Pulpit Sunday 9/9

[XCanytime]

Get there early. Gonna blow out midday. Or get there late for the evening throttleback and magic. Looking like the Pulpit of old finally . Bacil

[callen]

Looks strong but good Sunday. I'll be out either way as i already committed to the weekend and am in the Chambursburg area. Hope others can make it. Ridge lift should be a no brainer

Charlie

[eggzkitz]

Looks like it will be blown out for us PGs, but the WS forecast is looking promising.

As of now, I plan to fly WS Sunday.

[callen]

yea would be tuff in a PG. Though in topless HG it looks like a great day to run the ridge. Checking out google earth now to see how far one can go with out encountering any gaps.

Anyone else up for a ridge run?

[Danny Brotto]

Hi Charlie

There's that gap just to the north of launch, another one at Burnt Cabins (about 9 miles down the ridge) and then another at Honey Grove (about 25 miles beyond Burnt Cabins.) Then you can go about 20 miles further to where the ridge ends at Thomsontown. The ridge does have some little lumps/gaps and I'm just mentioning the the major ones. Burnt Cabins is less of a gap but more of a "drop back" when headed north.

I can tell you that there are stretches of forests where if you had to come off the ridge might situate you for little options for a field landing.

I hope to be flying the ridge tomorrow... in my sailplane

Good luck!
Danny Brotto

[callen]

Danny,
Thanks for the tips. I've been checking out the gaps on Google Earth and they seem to be a little less than a 1mile. Was thinking i may need a thermal to cross them but if the ridge lift is strong it may be doable on glide. The lift outlook also looks really good on xc skies with TOL at about 6-7k (will be hard to shift gears and pass up thermals to run the ridge).

Anyone else interested? I was thinking of trying for a 110mile task but would consider a shorter course if others are interested. Would be fun to try for 60-80miles and team fly instead.

Charlie

[jyoder111]

I'm planning on the Pulpit tomorrow. Eta about 9am.

Jesse

[callen]

awesome. should be there between 10-11am.

[sailin]

I should be there 10amish. I am going to start another thread about flying either Pulpit or High Rock Monday as well if people want to stay in the area.

Jon

[callen]

Below are the waypoints I'm putting in my gps and the routes i was thinking about incase any wants to join. Also happy to try for a shorter route if anyone wants to join.

Short Name  LAT[º]  LON[º]  Height[ft]
 Pulpit  39º54.873'N  077º57.508'W  2099
 Elbow  39º45.316'N  078º03.951'W  1741
 WaterPeak  40º22.566'N  077º31.812'W  2197
 NotElbow  39º47.887'N  078º01.824'W  1784
 Pulpit LZ  39º53.950'N  077º58.752'W  1118
 Jenns Mom  39º56.361'N  077º33.125'W  828
 Fannet  40º03.909'N  077º49.767'W  869
 Waterloo  40º15.586'N  077º42.700'W  1659

100 miles
1  Pulpit
2  NotElbow
3  WaterPeak
4  Fannet
5  Jenns Mom

[mingram]

PGs are heading to Woodstock.

Matt

[jyoder111]

Epic day at the Pulpit!

Wind was lighter than expected in the morning, but there was cloud development and I decided to be wind dummy around 11:30am. I feel like I'm learning new things each flight. Today's task amounted to practicing flying as efficiently as possible to maintain in the weak conditions. Got up over after a bit of work and had a nice smooth flight till the shade moved and the sun heated things up to get a few decent thermals. Unfortunately, never got more than 600 over, as some rain showers moved in and scared me to the LZ. The sky cleared up after I landed and gliders exploded off launch into the improved conditions. I heard from Bacil and Jon B that they and Matt C had great flights over the back. I'll let them report...

Here's a video of my flight I threw together if you're interested.

