Saturday

[hang_pilot]

Looks really good.

I'm thinking of Highland, but could be swayed to head to the mountains. Who else?

~Daniel
301.275.6584

[Ward Odenwald]

Highland is looking good for tomorrow. As of now, my ~ETA is 11AM.

Ward

[sailin]

Most likely heading to Highland tomorrow.....looking very nice

ETA wil be determined by how busy I am tonight at work

Jon

[carweill]

I'm planning to go

Carlos

[mingram]

Being PG only (for now) I'm hoping the Pulpit works out.

Matt

[markc]

Ummmm..... Why isn't anyone thinking High Rock?

I see surface casts of NNW @ 10 for most of the afternoon. Yeah, that's a little bit light, but there's supposed to be lots of sun and it's early spring.... And the Rock has no problem taking a NNW direction.

What am I missing?

MarkC

[carweill]

I'm open

I'll check temps at Ridgely too

Carlos

[cthornberger]

I'm thinking of heading to Ridgely as well to start aerotow lessons.

[Dan T]

I haven't flown the Rock in ages. That would be fun. I'll watch to see if enough people are interested to make a quorum.

Dan

[mingram]

Can someone tell me if it's too NNW for Smithsburg?

[cthornberger]

north cross is usually pretty lame due to the turbulence from the trees right of launch

[mingram]

Thanks. Good luck towing!

[markc]

Latest readings from Hagerstown below....

How about it? Do we have enough Rock'ers to give it a try? I would....

MarkC

9 AM (13) Mar 26 28.9 (-1.7) 12.9 (-10.6) 30.09 (1018) NNW 10
8 AM (12) Mar 26 28.0 (-2.2) 15.1 (-9.4) 30.08 (1018) NNW 8
7 AM (11) Mar 26 28.0 (-2.2) 14.0 (-10.0) 30.05 (1017) NNW 7

[cthornberger]

Good luck at HR! My eta @ highland is 11

[markc]

Pete has said he'll give the Rock a try, if we can get four pilots to commit.... Me, Carlos, Pete, Dan would
do it, what say you all?

AND! Anyone else????

MarkC

[markc]

High Rock seems to be a go, courtesy of Dan T's offer to come up and help us launch! Latest Hagerstown reading
was NNW@8, let's hope that the winds remain in our favor!

If your cliff-launch skills are a bit rusty, today is definitely a good day to sharpen 'em up, come on out, it's a
beautiful spring day!

MarkC

[mcelrah]

Bom Vol you guys! I've been going full tilt boogie for a week or so and just need a day at home. Otherwise I would so try to activate one a my wanna-be tandem passengers and join the quorum. - Hugh

[carweill]

Heading to HR

Carlos

[deveil]

just now saw this. if anyone up there sees this and will need some launch help, i would be there by about1:30.
g

[cthornberger]

well, at least it was a pretty (cold) day at Highland. Lift was chunk, at best, from what I saw.

I will be starting the solo-ing process the next good day.

Saw Daniel, Ward, Jon, Amy and a few others today...Good for the temps.
..but if anybody knows what happened to the forecasted awesomeness for today, please enlighten this bewilderment.

How was the Rock?

[sailin]

Arrived around 130pm to a cold, blustery, NNE wind. Saw quite a bit of cummies earlier on in the day around northern virginia but not a whole lot happening in Ridgley.
I ended flying right at 4pm and was expecting nothing more than a cold air sled ride. Towed up in, as Adam described it "chunky air", and had quite a busy tow. Adam waived me off at about 2600msl in a thermal due north of the airport. Not super strong lift by any means, but I turned in it for quite a while all the way up to 4800msl!!! Not a sled ride after all. It was cold up there I think my cheeks are still rosy After toping out the thermal went away and I headed upwind to look for more but found nothing. I then drifted SW looking for something but all I found was sink. I had plenty of time to search for lift but I couldn't find anything. Ended up landing after 25 minutes and was happily surprised to have gotten so high...even if i couldn't maintain it.
Look forward to more flatland flying this spring!

