Daniel's Saturday 2/18

[Matthew]

It's looking not too shabby for Daniel's on Saturday.

Anyone up for some warm mid-February flying?

Matthew

[rlweber]

Daniels it will be! Not sure about the time yet. Hope to make it early.
Randy

[mingram]

I'm thinking about making this my first flight in 2012.

Matt

[sailin]

Going to Daniels to have a look-see. ETA probably around noonish.

Jon

[dbodner]

What did I miss?

[kcarra]

Jon, what was the name of the place to get the sail thread?

Thanks
Karen

[Matthew]

Karen, Nigel and I got to the LZ around 1pm to find a gaggle of PGers. Randy launched his HG shortly thereafter-- the only HG flight of the day. Up at top it was a bit gusty and Randy wasn't getting too high. We waited for almost an hour till it mellowed out some and Tom Cuenen went for it. He struggled to get up. Jim Kaplan, Noah, Lazlo and I followed. The air was a bit choppy but manageable for PGs-- and no penetrations problems. We were plugging along between 400 and 1000 over. Matt Ingram and Krista then launched. Tom then went out to land because he found widespread lift out in the valley and did not like it.

So I went out in the valley- It was much nicer than being on the ridge and I climbed up to 1800 over mostly flying straight, with only a few 360s.

Krista headed out to land and got blown to the east to one of the bail-out LZs. She reported oscillating side collapses on approach. Then Matt Ingram was tossed like a feather to the east and landed with Krista. Lazlo, Noah and Jim also landed-- Jim pulling big ears. They were all well below me and closer to the ridge. I was out flying over the road and having a grand old time.

I decided to land since everyone else had landed and all had experienced a lot of turbulence. Again, I wasn't having any penetration problems or turbulence up high. I finally found some sink... once I got down to about 600 launch over I hit a wall of air blowing from the West. I stepped on the old speedbar and flew upwind of the LZ. From there I did figure 8s over the center of the field. At about 20' up and on final I hit an even bigger wall of air and came to a complete stop and parked till I tippy-toed onto the ground, hovering for a second on one foot before collapsing the wing behind me. I never experienced any of the surges or collapses the others had felt.

It was blowing a steady 15 on the ground from the west..

Ellis, Nigel, Karen, Paul, Jon and Gordon (from C-ville) did not fly.

Weird day! That's the third time I've encountered a reverse gradient in 15 years of flying-- one other in a PG and one other in a HG.

Karen, Ellis, Nigel and I (and Ellis' dogs) went for a hike to Hogback Overlook afterwards.

Matthew

[Dan T]

I obviously wasn't there but I talked to Ellis some about it. If I understood her correctly she thought that it might have been some sort of wrap around venturi that was making things difficult relatively close to the ridge including in the primary. That could explain the turbulence that Krista hit and the relatively smooth air that you found out front as well as the walls that Matthew hit on the way down and in.

Those are the kind of conditions that made me decide I didn't really like Daniel's when I was flying a hang glider there several years back. Beware the West cross.

Dan

[sailin]

Karen, I Pm'ed you the info about the thread.

[XCanytime]

From the 1/28 Daniels thread: "Think about how the wind (and any crosswind - WEST) is going to interact with the terrain one you are airborne. A quick look at a raised relief map with show you why you can expect more trash at Daniels than, say, the Pulpit or Jacks. The Blue Ridge is covered with gnarly-looking lumps and bumps compared to the smooth face of the Tuscarora or Jacks". Bacil