3/12 - 3/13 Weekend

[Joe Schad]

Heading to Woodstock about 11:30.

Joe

[davidtheamazing1]

I'm on my way now as well. StOcker

[jyoder111]

I decided to bail. Talked to Jon at 3pm as I was leaving the driveway and he told me he got only a short extendo and I figured I would fair similarly if I went. I'm sure that means it'll pick up for everyone still out there. Good luck!

[POLISH EAGLE]

I was on my way to Woodstock but unfortunately I haven't gotten far. About two miles from my house I have struck a deer. Lots of damage to the truck, but the glider and I are OK. Hope to be back in business soon.

[uplandann]

Weird, the same thing happened to me last year in May, when I was on my way to Blue Sky to go hang gliding. Ran into some really thick fog and was driving slow. The deer came out of the fog and struck the side of the car.
Sorry about the damage to your truck. Glad you and your wing are okay, Polish Eagle.

I would have liked to have joined everyone but did not have enough time. Opted to go to the training hill (Long Hill). The wind was all over the place. Very thermally and not much fun to carry a glider up the hill and have the wind changing direction from my back to being gusty (9-10mph) from the side and lifting a wing. Got in one good flight though; wind coming straight in at the top and bottom, got some good hight, then it switched 90 deg. and hit sink, pulled in and managed a good landing. Decided to call it a day, no time to wait it out.

So... how was the flying today at WS? I looked at ADDS this morning and it looked a little wave-ish (winds increasing significantly with altitude..)

Ann

[chuckok]

Hang Waiting Pays off ...

[mingram]

Turned out to be a great sunny day with strong lift and some sink cycles. I counted 10 gliders in the air between 4-5pm. Some went XC to Edinburg Gap. I'll let Mark gloat about his flight.

Matt

[XCanytime]

Got up at 5A with plans to head to the Pulpit early and beat the throttleup. Conditions at Hagerstown at 5A were NW 15 gusting 24. I then checked Woodstock conditions as well. West at 15 MPH. Changed the plans and headed to Woodstock, arriving at 8:45A. Sure enough, very light to dead on launch. Pilots started arriving at 9:30A and continued arriving as I got on launch just before 1P, enticed by a 3 minute cycle. Many clouds on the other side of the valley, but none made it over to the launch area. I waited for a good 15 minutes (ages for me) for anything decent that made some noise in the trees. Finally a light one with very little tree noise came thru and I pounced on it. Turned right and found some lift over the parking lot. Made a pass or two by launch just above the slot then headed NE to the west facing bowl on Cox Ridge. Some lift there got me above the ridge. A little further NE over a rockpile I found a good one that got me to 800' over. From that point I was golden and never got below 300' over the ridge. Pilots that joined me quickly after the 800' over gain were Tom McGowan and Greg Sessa. They both got up and we searched for tickets to higher altitudes. Pete Schumann, Joe Schad, and Mark Cavanaugh soon joined us and now there were plenty of thermal markers around. Saw Tom, Pete, and Mark get at least to 6K'+ MSL in a nice one over Fort Valley. Saw John Dullahan pretty high to the NE, so I went there to see what I could find. I managed to find a good one a couple of fingers north that got me to 2400' over. A little chilly up there for no face mask. After an hour and a half of working hard to stay up, I went out to land around 2:30P. It was hard to get down; lift was everywhere over the LZ. Took me half an hour to land. Had a good one thanks to Dave Churchill setting up a windsock just before my final approach. Got a body ride from Amy and John back up to launch, where we fetched John's car to retrieve him down by the Edinburg Gap where he landed out. By this time it was 4:30P and it had turned on nicely at launch. Smooth 8 to 12 right up the slot. Karen Carra launched her HG and went straight up with no problem. Gary Smith was ready to go behind her. Dropped John's car off with him, and Jon, Amy, and I got the tanks filled back up at Fox's Pizza. I then went over to the Strasburg Inn bar to meet up with John, Hugh, Matthew, Karen, Dan, John Simon, Heather, Dave, and Mark C. for some more food and refreshments. Pics later.

Bacil

[markc]

Just one image to sum it up for me:



Ok, maybe a few more!



(I figure Ellis has had the crown for too long, she needs some competition!)

I flew for nearly 5 hours, getting to 4k above launch once with Tom and Pete. Punched out into the valley a bit, ran north & south, getting decently high a couple times, and once to 3800' over a few miles south of the resevoir. It wasn't an automatic day by any means : timing (well, luck, really) was everything on launch; many of the thermals were broken up and blasting through, and there were flush cycles. One of them had me below ridgetop when I pushed a bit too far toward Edinburg Gap late in the day, but I found something to work and prevent an out landing. By the end of the day I thought it was pretty gnarly and turbulent, as the winds had gone way north. Landed along the spine of the LZ, and didn't have the strength to keep the glider from beaking (poor flare, tired).

No photos unfortunately : Too active a day, and always in search-mode.

There were at least 17 HG pilots out there, and at least 8 PG pilots, what a turnout! Kudos to Heather and John for coming all the way from Annapolis! And kudos to Gary D for his help on so many launches (he was out there solely for that purpose), including mine. Thanks Gary.

A group of us stopped at the Strasburg Inn for dinner: We had the bar section mostly to ourselves, and made some noise!

MarkC

[XCanytime]

Looking back at launch after getting up.

Another pilot soaring the ridge.

Looking south. Kennedy Peak noticable in the distance.

The launch slot at 12 o'clock high.

[carweill]

5 hours!! That should be illegal.

Carlos

[silverwings]

Was a good day for me and I chose to fly my hg since it's been a while since I had flown it. I launched a little before 4:00 after waiting for a more encouraging cycle and chose a good time because I got up easily. The best lift for me was during the first 1/2 hour of my flight getting 2k above between the two ridges. After that I was usually between a few hundred above and a thousand. Chose to land after 1:40. Could have flown my pg but was really nice getting a good flight on my U2.

[kcarra]

Really fun flight for me - landed because I was getting cold and it was getting busy on the ridge. I noticed a right wing tip flutter in a glider below me. The harness looked like a high energy type - dark black or brown with some red stripes on the back.

[Matthew]

Yes. Fun day-- two flights in the PG-- one 25 minutes and one 1:20. It got really North cross and strong at the end of the day.


Matthew

[lbunner]

You guys rock! Way to go Mark, kick off the season by setting a high standard for the rest. It could be tough to beat!

[sailin]

Sweet flights to all who got high and went long!! Way to go! I had one of the shorter flights and managed to get only 58 feet over launch.......for about a second or two. I had the trifecta work against me.........launched in not that great of a cycle in the middle of the day instead of at the beginning or end, was not lucky, and the biggest reason of all......I am just not that good at thermaling......yet
Had a blast being out there all and watching all the guys core up in the thermals.......sweet!!! soon I'll be joining you.

Can't wait for another day like that.

Jon

[uplandann]

Thanks for the video Chuck!

[pink_albatross]

well, Mark, I won't be too disappointed if instead of having the longest duration flight, I got the longest distance flight
-- ellis