Pulpit, Monday 5/16

[Ward Odenwald]

Saturday morning forecasts (wind direction/speed, cloud cover and thermal predictions) are looking good. Good enough to consider a weekend extension.

Hoping that the predictions hold. Any interest?

Ward

[Blaine]

I'm interested. I'm off so I should be free most of the day.

[Ward Odenwald]

Forecasts are all positive! ETA 10:30.

Ward

[Blaine]

Great day at the Pulpit today. I had my first mountain flight on my Sport 2. Ward and I waited out some strong winds until about 3pm when launchable cycles became more predictable. Good launch for me and I flew for about an hour. Thermal and ridge lift was abundant. I made it up to 5000 ft msl pretty easy. I could have stayed up much longer but we were short on wire crew so I landed to help get Ward in the air. Thanks to Ward and Juan for having me join them and getting me in the air safely.

[Ward Odenwald]

Enjoyed watching Blaine speck-out, Congratulations!

The morning NAM forecast model was pretty close to what we experienced at launch with winds in the high teens (mph) lowering to mid/low teens during the afternoon. However, when the thermals passed the velocity quickly ramped up to the mid 20s. Here are images of my last thermal climb followed by photos of the Hagerstown valley and my LZ. Before going to launch, I visited my favorite OTB farm located south of the route 30 fish-ponds (Lamar Rd runs through it’s fields) to identify which of their huge expanses wasn’t in crop (highlighted in second to last photo). I flew for just over 45 minutes. Also attached is a link to the flight track.

http://www.doarama.com/view/753525

Juan, thanks for helping!

Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

last set of five

[Dunegoon]

Wow nice! How about saving some of that for a weekend?

[thermalup]

Looks like a sweet flight. Very helpful that the farmer put a welcome target in his 'LZ'
Great photo documentation ... thank you for sharing the info.