Woodstock Sunday 10/18

[silverwings]

The forecast looks pretty good again for Sunday. I will most likely be going.

[Ward Odenwald]

Could be good but the predicted afternoon surface gusts make me uneasy. Staying home today.

[XCanytime]

I will be there around 10:45A. Bacil

[silverwings]

Bacil, Randy, and I are going. My eta at LZ 12:30 ish. Any other takers? Dress warmly.

[Joe Schad]

Launched a little before noon. Turned out to be strong and turbulent so I kept flying straight out to try to land past the bridge field. Gained a lot of altitude with bar stuffed trying to get away from the mountain. Thought I had the field made but winds were stronger as I got lower. Had to do a last minute divert to the PG landing field. Was turbulent getting in but I managed to put in in the middle of the front yard. John and Basil decided to wait to later in the day to launch. Conditions had picked up after I launched.
Joe

[silverwings]

It was cloudy at first and gusty with occasional lighter cycles. Bacil was setup when I arrived but it was blasting at times so I suggested it might be better later. Randy arrived. Around 2:00 PM I decided to not set up since I didn't like the conditions most of the time. Bacil launched around 3:30 into a light cycle easily getting out and up and I helped Randy finish his setup. About 4:00 PM Randy was suiting up when I got a call from Bacil who had landed down south toward the gap and said that it was not enjoyable air so Randy immediately un-suited. I told Randy that maybe later it would improve. I headed home and later found out that Randy did not fly. Maybe Bacil will report about his flight and evaluation of the conditions.

[XCanytime]

Randy Weber and his driver Larry showed up about 1:30P and set up. John decided not to fly and hauled everything out by 3:15P. When he came back there was a launchable lull and I pounced on it at 3:30P with John and Randy's assistance. Headed towards the Edinburg Gap and things in the air were halfway pleasant, with little to no turbulence. Found a nice thermal and climbed up to 2K' over. Headed out under a raggedy looking cloudstreet and was suddenly getting sucked up very fast. The only blue was upwind and there was a very strong headwind, so flying fast I escaped the Hoover vacuum cleaner of lift but then things turned downright nasty in the air. Looking upwind and to the N there was so much virga in the air all along Little North Mountain towards Winchester. The turbulence and ugly sky convinced me to land ASAP so I decided to put down in the largest field I could find nearby. I spied the Karmy Airstrip where I have landed many times before so I flew towards it. A strong headwind and nasty sink struck with the associated turbulence but I finally got over the airstrip with plenty of altitude. The windsock showed a straight NW wind so I got it down at 4P but the turbulence was even worse than yesterday. And this is a wide open plain with no upwind tree line or anything for at least 3/4 of a mile. I immediately called John to let him know I was down OK, and that it was very nasty. Overhearing this, Randy decided not to fly. Dr. Karmy was away from home, but his caretaker, who lives across the street, drove over at the prodding of his wife to make sure I wasn't hurt. I did my standard "ran out of air" routine, but the guy started letting me know this was private property and locals don't take too kindly to people falling out of the sky on their property. I asked him if Dr. Karmy still owned this property, and he replied yes, to which I let him know that I got permission from Dr. Karmy years ago to "drop in" anytime. He acknowledged that but asked me my name, so I guess he was going to call the good Doctor to verify my story. Randy's driver Larry came and picked me up; big thanks to him. There was an upper level disturbance/low that was passing through the PA/MD/WV/VA area during the day today. These parcels of intense energy make for conditions that are not all that fun to fly in during their passage. The sky told the story all day today. Early it looked magnificent, with cloud streets galore already at 10A. I bet the hard core XC pilot could have flown 150+ miles if they had launched at that time and gone OTB immediately, outrunning the disturbance. Then the sky changed looks, showing that the disturbance was passing through the area. Lots of snow virga all over the valley up and down, and strong blasts on launch. That disappeared and the sky looked a lot "better" when I launched at 3:30P. Then while I was in the air it changed again, with all the snow virga over Little North Mountain. The disturbance was still passing through. Bacil

[markc]

We had that same one-two punch up at HRock. The first was going through while I was flying/landing : Immediately upwind things looked OK, but there was a big cell to the north. Was hard to determine its track, but eventually it seemed to be expanding southward, in addition to its NW->SE track. That's what finally convinced me to land, rather than riding it out, even though it was "mid-punch". My thinking was the same as Bacil's : bigger field, smoother air, fewer trees. Still a handful, and a bit sore today.

The second punch went through sometime around 3:00. Significant snow showers all over the place, and it blew through like a derecho! Being up in that would have been bad news, but still wondering if I should have stayed up through the first blast, maybe landing conditions would have been better between them.

MarkC

[markc]

PS: Should have mentioned that there was nothing obviously ugly visible from launch, just great looking streets. The cell to the north developed while I was in flight, but conditions were pretty darn nice, and upwind the sky still looked friendly. So that's why I didn't land immediately, electing to watch the cell closely, and punch out to the LZ multiple times. The more conservative choice would have been to just land immediately.

MarkC