Pulpit weekend 8/1 - 8/2

[XCanytime]

The Pulpit looks good this weekend. Hot and sunny and west winds. Bacil

[andybalkphysics]

I am thinking about it..maybe camping too.

-Andy

[Matthew]

Got my fingers crossed...

for no North cross!

Matthew

[A.Lloyd]

I'm up for heading to the Pulpit or Woodstock tomorrow morning. Are there any observers still looking at flying tomorrow?

[Matthew]

Hi Anthony,

Give me a call on Saturday morning after 8am.

Not sure where I'm going based on the mixed forecasts. Will decide in the AM. Might even be High Rock. Still no NOTAMs for P40.

Matthew

[Danny Brotto]

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_5_4252.html

3:00 pm Saturday through 8:00 pm Sunday local. TFR times can change. Check with 1-800-WX-BRIEF before commiting aviation.

Danny Brotto

[rasmussenv]

I'm considering going out too ... please post intentions .. evidently not High Rock, so Pulpit? Or Woodstock?

[A.Lloyd]

I'll call. Thanks.

[Dave Gills]

Looks a bit north tomorrow (Saturday the 1st)
Anyone willing to chance it?

[XCanytime]

The forecast can't be much better for the Pulpit in August as it is tomorrow. I will be there early. Bacil

[Dave Gills]

When are you going to be there?

[markc]

Will await the AM forecast update with anticipation! Sat? Sun? Both?

Would be good to have such a dilemma...

[Dunegoon]

ETA 10 AM. Looking goooood. Better than driving three hours to fly in chicken poop thermals.

CF

[Matthew]

ETA noon.

Matthew

[markc]

Glad that the G20 is gone from this morning's forecast. Still have some concern about the approaching front, and the increasing 3k forecast.... But we'll see what we see!

[mingram]

A few paragliders are headed to Woodstock

[mingram]

Great day at Woodstock today even though the wind was cross. Jim McClave​ had the flight of the day landing north of Front Royal. He landed very close to the Backroom Brewery! Put this one into your GPS as a waypoint. Next time I fly Woodstock I'm going to fly there! 38.995685, -78.221075

George and Krista had the right idea and arrived early - 12pm and got the most of the day. George flew to I81/I66 intersection. Jim and I arrived at 2pm and it was very light on launch, with Peter and tandem close behind. I got impatient waiting on launch and instead of building a wall like I had planned decided to launch backwards which didn't work out. I tumbled and showed others how not to launch. Thanks to Peter for a reset and the next cycle I was easily up to 4600ft/1400m msl. I should have flown north along the ridge at that point because the clouds were all clustered over Signal Knob at the north. Instead I flew back up wind to try to get the front of the thermal, hoping to get to cloudbase, but it didn't happen. Instead I again got impatient and tried to glided to Signal Knob, but was lower this time and took a bad line into Fort Valley where I landed. Luckily got an easy ride back to launch and was able to pickup Jim for an easy day.

Back at the ranch Krista and others were flying their asses off in a super glass off. Krista almost 4 hours? New pilot Mike Trichitella had an awesome first thermal flight at Woodstock with Jim's guidance from launch. Jim did an awesome job of thermal coaching.

[andybalkphysics]

Glad you guys had a good time down there, Pulpit was good also. I showed up around high noon to see Bacil and Charlie flying around, and Matthew had just launched. Set up, and then watched Mark and Valerie launch, and fly away. I waited for it to throttle down a bit as I hadn't flown in a while, then finally gave it a go around 4. Dave, Anthony, Walt, Karen and Charlie joined me. There were no real thermals left to really do multiple turns in but it became a nice smooth glass off. Lots of red-tailed hawks were out..I got maybe 15 feet from one. The main LZ has a nice westward running clear strip for landing. There was a beautiful sunset from launch which I barely caught the denouement of.

[Matthew]

Actually, Mark and Valerie launched before me. Mark got to 7300 msl and went over the back to Chambersburg. Valerie had an extend to the secondary. Bacil and Charlie were both in the air when Karen and I arrived at noon. They both flew for a couple of hours-- Bacil landed over the back at the school and Charlie landed out front. I got a little over two hours. I spent a lot of time groveling in the turbulence along the ridge at 300 over before getting up. I made it to 6K a couple of times and considered going XC. However, the valley looked like one big cornfield and I chickened out. Even up high and in thermals the air was shaky and turbulent.