Jesse

[XCanytime]

The Pulpit was spectacular! Didn't start out that way, but patience paid off. Got there just before 9A to clear skies and light conditions. On the horizon a bank of angry looking clouds loomed. At least a dozen pilots arrived and set up. Jesse started off the soaring early. Charlie followed and started his ridge task. Got sprinkled on then showered on pretty good just before 2P. After the second event passed, the clouds upwind looked much more benign and it was game on. Pilots queued up after drying off their gliders. I was #4 in the queue and took off from the pad just after 2P into 12 to 18 MPH. Got up easy but for the next hour and a half I couldn't get above 3700' MSL. Finally flew way upwind 3/4 of the way across the valley just north of launch under a nice looking cloud. Finally found the ladder all the way to base at 7300' MSL, a personal best altitude. Drifted over Broad and Kittatinny Mts. with visions of making it to Chambersburg Airport. However, it was blue all around, with the only reachable cloud south of Rt. 30 near Williamson. So I zagged that way and found nothing. Ended up landing next to Kauffman road just shy of Rt. 11. A nice fellow stopped by and I bribed him with a $20 bill for a ride back to launch. Back at launch Jon Brantley was grinning after his first OTB at the Pulpit, landing north of Upton for 10+ miles. Matt Christiansen ended up making it all the way to High Rock. Alex from KHK got to base down south to 7600+ MSL. The 4 of us got some well deserved food and drink at Tony's Pizza in Greencastle. And Charlie made his ridge run task then hopped OTB to land at his in-laws north of Fayetteville 22 miles downwind. Bacil

[XCanytime]

Looking NW towards Bills Hill.

Meadow Grounds Lake.

The blue hole OTB.

Cowans Gap Lake in the distance.

One last cloud to fly under.

[XCanytime]

Alas the pull of gravity is winning.

[Lostgriz]

I will post a flight report tonight, but until then let me just say...... Great Day Yesterday! I am still smiling. Thank you Jon and Charlie for the text messages that convinced me to bail on my home projects and enjoy a great day of flying. Too much fun. I will report with some detail this evening.

[markc]

Sorry to have missed out on such great conditions, great flights everyone! How did the PG'ers at Woodstock fare?

[W89rnr]

Yeah, it was a great first day for me at the Pulpit, like Bacil said, I broke my personal altitude best making it to 7671' msl, which I guess is about 5500' or so over launch (maybe more ). I launched after one of my fellow KHK pilot friends Steve, and he and I flew the ridge to the south of launch for the better part of 3 hours together. After the rainy conditions cleared in the morning, the sky beyond the ridge across the valley looked spectacular, so we all suited up and ran off the pad with only a few pilots opting for the ramp even in the stronger conditions . This flight also broke my highest altitude gain in a single thermal from 2400' (300 or so over launch) to 7600' . I was able to fly with Matt Christensen with our U2's in tandem, he beckoned me to follow him OTB about an hour into my flight, but I wanted to share some great ridge conditions with my friend Steve in his Pulse and opted to stay behind. I watched Matt work a lift line at 3/4 VG for several minutes and several miles until I lost sight of him amongst the awesome number of landing fields OTB in the valley. I saw Jon Brantley head over the back after catching an awesome thermal from down low over the LZ, although it looked like he was scraping the tops of the ridge from where I was onlooking at base, he assured me he was approaching 4000' and climbing when he committed, hats off to you Jon for pulling off your goal for the flight and landing safely in the honkin' winds in the valley, I will happily retrieve you anytime (unless I'm out there stranded with you ). I'm still trying to catch up to Matt and his exceptional ability to pull of some impressive XC flights whenever they pass through his mind, and it was great to fly with Bacil as we chased the lift out front over the valley. Great day all around and I loved meeting new pilots and flying one BEAUTIFUL site! I hope to make it back soon!

[mingram]

Congrats guys! Sounds like it was an awesome day to be in a hang glider. I can't wait to hear more about those XC flights! I'd love to see some tracklogs too.