Daniel, Amy, Chris and I finished up the evening with a good dinner at Red Hot Blue.

Jon

[markc]

The Rock was pretty decent!

Just Carlos, Pete, and myself flying. But we "launched with a little help from our friends", courtesy of Gary and Dan T coming up to enjoy the day and give us a hand. I can't say enough about that, they really made the day possible for us, thanks guys!

Pete was first up, at around 2pm. Seemed to me that he was in the air *just* that tiny bit too soon : Nothing on the ridge, but he fought for altitude down low and **almost** managed to hook something solid enough to get up, so close! We were cheering him on from launch, and I wonder what he would have made of the many "OH! Yeah! Work it Pete! Oh, damn, sink, sink, sink! Hey, he' s got something, go Pete go! Oh no, sink again, argh!"

Carlos and I decided to wait for awhile after Pete was on the ground. But there are some days when I just can't handle waiting around, so I was the next one up, maybe 2:35p. I had a decent cycle, and worked the bowl to the right of launch for a while... Then headed south (big mistake).... Got clobbered.... Headed out away from the ridge after a pass to the north.... And found something that got me up!!! Topped out at about 690' above launch and enjoyed a 20 minute soaring flight, woo-hoo!

But it was short-lived, and I succumbed to a flush cycle, and hit nothing at all on the way out to the LZ. Oh well!

Pete had decided to hike back to launch (and was yelling at me from the ground, but I never heard him... Vario suck I suppose). Just before he got up top, Carlos launched, and he had a great flight to 1000+ (??) over launch. But even with that altitude he got flushed, and was in the LZ after a good flight.

Pete drove down, followed by Dan T. We looked at each other and thought.... Ah, what the hell! Let's do it again!

So after a quick tear-down we headed back up top, and both Pete and I gave it another go. Gary had hung around and helped wire both of us off. Sheesh, what a nice guy!

It was one of those race-to-setup before the winds went to nothing (or at least, that's what I was worried about). My second flight was a very pleasant extendo, and if the cirrus hadn't moved in we might have been able to enjoy a magic flight... It was _that_ close, shoot!
Pete also did well on his second flight, and then Carlos and and Dan T rendevzous'd with us in the LZ. So did Matt I, after a day of kiting at Smithsburgh (and a couple of t-hill soaring flights).

Overall, a GREAT day : One flight in some decently switchy/spring/gusty conditions, and a second flight in lighter, run-it-off conditions. Given the very few High Rock flights that I had last year, it was a really good opportunity to regain some currency in cliff launches.

After flying, Dan, Carlos, Matt, and myself headed to Barley And Hops, south of Frederick, for dinner and brews. A very good day!

MarkC

[deveil]

depending on launch order and thus who was still on launch and able to jointly fly whoever’s glider was in the air (fly by voice), by my count mark had four flights, carlos had five flights, pete had two fights - he always launched first, and dan and i had the most flights with five apiece, plus he and i got to fly three different gliders!
when it’s a scratching day at the rock, and particularly when the leaves are off the trees, one can ‘fly’ others gliders as they’re off to the left, to the right, above, as they go zooming by below and the whole way out to the lz for that matter. i think that’s part of what gives the place a special feel. we were hollering at the guys in the air - “turn Now. no, i said turn Left, Not right!”. and we could even hear mark’s own running commentary of his flight, real time - “oh nooooo!”, “arrrgh”, “yeahhh” - most of the way out to the lz.
but pete clearly won the james brown award for the day as ‘the hardest workin’ man in show em how to scratch business’. i think we all enjoyed flying his glider the most!

[mcelrah]

So all's we gotta do is implant electrodes in arm muscles and ya get wunna those joysticks...

[deveil]

nah, flights of fancy are much more enjoyable.