Sunday 4/3

[XCanytime]

Flying somewhere early. Pulpit is looking pretty good as of now. Bacil

[mingram]

PGers are planning to head to Woodstock in the afternoon.

[jyoder111]

How early are you thinking Bacil? I'm interested as long as I can get back to Arlington by 3pm.

[pch]

Gotta work 'til 11:30am 4/3, ETA WS 1:00pm.
Peter H.

[XCanytime]

I plan on getting there by 9A. Ward has pretty much signed up. Larry Bunner is traveling back from NC tomorrow PM and is interested. John Dullahan is interested. It's going to be blowing good early so you want to get there before it gets out of hand on launch. I'd say you should be ready to fly by 9A. Bacil

[jyoder111]

Current forecast is too strong, even in the AM. Probably won't try for it tomorrow...

[Ashley Groves]

I am interested on Pulpit Sunday as well.

[carweill]

I'll try to check things early

Carlos

[Petr]

Woodstock looks doable. ETA 2PM

[g.sessa]

Heading to the Pulpit...

[carweill]

Heading to Pulpit among many others mostly HG.

I'll be interesting to compare notes with Woodstock (more for PG today)

Carlos

[Ashley Groves]

Heading for pulpit.

[hang_pilot]

Also Pulpit bound. ETA 12:30. Daniel

[Petr]

Any P2 observer at Woodstock today?

[XCanytime]

Great day at the Pulpit today. Got there at 9A to strong conditions and cumies everywhere. In 10 minutes it went thermonuclear and for the next 2 hours it was out of hand. In those two hours Greg Sessa, Larry Bunner, Ward Odenwald, John Dullahan, and Carlos Weill showed up and we waited in the cars to keep warm and for it to back down. At 11:15A it started lulling nicely just as Ashley Groves showed up, and we all started setting up. Later arrivals were Daniel Broxterman, and Pete Lehmann and Pat Halfhill from the Daedulus club from Pittsburgh. My manager from FedEx showed up with his family just before I got ready to launch. As I got on launch it started ramping up again. I found a clean cycle and had a nice launch. Spent a half hour flying around launch for the picture takers in the north cross on the ridge. Max above was 300' over. Larry stepped up to launch as I stuck around to watch him take off. The spinner windsocks I installed at the bottom of the pad spun very fast with a north cross at times. Larry ended up backing off. I headed south and got below the ridge and thought I was toast. I found some lift about 3/4 of the way to 16, and scratched and clawed my way back up above the ridge to 1K' over. By this time two other pilots launched, and I headed back towards launch at 1200' over. Saw a sailplane thermalling right above the bar, so I joined him and climbed up to 4K' MSL. Went OTB with this one and found choppy air all the way to the landing on the virtual airstrip on the south side of Lemar Road just east of the elementary school. As I "flew" the glider over to the nearest house on Lemar Road, Ashley was announcing that he may end up landing with me. Saw him about 1K' above the ground north of Lemar Road. Saw Pete stinking high near Broad Mountain and Rt. 30. Pete ended up landing around 25 miles out around 4 miles due north of High Rock. Ashley climbed out and ended up landing east of Williamson for about 13 miles. John Dullahan ended up landing near Pond Bank for 21 miles. Pat and Ward ended up landing in the field I landed in. I luckily met the retired folks who live in the nearest house, and they gave me a ride back to launch. Carlos, Daniel, and Greg stayed on the front side of the mountain and had nice flights. John got up to 6800' MSL near Broad Mountain and nearly froze his face off. After the retrieves, 7 of us hit the Mountain House Bar and Grill for some warm chili, tasty sandwiches, and cold beer. Pics later. Bacil

[mingram]

XC season is here! Congrats to all at the Pulpit!

It was an unexpected soaring day at Daniels. Jim and I were on launch at 3pm. It was coming straight in 3-6 mph. I walked up to the top of the mountain to make sure it wasn't cross. I managed 4500 feet msl..my highest ever at Daniels. 8 m/s (1600 ft/min) lift and an equal amount of sink. Oddly the thermals didn't feel too sharp - no collapses. It was really pleasant and partly sunny, but got cold at altitude. Randy showed up and joined us in the air. I headed toward the LZ and sunk out after 50 minutes.

Randy and I flew a second time. The wind was still coming straight in, but had picked up to 8 mph and was a little swirly on launch. We both had botched pullups - mine causing me to unhook to straighten. Randy launched around 5pm and flew for about an hour. I launched 20 minutes later. The lift was a little wider and weaker. I got 800 ft over and another 35 mins before it got too cloudy and we both sunk out.

I'm still itching to use my Dickey's permit.

Matt

[carweill]

Again 3300 over and did not go XC.

I launch and did not gain much I was under ridge level for quite a while, considering the secondary. Every bump was welcomed. Very slowly made it to ridge level and became easier after that. Before launch the radio acted-up so I disconnected it. Start gaining, it was helpful to have many markers in the sky. The forecast claim inversion would be 4500MSL, at 5500 I was thinking its time to go. Started looking for someone to head-up with. I made a couple of 360s and they vanished. There were high upper level clouds covering the entire area, front and back, but air was buoyant. Without good markers in the sky decided to stay upfront.

We didn't make retrieval plans, ended up hiking back with Greg.

Good day overall

Carlos

[XCanytime]

Looking south at the snowline along the ridge.

Looking back at launch and the snowline.

[Ward Odenwald]

Good day at the Pulpit. Never found the "good air" that took many above 5K and over the valley but a decent day just the same. Flew for just under 1.5 hrs in small bursts of up and down air with two gains above 3500 MSL. Landed in the same field that Bacil and Pat Halfhill (Pittsburgh pilot) put down in and the timing was perfect, as Bacil (landed earlier) appeared with his truck to retrieve his glider just as Pat and I had packed up. Here are some photos of the flight.

[Ward Odenwald]

Two more