Woodstock -> Saturday, Jan 16

[Ward Odenwald]

As other pilots have described, it was good! Saturday 6AM forecasts suggested solid ridge lift along the entire Massanutten so my morning fantasy plan was to fly north to Signal Knob and then head south, surfing the ridge all the way to Harrisonburg. Didn’t happen, as a westerly cross, strong winds aloft and the Edinburg gap brought me down. After launching at 1PM, with the help of Gary and Randy (thanks!), the flight up to the north end was easy (~17 min.) maintaining ~1K plus above the ridge. However, the westerly-cross and 25 mph winds at 3K made for a slow (~1:10 long) ridge-level trip down to the Edinburg gap and Short Mountain. Here are 15 chronologically ordered photos of the flight with the first 5 showing the north end of the ridge and the last 10 highlighting my attempt to cross over to Short Mountain.

Tim, many thanks for the retrieval!

Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

Second set of 5.

[Ward Odenwald]

Last set of 5.

[thermalup]

Ward, thank you for the photo documentation of your flight. Always helpful to see new LZ fields for potential future XC flights. 10 degrees F here in NW Michigan right now so it is great to know that you guys are flying. Hope to visit VA again in the spring for some of that fine Massanutten soaring.

[XCanytime]

Ward just curious, what was your altitude when you started out to cross the gap? Waonaze Peak is around 2700' MSL. The highest point on Short Mountain is around 2800' MSL. The corner of Short Mountain is 500' lower, around 2300' MSL. Bacil

[Ward Odenwald]

Just before the “you won’t know if you don’t go” mindset kicked in, I was even with the Waonaze Peak and that altitude was significantly lower than my previous crossings. Knowing that a venturi flow through the gap was most likely waiting for me, I reasoned that if sink/penetration issues were encountered, I could head back downwind to the consistent ridge-lift that I had experienced during the flight. My plan was to first fly toward the small LZs that flank the Edinburg Gap Rd, at or near best-glide speed and then turn south toward Short Mtn. At the start, and up to where I crossed over the Edinburg Rd, I mostly experienced buoyant air alternating between zero sink and 50 fpm up. By the time I was far enough out to get a good look at the west facing slop of Short Mtn and close enough to reach the two larger LZs, I was about even with the top of the north edge of Short. At that point the “go-for-it” approach took over and I turned southeast toward Short Mtn hoping to connect with its ridge-lift. Unfortunately, the venturi and/or sink sent me close enough to the trees to make the decision to head out to the LZs and easy one. On the way out, I did try for a low save over a west facing foothill ridge next to the dairy farm but after two reversing passes the trees tops were getting closer and closer.

If there were “do overs”, I’d have waited and climbed higher over Waonaze, or just north of it, before attempting the cross.

Ward

[mcelrah]

Ya, in my experience (now 10 years old or more), you actually want to "cut the corner" between Green Mountain and Short Mountain - don't go too deep into the corner where Waonaze Peak is. When I have been successful jumping the gap, it seemed like I was in a line of lift, which I now believe was wave. Anyway, congratulations on a great flight! - Hugh

[XCanytime]

I've jumped the gap successfully a few times and most of those times I started out at around 4.5K'+ MSL and usually lost 1000 - 1500' in the crossing. Once I was at 4800' MSL and lost 2000' crossing the gap. Randy timed it perfectly and sounds like he didn't suffer any significant loss of altitude in his gap crossing later in the day, with his max altitude being 4.1K' MSL Bacil

[rlweber]

Here is the track for my flight from my gps posted on the paragliding forum. I post both my paraglider and and hang glider flights there. On this platform flights can be compared. I think I would learn from seeing Ward's flight plotted next to mine. I kept eyeing the same field that Ward landed in as I made the crossing.

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1325459

Randy

[lbunner]

Nice flying you guys! Randy, it was really cool watching your flight on SeeYou. That thermal just before the gap was the ticket, that and your decision to head west out of that thermal to make it a cross wind dive onto Short. Ward, can you download your flight so we can check it out too?

[Ward Odenwald]

After Randy suggested that my flight track could help others, I tried down loading the data from my 6020 Flytec into my Mac (via a PC<->Mac translating/transfer program called Parallels that was recommended by Flytec) without success. Not sure if the issue is with the Flytec operating system (purchased in 09), something to do with the Parallels software, my Mac or all of the above. If someone has the time to help put the track online, I’d be happy to connect my Flytec to their PC.

After looking at Randy’s path to Short Mtn, its clear that he was well positioned to overcome most, if not all, crossing issues (out in front of the ridge and up wind of the gap with plenty of altitude).

Ward

[lbunner]

Tom McGowan may be able to help. I know he uses Mac but not sure if he figured out how to download his flights on it.

[mcgowantk]

I don't think I will be much help. I had similar issues downloading flights. Most recently, I went to a 6030 that has an SD card. I just download the file to my macbook air from the SD card then email it to someone with a PC. It might be hard to find software for a mac to down load the file if you don't have an SD card, but maybe you can manually label it as an IGC file.

Good luck with it.

Tom McGowan

PS - I have crossed the gap many times but learned to respect the venturi on my first attempt. It was north cross that day and I watched my friend get pulled back wards off Short Mountain into the gap where he had a tree landing. My advice would be to remain sensitive to the day's weather and make sure you can reach an LZ or a soarable part of the ridge. Most of the time, I have found a cloud street a couple of miles to the north of the gap, flew out into the valley and found myself 3-4k over and upwind of Short Mountain, so the crossing was easy. Last advice, based on my first attempt, don't waste time on the north shoulder of Short Mountain. If you cross, keep going south to where there are more LZs. Hope to see you all out soon.

[lbunner]

Thanks Tom. I also have found a cloud street to the north of Short not too far from where Randy had a nice climb. By the way Zac Majors is coming to DC next week. Maybe he could get a flight in with you guys.

[Ward Odenwald]

Went into the archives and retrieved another set of pics from an Oct 25th 2013 crossing that was initiated from almost the same location as above but started with ~1K more of altitude. In two of the ordered images, you can see that the smaller potential bailout LZs that flank the Edinburg Rd are still in crop, as was the field that I landed in 10 days ago. The other huge difference between then and now is the gliders. I’m guessing that the Litespeed would have made the crossing during the latest attempt, even at the altitude that I started with last week.

Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

last set of 5.

[thermalup]

Thank you Randy for access to your .igc file and to Ward for the comparison photos. Great educational data especially regarding the gap crossing. A fun way to review .igc files (in case you don't have 'SeeYou' that Larry Bunner mentioned) is to upload an .igc file to 'Doarama'. Once uploaded you can replay the flight in 3-D with clear Google map imagery and you also have control over the track speed (icons in the lower left corner) and viewing perspective (click and drag the viewing screen). Doarama requires a Google account or Facebook login.

[krryerson]

Jim,
Thanks for the info about posting a flight on Doarama. Did signed up and posted my flight to test out the system. This is a great tool and you can study it at following link: http://www.doarama.com/embed?k=eBdaLwE
Looking at the flight, could probably crossed over to Short Mountain too. Any comments appreciated.
Note, if having a slow internet speed, give it some time to upload the map first.
Also local, going to Main page, click explore, zooming in US, Shenandoah, check out Mike Ash flying sailplane, Front Royal and George Huffman flying PG, Edith Gap.
GuyMontag451: from the movie and book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury with characters like Guy Montag,
Knut