Spring Flying from the Pittsburgh Crowd

[Matthew]

From Pete Lehmann--

APRIL 11 TEMPLETON: Foolishness

A beautiful post-frontal spring day, but a bit strong at first. Mark Gardner and Larry Huffman chose not to set-up, but I did and launched as the winds moderated. I quickly climbed off the ridge and got my self semi-trapped (cockiness, laziness and inattention) over the back at 2,800 msl (1,500 agl) and promptly landed three miles out. It was a real missed opportunity as the scattered clouds were very high.



APRIL 12 PINNACLE: A Zero Day

A lovely warm day brought out a small, desperate crowd on a hopeless forecast: crossed and very light wind. Sadly, the flight of the day was Larry Huffman’s bird-like gain of sixty three feet that trounced my eight minute five second extended sled ride. It was breathtaking aviation, highlighted by Gardinator’s dramatic launch in light conditions on the shallow slope. Other’s present were Pat Halfhill, JR and, of course, Brenda.



APRIL 18 TEMPLETON/HIGH POINT: A Serious Spring Day



After flipping a coin Larry Huffman and I decided to risk the light wind forecast at Templeton and spare ourselves the long drive (and longer retrieves) of going to Cumberland. That proved a wise decision for, while I had not noticed it, Larry had realized that a high cirrus was forecast Cumberland. Fortunately, Templeton’s sky was blue and filled with a scattering of high cumies. However, before flying we had to wait a considerable time for the thermals to generate cycles strong enough for launching as it had been almost completely calm before my noon arrival.



It was only at 2:40 that I dared launch, but I had little difficulty soaring and was climbing off the ridge soon after. Larry launched as I was leaving and also climbed out, but after getting to thirty seven hundred feet the thermal stopped. Rather than go back to the ridge, he decided to look for lift downwind. Finding none he landed five miles out after :31. He and Brenda were gracious enough to then chase me.



Pat Brooks and Eric Shiever also arrived at the hill, and launching later in the afternoon both had good flights before top landing and raiding the beer in my car. Pat got 1:10 and 5,100 msl on his Falcon, while Eric had 1:15 and two green knees from the hazards of a Templeton top-landing. Apparently it had become so soarable later in the day that they had trouble getting down through the lift to land.



In the meantime, I had been continuing on my attempt to fly to Cumberland, having looked at a map the night before to refresh my memory of the route. After climbing off the ridge I had eventually found a series of shorter climbs that got me to almost 8,500 msl. I had little trouble staying high after leaving that height, but the lift was still erratic: sometimes strong, but not generally lasting very long. I was also flying cautiously as lift can be very widely spaced on days with high cloud bases and I had no desire to get low under those circumstances. Flying to the Shelocta power house’s smokestack-cumie I found no lift and it was only about an hour into the flight (southwest of Indiana) that I found the first coherent, strong climb to get me back to 7,500 msl.



At the same time, I realized that my chosen route to the south might not have been the wisest decision as I could see that a high cirrus layer was shading the ground and largely extinguishing the cumulus clouds. Pushing on towards Blairsville and the last good looking big cloud I found the day’s best climb almost directly over the Torrance mental hospital, climbing at 400 fpm back to 8,500 feet. With that altitude I crossed Chestnut Ridge towards Ligonier. The overcast was now quite thick and I doubted I would find a thermal to get me high enough to cross the higher and wider Laurel Mountain beyond the town. However at the base of the mountain I found a weak, but reliable, thermal in which I climbed high enough to cross. Soon after, on top of the mountain I found more light lift that got me to 8,866 feet, my highest point of the flight. Unfortunately, after that it was just a long thirteen mile final glide under the murk to a landing at Somerset airport, sixty-four miles from launch (2:39). Brenda and Larry arrived before I was half broken down to end a great flight with a perfect retrieve. Thanks greatly.



High Point

One of the amusing features of my flight was that as I got away from Templeton I began to hear Jim Rowan and Mark Gardner on the radio, flying over High Point. Most entertaining was hearing Mark discussing the re-booting attempts with his new tablet-based vario/nav system, the DG-1 v.1 (Dickert-Gardner), before he finally had to shut it down.



They had only started flying after four o’clock due to the very light launch conditions and the cirrus scuzz that prevented the formation of the cumies that we’d had at Templeton. They both flew for about 1.5 hours, getting to 4,500 msl before landing below. JR say’s his landing was not a thing of beauty, and only the intervention of his helmet prevented the soiling of his nose cone in the dirt. Ben Herrick and Krista Auchenbach flew their paragliders for about the same time, with Krista pulling off a fine save from below the Fairgrounds launch. That spared her LE’s fate of being flushed to the lz after about :45 minutes in the air.



Apollo, PA

In a foot note, Matt Philips made his first, powered, Mosquito flight of the year and the first since his horrific snow boarding accident this past winter. Welcome back, young fellah.

[Dan T]

Thanks for the post Pete and Matthew. It's good to hear from you. Please say hi to my close friend and flying nemesis Mark Gardner for me.

Dan T