Daniel's Saturday 5/30

[Matthew]

Anyone thinking of Daniel's on Saturday???

Matthew

[mingram]

Looks to be a little on the windy side for PG. Keeping an eye on it.

[rlweber]

I am definitely watching. If it holds I will be there.
Randy

[Matthew]

Matt,

Where do you see windy?

Stanardsville text forecast is--

SATURDAY
MOSTLY SUNNY. ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IN
THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 80S. SOUTH WINDS 5 TO 10 MPH.
CHANCE OF RAIN 20 PERCENT.

Hourly bar graph shows 10mph through the afternoon and diminishing at night.

ADDS 3000' winds aloft show 15.

Matthew

[mingram]

Ok. PGs are in. Peter and I are going early with the weed whacker. Eta 10:30.

[eggzkitz]

Thermal erosion looks to be just on the edge of being a problem, but overall looks decent. All the same, I probably won't make it out tomorrow. Family day tomorrow.

[Dan T]

Come on out, it should be flyable for both wings. The slot needs some work. A good sized work party could have it done it an hour or so. It's up to us to keep our sites open and usable.

By the way some of the PGers are finding some pretty interesting XC routes out of there. Today is a good candidate for a big one, maybe all the way to PA?

[rlweber]

Came out, did some destruction to the local foliage and flew the paraglider. It was an epic day. I had a flight I had been thinking about for a long time. I flew my paraglider (the first flight for my new Mentor 4). Totally enjoyed scratching and thermaling with the glider. I started at Daniels, after scratching for a while and bobbing around I found my ticket to cloudbase and landed 4 miles south of Sperryville, for approximately 25 miles. This is my longest flat land xc (as opposed to ridge running) on any free flight aircraft. Mat Ingram flew part of the way with me. I started before him but he was on the fast track and caught me. He chose the mountains and I chose the valley. The large clouds over the mountains were a little too foreboding for me. Although when I saw him race ahead, and lost track of him, I was doubting my decision to not follow the big cloud street over the mountains. I was surprised when I heard he had landed in Syria. Mat did have to deal with some turbulence at cloudbase. He demonstrated his skill handling the xc harness in turbulence. I would catch a thermal, ride it to near cloud base, get on speed bar and go find another. Hopping over the mountain fingers on the magic elevators. At one point I was thinking about landing at the edge of a bluegrass festival, in the camping area, but them I felt the pressure and the vario began to sing. The thermals were popping all over the place. Even a blind squirrel can find an acorn when it is beneath an acorn laden oak tree. The Mentor 4 actually moves forward on speed bar. The Gin Sprint had more of a tendency to descend. I had an event to get back for so I decided to land. Although on my way to the lz I would have circled up if I found another elevator. Thanks to Dan Tomlinson for the retrieve. When I returned to Daniels lz the sky was full of gliders enjoying the evening blow, but I had to go. Again epic day! Total flight time was approximately 2:14, max altitude at cloudbase- 4688 ft



Randy

[silverwings]

Nice report Randy and congratulations on your xc. So I take it you like your new glider!