Pulpit, Sunday 1/8

[Ward Odenwald]

Hoping that Daniel can get a 24 hr extension and move his sendoff to Sunday. Given the current forecasts, I believe that the soaring/flying conditions will be much improved over tomorrow. Ward

[mcgowantk]

Ward

I am looking at Sunday too. Based on the current forecast, the Pulpit looks like the place to be Sunday. Daniel should just stay up all night and fly again Sunday. That would be good practice for taking care of a new baby.

Tom McGowan

[sailin]

Looks like the Pulpit could be nice tomorrow. Ward and Tom are you guys still in? I'll be leaving from work with an ETA of 11ish.

Jon

[niquya]

Hi all !

I'm in for Pulpit tomorrow, I think a few P-2 are if there is an observer. Again car-pooling would be great too, hope those who made it today had nice flights !
Guy the phone number you posted was missing one number, are you planning to go tomorrow ?
Thanks !
Yannick
202-390-1113

[pch]

Yannick, I'll be there tomorrow with Jim McClave, another P-2. Any other P-2's welcome.
Peter Humes

[Ward Odenwald]

I'm in. Should be there around 10:30. Ward

[markc]

On the road, and debating continuing on and staying over at the Pulpit tonight.

I'm seeing a pretty solid NW direction in the forecasts, which can be ok... But to be honest, I'd prefer High Rock on a true NW day. Problem is that the HR forecast is currently NW@10 and 50% cloud cover, which ain't 10-15

Winds aloft are supposed to be fairly light by early afternoon, so I guess that's a point in favor of the Pulpit. Hmmmm.

I might not be online tomorrow, so if things change in favor of High Rock, please keep me in mind and give me a ring. I'd do either site.

MarkC
301-807-5414

[jyoder111]

I'm up for another attempt. ETA Pulpit 10am-ish unless morning forecast is significantly changed.

Jesse

[jyoder111]

Hmm. Forecast for today is diminished somewhat. Looks like it will get light pretty quickly in the afternoon. I'm heading out (eta 9:30am) once I put the glider on the car. Jon, Ward, others, if you decide to bail, give me a call at 202-441-1992. Otherwise, see ya there!

Jesse

[mcgowantk]

I am heading to the Pulpit too. The forecast looks promising to me.

Tom

[lbunner]

Wow, looks good enough to go over the back and put some miles in!

[markc]

It was blowing in 10-ish as of 9am, come on up!

[markc]

Everyone who flew soared, another good day in early January, sweet!

I camped at the site on Sat night, and woke 7:20-ish to a bright sun coming up through a gap in the cloud deck. Started getting psyched about the possibilities for the day.

But the day was a lot cloudier than forecast, and it was WAY colder than Sat. So my enthusiasm for the day waned a bit.... When Jesse and Ward arrived I got more into the game, and we were actually hustling to set up because the winds were supposed to back off, and we were worried that the prospects for HG soaring would quickly pass.

PGer's Jim M and Peter H arrived early, followed later by Jim K and Yannick and Lazslo and and and! Unfortunately for them the winds did NOT back down, they actually increased significantly during the day, peaking at 22+, and never really dropping below 15. Jim M had a very early PG flight but then landed after a short time in the air. After running a shuttle (and coming across Peter and Jim on their way back, which allowed us to drop _both_ vehicles, thanks a lot guys!), Jesse launched, and then I followed shortly after. Ward helped with both our launches though he didn't plan to fly himself. We owe you man!

Did I mention it was cold? But in spite of that I flew a lot more of the ridge than I usually do.... Headed north, past the bowl, past the angled section of the ridge, and then finally around the corner where it turns solidly to the N. Pretty good lift, topping out at 1200' and 1400' over a few times. Ran back south when I started hitting some sink, though I did get far enough to get a good look at the lake at Cowan's Gap.

Tom M and Jon B arrived, and they set up in a hurry and launched. Both soared as much as they wanted. Tom punched further north than I, but I got to make up for that by heading further south than he did. Nothing like a good chase to warm you back up

I found the best lift of the day down there, White Tail in sight down-wind, at 2100' over. I seriously thought of going XC, but I was frickin' cold and this was very late in my flight. Bottom line: I wimped out!