After landing I got a ride back up top from Karen. Winds had smoothed out. So I helped launch H2s Anthony and Dave and Walt. Mark, Charlie and Bacil had returned to assist in wire crew. Andy and Karen also launched in that mix-- and Charlie went up for a second flight (Air Hog!). Everyone was up enjoying the glass off. Karen got 2.5 hours. I dragged out the PG and had to wait till 6:30pm for things to back off enough to launch. The air was so smooth that I aimed the glider out into the valley under a long cloud, took my hands off the brakes, folded my arms and did NOTHING for almost 40 minutes --- slowly, slowly climbing and enjoying the view. I ended up with an hour and a quarter and 900 over.

Matthew

[markc]

Great day and a good turnout at the Pulpit: Bacil, Charley, Walt, Valerie, Dave Gills, Karen, Matthew, Andy, Anthony, and myself. John M stopped by with a student who seems pretty gungho about mtn flying (has taken a few tandems at Highland), but they couldn't stick around.

All flew and all soared, some with multiple hours in the glass-off at the end of the day. Hopefully we'll hear how much fun they had!

Though I wasn't really planning to go XC, gnarly conditions low (1:00-ish) and a great climb tempted me over the back. Given the TFR at High Rock I decided I would stay north of Rt30. But that track was pretty blue..... So I would push fairly hard north, such that the clouds would intersect my course, and then I floated with them on a SE track. A bit more challenging than a simple downwinder, so I was happy that it worked out a few times.

My highest was 7300 msl, a bit past Mt. Parnell. Awesome looking sky everywhere, and I probably should worked a lot harder to core a ratty one when I got low northeast of Chambersburg. But the combination of few LZs, the Micheaux looming, and the lack of any actual retrieve plan put me into a landing mindset. Bit of a shame given how good the sky looked, but I'm not complaining.

And Walt very kindly offered to chase after me, after picking up Bacil. Thank you my friend! The ride back with those two, and Charley, was full of laughs.

Back at launch around 5pm the glass-off was on, and we launched Dave, Anthony, Karen, Walt, and Charley in quick succession. Andy's version of dog paddling in the air above the ramp was a hoot, and the sight of that many boating in the magic air was really cool.

After some brews, a trip down to grab pilots and gear, some more brews at sunset.... We headed to the place in Mercersburg for dinner. Then I went back to launch and set up the tent, for a perfect camping night. Life's good!

MarkC

[XCanytime]

Awesome day at the Pulpit. I got there at 10:30A+ to find Walt putting in the windsocks on the pad and they showed it was already soarable. Launched an hour later from the pad in strong conditions and got up easily. Flew for 2 hours but didn't find the elevator up to where Mark C. and Charley skyed out to behind launch. For a good 15+ minutes of the flight I flew in the most turbulent air between launch and Rt. 16. I have never heard such squeaking and creaking of the glider frame . Finally found a somewhat cohesive climb to 1700' over and went with it. Lawn darted to the elementary school on Lemar Road. Had a nice landing in the mowed soccer field next to the school. Walt came and picked me up. Thanks again Walt! After grabbing lunch we set out to find Mark C. who flew XC 21 miles to Scotland, PA, just NE of Chambersburg. He topped out at cloudbase at 7300' MSL along the way. Wow, nice flight Mark! He texted the GPS coordinates and we used old (Luddite right Pete? ) technology of looking at the DeLorme PA map to find him w/o a hitch . Back at launch the second wave of pilots took to the air after 5P to smooth, magic air until sunset. Matthew patiently waited for it to back down and launched his PG into the smooth lift after 6:30P. Mark, Charley, and I watched the sunset from the new ramp, with cold beers to accentuate the atmosphere . Charley was the air king of the day, with 2 flights totaling 3:40 of airtime. Bacil

[XCanytime]

Mark you gotta post that picture of Eric Clapton and Richard Gere . Bacil

[Dunegoon]

Bacil called the day last Monday. I just showed up and flew. Most of the flight 5K and higher. Thanks to everyone for their help and friendship. Went to bed with visions of clouds and gliders swirling like eagles.

Not a bad day at the Pulpit.

Dunegoon AKA Mr. Airhog for a day

[markc]

Argh, can't resize the photo from my phone.... Will have to do it from home unless I find a workaround.

[krryerson]

Just want y'all to know that it seems like the mountains was the way to go Saturday. Did go to Highland and got very little flytime there. Two flights between 3 and 4pm. Maybe I launched too late, who knows? Highland had plenty of customer and was very busy, though noticed only 3 HG solo pilots. Glad to hear that youall had a great mountain day and which I was there too. Knut