Saturday, 12/10 - NW

[dbodner]

Hitting the road in a few minutes.

[markc]

Ummmmm....... Soaring...... Gooooood!

We flew. Got high. Freezy! Hours. Sunny & Blue & Great Thermals.

Many happy pilots!

[jyoder111]

Great day at Woodstock! Lots of pilots. Met some new faces (for me anyway).

At first, it felt a little light up top, but Ward and Mark launched and seemed to be going up. I launched next to find buoyant ridge lift and strong thermals popping all over the place. After playing around launch for a bit, I took off for Signal Knob. I had a nice flight up, playing with some hawks and watching two sailplanes cruise past (didn't get em on video, unfortunately). I'd been worried about getting cold, previously, but never got high enough to make it an issue.

At Signal Knob, I underestimated the strength of the venturi effect at the end of the ridge and that, combined with a strengthening SW cross, forced me to land out. I stuffed my gear in the woods, hitched a ride with a friendly guy with a truckload of firewood, helped him unload it, and met Jon Brantley at the Handy Mart on rt. 11. Thanks for the ride, Jon. After retrieving my gear, I joined Jon, Carlos, David B, and Matt Young at Jalisco in Strasburg. Tom and Pete showed up after a bit, too.

It was a great day to be outside. I got to fly, and put in an honest half hour of real-man work

Jesse

[hosseinghazvini]

Very nice Jesse

[XCanytime]

Nice video Jesse. Nice big field too. Bacil

[mcgowantk]

Yes, it was a great day at the Stocker. Pete and I had a little over two hours landing in time to break down before it got dark. I maxed out at 4000k over near the Reservoir while thermalling with two sailplanes. Pete and I were able to hold up our reputations as we stayed above the sailplanes as we climbed up.

By the way, when I took the Signal Knob turn point, I stayed out in front of the ridge over the valley as opposed to following the ridge around the corner.

Tom McGowan

[sailin]

Woodstock was where it was at! Flew for 1:40 and kept warm by not venturing above 1500' over very often. I played around between the first north finger and part way down to the Edinburgh Gap. Awesome to see all the pilots there......and really nice to have Dan Tuck back flying here. Flying with the sailplanes was very cool...if not a little intimidating at times .
Lets see if we can sneak another day like that in before the end of the year!!!

Jon

[silverwings]

Fairly good teaching day at Smithsburg on Saturday though on the breezy side. Had a good class of 5 students one being a first timer and others with varied experience. Also flying there was Glen and Charley. Winds were slightly cross from the right at times but got particular nice at the end of the day. My students were fairly low on the hill where the winds were more manageable but got to go higher as the winds lessened.

[Danny Brotto]

Glad that the gang had good flights on the Massantten. I flew the sailplane at Fairfield yesterday and I think it might have been a bit breezy at HR until later in the day. Got to10K MSL in the wave and 4 hours flying locally.

I was talking and listening to the sailplane pilots flying the Massanutten and believe me, they were quite aware of the the hang gliders they were sharing the air with. There was good chatter between them about the positions of the various HG in the air. From flying my sailplane with hang gliders about, I can tell you that it's easy to avoid them once they are seen. pilots flying out of Front Royal are familiar with HG being on the ridge. From a sailplane, seeing hang gliders is fairly easy unless the HG is in the sun. Especially this time of year with the sun low in the horizon, you should be diligent of your position relative to the sun and air traffic so as to inadvertently position yourself in someone else's blind spot. And if it just works out that way, you should pay extra special attention to clearances.

Jesse, cool video, thanks. I don't know about "venturi" at Signal Knob. I do know that the ridge bows around to the north and the NW winds becomes oblique to the ridge; the ridge lift will disappear there. So if you are flying to Signal Knob and don't want to land out there, Tom's technique of staying high and out front is a good strategy.

Danny Brotto

[Ward Odenwald]

Best part of the day was seeing DanTuck again! I’m happy that you’ve returned from the “left coast” bring soarable conditions. Here are some photos from my flight up to the north end and back. Thermals were remarkable considering that it was just 11 days before the winter solstice. Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

next set of five

[Ward Odenwald]

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[Ward Odenwald]

last two

[RichH]

Great Pictures Ward..RH

[mcelrah]

CONGRATULATIONS, JESSE! And to all who flew, including at Smithsburg! The sailplane guys are interested to know when foot launched flying will occur at Woodstock - cause that means the ridge will be working! I passed the news of drums beating to them and vice-versa. They have tremendous respect for hangies braving the 0 degree Centigrade cold at 5000 - well, actually they said you were crazy...

