Sunday July 10th

[mcgowantk]

Sunday is looking quite promising for Highland with good lift and light winds.

Tom McGowan

[RichH]

Should be a good day for Blue Sky as well..cant talk you into coming down here for a little truck towing Tom??? Rich Hiegel

[kcarra]

Count us in for Highland-- ETA noon-thirty.

Matthew

[sailin]

Heading to Highland tomorrow. ....hoping to be there around noon.

See you out there

Jon

[John Simon]

Highland is looking good, may be a good day to take a shot at Campbell Field... only 104 miles! Charlie and I will be there around 11 or so... Let's go south!


John

[mcgowantk]

I will be headed out to Ridgley shortly.

Tom

[mingram]

PGs are headed to Daniels.

Matt

[g.sessa]

Heading to Highland....

[carweill]

Forecast looks fantastic for today.

I'm already here

Carlos

[CraginS]

Shortly after releasing from tow.


pretty good view of the field. Note all the gliders in the set up lane next to the main landing area.


I flew twice, a couple of sleds: 13 1/2 minutes and 12 1/2 minutes. Solid tow on one flight, like I was on rails. A bit more lively tow the second time; was working harder to stay in position. Landings were good. On the first I flared a bit too early so my no-stepper was a feet/knees crumple/down, safe and not too noisy. The second was a very satisfying no stepper.

[Dan T]

It's good to see you are back in the air Craig.

How did everyone else do?

Dan

[Petr]

How was it at the Daniels for PGs?
Petr

[Matthew]

The early birds got the worm at Highland. We got there around noon hoping to get in the air around 1:30. We were in the flight line at 1:30. However, Highland was the most crowded I've seen in years. Everyone was there-- Tom, Carlos, Greg S., Jon, Valerie, Craig, Paul, John Simon, Jeremy, Joe G., and Steve-- all of the regulars except for Cavanaugh and Middleton. (Where were you guys?) Long story short, those who launched around i:30 got up-- four went XC-- not sure where they landed. At around 2:15 the clouds rolled in-- OD'd-- and shut everything down over the flight park. It rained gliders. I launched at 2:45 and found some light lift for a 25 minute flight. I followed this with a half hour flight in better lift over the dump. Lost everything returning to the field. The sun was shining now and it really felt as though it would turn on for the 5 O'clock soaring club. So I jumped back in line and convinced Karen, Carlos and Joe to give it another go. Alas, it was not to be. I did find a little bubble that got me back up above tow for a 22 min flight. But that was that.

On the bright side-- we got home early for a change.

Matthew

[CraginS]

A little more from the day.

[Ward Odenwald]

As mentioned by Matthew, there was a really good turn out at Highland on Sunday. Here’s a view of the tow-line at ~2:30PM. Including the lucky/smart pilots that launched early and flew south before the cloud development squashed the local thermal activity and the other pilots in the air at the time this photo was taken (~2), I’m guessing that 22 to 24 were towed aloft on Sunday with many taking multiple flights.

Ward

[mingram]

Really late post about Daniels on Sunday. Quick recount: It was soarable early (11:30-1:30), but shut down in the afternoon due to cumulus shadowing the valley. Tom went XC for 2:40 minutes and landed at Wolftown. I launched at 12:30 and got 1000 over, but then fought to stay in lift for a total of 40 minutes. Cloudbase was 4600ft asl.

A good group showed up: Paul, Alex, Noah, Gordon, and Randy later in the day. Most flights were sledders. The base wind was too light so there was a lot of parawaiting. The cycles were weak due to shading in the valley and the trees at the end of the slot are quite tall which made launching in light wind dangerous. Paul's heavy wing, forward launch had him scraping the briars at the bottom of launch before getting enough energy to clear the trees.

With a hand saw I cut about 15 trees at the bottom of launch. Some were 4+ inches thick. Once cut the trees remained standing due to all the other growth holding them up. A lot more work is needed. A chainsaw to clear the trees at the end of the slot would help, but there's still a lot of growth on the ground that you have to run through. Dan T. recommended we hire someone to clear it. If you go to Daniels on a light wind day, be prepared to wait and bring some tools to help clear it. I'll try to contact a local about getting an estimate for clearing it.

Matt