Judy-Judy Memorial Fun Fly is GO!

[brianvh]

8 am. A steady 18 mph on left ramp but straight at launch. If this continues the rock should be good.

[FlyingFelix]

From what I can see on forecasts Pulpit should be very much do-able today... Am I being overly optimistic?

[Matthew]

I just spoke with Emma Jane. The hay is 6' tall and thick. They will not be able to cut it today. It is NOT SAFE to land at High Rock!

We are back to plan A-- PULPIT!


Matthew

[jyoder111]

From what I can see on forecasts Pulpit should be very much do-able today... Am I being overly optimistic?

Yes.

[FlyingFelix]

I'll be at the Pulpit, eta noon. Hope for a flight later in the day if winds are crazy strong in the afternoon.

[mcelrah]

Leaving for Pulpit now - Hugh

[mcelrah]

@Sheila - Sallie will be arriving separately with the dog and is up for bird-watching and a shortish hike. - Hugh

[XCanytime]

Got to the Pulpit at 9:45A. Found BVH, Bertram, and Sammi camped out from the night before. Charley Fager arrived at 10A. Initially just set up the gliders (Charley and I) on the control frames and relaxed in the sun as it howled thru the setup area. Matthew and Karen arrived after noon and Bertram started setting up his T2C. I followed suit and watched the cycles carefully and decided to give it a go around 1:30P. Had to wait on the pad a good while for the howling north cross cycles to abate before a straight in cycle showed up. Had an elevator launch that Hugh appreciated. Strong cross in the air from the NNW. Found the familiar "balance beam" shaped lift lines. Initially tried to punch upwind to the north around the SW/W corner of the mountain across from the VOR. Found some success to 3K' MSL but the lift died and I returned to "base" in front of launch. Finally found something cohesive enough between launch and 16 and climbed to 4K' MSL and decided to go with it. Lawn darted to the James Buchanan HIgh School area and searched for a place to land. Tried to make it to a cleared area but the strong headwind forced me to land short in a cornfield. Had a perfect landing in between the rows and quickly carried off to the tennis courts behind the school without damaging any corn plants. As I was beginning to break down I noticed a pickup truck in the parking lot on the other side of the tennis courts driving on the grass towards me. I knew what was to ensue so I was ready for it. Sure enough a 70+ gentleman in bib overalls stepped slowly out of the truck. I bid him a friendly "how ya doin'", to which he replied "not too good" and berated me for landing in his cornfield. He wondered why the hell I landed in his field when there were "plenty" of landing fields around. I replied that I was sorry that I landed in his field, that I had been trying to land just beyond his cornfield in a cleared area behind the tennis courts, but ran out of air over his cornfield. He replied that I was lucky his son and grandson didn't see me land in the field. Oh really. What would they have done, shot me? Beat me up? I did not bite and apologized again and said I would make sure all my pilot brethren would know not to land in the field again. The common thread with people like this is they are miserable old coots who are pissed at the world and need to spew their venom on the nearest target. He just slowly walked away and left. Thanks to Charley once again for the retrieve. Back at launch pilots were waiting to launch after Matthew and Bertram flew and landed. Finally Hugh, Curtis Kemerer, Andy Balk, Felix, and Krzyzstof got into the air and soared in the increasingly cross air. Finally it shut down and rained gliders into the main field and the field across the road. A nice dinner was prepared, a heartfelt toast to Judy was done by Matthew, Judy stories passed around, and fireworks by Cavanaugh capped off the night. And lest we forget BVH gave a raucous performance with a fire bazooka . Bacil

[mcelrah]

Saw a reference on the PG list to Mark Cavanaugh flying his *new T2* at Woodstock! Mark, please dish about this! And, thanks, as many times before, for the spectacular fireworks - "Judy in the Sky with Diamonds". We honored Judy by flying her favorite site (I think she still holds the female site XC record distance for her flight to Libertyville from there). Anybody know details of that?
- Hugh

[XCanytime]

Friday May 28th, 1999 Judy flew from the Pulpit along with Brian Hardwick and I believe Steve Kinsley. She wrote up a nice report on her XC flight that is on the internet somewhere I believe. She landed at Baugher's Orchard which is on Rte. 140 between Taneytown and Westminster. Bacil

[XCanytime]

And here is the link: www.jm2c.com/epic Bacil

[CraginS]

Watch several of the launches:

http://youtu.be/ebx3lm9HGw0

[Matthew]

Strong day at the Pulpit. I launched after Bertram at around 2:45. Got 2200 over and an hour and ten minutes. The first 45-50 minutes were lots of fun with great big, fat thermals and nice clouds. Thought about going OTB. However, the drift was more down the ridge than over the back. The last 20 minutes or so it was just rock and roll. Almost had the bar ripped out of my hands and went over the falls so hard once I thought I was going to tumble. Had enough and went out to land in the field across the road from the LZ. Big thanks to Bertram and Sammi for waiting, helping me pack up and giving me a ride back up to launch. Bertram also got about an hour and 2200 over launch.

