Tues. 7/26 Woodstock? Pulpit?

[chuckok]

Watching the wind after the front and an opportunity to play hookey ...

[tomceunen]

Some PG might come as well, we will check the weather Tuesday AM and decide. If it is good ETA 11AM.
Regards
Tom

[A0213]

Got the gliders loaded up on Jon's car... now just looking for an observer!!! I will bring brownies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks in advance!!

[sailin]

I'm in for the Pulpit on Tuesday.....looking like it could be nice....so far ETA undetermined as of yet. Will keep an eye on the weather and post back Mon evening/Tues morning......but it looks like it could be real nice

Jon

[rasmussenv]

Watching this thread - think I can make it.

[chuckok]

Looking like the Pulpit it is ... Planning an 11:30 arrival.

[Ward Odenwald]

Still on the fence. Want to fly at the Pulpit but will post early morning. Forecasts are suggesting lighter winds that may extend longer than earlier predictions. Ward

[sailin]

Amy and I are in for the Pulpit. ETA noonish. Hope to see some other pilots out there!!

Jon

[silverwings]

I am interested and will check in the morning.

[XCanytime]

Weather.com has Hagerstown winds West at 13 MPH at 5PM. Could it get any better? I gotta work. Bacil

[MikeB]

Forecast W at 9-11 in Harrisburg and Hagerstown.
A rusty P4 will join some folks at the Pulput around noon.
MikeB

[Ward Odenwald]

Its looking more like a PG day than a HG one so I'm going to save my leave for another day. I hope nostepper missed the forecast for all those that go! Ward

[rasmussenv]

I am heading up to Pulpit. Just talked to Jon and Amy, they are on the way. Amy won't be flying unless an observer happens to show up (come on out!), but Jon and I expect to get at least a flight - maybe two. It is a pretty day and possibly soarable around 5pm - although I'm now seeing 11mph on weather.com. I'll be out of town next week and schedule and conditions have made it difficult to mountain launch in the past month, so I want to seize this chance.

[silverwings]

Guess I will give it a try. ETA 12:45

[rasmussenv]

Ha! And I was worried it would be on the light side. I took off sometime close to 4 as the first HG wind-dummy and went straight up. Smooth and easy launch off the right ramp into maybe 10-15mph west winds. Easily got to 3400-3500, about 1200 over launch, flying with Ben in a paraglider (other paragliders had already had a flight or two). Radio'd to encouraged the others to join me. Easily moved over parallel to the primary - which would mean I would FINALLY get a chance to land in the primary - and figured I was in for a nice long soar.

Lots of rich lift, but (at trim) no penetration. Then I hit a sink cycle and noticed, with more concern, no penetration at trim. Hmmm. If I pick up speed in a Falcon I tend to move rapidly down. Fortunately the sink passed, but actually, fortunately it arrived in the first place, because that got me to thinking about getting out to the LZ while I still had 1000 feet over launch. It was hairy. I inched SLOWLY forward, steadily losing altitude, finally passing over the road climbing the mtn, seriously thinking that I might have a tree landing. At least it would be 'gentle' since there was little forward movement. But the breeze was generating slight lift to compensate for my faster than trim speed and I gradually got to a point that I was confident I had the LZ. In fact, in the end I was able to circle over it hoping for maybe an extended flight in a thermal, but ultimately made a DBF into the upper (mowed) field - straight away from the mountain in a healthy west wind on the LZ. After a 40 minute flight - 20 of which was a bit tense - a gentle, one step landing. Good breeze on the LZ - the glider kept wanting to fly - pulling up on my straps at times. Due to thigh-high corn between me and the paved road, moved to the right of the field (mistake, in retrospect, on the left was a dirt road) and had a long slog of a walk between the corn and the trees to break down near the road).

Found out that 5-10 minutes after I took off, those on launch saw a dramatic increase in winds - ticking well above 25mph. Oh ... Ben (the paraglider) couldn't penetrate, was pushed back and ended up flying over the back to safely land I am not sure where and get retrieved by the other PGers.

The HGs on the launch were still locked in when I got back up to launch around 5:30pm - with dark clouds on the horizon and radar showing a storm. After my adventure, I'd had enough, but stuck around to help launch if they were game. Debate about leaving, some started to break down ... but then waited a bit. And it paid off! The dark clouds passed, the sky opened and starting around 7pm John Middleton (off the left ramp), then Jon Brantley, then Chuck O'Keefe, then Mark Gardner who all took off the pad and moved up into the sky over launch. Amy and I helped them to launch, and Chuck's daughter Megan got to see her Dad fly from a mountain for the first time. They were all up and enjoying great lift when I left ...

[MikeB]

Thanks to Tom and Ben for a PG introduction to the mountain and shuttling capabilities. I had one short search for lift, Tom had two and Ben got some eastern distance when the winds aloft equaled his forward speed.

[sailin]

It was a long day! But worth the wait in the end

Not much to add to Valeries post...but here I go

Arrived to find a lot of south in the wind. But that was what was expected early so no big deal. A PG or two had just finished a sled and we started the set up process. A couple more PG flights later on.......One got pretty good lift but was flushed out in the south cross not long after. Around 3pm it started to straighten out a bit and the velocity was still very reasonable. A PG launched and went straight up...and back....was over the set up area with not a whole lot of alitude (maybe several hundred over).......climbed up some more and then had penetration issues and headed the other way.......think he ended up going OTB with about 1000' over.......unplanned XC The wind velocity carried him quite a ways downwind......22 miles maybe?????. Valerie launched in still very reasonable velocity and made her way down the ridge climbing without issue.
I moved down get ready to go. Was taking a pre-flight wizz in the woods when I noticed the sound in the trees above change. Ran back up to launch to check it out nd it had gone thermonuclear!!!! It was blowing stink. Clocked consistent 25+ with the hall speed indicator and had some frequent gusts to 28-30. Honking! I watched Valerie from launch with concern as she seemed to take forever to get out over the LZ....at times looking parked and moving down. Was super happy to see her arrive over the primary with altitude to spare and a quick radio report that she had made it on the ground safely.
It pretty much blew stink for the next 2.5 hours. When it finally started to trend down.....slowly......we noticed darkness directly across the valley from us........Seriously...WTF!!!
More patience and perseverance paid off as we waited through some more gusts, a few rain drops and finally clearing skies and reasonable wind.
We scrambled to get off the mountain and enjoyed nice sunset flights in SMOOTH but STRONG (veocity) air. I believe Chuck had some penetration issues with his single surface but I will let him tell his story.
I landed after about 45 minutes with an ear to ear grin. What a day...and night Enjoyed flying with you all!!!

Jon

[chuckok]

Crazy day ... Valerie pretty well pegged it. Once I was up above about 600' above launch, and perpendicular to the primary, I noticed that my crab angle was pretty close to 90 degrees … Next thing I realized was that I was beginning to move backwards toward the ridgeline. Uh oh

Fortunately, a slow slog out to the LZ turned out to be non-eventful. In fact, I gained about 200’ on the way out.

A tough day for penetrating with a Falcon, but a great day on the mountain!



Next time I’ll check to clean off the camera lens.