Sunday 11/7

Post by **carweill** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 11:33 pm

Considering Pulpit for Sunday

anyone else

Carlos

Post by **DanTuck** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 11:55 pm

I'm thinking about Pulpit for tomorrow. I'll check again in the morning.

Post by **Luis** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 12:39 am

Like to join

heaviek · Post by **heaviek** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 7:44 am

Still trying to catch up on weather products. The rapid update fsl and updated noaa city forecasts seem to be dropping the north hiccup.
http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/beta/plot_ ... 1289156400

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... =graphical

I am heading to Woodstock, but I have multiple reasons to head to Virginia over PA.

Kev

Post by **mcgowantk** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 8:08 am

I am re-thinking the Pulpit. Some forecasts are showing winds in the teens up there with a breeze sufficiently strong for woodstock. The intellicast wind and USAir launch code are showing close to 15 around Hagerstown and 10-15 around Woodstock.

I am packing up and will think about it some more.

Tom McGowan

Post by **markc** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 8:16 am

Tough call.....

Post by **carweill** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:07 am

Yesterday it look promising for the Pulpit. Today it looks on the strong side and building.

Woodstock still with a North cross but less than yesterday (forecast) and people were pleased with their flights yesterday.

Luis will be coming as well. Woodstock it is

Carlos

Post by **markc** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:11 am

Heading out Woodstock-way, what the heck....

MarkC

Post by **mcgowantk** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:23 am

I am headed to woodstock too.

Tom McGowan
703-501-9532

Post by **DanTuck** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:35 am

I'm in. See y'all there.

bustedwing2 · Post by **bustedwing2** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 11:16 am

Dr Jack is showing 314 degrees on sounding for bedford and chambersburg,wind speed 15,temp at 5k ft of 16,b/s 4 in Mcconnellsburg.Sounds like a chores around the house day. RichB

Post by **DanTuck** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 8:00 pm

Yet another great day at Woodstock. I'll probably forget somebody - MarkC, Tom McG, Jon B, Valerie, Hugh, Carlos, Luis, Kevin, me, and an unkown (to me) pilot on HG's. Won't even try to name the PGers but there were 8 or 10 of them. Although very cold, it was a beautiful sunny day and there were thermals galore. My highest climb was to 2,900' over launch but I came down pretty quickly due to the cold. Punched out into the valley to Route 11 and came back to the ridge. Then I went North and saw a couple bald eagles, one mature and the other immature, ahead and below me. The mature one was chasing the immature one all over the sky. Of course I started chasing after them watching the amazing dogfight playing out in front of me, flashing their talons at each other and pulling some incredible aerobatics. After awhile the mature one peeled off so I followed it into a thermal and we climbed together for a few turns. It didn't take long for it to out-climb me and fly off out of sight. I hung out on the ridge a little longer but my hands were frozen so I landed for just over an hour in the air. I was really hoping I got the eagles on film but my camera got shifted when I picked up my glider on launch. Arrrggg!!!! Oh well, still a fantastic experience, such majestic birds.

Post by **mcelrah** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 11:00 pm

Thanks for the write-up, Dan. I dithered between HG and PG, finally took the first PG launch of the day (an ugly one, but not because of any problem with wind), leaving the HG half set-up on launch. Kept it short (35 minutes) - or else sank out - it was one of those mutual agreements with the wind gods, then caught a ride back up with Valerie. She and Luis helped me finish setting up the Sport 2 HG for a late day launch into the *incredible glass-off*. "Chased" (didn't pull VG or pull in) Ellis on her Sport 4 PG half-way to Strasburg - took a surprisingly long time to catch her. Ellis, Petr and one other landed near Strasburg when they were overtaken by sunset. With these short days, there was a lot of retrieving of vehicles in the dark, but the celebration at Strasburg Inn didn't last too long, so made it home by 9:30 DST.
Other PGers included Tom Ceunen, Laszlo, Ben and LE, Dan Tomlinson, Erik. The mystery HGer was probably Nelson Lewis - we squeezed him in the back seat of Carlos truck when we encountered him on the road. Kevin Carter was doing wingovers in Bruce Engen's Falcon 225. What a nice day! - Hugh

