Woodstock 10/19

[silverwings]

At this point Woodstock is looking fairly good for hang gliding on Sunday. Most likely will be there.

[wmelo]

I am planning to go as well. walt

[mcgowantk]

I may be in too.

Tom McGowan

[Matthew]

Any takers for Saturday???

Matthew

[andybalkphysics]

Can't do Saturday, got my eye on Sunday though..haven't been to WS in a while.

-Andy

[g.sessa]

Count me in for Woodstock on Sunday as well.

[markc]

Have to work on Sat, so keeping fingers crossed for Sun. Could be a good one!

MarkC

[XCanytime]

Looks great for Woodstock. I will be @ Big Walker trying for the VT Airport again. Bacil

[SandiC]

EJ and I would love to come to Woodstock Sunday too - John, does it require an observer for us still-new-P2s?

[Matthew]

Karen and I are in for Sunday.

Matthew

[dbodner]

I can't make it, so it should be good. Fly high and fly far!

[silverwings]

Still looking good for Woodstock on Sunday for hg's but MAY be windy for PGs. P2's require observer/mentor and Matthew is one. Planning on getting to LZ by 11:30.

[mcgowantk]

I will be a little later. ETA in the LZ is around 1:00. Let me know if anyone wants to run a shuttle that late.

Tom McGowan

[mcelrah]

I'm in. - Hugh

[Rich E]

I am in too - hopefully there around 1130iah as well

[SandiC]

Yup - all the forecasts I'm seeing tell me the winds look too strong for us P2's tmrw at Woodstock. Hope you HG's have wonderful soaring flights tomorrow! --Sandi

[rasmussenv]

Is the bridge field available for landing or will we likely be landing in the primary LZ?

I'm loading up - hoping for at least a short flight as I have to be out of the air by 2:30 to be loaded up and heading home by 4 pm for a 5:30 family function this evening.

Will bring my dirt bike to self-retrieve as I hope the rest of you can spend loads of time in the air! So gotta decide to drop it at the right landing spot.

[markc]

My ETA will be 1pm, maybe a bit later. Figure that it's one of those days when there's no hurry, and perhaps better later....

MarkC

[mcgowantk]

Mark

I will call you on the road - maybe we can run a shuttle.

Tom
703-501-9532

[Matthew]

Great day at the 'stock.

All the hangies flew and soared-- me, Karen, Hugh, Andy, Mark C., Tom, John M., John's student (new Hugh), Doug Rogers, Rich E., Valerie, Greg Sessa, Paul from Richmond. I flew up to Signal Knob and back--
2 hours 43 minutes and 2600 over launch. Karen got an hour twenty-five and 2k over. John got into wave up to 6K msl!!! Hugh (Vintage Hugh) jumped over the back at Strasburg and landed at the Front Royal Airport.

Gorgeous fall foliage and a spectacular sunset to cap off the day.

A few PGs had buoyant sleds at the end of the day-- Austin, Jim and new guy Lee.

Matthew

[markc]

Wonderful Woodstock Day!

Last WS flight for me was the first week of June, which probably says something about this year. Missed a few good weekends due to commitments and such... But even so, four and a half *months* ? Sheesh!

Today made up for the dry spell, and I think I'd have to say that it was the most enjoyable flight yet on my new wing. Launched last and was on a mission to tag Signal Knob, so didn't find the 4k' over that others did. But still, found 2k+ over several times, and was _trying_ to connect with wave near the resevoir several times. Couldn't quite get into it.... Found out later that John M nabbed it right near launch, between the two fingers, very cool!

Best part of my flight was a near-ish encounter with a mature bald eagle : Saw him low, and tried my damndest to stay on top, eking out the thermal for all I could. But of course s/he climbed right through me, and then I was craning my neck to keep it in sight. _Knew_ it was on my 6, and finally whipped around for a good look.... And there it was, wings spread/arced and talons out, RIGHT behind me. I could practically hear the thought : "Oh yeah, I've TOTALLY got this guy, hah!!!" .



