Weekend Outlook

[andybalkphysics]

After battling beltway and silver spring parade traffic I finally made it to woodstock around 2:30, to see everyone else in the air. Gave Randy a ride to the top, and launched into extremely strong, consistent ridge lift (think I was over launch before leaving the slot). It was too strong to penetrate at all, so I mostly just hovered around launch, going backwards a couple of times. I thought I was all alone but then Felix showed up out of the blue, doing wingovers to get down. Remembering the forecast for stronger winds later on, I got nervous and decided to try to go out to land. Was gonna give the bridge field a shot, as Randy told me the main field might be turbulent, but wasn't sure i was going to make it and didn't want to loose the option of the main field, so I just landed there instead. There was strong wind shear a few feet off the ground, so I got dropped in from ten feet off, faster than I could flare, sliding on the wheels into a cowpie (despite stuffing the bar). Mike Stevens (my buddy from Hyner) came along to drive and launch (thanks Mike) and we got food afterwards at a bar in Woodstock.

[Rich E]

Fantastic day! Many thanks to John and Knut who helped launch, only my second flight on the S2 at WS and appreciated the extra eyes and hands. Thermalled with a sailplane, quite an old looking one, followed a raptor along a lift line to a strong thermal, felt much more in tune with the S2 in rowdy conditions, thought to myself 'huh, penetration issues, I thought this is why I got the S2...' LZ was bumpy to say to the least

Apologies to Felix, Randy lost his radio on LZ and so I talked constant gibberish for about 5 mins as he searched and found it, it must have been torture!

Cheers

Rich

[FlyingFelix]

I got to Woodstock around 11:45. Conditions much lighter than expected. A PG'er (sorry, I forgot the name) was on launch and Randy Weber was setting up. Light cycles with perhaps as much as 10-12 on the top gusts (my wind-meter again quit on me). The PG launched, got up quickly but then went to land pretty soon due to conditions a bit too strong. I understand he might of scared himself a bit on landing in the active LZ (left of Bridge field), glad he made it down OK.
I helped Randy launch then got all set up. Knut, JohnM, RichE and DanL showed up, all happy faces for the great conditions.
I launched around 1:10 PM (thank you all for your help guys!), hit strong lift in front of launch, wandered around a bit then came back to take the thermal in front of launch I initially launched into up to 4000MSL. Everybody launched quickly after me, leaving Knut to fend for himself. After soaring with the HG's and 2 Sailplanes I saw Knut take off safely (he self-launched) then I headed South following JohnM. He turned back after he got to the gap (from my point of view it looked he crossed the gap, he told me later he didn't) - I continued South, crossed the Gap (only second time for me doing this) and then continued all the way down that ridge (does this ridge have a name?). Got to the tip of it after a considerable amount of time advancing slowly mostly upwind. Did a few 360's there than headed back, fast trip back, tail wind all the way. Thinking all have landed by now I was surprised to see Andy up in the air back at launch. I hovered around for a bit than headed to the Bridge-field for landing, losing a substantial amount of height before I got there. The "brick wall" as JohnM called it was up.
On top of the LZ was super-rowdy, couple of wire-slaps and all...came in with a lot of speed and landed "moon-walk" style. The wing never came down on my shoulders, I walked it to the side of road like that.
Got a 2 hour 20 minute flight, highest I got was 4620 MSL - loved every minute of it.
Thank you Dan and Rich for fetching my car!
It was a gorgeous day, so I'm sorry if this is too much but I thought these following pics were in order.

Randy taking off:


Sailplane 1 and couple HG's:


Sailplane 2 - I was in hot pursuit


Crossing the Gap:


Circling the tip of the ridge in front of Mt.Jackson:


On the way back:


A wing at rest:


On the way to well deserved beer and Pizza:

[lbunner]

Nice pics Felix. Sounded like a good day for sure.

