Anyone else considering Woodstock on Sunday if the forecast works?
Matt
Mother's Day at Woodstock....
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
I am in. Looks very promising. ETA 1:00. Gary Smith 540-686-0351
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
Absolutely! Looking pretty stellar....
Party at The Pulpit Sat night, then hit the road for WS Sunday AM!!!!
MarkC
Party at The Pulpit Sat night, then hit the road for WS Sunday AM!!!!
MarkC
-
Lucky_Chevy
- Posts: 67
- Joined: Tue May 07, 2013 10:50 pm
- Location: Alexandria Virginia
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
Bummer. I really want to fly Woodstock but have to head to Germany this weekend for a project. Make sure to "rub it in" but posting some videos with all that smack talk about having to core the sink to get down. 
Dan L
Dan L
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
Who is still planning to head to Woodstock tomorrow? ETA?
Matt
Matt
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
The gust factor seems to have decreased some. I think I'll head out there around 11:30.
Dan Tuckwiller
My HG Videos - sorted by site
My HG Videos - sorted by site
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
Sitting on the fence till the 11:30am update. But pretty tired from all of the super awesome flying at the Pulpit Fly-In yesterday!
Matthew
Matthew
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
I think I am going to stay home with Mom today and build up a little good will for another day. Hope you guys get good flights.
Matt
Matt
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
I'm still thinking about it.... Probably will make a final call based on the updated forecasts around 10 or 10:30.
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
Matthew and Karen are out. I'm still 'maybe', sitting in Winchester. DanTw is verging-no, though will look at things for a while longer... Just talked to GaryS and he wants to go (arriving 3 or 4)... Think I will head to launch and check things out.
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
Granted we've only been here for a bit, but Greg S and I have been seeing good launch conditions thus far. No upwind lennies and plenty of nice stuff between the stronger cycles.
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
How'd it go? - Hugh
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
Anybody fly yesterday?
Matt
Matt
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
It turned out to be a fun day at Woodstock on Sunday for Mark, Joe, Gary and myself. I arrived first around noon to find surprisingly light conditions on launch considering the forecast. Winds were blowing in 5 to 10 mph with the occasional gusts to 15. There was also a bit of a west cross. Mark arrived shortly thereafter and we got set up. During this time, conditions ramped up some, but there were still plenty of good cycles to launch. After getting set up, we decided to drop a car off in the bridge field. We arrived back on launch to find conditions did not change much and we prepared to launch. I took off first around 3 pm with the help of Mark and Joe (thanks!). I had to wait a bit for a good cycle, but was rewarded with a good, clean launch. I was able to find lift quickly, and also very active air. Lots of big lift and big sink at the start of my flight. I was having to work, but had no problems with control or wind penetration. I cruised around the ridge mostly near launch, but took a few trips out into the valley where there was still plenty of lift. I topped out at just over 2,800 feet over launch. As the flight went on, the air got calmer and more enjoyable, but I got more tired and cold (definitely did not dress well for the conditions). I decided to land after 1 hour and 45 minutes, and ended the day with a nice landing in the bridge field. Mark, Joe and Gary were also rewarded with great flights, and all had very nice landings in the bridge field as well.
Greg Sessa
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
Thanks for the write-up Greg, congratulations on a great flight.
Re: Mother's Day at Woodstock....
So this was one of those 15-20 G 30 Woodstock days. Though I've had some luck with that sort of forecast, it's not a given by any means, and I was definitely paying attention to conditions on Sunday.
Up at the Pulpit, about 9:00am, I checked conditions and saw that the Unisys surface map was showing a distinctive 'double-barrel' cold front, the first of which had passed through WS, but the second had yet to do so. In addition, both the surface and the ADDS 3k forecast did not indicate that conditions were going to back down later in the day. This is usually an "uh-oh" sort of situation, and it looked far more like a Fall pattern than Spring.
OTOH, the ADDs 3k was 'only' calling for 20-30, and the high-20s gust factor (previous night) had been taken out of the hourly NWS surface forecast. So I thought that the 'Woodstock Effect' might come into play, and that flying might be possible.
After some phone calls and hemming-and-hawing, I decided to head up to launch, where I met up with Greg. Conditions at launch were strong-ish, with lots of 15 to 18, some gusts to 20/21, and long-lasting lulls down to less than 10mph. The latter convinced us to set up, though with frequent checks of conditions. I also checked conditions from the tower... Very light, no issue at all.
But still..... It was clear that conditions were likely to ramp up, and that's what started to happen. The peak gusts did not increase greatly, but the lulls became shorter and much less frequent. I remember checking the hourly obs after running a shuttle with Greg, and the map showed a VERY distinctive 'bubble' of lighter winds in northern VA , while it was absolutely honking in MD/PA/OH. And the Shenandoah station was also reporting G20+, which rarely happens. The "uh-oh" factor started running through my mind once again....
Greg elected to go first, with myself and a wuffo as wirecrew. Luckily, Joe S arrived at just the right time, and we could have a complete crew. Conditions in the slot were swirley, and the lulls were short, but Greg eventually had a decent launch cycle and was off! I waffled for a bit longer, timing the lulls, but decided to give it a try about 40 minutes later, with help from Joe S and Bruce McDaniel (new pilot to the area). I think that I had conditions that were a bit better than Greg, but even so... I *buried* the bar when exiting the slot, and probably flew out close to the river before even thinking of letting up. Conditions exiting the slot were turbulent, but not OMG-turbulent.