I've been stuck with powered flight lately (transitioned to RANS S-12 from Quicksilver yesterday), but this coming Saturday will be the PG (HG - that part is kinda dormant but I will do my best once mine arrives) club Christmas BBQ at Carmona. If the German guy who has the sailplanes decides to go up to his place I will have a choice to make...

Ho ho ho - Hugh

[Ward Odenwald]

Hugh! I'm glad we have you as our link to the "sailplane guys" even if it's from the other side of earth. There were two very sleek fiberglass machines working the ridge on Saturday and both made safe but close passes from my 6 and I'm fairly certain that I was not the only one they followed. If their cameras were clicking, we want pics! Ward

[mercury]

Thanks Tom McGowan for being an active willing observer! Had a fantastic 1st soaring flight!

[Pete Schumann]

Hey Ward,

I just took another look at the great pic's you took while flying and noticed they were taken from both wings. I checked out the close ups and can see the cameras under both.

I like the disinterested cows in your landing pic's and how your white socks clashed with your glider and pod a sure fashion fupa

Again great pic's, what cameras are you using/remote and how did you attach them?

Thanks,

Pete

[Ward Odenwald]

Thanks for the positive feedback Pete! I believe Matthew was the first to inform me of my lack of color-matching HG equipment fashion sense, which - truth be told - is really only the "tip of the iceberg" concerning my lack-of-taste in most things. The point and shoot Nikon S620 cameras are attached to the tips of the outboard sprogs or dive-sticks with rubber bands, athletic tape, sheet metal pipe hanger tape and a quarter inch bolt using standard lock washers and nuts (extremely high-Tec items, all available at Ace). Pipe hanger tape or Plumber’s tape comes in a half inch wide roles of sheet metal with holes punched in it every half inch. There are different types but the one that works best for the mount is the standard half-inch wide version. When doubled up, the hanger tape is strong enough to support the weight of the camera but pliable enough to bend it while adjusting the camera view. A three-inch length of the doubled-up tape is all that is required. Using 3 or 4 thick rubber bands, the sheet metal tape is attached to the upper surface of the dive stick with the last hole in the tape extending beyond the end of the stick. Athletic tape is then tightly wrapped around the hanger tape, rubber bands and dive stick. The tight athletic tape wrap serves several functions, it secures the mount to the dive stick and forces the rubber bands into the hanger tape holes which keeps the sheet metal tape from sliding out and it also protects the sail from the sharp edges of the hanger tape. A standard quarter inch bolt (a perfect fit for the camera mount) is bolted to the hanger tape via the hole that extends beyond the tip of the dive stick using a lock washer and nut. With a good athletic tape wrap, the mount will be good for many flights so remounting before each flight is not required. Because the length of the dive stick is extended by only the width of the bolt, there is no sail stretching issues or zip-up problems. I’ve tried different bolt lengths and for the Moyes Litespeed a 2” length works best. For my U2, I used 1.5” length bolts. The camera is threaded onto the bolt and a wing nut is used to lock it into position. The camera plus mount are very light (several ounces) and present a low-drag footprint. In the early 80s, I used a 5 lb diver’s weight to balance out the SLR Cannon and battery on the other side. With the current setup, I don’t know if having a symmetrical arrangement is important for flying performance as I have never flown with just one camera. The Nikon S620 point and shoot was selected because of its size and its exposure setting that will automatically record an image every 30 sec. As with all photography, the primary reason for the decent quality photos on that Saturday was the lighting. With the sun low on the horizon and the cold dry air, the images that were taken with the camera-pointing north or away from the sun were uniformly good. If you’re interested in doing the same, give me a call and I’ll give you more details. Ward

PS: I recently downloaded a pretty neat image correction app for the camera that is designed for hang gliders. Similar to the “red eye” eliminator, this one corrects for perceived distances to another hang glider in the photo. It can sense when the other glider is above or below you. If its above, it automatically enlarges the other glider to make it appear closer and if you are above the other pilot – well let’s just say significant shrinkage occurs. I got it to work with the photos of Jesse (reducing him to a speck) but it failed to correct for those above. Which explains why I posted only one pic of MarkC.http://www.chgpa.org/forums/images/icon ... rgreen.gif

[Pete Schumann]

Thanks for taking the time to do a write up on the install and type cameras. Do they come with a wireless remote?

Thanks again CU out there

Pete

[Ward Odenwald]

The S620 is at the low-end of the Nikon camera spectrum so I don’t think that they have a remote for it. It’s been my experience with the SLR cameras during the early days is that - when you think you’ve got the right conditions for a photo, it’s passed before the image is captured. The only way to cover for this is to take many photos. If you fly with cameras mounted on both tips, set at a 30 second exposure rates, 1% of the gazillion images will be worth keeping and just maybe a fraction of those are worth showing others. Ward