Bills Hill Thurs 5/2

[sailin]

Couple of us probably heading to Bills Hill tomorrow .

Jon

[lbunner]

I'm thinking of Jack's the next two days. Friday looks real good at least so far. Are you still headed to Bill's today?

[tomceunen]

Second time in a week I got over Raystown lake and passed Altoona. Really nice flying days at Bills lately!
Some pics here
https://plus.google.com/photos/11130864 ... banner=pwa

[XCanytime]

Good day at Bills today. Got there just past 11A to find Peter Hume about to do a tandem PG flight and Jon and Amy just arrived. Jon and I set up leisurely below the clear skies while Peter took his tandem passenger for a roly poly flight. Soon Tom Cuenen, Jim McClave, and Jono arrived set on XC. They launched in that order and went up, up, and away. Krzyzstof arrived around 1P and set up his Falcon. I led the HG charge just after 2P into medium conditions. Turned right and benched my way up past the NE facing knob just south of launch. Found some lift lines oriented to the SE and got to 2.2K' over while Jon launched and worked his way south. We traded places, me getting lower and Jon getting to 4200' MSL. Jon punched way upwind and made it at least halfway across the valley towards Scrub Ridge before turning around. During this time Krzyzstof launched and struggled to get up. He ended up landing a few fields south of the main LZ in a 90 degree xwind and ended up whacking hard and suffering an oblique spiral fracture of the right humerus just below the shoulder. Amy joined him in the field and rendered valuable assistance. Jon ended up landing out near Laidig and I landed in the field across the road from Krzyzstof's field as the ambulance was taking him away to the hospital in McConnellsburg. Amy loaded up Krzyzstof's glider and I loaded mine and we set off to pick up Jon from his out landing in Laidig. We then went back to launch and loaded the gliders on the appropriate cars and Jon drove Krzyzstof's car and glider over to the hospital in McConnellsburg behind my lead and Amy assuming the tail end Charlie position. We visited with Krzyzstof in the emergency room and provided the keys to his car. He faces some future hardware insertion in the area of the fracture. Jon, Amy, and I dropped by Tony's NY Pizza in Greencastle for some much needed hydration and food. Found out Tom Cuenen went 50 miles XC to the Ebensburg area. Way to go Tom! Bacil

[jyoder111]

@#$%! sorry to hear about your injury, Krzysztof. That sucks big time. Hoping for a speedy recovery!!

Jesse

[sailin]

Krzyzstof, speedy recovery to you man. Heal fast and heal well. Big thanks to Amy for getting to him first and providing great patient care and then coordinating with the local ambulance. Also, thank you for the pick up

Bacil summed up the day nicely. Fun day, active flying and another sunburn (the sun was baking us all yesterday)!! Congrats to Tom on that sweet flight!! Good seeing you Peter, Jim and Jono. That was a sweet low save Jono.....super fun to watch you sky out!!!

Looks like it will be good again there today.......gotta work though
Jon

[XCanytime]

Thanks for the pics and video Tom. That is serious tiger country west of Altoona! Bacil

[tomceunen]

West of Altoona there are no Appalachian ridges anymore but the landscape is more chaotic hill shaped, ideal for thermal collectors, can't wait to be back there and fly that 150km all the way to I-80.

[kcarra]

Krzysztof, really sorry to hear about your arm. Hoping you heal quickly. Bills seems to be playing favorites this year.

Karen