Post by **sailin** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 11:21 pm

After randomly meeting up with MarkC and Tom in the LZ (it was like a Toyota commercial when we all pulled in together), Mark and I loaded our gear and gliders on Tom's truck and headed up to launch. Thank you Tom for driving up there. When we arrived at launch we found Dan Tuck already set up. It was beautiful up at launch with the sun shining and a pretty mild breeze.. Not the cold freight trains of wind that seem to have been around the last couple times I was here. I immediately began to set up with hopes that I would be able to launch soon. I had to leave Woodstock pretty early in the afternoon to get back and work an exchange of shift tonight so I was moving with a little purpose. It was looking like the conditions were cooperating with me. I was first up. Thank you to Hugh, Dan, Mark, Tom and Valerie for helping me over to launch and wire crewing. There were pretty light cycles coming in and they were pretty straight for the most part. I launched and immediately headed left looking for some lift. I found a tiny bit of lift right off launch but managed to fly right out of it

I headed south down the ridge a short way and wasn't seeming to find anything so I boogied back north passing launch at about launch height. I wasn't going up but I wasn't going down either....yet. I headed north hoping to find some lift off the rock pile but it just wasn't working for me. I had lost a little altitude by this point and decided I wasn't going to find anything going up so I should head out. Wouldn't you know it but I found lift in several places on the way to the LZ, but I wasn't very confident about turning around and trying to stay in it......basically my thermaling skills suck. I wondered if back on the ridge I was being a little over conservative and should have tried and stick around looking for lift a little longer before I head out? There was some more lift right over the LZ that I floated around in a bit before finally heading down to land. The approach and landing were pretty uneventful, ending with a nice two stepper landing. A grand total of 7 minutes.

But I have to say that the saying "short and sweet " definitely applies here. It really was a beautiful day to be flying and even though it was a short flight it felt awesome.......easily the best 7 minutes of my day!!!
Shortly after I landed I saw the rest of the crew launching and going up and up................everybody soared.............but me

Can't wait to hear the rest of your guys flight reports!

Looking forward to getting back out and doing it all over again. Thank you Hugh for observing again.

Jon

Post by **mcelrah** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 7:55 am

Jon,

We were all rooting for you up on launch - especially when we saw you going up in a thermal right over the LZ. You did an awesome job with no vario. Will Santa have something for you this Christmas?
(Talk to Dan Tuck about an alternative to Flytec which is quite a bit cheaper. I've had the same (Flytec 4005) vario for many years and have not missed all the functions in the high-end ones...)

- Hugh

Post by **rasmussenv** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 9:53 am

Sunday was a really great day – which more than made up for my mistake in heading out Saturday thinking I’d be able to squeeze in a flight and leave by 4pm to make it to an evening commitment. That would have only worked if my car could be waiting for me in the LZ to leave immediately. On Saturday, after dropping my wing at top (it was the first one on the ground, and no one was there) I headed to the LZ. I found a car already there, I’d obviously missed that drop, and waited over an hour in the LZ in the hopes that someone would chance by. Karen called from the top suggesting I head up there – and I got there to find lots of cars now at the launch, but none had dropped a vehicle, nor were evidently planning to in the near term. I saw Jesse launch, and while Matthew encouraged me to go for it, I could do the time calculation and see that, especially with the eventual need to get back to the top to retrieve my vehicle before leaving, there was no way I could meet my deadline. There were plenty of folk to do wire crew, and nothing for me to do on launch. After Jesse did a sled run, it looked like most were waiting it out a bit. I felt better thinking I wasn’t missing a lot – heavy cloud cover and chilly. I just made it back home with a few minutes to spare, so I was wise to leave – only foolish for thinking I could fit everything in.

But Sunday!! Started off great, in that, as I drove along Rte 11 towards Woodstock, I saw a vehicle with two gliders ahead of me. They’d obviously seen me, and just before the turn off to the LZ, it pulled off on the shoulder. I pulled off behind it and Carlos, with Luis, generously suggested we could head to the LZ, shift my gear to their vehicle and go up. Thank you! That was just the beginning of magic working. At top there were a few vehicles. Jon, Dan Tuck, Tom McG, MarkC, were pretty much set up. Hugh arrived right behind us, and others were arriving by the time I was off and launched after Jon. At this point winds were generally very light – we waited for stronger cycles, rather than needing to wait for calmer ones. Jon called to the top after he landed and before I took off, offering to help with his car, which was at the LZ until he had to leave, so the possibility existed to get a ride back up if I had a sled run, and get another flight, which made it an easy decision to take off and give it a try.

