Silent Airshow 04/20/13 at North Mountain Vineyards

[XCanytime]

Let me start off by saying thank you to all the participants in the Silent Airshow, the visitors to the Silent Airshow, and the pilots who flocked to Woodstock yesterday to fly. The 3 combined, the timing of the great weather for a stellar day, and the generous hospitality of the hosts, Brad and Krista Foster and John Jackson, made for a memorable and great start to what may become an annual event.

Headed to the winery with the wife, arriving around 10:40A. Started setting up the glider in gusty, switchy conditions on the ground. Jon and Amy, then John D. and family arrived. At 1P like I planned I broke down and Jon ended up driving me to launch. Thanks Jon. Dan Tuck, Mark C., and Greg Sessa were airborne and soaring when I arrived just after 2P. Andy Balk and Krzyzstof had nice launches while I set up. Gary Smith, Knut, Jesse, Mike Cosner, and Matt C. were set up or in the stages of setting up. Conditions were light to moderate with some gusty cycles thrown in for good measure. Got ready to launch and had a nice one just before 4P. Headed up to the staging point and proceeded to struggle to gain sufficient altitude by thermalling to start the upwind run. Finally I saw a nice cloud upwind, and hearing that Dan had made the winery by dolphin flying, I started my third attempt to punch out into the valley and find a lift line. The 3rd time was the charm, and as I dolphin flew I steadily climbed all the way to 5200' MSL by the time I reached Rt. 11. By the time I tagged I-81 I had lost to 3800' MSL but once again I started climbing as I flew towards the winery. John Dullahan was an invaluable aid over the radio for the majority of the trek upwind. Now the problem was that I could NOT GET DOWN. I flew all around upwind of the winery searching for a sinkhole to core, but everywhere I went there was nothing but air going up. Finally after a few minutes of searching I found the inverse thermal not too far from the LZ and cored the sucker and lost from 4K' MSL down to 2200', always being cognizant of my position to the winery LZ. I went on glide to the downwind edge of the field with plenty of altitude. Started my final near Harrisville Road and had a bit of a rowdy final initially, but lower down it got smoother and I glided in ground effect for a good while before executing a late flare and belly flopping in. An inglorious end to a challenging, fun flight. I was greeted by all the well wishers and my wife gave me a chilled glass of my favorite wine. As Jackie Gleason used to say on his show live from Miami Beach, when presented with a coffee cup by a comely lass with bourbon, not coffee in it: HOW SWEET IT IS! A slow breakdown, punctuated by a few glasses of wine, and a heartfelt toast by Brad in the lobby to fellow AIRHEADS Dan, Mark C., and I capped off the evening perfectly. It doesn't get much better that.

On a side note, as I carried over to the edge of the field, the owner-operator of Front Royal Airport, Reggie Cassagnol, showed up and let me know of the airshow at FRR on Sept. 14th. In Sept. 2010 Dan Tuckwiller and I did a static display at the airshow. Reggie would like for us to do another static display at the event.

Bacil

[g.sessa]

It turned out to be a great day at Woodstock on Saturday! I arrived at the Winery around 11:30 am to find several pilots already at the winery setting up gliders. After briefly checking out the set up at the winery, I travelled to launch with Mark C. after dropping a car off in the primary. I launched just after Mark and found strong conditions but plenty of lift along the ridge. After soaring with Mark C and Dan T for a short while, I decided to venture further north. I pushed out into the valley on a first attempt to the winery but had to turn around as I was sinking out. I then headed back to the ridge where I again found plenty of lift. I made a second attempt straight out toward the winery after climbing to about 3,600 AGL. I was tracking alright at first, although in hindsight, I should have tried what others did and looked for a good lift line and proceeded to dolphin fly instead of trying to circle. Despite the strong headwind, I was still slowly moving forward in line with the winery until I was just shy of route 11 where I found myself again sinking out. I made a conservative call to land in a large open field after about an hour and just shy of route 11, which according to Google earth was approximately 1.8 miles shy of the winery. I would like to thank Amy and her parents who picked me up on their way from the winery to launch. After picking up my glider and heading back to launch, I decided on a second flight. Thanks again to Amy, and to Jon, who stayed to help with launch. I enjoyed another hour long flight along the ridge except in much smoother conditions. I had a nice landing in the primary just in time to catch a lift from Mark back to launch. I ended the day picking up Krzysztof who managed a nice OTB flight. All in all, a great day!

[Lostgriz]

Cool picture Jesse!

