Pulpit tomorrow and Wed. 10/2

[XCanytime]

Jon Brantley and I are going to the Pulpit tomorrow. Looking for retired/midweek fliers to join us tomorrow and Jon Wednesday. HGR fcst W @ 9 MPH tomorrow and W @ 12 MPH Wed. Bacil

[markc]

Not to mention furloughed flyers!

[mcelrah]

I'm in. - Hugh
P.S. Show time?

[XCanytime]

Noon. John Dullahan is in too. Bacil

[Rich E]

Pulpit still on for tomorrow (Wed)? How was today?

[mcelrah]

It was good! Everyone flew for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Dullahan went past 81. Bacil went 5 miles up the valley. - Hugh

[Ward Odenwald]

Planing on going tomorrow. If conditions hold, I should be there around 10:30-11 AM. Ward

[FlyingFelix]

All-right, you guys talked me into it.
Besides, I'll be busy on Saturday and it'll probably rain on Sunday so I'll just fly tomorrow and work Sunday...gotta get my weekly flying in
Hope the forecast holds. Perhaps a little XC tomorrow??

[Rich E]

Dan and I will be there around 11ish as well

[sailin]

Good day today ! Started with menacing clouds....they eventually gave way to more and more blue. Lots of tight lift lines. No XC for me today.....stayed local and enjoyed the plethra of birds that were out and about flying today!

Hoping to do it again tommorrow!!!

Jon

[XCanytime]

Got to the Pulpit around 11:30A. Found Jon Brantley up on the newer ramp measuring windspeed and a birder counting the migrators. The sky was initially menacing in the beginning as Jon noted but by 1:15P more blue was appearing and the cycles were periodic and of moderate strength. John Dullahan and his driver Rich and Hugh had joined us in the meantime. Decided to give it a go around 1:30P and worked a little to get up. Found frustrating air with narrow lift lines oriented NNW. The rest of the crew joined me in the air and got up. I couldn't get above 1600' over. Hugh and John were specking out above me and John committed to OTB. He topped out at 5K' MSL and made it to Reservoir Road just east of Greencastle, just shy of 17 miles. John did an XC on 4/25/98 to the exact same location. I hung out north of launch by the St. Thomas VOR hoping for an OTB ticket. Couldn't find anything to get me high so I plodded up the ridge to the Cowans Gap Lake. Never been that far north before. Ended up landing out in a nice field by Rt. 522. However, I tripped after flaring vigorously and bent my basetube slightly. My Finsterwalder wheels were low on air and the ground was so dry it was like concrete. Keep those pneumatic wheels inflated. Much thanks to John Dullahan for the retrieve. Hugh and Jon ended up landing in the main LZ. We capped off the evening with a nice dinner at TGI Fridays at Hagerstown mall. Bacil

[andybalkphysics]

The pulpit was really good today too. Lots of guys launched at noon, but then there was a flush cycle and everyone landed. We went up again to find a legendary glass off where it was easy to float around at a grand above with almost no turbulence. I followed Felix south a bit where he had found a really nice thermal (even though it was already in the evening) that took us both to 3000 over (not quite cloudbase.) Thanks to Felix, Rich, Dan, and Dave for the launch help (sorry if I missed someone) and thanks to Rich for driving my car down on the second flight.

[dbodner]

It seemed like a one-thermal kind of day. Earlier, Ward managed to find the one thermal that took him over the back. But, he only made it as far as the big field just past the elementary school. As I was picking him up, the landowner rolled out in his utility vehicle. He was quite friendly, and he relayed no problems.

I flew in the second wave, with Felix and Andy. Those two went way South to catch their one thermal. I quit halfway down, thinking someone had to land near the vehicle. And anyway, I was quite happy boating around at 4-500 over and watching the birds soar way below. Occasionally, I hit a minor pothole, which was a major contrast to the otherwise baby-butt smooth lift.

Had a nice landing, as did everyone, and packed up just before dark. The secondary is still in corn, as is the primary. We landed in the narrow grass strip straight toward the road.

[FlyingFelix]

The Pulpit effect was in full blast - blowing like crazy at launch, however my first flight was a 12 minute extended sledder I launched just prior to a lull that brought everybody to the LZ.
Andy and I decided to give it another go, this time Dave came along as well (after helping everybody else off earlier in the day - good call not to launch earlier Dave!). I launched around 4:30 to get a nice hour and 50 min. flight, up to just over 4800' MSL. Andy made it to 5000' for a little bit - Andy, how dare you come into my thermal and get higher than me?!
Great day!

[Ward Odenwald]

Good day but challenging. Jon Brantley was first off at ~1:30 and I followed soon after. Spent most of my flight at or below ridge level clinging to small pockets of lift and running from sink. Given the mid-day conditions at launch (12-20 nearly straight-in) and the tree movement up and down the ridge, most of us were surprised by how inconsistent the ridge lift was. As Dave Bodner mentioned, I was lucky and found a thermal that I could stay in above route 16 just north of where it passes over the ridge and was able to take it over the back. Here are some photos of the ridge just before the thermal, followed by the thermal climb and my glide over the valley. Some of the photos show the crop/corn status of our primary LZ while others reveal that the Hagerstown valley is turning into one big LZ. Dave risked the possibility of not flying to retrieve me, THANKS! Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

second set of five.

[Ward Odenwald]

last set of five.

[sailin]

Ward pretty much summed it up. Challenging and finicky..... but fun flight. I was first off the mountain at 130pm, and with the rowdy thermal cycles at launch I was fully expecting to find some nice climbs out there. Instead I spent the first 20-30 minutes scraping the tree tops and feeling good about 300' over. Tight, short, little lift lines and unorganized trashy burbles all over. Ward joined me in the unorganized mess for awhile, and we took turns skimming the mountain side, before he caught the thermal that took him OTB. The lift started to organize a little better, and I was even able to find a couple of climbs that got me to 1300' over....but that was it, never higher and not for long. All the best stuff seemed to be happening on the west side of Rt 16.....between the road and the primary LZ. A couple of the other guys finally got into the air, (I guess Ward and i weren't making it look to appealing ) and we all were in and out of lift down by the radio towers.
After a little over an hour in the air I flew out in the valley to the north side of the primary where there was burbles of lift but nothing I could make sense of. It looked like a cloud street was overhead and I had convinced myself that the better lift had to be out there as it certainly wasn't on the ridge. I searched around in bubbles but I seemed to only maintain and then get spit out...but not establish any climbs. After about 10 minutes or so of that, it was time to think about landing. I didn't realize it at the time, but I guess everyone else was getting flushed too. I landed in the long field across the street from the primary LZ. I landed on my feet, but took out a few first row stalks of corn as I cheated a little too much into the wind, and quickly found the field/corn row transition. Should have just went full on cross wind and landed on the long axis of the field DUH
Big thanks to Dan and Rich for picking me up and giving me a ride back to the top. Thank you!. Also forgot to thank John D and Rich D. for giving me a ride the day before. Thank you!!

Great pics Ward.

Fun two days at the Pulpit. Both finicky, but fun. Can't hardly complain about soaring two days in a row in the middle of the week!!! It was great to see and fly with everybody!!

Jon