During the return to the LZ the skies finally started to open up, and the sun was coming out, and it was just perfect. I hated to land, but when you are shivering hard enough to shake the glider, that's usually a sign that it's time to come down.

Hauled gliders and gear back up top, where we found that Karen and Matthew and Carlos had also arrived. Karen enjoyed a late-day flight, though I'm not sure of the details because I was back in SUVie, trying to warm back up. No PG flights for Matthew or Carlos, even though they waited until late in the day. Bummer.

All-in-all a great day for the HG wings, but I'm sorry that it didn't work out for the PG wings.

MarkC

PS: Quite a bit of the firewood has been poached since Gary D's chain-saw-palooza, so Jon and I moved much of the smaller stuff underneath the shelter (on the right side as you face it). Seemed like the large stuff was less-poached.... If you are in need of wood for a smallish fire, take a look under there.

PPS: The grills are gone! (I mean, the really crappy old ones). And tragedy of tragedies, even the bottle opener that was screwed into one of the shelter's columns is gone!!! Kind of like The Grinch taking the last light bulb, sheesh!

[jyoder111]

I decided to head up to the Pulpit early, as the forecast "suggested" the winds would be dying off shortly after noon. I arrived at 9:30am to find Mark's half assembled glider and Peter and Jim on the pad with PGs. Conditions were a steady 6-8mph blowing mostly straight in. Cloud cover was pretty solid. I considered waiting to see if the sun would break through before launching, as I wasn't completely sure it was soarable, but Peter and Jim said winds had been increasing since they'd gotten there so I figured I'd play wind dummy and if I sank out, I had one of two vehicles in the LZ to run back up in and launch again.
With Ward and Mark's help, I launched around 10:50am from low on the pad into a steady 6-8mph trickle and didn't have trouble getting up on the ridge. It was super-smooth and the ridge lift was nice and buoyant! Mark jumped in his glider and launched soon after (you can see some shots of his launch in the video). We did a couple passes and then he headed up north of the Mountain House. I followed for a bit, as it was true Falcon conditions- buoyant with no penetration problems! Turned around when I started losing and spent an hour playing on the ridge in front of launch. It was cold!! My fingers especially- something I've never had a problem with on prior cold flights, I guess this was colder than most. I'm looking into bar-mitts.

Ward had graciously offered me his vario, as he didn't plan on flying. Thanks Ward! I hope your lack of vario later didn't prevent you from flying later when it had ramped up a bit. It was reassuring to have instrument tell me what I already knew, but I didn't get high enough to make it particularly useful. I did notice I began to get lazy and just used the vario to tell me if I was gaining or sinking instead of looking at angles and watching the top of the ridge against the backdrop. Be careful people, don't trust the instrument too much!

Around noon the sun began to peak through and I began to notice some turbulence and an increase in headwind. I decided to head out and land because I was cold, tired, and didn't want to be on the ridge when the sun really got things going. Had a nice landing at the primary without the aid of streamers or sock. I had figured on a north cross in the LZ, but it didn't happen. You can see in the video, at about 400 ft. I tested amount of cross by loosening my grip and watching my ground track. It was negligible, so I decided to land to the west on the uphill.

It was a really fun flight, even if confined to the ridge. Smooth enough to play with the camera and not worry about airsickness. Beautiful mountain scenery! Here we go, 2012! Thanks to Mark, Ward, and others who came out, and Bacil, for encouraging me to come out again after a no-fly the day before.

[sailin]

I almost put the kibosh on my flying plans for the day after a busy night/morning at work.....I'm glad I didn't I arrived to find Jesse and MarkC already in the air (actually saw MarkC's launch from Rt 30 just before the Mountain House Restaurant....pretty cool!) It was dark and cold at launch with 8-10mph winds coming mostly straight in (little cross from the north). I went to work quickly setting up, worried that things were going to get lighter and more north......didn't happen. By the time Tom and I launched (right around noon), things had picked up pretty significantly to a constant 15mph with some gusts to 18mph or so......but the direction was still pretty nice. I launched from low on the pad into a nice lull (maybe around 12mph), took a couple steps and up and out I went. Worked the ridge around launch for a short bit and then headed SW and played down there for a while. Ended up working a lift line to the NW out in front of Rt 16 for most of the end of my flight.......really cool thing was that it was mostly overcast when I was working the lift line so it was all feel and find but after we had landed the sky opened up nicely with some nice individual cummies moving through.........I could now see the cloud street in the exact location I was working the lift line...pretty neat. Thank you to Ward, Peter H and Jim ? for the launch assistance....and the MarkC for the ride back up and to Jesse for hanging out in the LZ in case I needed a ride. Nice flying with you all!! Hopefully we can make a repeat of December this January!!

