High Rock Saturday

[Matthew]

Looking like another High Rcok day on Saturday--- colud be cold!!

Bring your bar mitts and foot warmers.

Matthew

[mcelrah]

I'm in, tandem preferred (have invited some non-pilot passengers, but they are unreliable, so looking for more vict... - er, passengers). Any sentiment for Smithsburg first? Still learning to ground handle the new PG...- Hugh

[cthornberger]

Aye,
I will be at Smithsburg in the morning. Afterward, wherever the wind blows - High Rock.

[sailin]

Hugh and Matthew,
Are you guys thinking High Rock or Pulpit for Saturday?

thanks,
jon

[g.sessa]

Depending on work restraints, I am going to try to make it out to High Rock on Saturday....would most likely not be until early or late afternoon.

[mcelrah]

High Rock - got a coupla tandems. Matthew and I will be available to observe there. - Hugh
P.S. Don't forget the MHGA party tonight at Richard's house - and the CHGPA one next Friday the 10th at Gary Devan's. The one next week is pot luck.

[Kelvin Pierce]

I think I will give High Rock a try tomorrow also. I look forward to seeing everyone there. Looks like there will be enough observers there but am willing to observe if anyone needs.

[carweill]

Flying tomorrow Saturday.

Carlos

[Pete Schumann]

Might be agood idea to bring tools to do a temporary ramp to the steps at launch. Access is pretty bad and with lots of wind it will make it harder to get on to the ramp. With help local stone, dirt, logs whatever it may help until we can really fix it.

Just a thought.

Pete

[mcelrah]

Headed to Smithsburg for a brief kiting session with Ellis, then to the Rock for tandems. Game on! - Hugh

[carweill]

At what time Smithsburg. May want to join for kitting before flying.


Carlos

[Danny Brotto]

Gonna be a wee bit on the breezy side esp. at McConnelsburg. HR might be doable but don't expect it to back off too much at the end of the day.

Smithsburg will be a hoot today... and a double hoot tomorrow. (Double hoot means you need to pay attention and may need some help with ground handling.)

Danny Brotto

[Kelvin Pierce]

It was a nice but cold day at the Rock. I arrived about 11:00 am and the conditions on launch were pretty light with winds averaging about 5 mph. About 1:00 pm the winds started picking up a bit and were soon coming in more like 10 mph. I launched first at 1:15 and enjoyed a nice flight for an hour up to a grand over launch. Matthew, Karen, Hugh with Ellis as his tandem partner and Greg and Carlos also flew. Matthew was the air hog of the day with a flight of a bit over 2 hours and 1300' over launch. I checked launch conditions about 15 minutes prior to my launch and my wind meter showed the temp at 27 degrees with a wind chill of 15 degrees so it was a chilly flying experience.

[CraginS]

Well, my last flight was April 3rd; the neurologist saw my MRI on April 6th and referred me to the neurosurgeon within five minutes of seeing the images. My surgery was April 30th. On November 10th, the surgeon inspected the latest X-ray images and approved me for flying, again. Veterans Day weekend and then Thanksgiving week travel precluded an immediate response to the new prescription. But on Saturday, December 3rd, the weather cooperated, and I headed out to the training hill in Smithsburg, with hopes of a follow on flight at High Rock.

The video shows my two flights, getting back into the groove, on my Pulse. Big thanks to Ellis for handling the camera to capture these flights. Two decent launches; one adequate landing (didn't get fully into the wind, and flared early) and one very satisfying no-step landing. Note the bit of lift I hit on that first flight!



I did head up to the top at High Rock, just in time to see Karen C. Launch. Also helped Hugh M launch in a tandem with Ellis K, and then, with Carlos and Kelvin, observed Greg S for his second ever cliff launch. Greg had the quality launch of the day off of the Rock. Once we had more pilots to crew, we helped Carlos W launch about 4:15.

With gray sky and dusk quickly approaching, and glider set up taking a while, I decided not to fly at HR. I didn't want to be landing in the flat gray dusk light on my first day back.

Great day being back in the sky. Seven months is along time to be grounded. More to come!

[carweill]

Biwingual day
Good day at Smithsburg got much needed PG practice. It was a lot of learning fun hope to repeat that soon.
Later head to High Rock with a stepladder, but it didn’t seem stable enough for the rock. Last one to launch, thanks for the help. Conditions were buoyant and mellow, failed to use the bar mitts early enough and fingertips began to freeze.
Overall an enjoyable flying day
Great to see Cragin back in the air
Carlos

[g.sessa]

Saturday turned out to be a nice, but very cold, day at High Rock. I enjoyed my second cliff launch thanks to the help of Cragin, Carlos, and Kelvin at launch, with a special thanks to Cragin for agreeing to observe. I did not manage to get much more than a couple hundred over, but with the lighter winds, it was a nice day for cruising around without loosing altitude. I flew for about 30 minutes before heading in to land by choice. The chilly winter air got the best of me. Congratulations to all on a good day of flying! Thanks Ellis for the ride back up. Video posted below.

[DanTuck]

Sounds like a good day was had by all. Cragin, congrats on your return to the sky. Hope to fly with you soon. And Greg, dig the video. Nice flying.