There was an awesome PG turnout at Woodstock - 17 pilots!?!, but winds were ultimately were too strong to launch. We should have arrived earlier. At 1pm winds were still light enough to get a few people soaring, but it ramped up big time around 2:30. Randy flew his HG and had a nice long, high flight. Laszlo took off around 5:30 or so, but was hit by rotor/cross wind coming out of the slot and convinced the rest of us to pack up. Alexander launched his radio controlled electric powered glider with live video and telemetry data displayed on a battery powered flat screen monitor! He flew it 12km a few weeks ago and was trying for farther. It was still really gusty at 6:30. It seems like Fall is here.

Matt

[lbunner]

Sweet guys! Let's hear all about it Charlie!

[callen]

For those who showed up at the Pulpit Sunday was awesome. Many went XC with some really solid flights and I think almost everyone flew. I was really bummed that my radio speaker died as I wanted to team fly a 75mile task with Matt and drag some others in, but unfortunately with no radio and no visual I gave up and decided to fly by myself. Matt flew to High Rock and I think Bacil, Alex, and John all flew over the back and landed throughout the valley.

My flight was really fun I flew a 75 mile task (pulpit->Notelbow->waterloo->Fannet->jenns mom) this was basically down the ridge to the south close to the end of the ridge (~10m) then back up to the north (~35m) then back down the ridge about (~15m) then over the back to my wife’s parents house slightly past Chambersburg (~15m).

I started flying with Jesse who was a bit above me after I launched but he bailed to the LZ when the rain came. I wish I had him on the radio or had a working radio for that matter as the rain was very isolated and he could have stayed in ridge lift the same distance from the LZ but just south and waited for it to pass. Anyway it looks like he had good flight and a nice landing.

My task and flight below:



The 1st leg to the south was really easy and the rain had cleared as I was on my way back from Notelbow and gliders were in the air. I slowed down to look for Matt, John and Alex but didn’t see them in the air (there were a few other gliders in the air, not sure who). At this point I decided to push on alone and the first little ridge/ hump to the north was a little tricky as there were no landing options if the ridge stopped working, however, I managed to get a small little thermal and left as soon as I realized I could make the fields in the valley to the north.

The next 8 miles were cake just ran the ridge until it started to converge with the ridge to the west. This is where I got stuck for about 30 minutes; there were no landing fields in the valley as the ridges converged. I couldn’t see over the ridge ahead and had no idea if there were landable fields on the other side moreover I wasn’t confident I could clear the ridge. The ridge lift was also weaker and trashy to the north because the west ridge was getting higher as it converged. I decided to head south in the better ridge lift (where I could get above the ridge) and where there were LZ’s and wait for a thermal to kick off. The 1st one I got was too weak (200fpm) and the drift was too much by the time I got back to the ridge I was back at the same alt. The 2nd thermal was better about 300fm and I decided to go for it and managed to jump to the ridge to the west and clear it by about 150ft then ended up getting very low about 1300ft agl, which was worrisome as the LZ’s sucked and at this alt the ridge was much flatter. I managed to catch a bubble and work back up the ridge until I got to the peak and caught a nice thermal (300-400fpm) that took me to about 3,000ft. I used this to jump the gap and fall back on the ridge to the north east. The clouds were looking really good at this point.

The next 13 miles was an easy run up the ridge doing about 45mph ground speed. I stopped for 1 thermal as it was just too hard to pass up 700fpm but left when it slowed to 500fpm at about 1k over, this also got me over a small gap though I probably didn’t need it. The wind was very strong aloft and the cross wind component drastically slowed overall progress so I raced back down to the ridge. This ridge was working really well there were lots of LZ’s and I tagged waterloo with no problem. I debated going another 30miles but my Camelback wasn’t working, I was already very tired and I had forgotten to put on chapstick and my upper lip was about to fall off. On the way back about 1 mile after the waterloo turn point I stopped for a thermal which was 1,000fpm on the averager and peaked once at 1400fpm it was so strong it was barely drifting. I left that thermal at about 5,000 ft msl and gained another 500 as I flew south west back over the ridge. I flew at about 65mph (airspeed) until I was back down on the ridge by this point the ridge lift was working much better and I settled at about 800ft over instead of 500ft like before.

