Weekend of 4/11 - 4/12

[XCanytime]

Well it's been quite a mixed bag the past 2 weekends. Cold as a witch's *** in the mid 30's and blown out at Woodstock 3/28. 20 degrees warmer and honking til 6P yesterday at Woodstock until it finally settled down and let some fly. Well next weekend looks perfect (so far ). Another 15 degrees warmer and good wind direction and reasonable speeds all weekend that should allow not having to sit around all day waiting to fly. Should see a large crowd out this coming weekend. Bacil

[silverwings]

Saturday sure looks like a good Woodstock day!

[Ward Odenwald]

I agree John. If the forecasts don't change, I plan on getting an early start.

Ward

[darbbb]

I'm in for WS.

Brad

[Dunegoon]

Interested. It's a long drive...also thinking about Highland on Sunday.

CF

[Dan T]

Woodstock still looks ideal tomorrow. I'm planning on flying a PG and hopefully there will be several others there as well.

Dan T

[Matthew]

Calling for gusts to 30 at High Rock on Saturday.

Looks like we are following the lemmings to Woodstock.

Bringing both wings.

Matthew

[andybalkphysics]

I am also considering Woodstock.

-Andy

[XCanytime]

Knut, Walt, and I are going down to Big Walker. Tomorrow looks great at both Woodstock and Big Walker. Bacil

[Samlak2]

Bertrand, Sami and Hugo will be heading to Highland this weekend. Saturday looks blown out but Sunday a definite possibility. We'll probably end up cooking burgers We were there last weekend and Mitch Shipley tested the recently rebuilt tug. It should be all set!

[jimrooney]

You mean cooking the legendary Bertrand burgers!
Sorry I can't make it this weekend, but I'll see you soon enough.

[silverwings]

Planning on meeting at the Bridge Field at 11:30 AM. Looks to be a good day for flying there.

[Ward Odenwald]

ETA @ WS Bridge Field -> 10am

Ward

[silverwings]

Quite good day at Woodstock on Saturday. A bit gusty early but it settled down 2 - 2;30 pm. I think 15+ pilots flew and soared. A bit of a west cross up in the air but wind was channeling in the slot good and everyone had pretty good launches. A few people got fairly high and John McAllister said he got into some wave at the northern part of the ridge. I flew for 2:05. Maybe others can post.

[andybalkphysics]

Like John said Woodstock was great! I showed up around 11:30 and then shot the poop for a few hours while waiting for the weather to decide what to do. I think I counted 18 hang gliders, but I'm not sure. Mark lead the charge into pretty strong conditions, followed by Randy and Valerie. I think I went next, but there may have been someone else… Flew north maybe a mile in pretty bulletproof ridge lift and then found a few thermals which took me to 7500 msl. I figured I was so high I might be able to make the North Mountain Vineyard which I missed last year. Poked upwind sloooooowly and finally found the vineyard, which I recognized by their tower and the grapevines growing around it. I still had plenty of altitude to spare so I did a bunch of orbits to find the best landing spot, and finally chose an uphill spot which worked great. Brad (the owner) welcomed me with a few glasses of locally grown wine and conversation, and graciously drove me up to my car at launch. They said they were excited about the fly-in this year which Bacil posted about. Finally had a sandwich with Matthew and Karen at the Strasburg inn and the went home. Not bad for a blue day!

[markc]

I counted 18 gliders too, but that was just after launch, and I know that there were at least a couple of late arrivals. So pretty sure we had 20 pilots out there, a great turn-out for (finally) a simply awesome spring day! I decked it after over 3.5 hours, tired and sore and cold, but managed to pull off a decent flare.

I hit 7.5k MSL twice, and then 6-6.5k multiple times heading to/from Signal Knob, and while playing over the back ridge with Matthew and Gary near the resevoir. There was wavy-stuff about, but what I found was more thermal + wave combo, not the typical baby-smooth wave lift. I think that John McA might have gotten into the wave better than I, based on the description of his flight.

Highlights: Thermalling with 3 different sailplanes; chasing after Charlie's Zagi not long after launch; drifting back over the second ridge at Signal Knob without a care in the world; mixing it up with Matthew and Gary; a super-light thermal out in the valley which just got better, and better, and better; having to search for sink in order to land in the bridge field (took at least four tries, some of them out to Rt. 11); seeing all the perma-smiles on every pilot who flew!

MarkC

[Matthew]

One of the nicest days of flying ever. I didn't launch till 4. Turned right and found a ripper over the North finger with sustained 12000 up to 5K over launch. Flew up to the North point-- finding sink and lift-- but never any sharp edges even in the strong thermals. Flew around with Mark and Gary-- was thermalling and had a sail plane come by at co-altitude. The same sailplane came by another half hour later 1000' below me. Topped out about 7.2K msl. Got 2hrs 25 minutes. Went back up to try to fly the PG-- but it was borderline too strong. Karen got just under 2 hours.

Fabulous day!!!

