Cumberland 6/15

[jmcclave]

Here is a quick trip report on our visit to Cumberland last Saturday.

Tom organized us and we traveled to Cumberland to fly the High Point site at the Cumberland Fair Grounds on Saturday. Tom, Matt, John, Peter Van Oevelen, Laszlo, and Krista arrived at 11 and met Jim Rowen of the Mountaineers Club who took our waivers and membership fees and guided us to the High Point launch. The launch is 1,100 over the valley, grassy, steep, and fun to launch from. It would be great if we could get Woodstock to be in a similar condition.

We all got off in strong but reasonable conditions. Tom, Matt, Laszlo, and Jono all went XC. Laszlo made it to Paw Paw and Tom got close to Winchester. I’ll let them report on the details. I stayed local and flew for 2 hours and got to 6,000 at one point. I should have gone XC in hindsight. Krista and Peter also flew for about 2 hours getting high several times.

A highlight from the first flight was seeing 4 paragliders, 2 hanggliders, and 4 sailplanes in the immediate area. It was fun watching the tow plane tow the sailplanes up and then zip through the gap on the ridge to land at the airport. Krista had a close look at the tow plane at one point - maybe too close!

After the first flight Krista headed to Pittsburg and Peter and I collected Laszlo and met Ellis on Launch for a nice evening flight. Peter and I wrapped up after 1.5 hours of flying. Ellis and Laszlo flew for close to 2.5 hours and top landed. I believe Ben also flew while we were collecting Laszlo but I did not see him.

Peter, Jono, Matt, and I had a nice dinner at Shooters which overlooks the flying area and then headed back to DC. It was a long day and I got home around 12.

Cumberland/High Point is a great site and we are all looking forward to flying it with the Mountaineers in the future!

[jmcclave]

Ben and LE asked me to note that High Point is a H3/P3 site.

The closest camping is Rocky Gap State Park which is 14 miles from Cumberland Fairgrounds in Rocky Gap State Park (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/ ... ckygap.asp). Here are the details on the camping:

Make reservations online at http://reservations.dnr.state.md.us or call the reservation center at 1-888-432-2267. TTY users call 1-866-804-7846.

Rocky Gap Campground offers 278 individual campsites (including 30 equipped with 30 amp electric hook-ups), a family group site and two youth group camping areas. The campground also features a dump station, bathhouses with hot water in each loop, a boat ramp, canoe and kayak rentals, a nature center, a private swimming beach and a camp store. Pets are allowed in Camp Loops Ash, Birch, Chestnut, Dogwood and Elm (Sites 1- 143).

[tomceunen]

My neighbors told me the Rocky Gap Camp Ground suffers from Highway noise the whole day and night.
Maybe this closer to the airport in the back of launch campground is less noisy?
http://www.bikecando.com/oldtown-md.aspx

[tomceunen]

that's
https://maps.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF8&cid ... l=CA&hl=en

[theflyingdude]

Here is a quick trip report on our visit to Cumberland last Saturday.

Tom organized us and we traveled to Cumberland to fly the High Point site at the Cumberland Fair Grounds on Saturday. Tom, Matt, John, Peter Van Oevelen, Laszlo, and Krista arrived at 11 and met Jim Rowen of the Mountaineers Club who took our waivers and membership fees and guided us to the High Point launch. The launch is 1,100 over the valley, grassy, steep, and fun to launch from. It would be great if we could get Woodstock to be in a similar condition.

We all got off in strong but reasonable conditions. Tom, Matt, Laszlo, and Jono all went XC. Laszlo made it to Paw Paw and Tom got close to Winchester. I’ll let them report on the details. I stayed local and flew for 2 hours and got to 6,000 at one point. I should have gone XC in hindsight. Krista and Peter also flew for about 2 hours getting high several times.

A highlight from the first flight was seeing 4 paragliders, 2 hanggliders, and 4 sailplanes in the immediate area. It was fun watching the tow plane tow the sailplanes up and then zip through the gap on the ridge to land at the airport. Krista had a close look at the tow plane at one point - maybe too close!

After the first flight Krista headed to Pittsburg and Peter and I collected Laszlo and met Ellis on Launch for a nice evening flight. Peter and I wrapped up after 1.5 hours of flying. Ellis and Laszlo flew for close to 2.5 hours and top landed. I believe Ben also flew while we were collecting Laszlo but I did not see him.

Peter, Jono, Matt, and I had a nice dinner at Shooters which overlooks the flying area and then headed back to DC. It was a long day and I got home around 12.

Cumberland/High Point is a great site and we are all looking forward to flying it with the Mountaineers in the future!

Hmmm...I don't seem to recall Ben and Ellis joining the Mountaineer HGA or signing the waivers before they flew High Point. This is an absolute requirement as set forth by the landowner and there are NO exceptions permitted. This has been a problem we've had with some (mostly) PG pilots in the past and is the path to an outright ban of the offending pilot/s and/or Greg (the landowner) could just end up saying he doesn't want anyone he doesn't know or personally approve flying "his" site. While the club maintains High Point and we try to enforce the protocols, as the landowner, Greg ultimately gets to call the shots and he's not shy about telling people to go away and never return. It's called private property for a reason!

It's also my understanding that Ben and Ellis were aware of the need for waivers to be signed and submitted prior to flying High Point (they may have been misinformed about the need to be a club member) and chose to fly without meeting that requirement. That will need to be addressed.

JR