As I approached Fannet (the first over the back turn point) I started looking for a good thermal to get high and off the ridge. I found a nice 600fpm climb (not the 1,000fpm I was hoping for but good enough) which drifted me towards Fannet. I stayed in this thermal until about 5,000ft when it died, glided to Fannet which I reached at 4,000ft.

After Fannet it was a little tricky getting over the next section as there are 2 ridges filled with trees between however I found a nice 300fpm climb which I drifted with for about 2.5miles which got me past both ridges and gave me the numbers (~1,500ft arrival alt) to make jenns moms, about 15miles. It was a nice glide in over the Chambersburg airport and to Jenns moms house. However I had to fly around a few nice clouds to stay in sinky air so I wouldn’t arrive to high (I was exhausted). I had a nice landing in their farm field and was able to walk home for dinner and a beer. Also no driving for my wife just had to drop me off.

Simply an awesome day just bummed I had to do it alone, I’ll be sure to get my radio working. Link to flight log: https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D321406_67254375_226029

[sailin]

Just to echo what everybody else already has said...super duper fun day at the Pulpit!!! The sky was pretty interesting in the morning and early afternoon with everything from lenticulars to nice cummies to overdeveloped rain cells. My first OTB didn't set any distance records but it was a great experience for me. Wish I had headed out the first time I climbed to 4000' as the valley behind was loaded with sweet looking cummies. There was lots of yo yo'ing up and down in the lift. Had some nice climbs in strong lift which had seemed to set up in narrow streets. Even better strategy would have been to push out in the valley in front and get stinking high and then go OTB........learning By the time I finally got back up to an acceptable OTB height, the valley had dried up a bit (there was still lift out there though, just way more spread out). But I made and back up and seized the opportunity. I ended up landing just north of Upton (10 miles??)...super stoked!!! The wind on the ground was rippin at 15+mph which made the breakdown/putaway process very exciting Was also stoked to hear about everybody elses adventures. Big thanks to Alex for the retreival and congrats on the nice flight on the new U2! Congrats to Bacil for a sweet flight OTB on his newish Sport2 . Big congrats to Matt C on a sweet flight to High Rock!!!...Dude! I wish I would have left with ya!!! Huge accomplishment....this is a flight I hope to do one day. Congrats to Charlie on completing his task and ending up landing at the family property....how freaking sweet is that?!?!

Just a great day!!

Jon

[lbunner]

Awesome flight Charlie and an excellent writeup as well. I checked it out on GE and relived it with your story, very cool. It looks like you could have made Port Royal, the home of the northwest launch called Raven Haven. From there you would have to jump over the back and across the Susquehanna to get on the Sacramento ridge. Thanks for showing us the way.

[jyoder111]

I started flying with Jesse who was a bit above me after I launched but he bailed to the LZ when the rain came. I wish I had him on the radio or had a working radio for that matter as the rain was very isolated and he could have stayed in ridge lift the same distance from the LZ but just south and waited for it to pass. Anyway it looks like he had good flight and a nice landing.

Thanks for the tip, Charlie. I lost site of you once I started heading for the LZ and might have followed you if I'd been a little more experienced flying around inclement weather. This was the first time I saw rain from my HG and it was a little unnerving. After successfully dodging one shower, I didn't want to push my luck and so I went out to land. I burned it in to try to dry off my glider as much as possible and the landing went fine- just flared a tad too late to avoid running it out.

I dwaddled around eating lunch before breaking down and by the time I got back to launch it was blowing steady 15-20mph. I was worried about penetration at altitude so I didn't set up for a second flight. Man, I love my falcon, but there are days....

Jesse

[callen]

I hear you rain can be a little unnerving I was getting rained on but still climbing. The rain stopped about .25m south of the main LZ. Did you see the cell behind us (east) that was really bad. What was to the north west and came through launch didn't look nearly as bad (or like what was behind).