Woodstock/Pulpit on Sunday 9/11

[silverwings]

Looking at the extended forecast for Sunday it appears Pulpit on the breezy side and Woodstock mild. Not sure about the LZ status at Woodstock. Comments???

[Dunegoon]

Planning for the Pulpit. Either launch early before 11:00 am or fly later in the day. Maybe we could some type of clean up before the fly-in?

CF

[krryerson]

Interested in flying on Sunday. Pulpit or WS.
Knut

[XCanytime]

Jon Brantley was at Woodstock on Tuesday afternoon. The unfortunate incident with the bridge field earlier this year has prompted the landowner to post multiple "NO TRESSPASSING FOR ANY REASON" signs everywhere along the field. Therefore the only field that we have "permission" to land in is the field across the road with a fence at its SE border. And if it is not guaranteed soarable, there is no guarantee that you can reach this field with lower performing gliders. It is way upwind, and if you run out of air before reaching it, you will end up pissing off the landowner again, and the authorities will be alerted. So where are you going to land??? And Sunday's forecast for Woodstock is on the light side. So there aren't many upsides for trying to fly at Woodstock tomorrow. Unless you fly a paraglider. If you want to fly the Pulpit tomorrow, the best odds are that you better get there way early and be ready to fly by 10A-. And it will be strong then. At some point later in the day it will get out of hand on launch for most pilots. However, the atmosphere will take a deep breath now and then, and if you time it right, you can launch during one of the lulls in conditions throughout the afternoon. And, like Thursday, the hourly forecast has it backing down after 6P. And it may have some north in it by then. Sunset will be around 7:25P-. Bacil

[krryerson]

Seems like Woodstock is out of the picture for now. Planning to be early at Pulpit.
Knut

[silverwings]

This evening I have not been able to get xcSkies to let me login. Anyone else having a problem with it?

[Lostgriz]

I am having the same issue with XC Skies.

Matt

[flymiller8]

I can only get to Pulpit after 3 today. Any observers available late?
Thx,
Josh Miller H-2
703-615-8359

[Dan T]

Hang Glider Pilots,

Don't rule out Woodstock just yet. You can still land at the square pond field to the right of the old LZ. Any HG should be able to reach that one in a pinch. The lawn where the Pgers land has been extended north to south so you could land there in a pinch. Once you reach ridge height there are lots of options.

I've been landing in the field immediately to the north of the square pond field. Friendly very long time family there. They tell me that the locals are not fond of the lawyer who moved into the Fishburn place. He's a bit too citified for them I think.

[silverwings]

I understand it is fairly breezy at the Pulpit already. My feeling is that it might be OK in the late afternoon/early evening so I am planning on going arriving 3 ish.

[A.Lloyd]

John Middleton and I are meeting in the Pulpit main LZ at 3PM. Currently at 1450 feet in the Catoctins, it's nice and windy with ragged cumulus rolling by. Saw a buzzard flapping with penetration problems and a large hawk having no trouble. Hoping for it to back down by 5 or 6 down for some milder boating conditions.

Anthony

[A.Lloyd]

I ended up not flying. It seemed too NNW out away from the ridge. The direction got better around 6PM and more NW.Charlie caught that good boating flying window and then it got too light. However, I did use John's 4 cycle trimmer to clear out around the shelter,benches and fire pit.

[krryerson]

If interested, check this link from my flight.
http://doarama.com/view/949924

[Dunegoon]

Got to fly later in the day around 5:30. Very lucky with a good launch cycle and got up to 4.2k. Once up it was easy to fly around. Could have climbed much higher OTB and to the north in what felt like wave lift. It was a tricky day. Some lessons to be learned by all. Hopefully all had some fun. Thanks Knut for sticking around and the retrieve. Maybe next time we will get to go OTB with Bacil for some team XC.

What a great day to be on the mountain.

CF

[krryerson]

If interested, check this link from my flight.
http://doarama.com/view/949924

Too long write up, but here it comes:
Arrived 9:25. Blaine and Bacil was there. We helped Bacil launch when Ward arrived. He had a great launch from the gravel, but he had to land after ~45 minutes, due to too much north crossing and launching too early.
Interesting day with cumulus streets developing in front of us; but, only cirrus clouds over the valley behind us, before noon.
Periodical strong condition on the ramp; but, more often window of straight in air ~max 18 mph.
Watching wind directions, seeing great CU clouds moving in over us, decided to launched at 12:51. Thanks Ward, Bacil, Charley and Blaine for helping.
Picked a late window that died out in the moment I was airborne. Had to fight like crazy to correct my flight path and managed to get out and away from the mountain. Lesson learned. Don’t wait too long when consistent good windows of straight in air flows in one the ramp. And pick the right window. (Bacil/Charley)
As soon airborne, had no problem staying over the ridge. As Charley later in the evening, I too hit some waves fare out from the launch. Steady +1-2 f/s
Found many good thermals, and finally nailed it to one solid good one, drifting over the mountain, 6038ft MSL. At the most, got 660 ft./min lift.
Worry about getting sucked in to the CU cloud, so got up in front of the cloud and aimed at Chambersburg, for so to try to get to MASA.
AGAIN!
Got to the next and last cloud after a 5-6 miles’ glide. Found some lift under the cloud but lost it.
Question: Would it have been easier for me to find thermals on turbulent days with a Graphic thermalling assistant?
Option was to fly over to a cloud drifting in over Greencastle or fly back to the cloud behind me, which eventually would drift into airspace.
Decided to try for the little and no CU country ahead; but cirrus clouds. Big mistake, and should probably have gone back to the last CU drifting to Greencastle and then steer away from airspace.
But still not sure what would have been the best option?
Landed safely in a big field and rigged down the wing in a backyard of a neighbor. After having a great conversation with an older man on his front porch, at a neighbor’s house, Bacil picked me up. Thanks Bacil for retrieving.
Got back to the launch and helped the rest of the crowed out, bringing a car down and back up to the launch.
Blain, Charley and Josh all had strong good launches and Ward as I understand had a great launch too. We all had good landings and there were plenty of options for XC.
In the end at 6:30, conditions started to die down with north crossing. John M went up on the ramp, but decided not to fly, due to the late weaker conditions.
Anthony ended up not flying too; but he did a great job as you know, trimming the grass and clearing out around the shelter, benches and fire pit for the upcoming Pulpit Fly-In September 24-25 2016
Thanks so much!
Great day to be on the mountain and still a lot to learn about XC and Pulpit and more.
There were one more HG pilot that helped us in retrieving cars from the LZ and on the launch. Sorry, forgot his name, but thanks so much for staying and helping us. He did not fly, but did clean up all the dumpsters for garbage. Thanks so much!
Did I forget anyone/anything?
Knut