NW weekend

[krryerson]

Mark,
I will try to be there little bit earlier and will give you a call when arriving.
Anyone else?
Knut

[Danny Brotto]

I'm headed to Smithsburg for a little romp on the training hill. Be there early afternoon. At Fairfield, winds on the ground are NW at about 5 to 10. Pretty solid overcast with a few wave windows opening up. Might even be fine for HR.

Wave day yesterday in the sailplane getting to only 6K MSL bagging 3.5 hours. Guys out of Front Royal were getting to 8K+ MSL reporting NW winds at 35ish at altitude.

Danny Brotto

[George]

https://vimeo.com/114478910

[Dunegoon]

Awesome conditions at Woodstock. I had close to two hours and altitudes over 4250. Should be some interesting flight reports. Sore soaring muscles and chilly thumbs but very pleasant flying for December.

[krryerson]

Yes, great day at Woodstock today, Sunday. You could basically fly as long as you wanted. A good HG turnout today too. We most have been 10 HG pilot's or more. Launched at ~1 PM and did fly for 47 minutes; but had to get back home early today, so did not "stretch it out". Great lift and strong wind up there; but manageable. Topped out at 2750 feet above LZ. Landed in the bridge field.
Thanks for helping us at the launch and more!
Knut

[markc]

Thanks for that vid clip of my launch yesterday George, very kind of you! I have some great PG footage, and someday I swear I will do something with it.

(and with the HG footage for that matter.... sigh....)

As others have said, great day for the hangies on Sunday. I flew for nearly two hours and maxed out at 4200 msl. Big thanks to Andy, Ward, and John for their help in the slot!

Bald eagles again today, with one glued to my six, making it clear who really owned the air.

[markc]

Oh yeah! A notable flight for one pilot today, but he has yet to join the forum. Hoping we'll hear more about that tomorrow!!

[A.Lloyd]

Hi I’m Anthony one of John’s students. John decided that yesterday would be a good day for my first mountain launch at Woodstock. John, Eric and I arrived at the bridge field and setup wind socks. A local officer stopped there to talk to us and was enthusiastic about flying which gave me a big boost of positive energy. John and I talked about my landing approach and then the three of us headed up to launching in Eric's truck. Five gliders were already setup. Basil was the first off launch. From there, more pilots took off and even more pilots arrived, including a couple of PGers. I wasted time setting up my glider. I didn't think it took that long but Eric said it was close to 2 hours before I was ready and on launch. During that time I got to wire crew for a couple pilots and see a PG take off from altitude and soar. Finally got my glider setup and did the preflight. John attached a radio to my harness and his awesome old school instrument to my base tube. Charlie was playing with his Zagi for the 2nd time. He said the wind had straightened out and conditions were good. I put on my harness, Eric connected his Go-Pro to the keel and I was ready to go. John and Basil wired me off in a smooth straight cycle and I headed up wind to the left of launch. John said I stuffed the bar a little bit towards the end of the slot and Basil said I should have been crabbing °30 on my first turn. A few turns later I was way over launch soaring back and forth. The visibility was good with a clear blue sky. I soared for 20 minutes or more and decided to head out to the bridge field. I pulled a couple 360’s along the way out to land. Was slow on my base and got in a little PIO, but it worked out with a no stepper. Thanks to Eric for getting me involved in hang gliding and all the time and effort spent. Thanks to John for putting up with my stubbornness and for all the encouragement and knowledge. Also big thanks to Matthew, Mark, Knut and Basil. I’m looking forward to continuing my progression the sport.

[andybalkphysics]

Anthony,

Congrats on your first soaring flight!!! It was a beautiful day and a beautiful site for it. I know I'll remember mine for the rest of my life. It only gets better from here, as you start getting more comfortable with the glider and the flying sites.

-Andy

[A.Lloyd]

Also, I want to thank Charlie for the last minute advice for reinforcing the importance of maintaining a positive attitude and for his landing tips!

[wmelo]

Great day at Woodstock.
I arrived by 2:30pm. I think I was the last one to launch assisted by John M & Bacil. Once again, I wish to thank my beloved observers! I would not go to WS if Bacil had not call me: thank you for doing so!

I could contemplate all the HG and PG pilots took off without difficulties and soar. Anthony (the new HG pilot) was able to move up very quickly - that was inspiring. Congratulations!
I had good launch on week winds. I did not have problems to find some thermals and go up a little bit: 3400.
I flew for a little bit less than 1 hour (I was cold and I did not want to land too late) and landed safely in the bridge field: this was my 2nd time.