[XCanytime]

Nice pics Felix. I noticed that the one pic shows you crossing the Edinburg Gap from behind Short Mountain. What altitude were you at when you started crossing the gap? Did you encounter any turbulence as you crossed? How much altitude did you lose crossing before you reached the spine of Short Mountain? Thanks. Bacil

[FlyingFelix]

At first I didn't plan on crossing the gap, however when I got to the South end of the ridge (on top of the gap) I was in plenty of lift that pretty much put me half way over the gap, towards the back Short Mountain (thanks for that, I wasn't sure what that ridge was called) - this while holding up about 2000' over the ridge. Since I was so close to the ridge in front I decided I'd just go over. Ended up losing as much as 1000' or so before getting in front of the ridge (not positive on the altitude lost, though I never felt I wouldn't make it). I did encounter a bit of turbulence but nothing major, had full VG on and didn't feel I needed to loosen it up for control issues at any point. I have the gps track on my vario and can look there for more specific data if needed, I looked at it once on GoogleEarth and looked pretty cool.
The hard part was getting to the end of that ridge - took forever! However the speed glide on the way back was a nice reward. I remember seeing ground speed numbers like 7 MPH +- over the ground on the way there, then as high as 48 MPH on the way back I do need to take the hood off my jacket next time though, I left it on for warmth for my neck, however that thing is just a drag chute at times...

[FlyingFelix]

I started thinking about it so I looked at the track again, here's a pic of it...amazing how cool Google Earth is!

[rlweber]

By the way, does anybody know who was flying the sailplanes? I had a first, thermalling with a bald eagle. I entered the thermal above the baldy. He thermalled through me. He was about 30 ft off of my wing tip at times. He's got skills. Wish I would had a camera.
Randy

[lbunner]

Felix, nice flight. Was this a personal best? Not many have made the trip to the end of Short and back to my knowledge. Bacil's implied concern is spot on. Your path to Short Mtn is not the typical route. It is easier and you'll lose less altitude cutting the corner vs. approaching from the lee side. In your case you had plenty of altitude and could always have bailed back to the north in the crossing downwind. Just remember that things can get dicey on the lee side of mountains in strong conditions. Again, congrats on a great flight especially this late in the year.

[FlyingFelix]

I know the normal way to cross the gap to Short Mountain is going out in front and cutting the corner, I did that once before and still lost a good bit of altitude. On that flight I got low and returned before getting to soar Short Mountain.
On this flight I was going to go to the gap and return (mostly following JohnM around), didn't mean to cross the gap to begin with; though since the lift took me high and half way over the gap (I think there was wide thermal lift there and it made things nice and smooth behind Short Mountain) I decided to go for it since I felt at any time I could bail out of there. I did some zig-zagging and made better headway like that.
This was probably a happy situation, I never got that kind of lift at the gap before.
Once I was over the ridge I decided I'll ride it to the end, a decision I almost went back on several times since I was slowly progressing in the mostly head/crossing wind - though I knew once I turned back the wind would push me along so I stuck to the ridge till the end.
Sure was fun! Unexpected flights like this one really make your day.

Who was flying the Sailplanes? We got to wave to each-other a couple times

[lbunner]

Can you attach your flight log so I could view it in SeeYou or GE? If you don't want to post it, how about sending it to my email. My only flying right now is through others so it would be cool to enjoy the flight digitally.

[FlyingFelix]

Sure thing, here it is both in .kml and .igc - I had to convert it to .kml for GoogleEarth, not sure what kind of files the SeeYou uses.
I am honored

[lbunner]

Thanks Felix, that flight was hot as shit! Did you realize that you only did three 360's during the time you headed down the ridge and back? Once you got to Short Mtn at 3000' you quickly gained 1500' while working your way down to the point. It took you 30 min to get there and only 15 minutes to get back. The conditions were amazing. You climbed out at 500fpm flying straight for about a minute while heading south on the main ridge. Were you so intent on doing the ridge run that you decided not to thermal up? It looked like you were meandering a bit behind Short Mtn. You were at 4400' at the high point on the main ridge where one would normally cross over to Short. From there you flew about 3km wandering behind the mtn before getting to the ridge. Remember to fly with intent when on the lee side of a mountain in strong conditions. If you had gone directly to Short from your high point, it is only 1km. Assuming your same average sink rate during that time frame you would have arrived at Short at 3950' instead of 3000'. Anyway thanks for sharing, I'll probably spend another hour going over your flight so I can learn more. Again congrats and too cool!!

[XCanytime]

Thanks for the analysis Larry. The highest elevation of Short Mountain is around 2800' MSL. The NE corner next to the gap is around 2300' MSL. A good extra 500' of clearance is available at the NE corner. Bacil