SAC Sunday 9/20

[XCanytime]

2 hours, 10 mile XC to Pillow. Long version: got to launch about 8:40A with Charley Fager following. Joe was weed whacking the slot. Scott Keyser showed up to round out the pilot crew so I took off into less than ideal conditions at 9:45A (lots of NE cross). Worked real hard to get up. Took many passes to finally get up above the ridge. Once above I was groveling between 200 to 500' over in the NE/ENE cross, trying to line up with the clouds that were drifting ENE/WSW. Finally as Scott sledded I grabbed some lift that got me to 1100' over just west of launch. Drifted with that to the Klingerstown Gap. Still had 800' over when I jumped the gap with ease. As I approached the Pillow Gap the sky dried up and I found no lift. Being that I was pretty tired from the active flying of 1.5 hours I went out and landed about .25 miles east of Pillow in an LZ that I had landed at back in 1998 (7/5/98). Charley picked me up, yet again (Thanks again Charley!). Back at launch a full SAC crew was present: Joe, Karen, Doug Rogers, Shawn Macduff, Dave Black, Chris Bruno, Ric Caylor, Jesse Fulkersein, and Tom McGowan. I assisted Tom in his nice launch at 2:15P, and he immediately got up in moderate to strong conditions on launch. I hit the road to unfortunately watch the Ravens lose their 2nd game in a row, to the lowly Oakland Raiders of all teams. Aaarrrggghhh. Bacil

[mcgowantk]

I also had a great day at the Sac. Conditions on launch weren't that great but I lucky enough to be on launch for a nice cycle and immediately found a strong thermal to 3k over. With that start, I was able to able to stay up through several tough sink cycles. It was a beautiful day with fantastic visibility. I flew for about three hours and maxed out at 5k Msl (I understand that to be 3800 over). Others flew with Doug Rogers also having a notable flight.

Tom McGowan

[XCanytime]

Nice flight Tom. FWIW the launch at the SAC is around 1500' MSL. Not all that high when compared to our other mountain launches (Daniels 1700, EG 1850, HR 1850, Woodstock 1900, Pulpit 2200), but an added bonus being not that high is the fact that the SAC rarely blows out. And it is the best place to fly when it is due north. Bacil