It was a great day!
walt

[Ward Odenwald]

Many happy faces yesterday. Don’t know how many flew but there must have been over a dozen HGs plus one PG. Here are some photos of one climb and yesterday’s landing pattern.

Congratulations Anthony!

Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

Last five.

[Lostgriz]

I posted my flight report from yesterday on Facebook and wanted to share it here. Thanks to everyone for the assistance at launch. It was great to be back out and meet some more pilots. Special thanks to Bacil for getting me out, or I might have missed this great day, and my first wave experience.

What an unexpectedly amazing day of flying yesterday. An hour into my drive to The Pulpit, in PA, My friend and site guru Bacil made the call that Woodstock, VA was looking better....so, I followed him to Woodstock. It has been around two months since my last flight, so I was really just hoping to stay warm and get a little soaring in. Around 10 pilots showed up and I was the 4th or 5th to launch. Once in the air, lift was abundant and I enjoyed playing in smooth climbs to 4000'msl up and down the ridge. The views were spectacular as always at this awesome site and the flying was a pure joy. After a couple hours of bobbing around up and down the ridge, I decided to fly out into the valley and try to tag the water tower in Woodstock before landing. As I made my way out into the valley, I was surprised to find that I was steadily climbing in broken lift as I flew toward town. I was surprised to find this light, but consistent, lift line in December. I continued to fly straight into a 14 mph headwind at 24mph, relaxed and enjoying the views with one arm draped over the bar. At around 4000' the air got ratty and I was getting tossed around, but still climbing. In an instant at around 4500', I was in as smooth of air as I have ever flown and my vario was singing as I watched 400-700fpm climbs (blips of 900fpm) register....I was in wave! I had heard and read about it, but never experienced this awesome phenomenon. There were no clouds in my vicinity, but out in front of me at the other side of the valley, there was a beautiful thin white mat of clouds that stretched off into the distance. As I flew toward them, it felt surreal to fly above cloudbase and then above the top of the clouds, looking down at a uniform white carpet that covered the ground into the distance; all while flying straight out into the valley on this unexpectedly beautiful December day. At just under 7000', I flew out the back side of the wave and my smooth ascension above the clouds was replaced by 1100fpm sink and I was parachuting back to earth. I turned 45 degrees to escape the sink and then 90, but was still seeing sustained 6-900 down. The rate of decent was so significant, for a second, I thought I might not make it back to the primary LZ and would be landing out. With a 15mph tailwind, I was quickly back to the bridge field where other pilots had landed. Intending to wrap this beautiful flight up, I played around with some high bank turns and small wingovers near the LZ to dump some altitude. What I found was wide spread smooth 100-250fpm lift that was too much fun to leave. I enjoyed another smooth ride back to around 4K and a little more time on the ridge before landing with friends and packing up as the sun set. After a two month break, I would have been happy with a 20 minute flight, what I got was 2 hours and 50 minutes of flying and another great hang gliding adventure in the log book. Unfortunately, my camera died before my wave encounter.....



Cheers,

Matt

[garys]

Anthony. A huge congratulations on your first big flight. Yesterday was sweeeeeet. As I drove up I was watching a wave cloud right over launch but it disapeared before I was set up so I figured I was too late to take advantage of it. I worked my way up at the north finger for about an hour in a mixed bag of thermals then headed south and out into the valley when everything was up. I was fighting a very strong head wind with the bar stuffed but still climbing. Kept a close eye on the ridge line and started to creep forward. Topped out at 6500 MSL but could have probably kept beaming up. Half way to 81 the wave subsided and I was just as happy to be in the big sink as I was getting a good workout and cold.

[krryerson]

Great write up about the wave experience on Sunday and more. Love it!

Did hit a "Roller Coaster" at 3282 feet AGL.
Looking at my GPS date, it was at N38°51'57" W078°27'55 and had something like 11.4 m/s sink (2244 fpm sink) for a few second, at it's worst.
Do have a feeling that this might have been the back side of "The Wave" and believe you had to go much farther out in the valley to hit the smooth "Up-Escalator". Though, not sure about this... .

Anyone having any date on where the wave started on Sunday and how high you had to be AGL to hit the "Up and Down Side"? According to Matt, I assume it was around 4000 feet for the up; but how fare out?

