Pulpit, Thursday Oct 15

[Ward Odenwald]

It was good! Five of us flew, three western PA pilots (Dave Gills, Randy Grove and Chris Bruno) plus Walt. Once the valley heated up, we had blown out conditions but by 2pm the 20 to 25mph wind dropped back to 15 to 20. Ten minutes into my flight, I found a thermal just south of launch that took me to 6,396ft msl and over the back. Flying down wind (along the southern edge of Rt 30) I spent the first third of the cross-valley flight above 4K but by the time I reached the south end of Chambersburg the thermals were not taking me any higher than 3K. As you can see from the photos, when I reached the edge of the Michaux Forest I was averaging ~1.5 to 2K, working what was most likely small updrafts coming off of Rt 30 and flanking buildings. From there, I headed south along the ridge and landed ~1.5miles southeast of Fayetteville (flight time was just under 2 hrs and straight line distance from launch, 23.3 miles). The following 3 sets of 5 images focus on the first thermal, crossing the valley and low thermal flying.

HUGH THANKS to Walt and Dave for taking the time and effort to bring me back to launch!

Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

Second set.

[Ward Odenwald]

Last set of five.

[Dunegoon]

Nice! That was a spectacular view OTB.

[XCanytime]

Ward one of your pics shows bodies of water. There is an airstrip called 5 lakes? that is north of 30 just west of the Michaux. That looks like the airstrip in your photo. Bacil

[Danny Brotto]

The old "Five Lakes" airstrip is to the left of Ward's harness boot in the pix with 3 "lakes" showing. The airstrip is still on the sectionals but is no longer an active airfield. It is keep mowed and the occasional airplane (or glider) lands there.

Danny Brotto

[Ward Odenwald]

Could be wrong, but this looks like the airstrip.

[markc]

Why isn't it called Thirteen Lakes?????