Matthew

[FlyingFelix]

Great day to be out!
I waited the winds out all day and watch the others fly, finally gave it a go around 6:30 PM - still a bit rowdy, not my idea of fun flying but still, I got 45 minutes and got to actually fly at a fly in = success.
It was nice to see so many people out, got to meet several I've never met before and glad to see some familiar faces.
I enjoyed listening to stories about Judy, sounds like she was quite a special kind of person. I never met her but felt like I knew her after everybody shared adventures, told verses and even sang songs about her.
The obvious closeness, unity and camaraderie in the local flying community is something I hope won't get lost with time. Seems there used to be more of that in the past, hope there will be more in the future as well.
The party/hang-out after flying was great as well, ending with the well-known fireworks show.
I took a few pictures through the day:

[Matthew]

Jane White left her salt and pepper shaker at the Pulpit on Saturday night.

Did anyone pick them up?

Matthew

[dbodner]

Jane White left her salt and pepper shaker at the Pulpit on Saturday night.

Did anyone pick them up?

Matthew

Yes, I did. As well as a set of reading glasses.

[dbodner]

Sunday saw very little actual wind, mostly light thermal activity. It built slowly during the day and triggered enough optimism for three flights. The thermals blew fairly straight-in, but they seemed to track from the SW.

BrianVH started off with a launch from the RH ramp. He found mostly sink out front, then hit some mild, sustaining lift about halfway out. He landed his Falcon in the field just before the main primary.

After more hang-waiting and increasing thermal activity, Denis Scheele launched his topless from the LH ramp. He also found no lift near the ridge and promptly landed in the primary.

Bertram then launched from the RH ramp. He found a bit of lift near launch that briefly allowed him to gain a bit of altitude. He fought hard before finally succumbing to gravity in the field across the street from the primary. (A side note: Bertram paid Pulpit dues to me.)

The secondary is out of commission for the growing season. I was almost certain my Sport2 would make the primary, but with just enough uncertainty on a couple of fronts, I decided the risk-to-benefit ratio was greater than 1. So I broke down.

Various folks contributed to clean-up throughout the day. As the last person leaving, I only had to take one bag of garbage and one bag of recyclables back home.

[darbbb]

Watch several of the launches:

http://youtu.be/ebx3lm9HGw0

Felix! At 2:20....careful of popping that nose on launch! We'd like to keep you around a little longer.

[theflyingdude]

Looked like there was more than one sketchy launch - the first person in the video popped their nose big-time.

JR

[FlyingFelix]

Felix! At 2:20....careful of popping that nose on launch! We'd like to keep you around a little longer.

I appreciate the concern and not that I need to defend anything but I did not pop the nose. I held the wing nose way down to begin with (notice the bar almost hitting my legs) and let it out once I actually started my launch. Once the wing was in the air flow it never went back down (like it would have had I popped the nose).
But again, I don't feel I ned to defend anything...
The problem with commenting on technique on posted videos is that videos won't be posted any longer fearing such comments might be posted. So I'd say this: unless requested, don't do it. If you see something scary reach the person directly and voice your concerns.
Just my 2c.

[brianvh]

I didn't see any nose poppage on the last launch. One of the earlier ones maybe, but with such high winds things can look different.

But no need to be offended at well intended observations, Felix. It's not personal criticism. Even if it was an incorrect observation I'd rather hear that than nothing, for other times they may be seeing something I've missed.

[FlyingFelix]

No offense taken. It would take a lot of nasty writing to my address to get my feelings hurt... The reason I posted is that I've seen technique comments go the wrong way too often on forums and so it would be best if they were left alone.
Again, just my opinion on the matter, feel free to disagree

[XCanytime]

No worries Felix. You flew away fine. Your nose rose some but you are correct in saying that it didn't pop. The nose ideally should be 10 to 15 degrees up relative to the airflow direction as you power down the pad. Good launch in challenging conditions. Bacil

[Matthew]

Good thing no one mentioned how Felix picked his nose during launch.



Matthew

[theflyingdude]

Good thing no one mentioned how Felix picked his nose during luanch.



Matthew

We all know that hang glider pilots have such fragile egos!

JR