Would be fun to study these date... .

Thanks!
Knut

[lbunner]

Matt, awesome flight and write up. If you ran into wave again, is there anything you would do differently? Danny, do you have any good insights into working wave in a hang glider? Maybe we could start a separate thread on this topic.

Mired in the winter blues in Illinois

[XCanytime]

Having studied intensely and flown in wave I can offer some insights. When Matt flew thru the chop, that was the rotor beneath the wave crest. The rotor is modeled as a circular "tumbleweed" rotating in place under the wave crest. The crest of the wave was probably above 10K' MSL. I took a picture of a wave cloud from the LZ and it was quite high and was more cirrocumulus than cumulus; hence the height guess of 10K' MSL+. As Matt flew thru it he then hit the front side of the wave, which he aptly described as butter smooth 400' up. To exploit the wave lift you slow down to where your ground speed is minimal to zero so that you stay within the confines of the wave lift. You can also fly laterally left and right and "surf" the wave. You could fly off of the end of the wave if you fly far enough laterally. Or you could just slow down and ride the "escalator" to the top floor. The wave can be stationary, or it could shift upwind or downwind. The point is to explore the wave boundaries. However, a word of warning. Flying in wave is a serious endeavor and not to be taken lightly. As you ascend in wave the headwind increases, and can increase to a point where you cannot make forward progress. Wave lift can also take you to heights that can produce frostbite and hypothermia if you are not adequately prepared for the colder temps. And if you don't fly far enough downwind of the wave, the turbulence from the rotor can make your flight a bit rough to really bad. Matt punched off the front of the wave and encountered greater than 1000'/min down, which got him down from altitude w/o turbulence. That was a wise move rather than run downwind and possibly thru the rotor I just described that exists below the crest and behind it for some distance. Bacil

[thermalup]

I remember reading in the magazine about Nelson Lewis having an incredible wave flight some years ago. Wasn't that flight initiated at Woodstock?
Does anyone know the details about that flight (winds at launch, winds aloft, where he entered the 'up' zone, max. altitude, distance traveled, what month the flight happened)?

[theflyingdude]

My recollection is that Nelson Lewis got to approx 12K in the primary wave in front of Massunutten Mtn and then went OTB and worked five or six successive wave cycles (he would turn back into the wind and climb while flying straight). He got less high with each successive wave until he landed about 75 miles downwind.

JR

[markc]

I've been in wave a time or two (though not this past weekend, short flight due to commitments that day, grrrr!!!), but I've never tried to use it for an XC flight. Mostly because I've been spooked by the rotor concerns, downwind of any given wave crest.

If you top out in a crest, pull full VG, and then burn downwind.... Are the rotor concerns moot? Ie, you blow past the rotor/tumbleweed area, at an altitude far above it?

And only then do you start searching for the next swell/crest?

If that's the case : Is there a rule of thumb for how far downwind of the crest you have to be, to avoid the washing machine?

I recall Nelson's description of that flight, but not the details of how/why he didn't get pounded between the crests.

MarkC

[XCanytime]

Nelson's famous wave flight occurred on April 5th, 1992. Winds at launch were straight in at 10 to 15 MPH. He contacted the wave in the same area as Matt did. The initial wave climb was not the highest. I believe it was around 10,900' MSL. The next wave downwind was the 12K' MSL climb. He then proceeded downwind to "surf" 6 more wave crests, with each successive climb being lower than the previous as the wave oscillations damped out over the Piedmont. He flew 73 miles and landed near Goochland, VA. To answer your concerns Mark, I believe that if you top out at the crest, then burning downwind will help you avoid the rotor and associated turbulence. The wavelengths (distance between crests) tend to be 3 to 6 miles. So with one hell of a tailwind you will reach the front side of the next wave pretty quickly without significant loss of altitude, all the while keeping you way above the rotor zone. Bacil

[lbunner]

Nelson's flight was awesome. I do see that he flew SSE of WS and ended up down by Richmond. How did he end up way down there?

[XCanytime]

Larry I believe I read that the winds aloft at the great altitudes that Nelson achieved were 340 degrees. The wave orientation was also more ENE/WSW as well, resulting in his SSE track to Goochland, VA. Bacil

[Lostgriz]

Here is a quick clip of Mark's launch and a little fly-by.

Cheers,

Matt


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_ZKTzp ... e=youtu.be