Jon

[kcarra]

Thanks to my gallant wire crew who patiently waited and froze while I held out for a good (for me) cycle. It paid off and I had a nice launch and fun flight. Easy to stay up and I didn't try to get high. Got cold after about 1/2 hour and ended up with about 40 minutes or so.

Karen

[mcgowantk]

I had a nice flight too, thanks to Ward and Jon (and another pilot whose name I can't remember) who wired me off. I had a less than optimal launch from the old ramp. I like the ramps but should have done a number of things differently, like add a streamer to the end of the ramp and move farther forward to launch. A wing lifted pretty much when I said clear, but was able to quickly correct and fly out front.

I thought the air was pretty unstable with both strong winds and wave clouds forming. I wasn't motivated to get real high the way the sky looked. I landed after an hour and half due to that uncomfort; however, the sky opened up and looked great right after I landed. Oh well. I also had an enjoyable hike up the mountain.

A nice day for January.

Tom McGowan

[jyoder111]

Glad you got off ok Tom.

In light of some of the launch mishaps recently, I'll mention that I got two messages from close-but-not-quite-as-local pilots with some launch critique based on my recent videos. As you can see in the video, I transitioned from a grapevine to a bottleneck very early in the run. I've been told this is not ideal, as transitioning hands can be dangerous in turbulent launch conditions, and the bottleneck grip doesn't give as much pitch control if the nose gets popped by a gust. Grapevine through the entire run is what is currently recommended by many pilots, including Pagan. I was intending to refrain from switching grips yesterday, but old habits die hard.

Jesse

[deveil]

wow, outsourcing grip analysis. who woulda thunk.

[sailin]

Jesse,
You have always had a very nice aggressive, chest forward, launch run. In regards to the grip, I am a firm believer in the "grapevine through out" the entire launch run, and even into the very early stages of "lift -off" and flight. As you mentioned, it is recommended by Pagen and many other top notch pilots/instructors . I spent a week down in Tennessee at the Team Challenge in October and we talked and video analyzed ad nauseam the pros and cons of the different grips. Although I had unknowingly already adopted and used the "grapevine throughout" technique before I ever arrived in Tennessee, the launch clinics there, help solidify the "why" behind it for me. I think if you combine the "grapevine through out" technique with your very strong, aggressive runs that you already do, you will have a superior launch technique that will serve you well.
Hopefully we can get a Smithsburg day soon where we can play around with it. Kudos to you for bringing this into discussion.
Look forward to flying with you soon!

Jon

[Matthew]

Speaking of Smithsburg--- After playing polo, Karen and I met up with our old friend David Zuchero, who was once editor of MHGA's newsletter. Does anyone remember newsletters? Or the joy of folding, labeling and stamping 150 newletters each month? Aaaah! The good old days.

But I digress.

David (a H2) hasn't touched his Pulse 10M in nearly ten years and we helped him get in five flights. He started a third of the way up the hill-- his launches were clean as ever. He made it up to the top of the hill for his last flight and did a couple turns. He even landed on his feet twice. He was a happy, happy boy!

Karen kited her PG for a while-- it was blowing like stink for a PG. I flew David's glider once. Man, those Pulses are easy to fly!!!

And I did a short hop on Karen's PG from a quarter way up the hill. The winds ramped back up at the end of the day-- kinda like what happened at the Pulpit the following day.

Matthew

[deveil]

http://www.ushpa.org/2009/11/safe-hang- ... hes-redux/

regarding Pagan’s article from the link posted by Bun, this seemed particularly useful for its practicality:

“The best way to effect a cure is to go to the landing field. Running on the flat ground will teach you all you need to know about proper control and will help you change technique in a comfortable manner. Plus, you will be able to do many more trials than you would have if you’d climbed a training hill.”