Matthew

[XCanytime]

Glad to hear Woodstock was awesome. Special congrats to Andy for keeping the good karma going with North Mountain Vineyards. Knut, Walt, and I had similar flights at Big Walker yesterday. We got up to launch around 10:45A and it was moderate to strong. Paul Sydor and Doug Frank, 2 pilots from Raleigh and High Point, NC, showed up by 1P to round out the contingent. Knut and I had big XC plans, trying for the town of New Castle at the end of the ridge, some ~ 50 miles to the ENE. In hindsight we should have launched when we were ready at noon. We waited, thinking it would stay good all day, but by 2P it got very light. I launched first in a very light cycle and struggled to get up in pure thermals. There was no ridge lift to be found. Once up you were golden. Knut launched 2nd and got up. We both climbed to over 6K' MSL in very strong lift but I had a harness zipper problem and could not zip up. So I just stayed local. Walt launched 3rd and spent forever scratching but was able to get up and high too, getting over 6K' MSL too. Getting on near 4P I decided I had had enough, since I had to push against the boot for near 2 hours with my feet to keep my legs in the pod. Had a nice uphill landing. Walt had a nice uphill landing as well. Heard Knut on the radio announce he had crossed the Rt. 100 gap at 6K' MSL. Doug and Paul landed nicely, with Paul getting to around 6400' MSL, and Doug ~ 5600' MSL. Got a phone call from a stranger who drove by Knut after he landed and the stranger relayed the GPS coordinates and road that Knut landed by since Knut's phone didn't have service. How's that for southern hospitality . Plugged in the coordinates to my trusty Garmin and found Knut in tiger country some 13 miles from launch. His LZ was a tabletop on top of a pretty sizable hill in roly poly terrain in a little hamlet named Trigg VA. He was happy to see us. We drove to Blacksburg where I went to college and grabbed some quick chow. After inhaling the food we hit the road near 9P and both headed home on 81. Got home at 1:30A red-eyed and dog tired satisfied . Bacil

[krryerson]

Big Walker, Sat, 4/11/2015

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Fantastic launch at Big Walker with the LZ in the back ground

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[krryerson]

BIG WALKER, SAT flight:
Had a great 2 hours flight at Big Walker and flew mostly between 3000 - 5000 feet AGL. Topped out at 6000 feet AGL. Mostly good strong thermals on the Big Walker Mountain Ridge. Though, after crossing Rt. 100 gap, thermals seems to die out and did have to fight a lot to stay up around 2k AGL. Having New River crossing ahead, few safe landing options on my flight plan, before and after New River, and a blue sky, decided to play it safe and fly out in the open valley to land.
Landed safely but challenging at 5PM on "top of a pretty sizable hill in roly poly terrain in a little hamlet named Trigg VA".
Definitely a great place to fly and recommend Big Walker to everyone. Landowner Jim was also very helpful and if needed pilots can camp for free in the LZ, when flying there. Also great place for PG's.
With good ridge lift, you can fly on Big Walker for over 100 miles. And the nature is so beautiful down there, with very friendly people living in the roly poly. As Bacil, decided to become a member, so will definitely go back to Big Walker.
At last, glad to hear that Woodstock also turned out great and there was such a good turnout.
Knut

[wmelo]

What a great flying weekend !
It looks like most of the HG pilots went to Woodstock & had great fun!
Knut & I drove to big walk Friday PM. It seems Knut Glidder move faster than his car:) so we took a little while to arrive @ Dublin. We spend the night there & then met Bacil in the morning.
Bacil guided us to big walker: a beautifull region! The LA is huge & very easy even for lousy pilots like me!
The LZ is a little bit chalenging, but it is easier than Daniels.

I was the 3rd pilot to took off on light winds. Initially I dove due to the lack of lift. Fortunately, I was able to found some good thermal, claimed to > 5k, flew for more than 1h, & finally landed safely on the LZ.

Bacil& I went to rescue Knut who flew 13miles. Then , we stoped by VA Tec for dinner, & Knut drove me back.

I loved the region & I am looking forward to going again on fall

Special thanks to Bacil for taking us under his wings&showing the place, & Knut for doing all the drive: it was really fun

Walt

[mcgowantk]

We had a nice day at Highland. Others had better flights but I still got to soar as much as I wanted. I took three flights - one early flight for practice, then sunk out on my second flight. After I noticed no one else was landing, I went up again for an hour or so and landed to get home. Lots of eagles, hawks, and other raptors in the sky.

It was a fun day, good to see a big group out flying, and good to see Sunny, Adam, and Mitch Shipley at the tow park.

Mitch could be talked into hosting a landing clinic if I could get three others out one morning during the week. If I see a promising day, I will post and ask for volunteers.

Tom McGowan

[Ward Odenwald]

Nice opening day indeed! Counted at least 20 pilots with most, if not all, having good flights carving up small punchy thermals that would max out at ~2 to 2.5 K during mid-day with better afternoon conditions.

Ward

[John Simon]

Had a great start to the Highland year, albeit a bit late. Tons of pilots and lots of flying in great conditions on Sunday. Bertrand flew 5 times, Sammy had her FIRST XC flight, Rich flew his new Fizz glider on a short flight and many others got to soar as much as they wanted. I had 2 and both with good landings. Made it to 4000' a couple times. Punchy lift early and smoothing out later, usually 300 fpm but many in the 400-500 fpm range and one off tow that was a ridiculous and smooth 650 all the way up. Great visibility, tons of Eagles and great beer and cookout after (thanks Bertrand and Sammy!). Was fun to see so many after a long winter.

Regards,

John

[Rich E]

John is being way too kind...

I learnt that having only had 11 tows at Quest in mild conditions, then a 2 month lay-off, one can't (at least I can't) jump back into somewhat stronger conditions. I PIO'd on tow, poor form, and realized I wasn't going to get it back but wasn't near lockout so hung in there till got some height and pinned off. On the plus side, good approach and a no step landing were some consolation! Time to re-mount the fin of shame and fly earlier/later in the day till I regain my Quest form.

Thanks for all those that offered support and guidance.

Sigh

Rich