Woodstock Tues 2/12

[sailin]

Could work out for an afternoon, early evening, flight if the winds let up. Forecast is for warm and sunny. Any interest?

Jon

[FlyingFelix]

I'm in for tomorrow. Woodstock, or if it gets weaker, Pulpit.
The weather is looking pretty nasty for the rest of the week (and week-end) so tomorrow looks even sweeter.
Hope it'll be good.

[FlyingFelix]

Jon and I met at the LZ and found promising conditions. Dropped a car off and got to launch to find "maybe" condotions. The "maybe" continued throughout the day and faked us off over and over again. Ended up having a great day up on a mountain...no flying but better safe than sorry. My first "no fly" day. Oh well.
Glad to have met a new (to me) pilot, John McAlister - super nice guy.

While at Launch we got a visit from 2 park rangers (I think they were park rangers - Shenandoah Park employees for sure). They were really nice but did mention the unsightly look of the Launch - the "all over the place" carpets. Are those really necessary? One of the guys said he took several truckloads off the mountain every now and then, only to see more would appear. They did also talk about cutting a tree here and there for us if necessary, all we have to do is mark them and let them know - that's cool.
We heard the same type of Carpet complaints from 2 locals at Daniels this past Saturday as well (they were riding horses in the area).
Perhaps another solution for the rough terrain can be found, but definitely remove them before the site(s) attract (more) negative attention.

[chgpa]

Yeah, I just don't get this "leave the carpet lying around" thing.... Makes the sites look like a trailer park, and *believe me*, the locals and the ranger types and the hikers ARE noticing.

Come on, there's gotta be a better way! Dare I suggest that pilots who are using it make a trip back up top at the end of the day and roll the carpet to the sides? How radical.

MarkC

[sailin]

Wierd weather at Woodstock yesterday...kind of a Woodstock phenomenon type thing maybe. It was light and variable....or as someone correctly pointed out...light and irritable. Predominate flow at launch was SW-WSW at about 2-3mph. I think the most we clocked up there was 6mph out of the WSW. At times the light and variable stuff had it giving us a quartering tailwind

As Felix mentioned we were greeted by two National Forest Serivce Rangers when we got there. They had been out all day and reported that it had been blowing strong all morning but it pretty much shut off at around 10am. We got there at noon-thirty.
As Felix also mentioned they inquired about the carpets at launch. Which look horrible.....still. One of the Rangers mentioned that he had taken a couple of small truck loads out a while back but that the carpets had seemed to multiple since then. It is NOT ACCEPTABLE to put carpets on this launch. It is NOT our property and it looks like CRAP. We as a club need to remove the existing carpets ASAP!! More to follow on this. In a coincidental side note: Two locals on horses (they live in the property just below launch to the SE......) expressed their discontent with the carpets at Daniels on Sunday. They pointed out that they look bad and will most likely be a haven for rattle snakes warming themselves under there.
Hopefully we as a club can do bette than this??????????? I will be resurrecting the "old" Woodstock carpet thread.

Jon

[JohnE]

At least for Woodstock, we have a very nice proposal that has been developed over the last nine months. It would permaenently replace all of the carpeted area with gravel, similar to the PG launch at the Pulpit. [See the earlier Woodstock porposal thread.] This is a permanent solution to smoothing out the site, using natural materials. Given the complaints, I think that the authorities would be very pleased to consdier that proposal. I hope that this issue provides a catalyst for pursuing that proposal in the near term. Even submitting it to the authorities would demonstrate our agreement with their concerns and our willingness to find a solution.

[pch]

I'm inclined to agree with the "carpets are unsightly" rhetoric. I say, if you can't launch from a natural environment, then you shouldn't be launching, pg or hg. Maybe until the proposed gravel is laid, Ws should be considered strictly a P-3 site. Sorry fellow P-2's and students, but experience is safety. Hg's it's up to you guys to regulate the site's rating as you folks see it. My 2 cents.
Pete Humes

[XCanytime]

We are damn lucky the site(s) haven't been closed down as a result of the unsightly deposits made at the launch site(s). A reaction to rectify the situation(s) needs to happen before it's too late. Bacil

[Ward Odenwald]

I agree with JohnE’s suggestion concerning the most recent WS proposal, “submitting it to the authorities would demonstrate our agreement with their concerns and our willingness to find a solution.” Although previous “treads” have listed our concerns about the carpets, when you wrap your brain around the possibility that SNAKES maybe lurking beneath their edges – Yikes!

[jyoder111]

Hey Ward, that batten there by your feet looks a little bent. oh wait...

[pch]

Not to beat a dead horse, and not wanting to get on the wrong side of other pg pilots and/or students. My experience with those carpets, in addition to them being "out of place" there, is that I have slipped on them numerous times while helping either one of my students, or another pilot launch. There's nothing like solid granite/limestone rock for good footing. Now I'm finished with this thread. Peace.
Pete Humes
USHPA #72037

[Joe Schad]

I am in favor of removing the carpets until we get a better fix. You can clearly see them from Rt 11.

Also, there are a lot of people who just visit the tower and sit on the rocks at launch to enjoy the natural environment. The carpets make the place look like a dump.

Joe