[thermalup]

My wife met a woman on the Woodstock launch who was taking photos of most of the launches. She is a professional photographer and she told my wife to look at her Facebook page 'Photography On The Moove' (note the 'oo' in the word moove) to see launch photos from Saturday. Once at her Facebook page click on 'photos' and then scroll down to view the flying pictures. Here is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Photogra ... 5547328507

..::Jim

[sailin]

Excellent day, even from the spectator booth!!!! Congrats to all the pilots for your great flights. All the launches I saw/assisted with were nice solid ones!!!!

Jon

[XCanytime]

Thanks Jim for the info on the pictures that she took. They are beautiful. Especially picture # 12. Looks like the immature bald eagle I spotted early into the flight. I really like how she places her logo. Sorta reminds me of the caricaturist Al Hirschfeld with his daughter's name Nina embedded in his drawings. Bacil

[markc]

At the risk of overwhelming this thread, here's yet-another flight report for the day.....

First off : I can't think of any post-flying hospitality that I've ever experienced which can top what Brad and Krista offered. After running Dan Tw and Greg up the mountain at the end of the day, I swung back to the vineyard, where glasses of wine were filled, bottles of champagne were opened, and an excellent artichoke quiche was served. It was amazing! Everyone there really appreciated our participation and wanted to know more about flying. Brad has done quite a bit of sky-diving, and he offered a heart-felt toast to the spouses/family/friends who make it possible for those of us who are called to the skies to be able to enjoy that experience. John shared thoughts about wine and the region's potential. He's also got a pair of super-cool dogs, and didn't seem to mind that people (ok, that would be *me*) were lavishing attention on them. We all signed the guestbook, and then posed for photos. What a day!

I arrived at launch sometime around noon, after first stopping at North Mountain Winery to store a waypoint in my GPS. The winds were very strong, but as we were setting up, it seemed that they were trending down. I launched first, maybe around 1:30 or so? Of course, it started ramping up as soon as I was ready to go.... But after waiting through some nasty cycles I got off in a nice one, and exited the slot with a VERY intentional alacrity. Which was a good idea: got hit with a pair of wire-slaps just after clearing the mountain. I was worried for a bit: "Oh no, it's not gonna be one of *those* days, is it?".

But as it turned out, conditions were pretty darn good. I had little luck coring early, but with time things started to mellow out a bit. After a while between 500 and 1000 over launch, I finally connected with a boomer that took me to 6000' MSL, at the tower. From there I tried to punch out into the valley, but got absolutely hammered. I was just barely above launch for a while at one point, surfing the slot and trying to climb back out.

I eventually got high again, and headed back to the north (initial tries hadn't worked out). But it was better, and I got to 6k again, punched out again, got flushed again.... Eventually I topped out at 6300' MSL in an absolute monster of a thermal: 1000 fpm registering on the vario's 15-sec averager, for multiple 360s. It's been a long time since I've heard it singing that tune!

I thought that I was completely set for the upwind trip to the vineyard : I had a cloud street flowing in from the west, positioned a bit south of our goal, and figured I would get high under it, and then dive for the vineyard with a cross or quartering tailwind. And it almost worked as planned... But I made a huge mistake.

Arriving at Route 11 with about 2500' AGL, I hit a pretty decent thermal. And I immediately went into "Oh, this would be so cool if I could top out in this, heck, I'll cross the valley and then come *back* to the vineyard!". So I was REALLY concentrating, trying to make it work for all I was worth.

And I climbed, gaining maybe 1200' or 1500'.... But I never truly cored it, and with conditions picking up, every circle drifted me FAR from goal. When I bailed and headed back upwind, I realized that I had completely screwed up. When I got back to Rt 11 I was *lower* than I had been on my first attempt. I continued to I-81, but the winds were really starting to get strong. Eventually I realized there was little chance of making it to goal, and I decided that trying to land west of I-81 just wasn't worth the risk (the fields just across the interstate weren't very good). So I backtracked and landed just east of the highway in a large field.... And wow, trying to get the wing out of there and to the road was just ridiculous! A couple of steps at a time, and then wrestling the glider back to the ground. Rinse and repeat about 50 times. I was cussing like you wouldn't believe by the time I reached a good spot for tear-down. Thankfully, no landowners around to hear me.

John D came and picked me up. Maybe a mile or so as the crow flies from goal. Major sigh.

But I'm not complaining! I was in the air for at least 2 hours (maybe even three?), was chased by a redtail, enjoyed some fantastic lift, and topped the day off with Brad and Krista's hospitality. It doesn't get much better than that!

MarkC