Saturday May 21st

[mingram]

I'm hoping the Pulpit forecast holds for Saturday. Anyone interested? Does the setup area need weed whacking?

Matt

[Matthew]

We are considering Pulpit for Saturday. However, the last time we were Gung Ho for the Pulpit, the forecast changed that morning to showers and we followed the lemmings to Highland.

Where's Bacil?????


Matthew

[sailin]

Pulpit looks like there might be a pretty good amount of north in it. I am heading to Highland

Jon

[brianvh]

Given that there's a small but significant number who believe the rapture will happen on saturday (there's a subway poster I have my eye on stealing) the Pulpit seems like the obvious place to be.

[pink_albatross]

Oh gawd... thanks for the laugh, Brian!
-- ellis

[mcgowantk]

I am thinking about Highland on Saturday.

Tom McGowan

[mcgowantk]

I am headed to Highland althought the Pulpit forecast looks a little better than yesterdays. The forecast is for pretty light winds out there.

Tom McGowan
703-501-9532

[Ward Odenwald]

Morning forecasts for the Pulpit are looking better than last night. Albeit not very impressive (low wind speed) the direction is no longer due north and the thermal forecast for southern central PA is looking better than out on the eastern shore. I should be there around 11AM.

Ward

[Dave Proctor]

I am headed for Highland. Pulpit looks promising, but light. At least if I brick at highland I can get a relight.

[silverwings]

Going to Kirshners to mow for a couple of hours then to the pulpit to hopefully fly.

[carweill]

Heading to Highland

Carlos

[rasmussenv]

Just got back from a run, and what a beautiful day! In my Falcon it is only on light wind days that I can thermal at Highland and still stay close enough to the airfield, so I'm hoping to catch some today and am heading there.

[mingram]

Just landed. Almost 2 hours and about 10 miles XC from the Pulpit! First time going over the back of a ridge! Sweet!

[Matthew]

WAY TO GO MATT!!!!

Great day at Highland. Long line to get towed-- an hour-- but launched just at the right time got 1:45 and to cloudbase at 4600. Karen got 20 minutes first flight and 40 on second. Tom McG got over 2 hours. Steve K., Paul, and Amy all soared. Not sure how everyone else did-- John Simon, Heather, Dave P., Carlos, Jon, Valerie, Bob, Rob from Maine and a couple of others. The Highland Boys were doing a gazilllion tandems-- including mile high tandems. Beautiful weather!!!

Matthew

[sailin]

Awesome, Congrats Matt on a sweet XC flight!!!!!!

Beautiful day at Highland yesterday with LOTS of pilots. It was great to see everybody out there and to get to know Craigns a little better.....nice to talk with you man!! As Matthew mentioned the tow line was LONG.....some were rewarded after the wait with long soaring flights to cloudbase....others were not See where I am going with this?? I got dropped off in a little thermal above some parking lots and climbed a little just off of tow but it was short lived. I could see some gliders stinking high a good ways to the south (downwind) under some sweet looking clouds and thought about heading downwind to join them but then decided not too.........figured there was some clouds upwind to the north too and I could stay out of any potential trouble I might find myself in going too far downwind...and so I headed upwind, to the north........into sink And that was all she wrote. Still lots of work ahead for me on flatland soaring....it is going to be an expensive summer

Great to see you all out there!!!!

Jon

[deveil]

Just landed. Almost 2 hours and about 10 miles XC from the Pulpit! First time going over the back of a ridge! Sweet!

Duude!

.

[A0213]

Great day at Highland for me!

I was a little iffy on whether or not I was going to fly... based on reports of lots of thermals (... which for me means lots of bumps = puking).

But, things started to calm down a little, so I got suited up and got in line.

The tow up was pretty bumpy... and the flying around was also pretty bumpy! Jon radioed to me and asked how I was doing... I think I responded with, "I think I am going to puke! But I don't want to come down yet!". So, I stayed up and played for a while... I was going up ever so slightly (prob. could have really gone up if I knew how to thermal properly!), and if I wasn't going up, I seemed to be maintaining. I did this for a while, then decided to come on down. I pulled the bar in, did a few 360's, and then set up a nice approach, and had a great landing.

Beautiful day, good company, and a nice flight.... hoping for more of these in the future!

-A

[uplandann]

Just landed. Almost 2 hours and about 10 miles XC from the Pulpit! First time going over the back of a ridge! Sweet!

Awsome, Congrats on your first OTB flight, Matt!
~Ann

[mingram]

launched at 3:15pm
max height 3800 ft.
linear distance only 6.8 miles
landed at 6pm outside of Mercersburg

It was N cross 90 degrees all day with 5-15 mph gusty cycles straight in that were hard to launch in and tough to get up in. I had some aborted launches. Not any easy day. I managed to find lift by following Rt. 16 then got high over the antennas and decided I could make the gap at the very least. I made it over pretty easily and found some lift just beyond the gap. However, I made a mistake and left the lift line to fly over Mercersburg instead of just going South with the wind and sunk out. I think beer was on my mind. When I landed I could see the cloud street setup on the line I was on. Next time!

[pink_albatross]

Notice the low save he had when he was setting up to land shortly after having launched?
We watched it all from launch and were in awe as he climbed high up above the ridge. And it wasn't easy. Looked to me that only half of his circles were in lift, but he persevered and kept at it and each circle gave him a net gain. He did a great job sticking with the teeny thermal despite it's considerable drift, always heading downwind and every time intercepting it again.
Pretty darn good.

You can't say he wasn't trying to get swept up in the rapture

I myself flew three times. First flight was the best, hanging out at a bit above, but mostly below ridge for a bit in the broken and at times very strong up, but also very strong down (20 minutes at most)
Obviously not rapture material
-- ellis

[deveil]

gotta love them low saves.

(gotta love that us lowly been saved, as well)