The winds went fairly hard west-cross at the end of the day, and as I was punching back S toward the primary I had some moments when I thought I wouldn't make it. Crossed the last finger well below ridgetop, eyeing a bail-out course that would either get me to the LZ, or perhaps into an alternate. Luckily, found some lift near launch and was able to continue my flight for another 40 mins or so. A few very light thermals to 700' over, strafed the tower once... Wow, just a great dial-into-it kind of day.

Many thanks to Lee (P2) for his help getting down into the slot. Only downside to the day was that the winds didn't back down sooner, for the PG'ers.

MarkC

[andybalkphysics]

Yeah it was a great day!! The fall color were wonderful and the lift was there. I took off after almost everyone else due to a spooky preflight event...the cotter pin safteying the king post attachment pin was missing in my glider. I noticed it because the king post attachment pin had worked its way out about a quarter inch. Don't know how long it was like that..although I think I would have noticed it on earlier preflights. I pushed it back in and re-saftied it so I could fly.

[XCanytime]

Great to hear about the Woodstock flights. Down at Big Walker the sky looked great when I arrived at 11A, but dried up completely when I launched at 1P. Pete Lehmann and Pat Halfhill showed up just after I arrived. Pat had bought Tommy Thompson's Falcon 225 the previous day in NC and bunked down in Wytheville overnight for flying at Big Walker. I spent an hour in the significant west cross not getting much than 600' over launch when a harness line broke. Decided to land immediately since I felt like a Rocko Plane in the harness. Had a good landing uphill in due west conditions in the LZ. Pete had launched about 1:30 and flew until 4P+, getting 1750'+ over max (4850' MSL). Pat sledded in light conditions on his new ride and PG pilot Rob Hall extendoed when conditions backed down considerably on launch. I went back up to retrieve my windsocks at 4:30P and conditions had picked up again. Tom King was getting ready to launch. Pat was set up for a 2nd attempt, and Richard Cobb was measuring 12 to 20 MPH on his Hall ASI. Hit the road for the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs WV, driving thru towns on Rt. 460 that I had not driven thru in 32 years. A trip down memory lane. It was nice. Bacil

[mcelrah]

Big thanks to Austin and Tom for picking me up at Front Royal and to Jim for driving my vehicle up from the LZ. I fear this delayed you guys and led to our missing the lift - Woodstock does do this sometimes - blows like stink all day then suddenly just shuts down.

My hang-glider is only medium performance (say 10:1 real world); thumb rule for going over the back on a slightly west cross day like yesterday: go along no farther than the Strasburg Reservoir in the saddle of the twin ridge short of Signal Knob (the wind kinda squirts off the end of Signal Knob and it can be sinky/trashy). With 2500 feet above the ridge (~4500 msl) you can see the Front Royal runway and will *probably* make it over the back (eastern) ridge and all the way to a landing at FRR. I did it first in a glider that was more like 8:1. Going up in a thermal/wave can get you over the second (intermediate) ridge - almost halfway across. The reservoir also puts you just enough south of the narrow passage into Fort Valley as to have landable fields under foot. I got back 3-400 feet of altitude with only a minor jink along the eastern ridge, which was working. Arrived at the airport with 1500 feet, took quite awhile to lose altitude by stooging around on the north side of the runway (this is the side for unpowered traffic, so I was watching for one of the club sailplanes to enter down wind there, but he stayed up and away). Finally opened my harness to make some drag to help get down. Windsocks and tetrahedron showed a north cross for runway 28 so I angled in over the hard runway and landed on the adjacent grass "safety area".

I said "probably" above: yesterday was smooth and not too strong. Once I tried this on a strong trashy day and got rotored (800 fpm sink) and pinned on the back ridge without a good way to get high enough to make it on to FRR. Landed safely in the Fort Valley, but got thrashed all the way down.

[Lostgriz]

Sorry to have missed a great day at Woodstock. I flew to Front Royal airport a couple weeks ago and wanted to confirm Hugh's comment on rotor in strong wind. I was seeing 20-23mph at 4k msl and it was indeed sporty going over the back. I saw 6-800 down over the back and flashes of 1000 down. I left at just under 4k msl and got to the airport at around 1300 msl.

Matt