back - 26 miles. Next stop Harrisonburg.

[XCanytime]

Quite a day at Woodstock today. Got there just before noon to find 2 KHK guys already soaring, with other KHKers Jeff and Will setting up. Locals were Dan Tuckwiller, Ward Odenwald, Valerie, Hugh, Gary Smith, Jon, and Carlos. Will launched and got up easily. It started breezing up pretty good, so I got off just after 1P and got hit by strong lift out of the slot. Slowly headed down to the Edinburg Gap, feeling out the air. Ward and Dan took off, with the plan of joining me in an attempt to run the ridge to Massanutten Peak. Found a good thermal heading towards the Gap LZs, got to 4500' MSL, and jumped onto Short Mountain at 3000' MSL. Halfway down Short Mountain I got the highest of the flight, to 5300' MSL. Flew to the end of Short and drifted towards Kerns Mountain with a thermal that got me to 4300' MSL. At this time Ward and Dan had jumped the Edinburg Gap onto Short Mountain. Reached Kerns at 3000' MSL. The ridge was working with a slight north cross so I headed towards New Market Gap. Found another thermal and climbed up to 4400' MSL. Didn't find much else and glided towards the New Market Gap. Dan flew down to the end of Short and turned around. Ward ended up landing out off of either Short or Kerns Mountain. I jumped the New Market Gap with a few hundred over and made the other side at ridge level. On the other side of the gap it was way north cross, and I got below the ridge for the first time in the flight. I flew for a mile or so, struggling to get up above the ridge. Finally I came upon a nook in the mountain that had a north facing wall. I backed into the corner and finally popped up above the mountain. Cruised down the ridge and found another thermal to 4000' MSL. At this point there were some "close" LZs to the west, but beyond that nothing but a long glide out over seas of trees. Ward squawked that he had landed and it was north cross on the ground. I decided to fly out over the LZs and if I found something, I would drift down the valley and not go back to the mountain. Didn't find much and put down on a dairy farm near the little hamlet of Athlone, VA., 27 miles from launch, and 11 miles short of Massanutten Peak. The landowners Scott and Kelly were very nice and gave me a ride all the way back to launch. They had never been to the launch area and didn't know a fire tower existed on the ridge. They were impressed by the view from the slot and vowed to come back in the future to watch us fly. Retrieved the glider from the dairy farm and hightailed it to the Strasburg Inn for dinner with the group. Pics later.

Bacil

[deveil]

there was a guy that i'd helped launch immediately upon my getting there. he was already moving his glider on down and was in full winter gear so i couldn't actually see who he was. there was something familiar about him and i asked if he was kelvin pierce. but we were already doing the thru-trees-shuffle and all he said was something that sounded like,"no, i'm better looking than him." well, it really wasn't the time for conversation and i wasn't sure if i'd put the guy off or something so i dropped it and we got him down and off.
shortly afterward i thought,"wait a minute, who's better looking (or more droll) than kelvin?! must've been him.

gary

[Matthew]

Didn't see Kelvin at WS. Randy Weber was there and so was Adam from Cumberland. No Kelvins.

And there were four women flying!!!

Matthew

[deveil]

well in that case, i should maybe make clear that i meant good looking as good looking and droll as dry or wry ( not twisted or perverse(!) ).

[sailin]

Arrived at launch about 1230 to find lots of activity in the set up area. Lots of familiar faces and lots I had never meet before. I found a little spot in one of the upper corners to start setting my Falcon up. Part way through the set up process Hugh spoke up that Matthew and Karen were going to be in the LZ shortly and if anyone wanted to take there cars down to the LZ and get a ride up, they should head down. So I did. Thank you Matthew and Karen for the ride back up to launch and it was great to meet you both. By the time we got back up to launch (took forever to get back up the road with all the cars) there was still a good amount of activity in the set up area and lots of gliders in the sky. I finished setting up and got ready to go.
A Big thank you to Hugh for helping out with us new boots again so and helping me maneuver over to the launch slot. I owe a thank you to Dave Bodner, Randy Weber and and unknown person for wire crewing as well...Thank you guys!! It was 1530 by the time I launched. I launched in to lots of lift and had a blast just cruising up and down the ridge, staying pretty much in the "fishbowl" Every now and again I would venture out just a bit off the ridge and seemed to find mostly lift further out as well.......AWESOME!!! I have never been in the sky with that many gliders before......very cool!!! I saw a ton of hawks flying below and chased a beautiful bald eagle for a while too.......my Falcon was no match for him so it was a pretty short chase After about 55 minutes of flying the ridge I decided to head out and land. There was still plentiful lift over the valley and specifically over the LZ. I lost my altitude with lots of spiral turns over the top of the LZ and prepared for my approach. The wind sock in the LZ was showing a pretty north wind so I planned accordingly. As I was turing from downwind to base, and again base to final I think I gained and lost 20 feet in about 2 seconds....bumpy turns!!!. Once on final I got bumped around a good bit until I was about 10 feet off the ground (similar experience last time I landed here). I landed on my feet but had to run it out about 8 or 10 steps to keep things smooth. All in all an amazing 1 hour flight!
The evening finished off with a good Chicken sandwich and beer at the Strausburg Inn with a great cast of other pilots. Thanks to Bacil and Dan Tuck for hanging out a bit after everyone else had left out and talking some more..... I really enjoyed it. Can't wait to fly with you all again!!!

Also congratulations to my fellow H2's Valerie (way to go Valerie on an 1:45 flight!!!!!) and Ann!!! And again a big thank you to Hugh for helping us new folk along.

Jon