Ground handling locations in Reston area

[jmcclave]

Is anyone aware of good ground handling locations in the Reston/Fair Lakes area?

Thanks in advance.
Jim

[mingram]

Kiting is allowed at Manassas Battlefield Park. I work in Reston so let me know if you find a new site.

Matt

[jmcclave]

I went over to the battlefield and walked about half hour from the visitor center to a hill by Longs Creek and Rt 29 where I ground handled for a few hours. When I went back to the visitor center the ranger was surprised that I had been ground handling in the park. Is there an area where you are clearly allowed to ground handle?
Thanks,
Jim

[mingram]

Petr kites right next to the horse trail and dining area. Nice meadow. This is where we have been told it's ok to kite. Occasionally someone who's unfamiliar will question you because they think you might get airborn, but once you explain that it's generally permitted.

Matt

[MarkDW]

I had been looking for a place to kite for a while.

I checked out Manassas Battlefield park a couple weeks ago. Except for a few walking paths that had been mowed, all of the fields I found had grass about 2 to 3 feet tall, so I decided to keep looking elsewhere.

I found a nice big open field at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston here:
https://www.google.com/maps?ll=38.96087 ... 9&t=h&z=17

I asked the main office if it was alright to kite there and they said yes, as long as we aren't putting any other park guests in danger.

It is actually three fields if you look at their map here:

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/lake ... axpark.pdf

It is made up of multipurpose A, multipurpose B, and field 8.
They occasionally have Cricket practice/matches on field 8, which the guy at the office said takes priority for that field. So you can kite there only if it is empty.
Multipurpose A and B are almost always empty, so even if there are people playing Cricket in field 8 you can still kite in those other two fields.


Mark

[guy didier]

Thank you so much for that information. That is a great find. What directions of wind is it best or worst?

[MarkDW]

Each time I've been there it has been S, SSW, or SSE which work well.

N should also work. I'm probably going to head over after work on Thursday which is calling for NNW and see how it is.

The field is only 500 ft wide with tall trees on the E and W sides, so E and W probably won't work that well.


Mark

[jmcclave]

Thanks much Mark. This is a great find. Let me know if you do go on Thursday and I'll probably meet you there. I am also considering an after work flight at Woodstock if the weather cooperates and other folks are interested.

Jim McClave

[jmcclave]

Mark,

I just used your GoogleMaps approach to look for similiar sites. Great idea! A good west possibility is the grass parking hill at Wolf Trap. It looks like there is a 2,000 ft stretch from 267 to the top of the hill that faces west and has minimal obstructions. I'll head over there on a west day and see if it works and also ask if it is possible to kite the gliders there when the park is not in use.

The other I want to try on a SW day is what I believe is a pipeline cut that runs for miles from rt 66 (by Balls Ford Rd) to Rt 50 (by Lees Corner Rd) to Reston Parkway (by Steeplechase Rd) to Wiele Rd (by Fairway Drive). It is only 200 feet wide but it does have some hills on it. While looking at it I saw a more interesting cut (maybe powerlines) that runs for miles in a SE direction. Look at Rt 66 and the Cub Run Trail System to find it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep looking. It would be great to several other options with small hills in the immediate metro area using your GoogleMaps approach.

Jim

[MarkDW]

Jim,

That would be great if we can kite at wolf trap since that is closer to where I live (Vienna/Tysons Corner area). It would probably only work for weekdays since they tend to be pretty busy fri/sat/sun.

I was looking at the pipeline cuts in the area also before I found the Lake Fairfax field. The cut that runs through Reston has no power lines and looks like it would work well for SW or NE but is pretty skinny at only an average 75 ft:
https://maps.google.com/?ll=38.933659,- ... 4&t=h&z=18
Where did you see the 200 ft wide portion?

I'm pretty sure the cut you are looking at by club run trail has power lines if you zoom in here:
https://maps.google.com/?ll=38.83578,-7 ... 8&t=h&z=16


Mark

[jmcclave]

Mark,

When you tried it on the NNW day how was it. I was thinking about heading over there this evening afterwork if the NW wind drops down a bit.

Thanks,
Jim

[jeverett]

I've been working toward my P2 for a few months down in Charlottesville with Noah Merritt, and I was delighted to discover this field, less then fifteen minutes from home. Even better, there's a rapid-fire wunderground weather station for Lake Fairfax (KVAVIENN7), which shows the current conditions:

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstat ... =KVAVIENN7

The Rapid Fire updates current conditions every 3-5 seconds:

http://www.wunderground.com/swf/Rapid_F ... =KVAVIENN7

so you can leave it open on your desktop and watch the 5-minute wind interval chart scroll by in real time.

I went out around 2pm this afternoon, and there was a decent breeze rolling through in cycles. According to wunderground, it was 0-6mph, with gusts to 10mph, which was pretty much what I experienced. I had no problem kiting for around 30 minutes. The wind was switching around from SE to SW, which made the kiting a bit more challenging. The field was empty except for a small group flying a home-built multi-rotor UAV (fortunately not as mobile as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWTi2Dgh0Fw).

-John

[mingram]

Cool! Thanks for the report! I hope to fly with you soon.

Matt
PG Observer

[mingram]

John, we also have a training hill in Feedericksburg that faces SSW. It's less than 100 feet, but great for busting out some quick flights and kiting. let me know if you need more details.

Matt
804.399.5155

[AustinKasserman]

I just got my P2 and moved to Reston. I've been looking for a nice place to ground handle. Will probably check out the fields at Lake Fairfax this week.

[MarkDW]

Tuesday is looking good for kiting. I'll probably head over there after work.

Thursday may work too.

Mark

[davidtheamazing1]

Bull Run Park allows it. They have some nice, big "special event" fields right off of I66.

[jmcclave]

John,

Thanks much for the wunderground weather station for Lake Fairfax!

Jim