Dan Tuck, Tom McG and Hugh as observer launched me. Thanks for the help! Launch felt and looked good, according to Hugh, and I fortunately headed north, first finding a little lift over the rocks and doing a figure 8 or so staying relatively steady at launch level. Eventually moved a little further north, closer to the south side of the north finger and found an elevator to circle in. For the next hour and ten minutes, that area remained the reliable transportation point to high-in-the-sky for most of us. Venturing a bit south of launch there were pockets of lift, but nothing like the place to the north. I had planned that an hour would be a good flight length, and waited a bit after I hit that mark because, circling over lift (and giving a wave to folks in the tower – not much above their level) I could see that PGs were about to start launching, and I’ve never shared the sky with a PG before. But I ended up, not sure how long it might take for the PG to make the decision to go, heading over to the LZ. I headed out not much above launch and, while others have reported nice lift well out from the ridge, on my path I found significant and fairly consistent sink. I didn’t even make it as far as the house before turning back into an abbreviated downwind then base and final into my best (smooth, two step) landing at Woodstock. I was glad to hear from Dan that he’d observed the nice landing. He came in a few minutes after me.

Soon there were several PGs in the sky and it was nice seeing the assortment of wings in the air. Tom, Luis, and others had also landed by the time I’d broken down, and just about then, Hugh came in as the first PG to land. I carried him back up, and gave a body ride to Luis so he could get Carlos’ car, and he also stayed to help launch Hugh. At the top we saw Ellis launch her PG, and Hugh assisted another PGer making his second flight off WS. Luis and I helped assemble Hugh’s wing – as it is getting dark so early now and we didn’t want to waste his daylight flying time. Plus, that was the first time I’d touched a double-surface wing – so it was educational. As we moved the glider into position, Dan Tuck and MarkC arrived at the top, so there were plenty of us to witness the last launch of the day.

Hugh had mentioned the route to leave down the backside of the mountain, which I’d never taken, and he encouraged me to explore it on my departure. I’m not SURE I followed the right path – just down from the ridge top the road splits, and I took the right turn/fork as it looked like it was aiming towards a gap at lower ground. It was named “(something) Observaton Road’. Along the route I passed a park sign, and I was worried I might be venturing into park land and have to turn around to exit, but it ultimately emerged into ‘civilization’. Near the bottom at I passed a church to the right, there was quite a crowd of Amish or other traditional garbed children and adults walking toward the church. It was probably around 5 or 5:30pm at this point.

Very nice day, and while chilly, not at all frigid at the elevations I flew. I didn’t think I’d fly through the winter; I usually

Post by **rasmussenv** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 10:01 am

Oops - I cut off part during the cut-and-paste exercise. Meant to close with the observation that :

I usually have stopped flying when Ridgely closes, but if there are other winter days that hit the 50’s, I might be out there!

Again, thanks to all - it was great seeing all the wings in the air.

Post by **kcarra** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 10:11 am

Found on launch Sat. - verizon cell phone holder. Let me know if it's yours. Congrats to all for the great flights yesterday. I wasn't prepared and was too cold Sat. to fly, and then we just didn't have it in us to drive back to Woodstock again on Sunday. Our loss!

Karen

Post by **mcelrah** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 1:38 pm

I just discovered that Kevin Carter lives in College Park. Maybe we should be a bit more disciplined about carpooling so we can share the driving chores... Try recorded books! Sallie pre-empted the Volvo yesterday to take her mother to Skyline Drive (they spent the night at Skylands), so I bumped Jasper out of the Vibe (Pontiac clone of Toyota Matrix). I rediscovered a couple of well-loved CDs (Chopin etudes - one of them is by Artur Rubinstein, the other not) playing them on what I find to be the superior sound system in the Vibe. Take that, Volvo! - Hugh

Post by **markc** » Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:41 pm

Better late than never, some photos from last Sunday at Woodstock.

I flew for about an hour and a half, topping out at maybe 2800' over launch a couple
of times. Headed south to the gap, where the highlight of the flight was some close-in
thermalling with a redtail. On the second circle, s/he came in tight, so close that the
wing blocked my view of her. Then up and away, climbing through me without so much
as a ruffled feather.

Not finding much lift to the south, I eventually headed back toward launch... Getting lower,
and lower, and (pull VG) lower, (more VG!), then below ridge and wondering I'd be able
to make the LZ. Cruised in a few hundred below the slot, and then headed to the first
steep spine to the north of launch. Worked a very light thermal with a PG'er back up
to ridge-top, but then I made a poor decision and ultimately succumbed to the flush cycle.
A bit frustrating, because conditions did turn back on and the day went brain-dead soarable,
beyond sunset. Oh well, been a while since I've been at Woodstock on a light day, guess
that'll teach/remind me!

MarkC