High Rock tomorrow?

[jyoder111]

Looks too north for the Pulpit. Lets go to the Rock! Who's in?

Jesse

[Matthew]

FYI. No NOTAMS for Thurmont this weekend. High Rock is go.

Matthew

[DanTuck]

I think High Rock will be good. I'm planning to be there before 1200.

[jyoder111]

I'm planning on ETA 10-11am.

Jesse

[sailin]

I'm in. Shootin for 11am arrival.

Jon

[Angelo]

Where is High Rock? I'm Angelo, visiting from Chicago. I was talking to Larry Bunner and he was mentioning the Pulpit, but if it's too north, he might go to Ridgely, and I'm still interested in the mountains.

[Angelo]

A little more about me, I'm a hang IV, mostly aero tow these days but have done a lot of mountain flying, any and all info-help on flying here appreciated.

[jyoder111]

plug this into google: 39.695498, -77.522621

There's some LZ landowner protocol so come out early and someone can introduce you.

Jesse

[sailin]

Angelo,
High Rock is a cliff launch located east of Hagerstown, MD and just northwest of Cascade, MD.....very close by to Ft. Ritchie........right on the Pennsylavania/Maryland border.

I come from 495 and take 270 to 15N to Thurmont, MD. From there I take Rt 550 to Ft. Ritchie and take a right. This road leads to launch. A waiver will need to be filled out prior to flying. What else am I missing folks so we can help Angelo have a great flight at the Rock?

thanks,
Jon

[dbodner]

I'll hit the road probably late morning.

[markc]

Count me in too, woohoo!

[Danny Brotto]

At Fairfield and have my HG gear with me. Might drop in in the evening after flying the sailplane if I get finished in time.

Should be decent at HR.

Danny Brotto

[Angelo]

Thanks for all the info. See you all tomorrow. One last thing - My number is 847-707-8337, if the weather for high rock falls apart, can someone call me in the morning? I'll go to Highland instead.

[markc]

Still leaning towards HRock, remembering that great day we had there a couple weeks ago. Will probably be there
on the early side 9:30-ish, so if you want a conditions report give me a call.

MarkC
301 807 5414

[jyoder111]

yup. packing now.

Jesse

[jyoder111]

Nice day at High Rock! It was very light in the morning but the thermals kicked on around noon and it was good bouyant thermal flying for a couple hours in the middle of the day. Nice to see a lot of pilots out there. My parents made the trip down from Lancaster and watched me fly for the first time. They handled it well and had a good time.

I was the first one to launch. Thought I was going to sled but found some nice lift out front by the railroad tracks and got up above the ridge. Turned around and found gliders popping off the Rock in a hurry to get in the air. How's that for being the wind-dummy!

Jesse

My dad took some photos:

[markc]

*INSANELY* good day today at High Rock!

Rowdy, bullet thermals down low, and not much by way of ridge lift. On launch, I had the fortune to see Jesse find a thermal fairly low and start working it back toward the mountain. Looked up and saw a good cloud, the streamers looked decent, and *bam* I was off! Didn't even have to go out very far to find the thermal (thanks Jesse!), and once I was above I could breathe a sigh of relief.

From there, it was spring-time, kick-yer-a$$ lift, followed by outrageous sink, followed by north-cross sink cycles, then outrageous lift and the cycle began anew.

Flew with DanTw for quite a while, and we seemed to be trading top-o-the-stack for much of the day. But that said, I was also low and floundering at times. You really had to dig a tip into the thermals today, and hope that you could latch on long enough to get into the better stuff. Sometimes it worked, other times not so much.

My best was 5000' above launch. I know because I was late for a friend's birthday celebration, but simply couldn't forego that last & best climb of the day. So I was like "Ok, go for 5, but then you've really gotta bail buddy!" Pretty chilly up there, T-shirt, no mitts, and in my old air-scoop of a harness. Brrr!

I think you could have crossed the valley today; the cloud streets were working, and the sink in the valley didn't seem as bad. Took a few token turns in two thermals while punching out towards Waynesboro, wishing like heck that I could stay in the air. Major sigh.

But with that view from 7k MSL, and close to two hours, I'm not complaining! One of the best flights I've ever had at High Rock.

Room for improvement: In my rush to launch into Jesse's thermal, I took off a bit too far back from the edge. I should have been another step closer. Not an issue given the light winds today, but in stronger conditions that sort of thing can bite you. Don't ever rush your launch!

Pilots today included Jesse, Jon, visiting pilot Angelo, David B, Dan Tw, Curtis K, Bacil, Steve K, and a second visiting pilot I didn't get to meet. We've had a few good High Rock days in recent weeks, and I'm sure Emma-Jane has been happy to see everyone. Let's keep 'em coming!

MarkC

PS: Jesse and Jon, sorry not to have returned your calls, I didn't get your voice mails until after you were at the site, or had already gotten conditions reports from others. Stupid Verizon!

[DanTuck]

Like Mark said, awesome day at High Rock. The air up high was sooooo much nicer than the air down low. Cumies everywhere although some were working, and some not so you could end up low pretty easily. Down lower the thermals were really ratty and small and you definitely had to put in on tip occasionally. Never quite got to cloudbase always a few hundred shy. But I did get a little over 6 grand so I'm not complaining and I was still climbing but had to bail because of P-40. By far my best flight at High Rock and I'm pretty sure it was because of my slick new flying shirt. I'm saving at least a point in cosmetic drag. As always it was nice to see Emma Jane. It was also cool to meet Tom from the Bay area in CA and hang with him and Bacil afterwards. Thanks Jon, Steve and David for the wire crew, and Mark for the ride up. Really, really fun day!