Once in the air it was a slightly different story... There was wave, there was wave-downwash, there were thermals that I elected to run away from, there were widespread areas of sink. Bottom line : You have to *WANT* to fly on a day like Sunday. Very active day, requiring lots of vigilance.
But that said.... Heck!!! I had some major fun, pushing out in super-strong wave lift, chasing thermals and red-tails, tagging Route 11, many climbs between 2k and 3k over launch, and a max of 3900' above launch (where it was cold as a mo-fo!!!!). Wasn't in an XC mindset (Sunday; late afternoon; tired from the day before), so I just stayed local, trying to learn something from the day. There were at least three sailplanes cruising the length of the ridge, surely down to Harrisonburg and back... Waved down to them from good lift, but was disappointed that they had places to go, and that we couldn't mix it up.
During my trip to Route 11, I hit some air that felt 'unfriendly', possibly related to wave down-wash. So I returned to the ridge, headed south, got high again, and waited for the band to pass through. Behind it, there was a HUGE area of cloud shadow, and I figured that conditions would be sinky/reliable within it. And that's what I found, with 200' to 600' fpm down, no craziness. A little turbulent during the approach, but no major issues.
Oh.... The line on my harness that allows me rock-up broke, shortly after launch. Unlikely conditions-related, just wear and tear. Knew it was going to be an issue, and tried to allow for it during landing. Luckily was able to get a hand on the downtube and have a decent landing in the bridge field. Wouldn't have wanted to deal with that in the primary....
MarkC
Up at the Pulpit, about 9:00am, I checked conditions and saw that the Unisys surface map was showing a distinctive 'double-barrel' cold front, the first of which had passed through WS, but the second had yet to do so. In addition, both the surface and the ADDS 3k forecast did not indicate that conditions were going to back down later in the day. This is usually an "uh-oh" sort of situation, and it looked far more like a Fall pattern than Spring.
OTOH, the ADDs 3k was 'only' calling for 20-30, and the high-20s gust factor (previous night) had been taken out of the hourly NWS surface forecast. So I thought that the 'Woodstock Effect' might come into play, and that flying might be possible.
After some phone calls and hemming-and-hawing, I decided to head up to launch, where I met up with Greg. Conditions at launch were strong-ish, with lots of 15 to 18, some gusts to 20/21, and long-lasting lulls down to less than 10mph. The latter convinced us to set up, though with frequent checks of conditions. I also checked conditions from the tower... Very light, no issue at all.
But still..... It was clear that conditions were likely to ramp up, and that's what started to happen. The peak gusts did not increase greatly, but the lulls became shorter and much less frequent. I remember checking the hourly obs after running a shuttle with Greg, and the map showed a VERY distinctive 'bubble' of lighter winds in northern VA , while it was absolutely honking in MD/PA/OH. And the Shenandoah station was also reporting G20+, which rarely happens. The "uh-oh" factor started running through my mind once again....
Greg elected to go first, with myself and a wuffo as wirecrew. Luckily, Joe S arrived at just the right time, and we could have a complete crew. Conditions in the slot were swirley, and the lulls were short, but Greg eventually had a decent launch cycle and was off! I waffled for a bit longer, timing the lulls, but decided to give it a try about 40 minutes later, with help from Joe S and Bruce McDaniel (new pilot to the area). I think that I had conditions that were a bit better than Greg, but even so... I *buried* the bar when exiting the slot, and probably flew out close to the river before even thinking of letting up. Conditions exiting the slot were turbulent, but not OMG-turbulent.
Once in the air it was a slightly different story... There was wave, there was wave-downwash, there were thermals that I elected to run away from, there were widespread areas of sink. Bottom line : You have to *WANT* to fly on a day like Sunday. Very active day, requiring lots of vigilance.
But that said.... Heck!!! I had some major fun, pushing out in super-strong wave lift, chasing thermals and red-tails, tagging Route 11, many climbs between 2k and 3k over launch, and a max of 3900' above launch (where it was cold as a mo-fo!!!!). Wasn't in an XC mindset (Sunday; late afternoon; tired from the day before), so I just stayed local, trying to learn something from the day. There were at least three sailplanes cruising the length of the ridge, surely down to Harrisonburg and back... Waved down to them from good lift, but was disappointed that they had places to go, and that we couldn't mix it up.
During my trip to Route 11, I hit some air that felt 'unfriendly', possibly related to wave down-wash. So I returned to the ridge, headed south, got high again, and waited for the band to pass through. Behind it, there was a HUGE area of cloud shadow, and I figured that conditions would be sinky/reliable within it. And that's what I found, with 200' to 600' fpm down, no craziness. A little turbulent during the approach, but no major issues.
Oh.... The line on my harness that allows me rock-up broke, shortly after launch. Unlikely conditions-related, just wear and tear. Knew it was going to be an issue, and tried to allow for it during landing. Luckily was able to get a hand on the downtube and have a decent landing in the bridge field. Wouldn't have wanted to deal with that in the primary....
MarkC