April 7 and 8 are looking good!

[Ward Odenwald]

As of now, forecasts are suggesting that one or possibly all of our NW facing sites will offer up weekend soaring! What do you think? Ward

[silverwings]

I am interested in Saturday but haven't been able to check winds aloft forecast.

[silverwings]

Still looking quite nice for Saturday at Woodstock and probably blown out at the Pulpit. Ward unfortunately cant go. Are there any more takers?

[Joe Schad]

I plan to be there.

Joe

[carweill]

Anyone considering Smithsburg?

Carlos

[hang_pilot]

I'll look again tomorrow (Sat), but am most likely in for Woodstock. Will post up.

~Daniel
301-275-6584

[hang_pilot]

Looking good according to XC skies: 12mph NW surface, 19 mph NNW at top of usable lift (~5400ft), blue day w. 600 fpm thermals. I'm in, arrive around 11:00 am.

Best,
Daniel
301-275-6584

[silverwings]

ETA about 12:00. If anyone wants to meet at LZ, call me (202)409-2574 c

[silverwings]

Daniel arrived first to light conditions 5 - 10 mph around 11:30; Joe and I arrived around 12:20 and Steve K and Pete S just after us. Randy was next and later Valerie. About 1:00 PM conditions picked up and fairly windy in the trees at times but mostly 8 - 13 at launch with higher gusts. Daniel went first about 1:45 and had to work to get above launch. I took off second at 2:25 into nice lift and got above right away. Overall it was spring air with some nice lift, some ratty lift and major sink at times. Everyone flew and landed in the bridge field which was very turbulent for some. I flew over 2 hours and got to 5800 AGL at one time.

[hang_pilot]

Wife Charlotte took baby-son Will to Atlanta for show-and-tell, so I have a temporary reprieve from diaper duty. I took advantage of my furlough to join the foolishness yesterday at Woodstock and was rewarded with a lengthy, mostly enjoyable flight.

As John mentioned, I launched first and struggled. I dug out from 300 feet below to 400 over and then again from 200 below before conditions and/or my strategy improved and I finally got firmly established above the ridge. Unfortunately, the 30 minutes of circling in turbulent (i.e. north cross) air close to the terrain brought on a bit of airsickness: didn’t blow chunks, but the nausea wouldn’t fully go away until I set foot again on solid ground.

I think everyone took their turn at the top of the stack but more often than not we were looking up at the dayglow undersurface of John’s U2. My daily best was 5100 MSL where the view was fantastic due to the low humidity. The spring air could be really rowdy, like un-commanded wingover rowdy, but as strong** as it was, the thermals were surprisingly difficult to core: short lived…disorganized….I don’t know. **For what it's worth: 1200 fpm max digital display on the Flytec 4010 with the averager set at 20 seconds.

With the three-hour mark approaching, I decided to head in to land in the bridge field. Got bounced around pretty good on final and was a little disappointed to end the flight with a one-legged slider. I took my time moving my glider to the side of the field – thinking I’d be the only one to land for a while and enjoying the departure of my nausea – when I realized that there were three gliders staging to land…tells you something about the fun ratio that as soon as one person landed everyone else followed. Steve adroitly climbed up from 300 feet to ease the conflict…tells you something about the air over the field.

John secured a ride for the two of us from some fly fishermen in a pick-up truck. Most of my rides are in pick-ups. Hence the name... Later, hung out on Joe and Zelda’s porch in Strasberg with those two plus Steve and Pete, telling lies and talking about life in the warm glow of the setting sun and the even warmer after glow from a set of long flights.

The loves of my life don’t return until Saturday, so I’m up for some midweek action if anyone else is. Looks like Thursday or Friday are possible.

Happy Easter!

~Daniel

[rasmussenv]

Great day Saturday, making for a great weekend! I hadn't thought I'd be able to fly due to Sat AM commitments, but conditions sure looked good, and I felt like I should seize the day - so decided at noon, on my way home from Alexandria, to head out, got home and was loaded and out the door by 1pm, at the launch by around 2:30.

Saw Joe Schad launch, and helped Steve and Randy launch. They reported 3 gliders had previously taken off. It took a while for Joe to get a cycle he liked, but they were coming in more regularly by the time Steve and Randy carried down, and they barely paused before yelling 'Clear'. My sister arrived in time to help Randy launch, and conditions were even smoother by the time I got assembled and ready to go - about 4:30pm by then.

This was the first time my sister had ever come out to see me launch, and I was launched with the assistance of her and a passing mountain biker who happened to be a commercial airline pilot (and thought I was crazy to fly hang gliders - or was joking - hard to tell. I think he's crazy for going over rocks down a mountain). Assistance wasn't significantly necessary, but they were there and helped me moved to launch - and I took off quickly and well. Lifted up and gradually got up to 2000 above launch. I didn't have any of the crappy sink - lots of good lift - some relatively strong winds at times, but didn't feel choppy. I stayed mostly around launch were my sister was in the tower.

I flew for 52 minutes - and could easily have flown longer, but my sister was waiting, and all the other gliders had headed to the field after their much longer flights (having taken off earlier). It took me a while to work myself out to the landing field - but good lift most of the way. I saw a couple landings that looked challenging, and this was my first landing into the bridge field, and my second landing in my Sport2 in a mountain launch site, first landing in six months in a mountain landing field. So I was definitely curious about the conditions and how it would go. There was a lot of wind above the field - downwind went FAST! - but there was quite a gradient - very low wind on the field itself (by the time I landed, at any rate) and I had a very nice upright landing a little before the half-way point in that nice long field.

Once I was packed up, I went back to the top with my sister (to get my vehicle) and together went up the tower - never had done that before - had it to ourselves for a few minutes and enjoyed a beverage and some snacks she'd brought as we marvelled at that beautiful valley in its spring spendor of light greens. As we left, at the bottom we saw someone on the bridge field inflating / playing with a red parasail wing - I don't think he'd flown - not sure who we was or what exactly he was doing.

So! Totally psyched about the good day, having me sister there, good flight, first mountain flight of 2012 for me - and first time to be last off the mountain!

Valerie