Pulpit 4/2

[XCanytime]

A few of us are looking to fly the Pulpit tomorrow in the afternoon. Warm, sunny, and peak wind of WNW @ 8 MPH at 4P at HGR. Bacil

[silverwings]

Actually the forecast looks pretty good there for both hg & pg in the afternoon. So count me in.

[XCanytime]

After a return to Smithsburg in the AM for a flight from the top of the hill, arrived at the Pulpit at 2:35P just after Blaine to find Walt set up and John with his PG ready to stage on the pad. Charley arrived shortly thereafter to round out the pilot contingent. John bailed on the conditions being a bit too strong and cross for his tastes. The four of us ended up assisting Walt on the new ramp. He had to wait a good while for a straight in cycle, but it came and he had a great launch and extendoed to the secondary. As time went on some cumulus clouds were getting tantalizingly close, and birds were climbing out in the valley in front of launch. That spurred Charley to set up, and Blaine and I followed in kind. I launched first, picking a strong, straight in cycle on the new ramp. One step and I was up and away. The muscle memory kicked in immediately, and I threw the new glider around in the north cross conditions like I owned it! After around 10 minutes of gaining a few hundred and losing a few hundred, I decided to land due to fatigue from the training hill work. Wanted to be on it landing, so I went for the familiar; the Great Cove golf course. With the north cross, it was easy to point the nose to the west and drift diagonally from over the main LZ to the golf course. There were pockets of lift that enabled dolphin flying along the way. Arrived with plenty of altitude and took a tour around the course before burning it in over 3 golfers on the tee next to the driving range. With no headwind I used up nearly the whole driving range, which was good because some duffer was actually using the range. The landing was subpar; late snap flare and almost got my legs under me but tripped . Loooong carry out to the parking lot. Saw Blaine in the air soaring out in front of the launch. Then I saw Charley making his way out to land on the driving range. He had a nice landing. John graciously came down and gave Charley and I (and my stuff) rides back to launch. Thanks John. Charley and I debriefed at the Lincoln Way Pizza next to the McDonalds in McConnellsburg. A nice little eatery. Bacil

[Dunegoon]

After a good workout at Smithsburg the day before (Saturday) with Bacil, it was time put it to use. Thanks again Bacil for the help and endless enthusiasm. Thanks to the crew that did the trimming around the Pulpit launch areas. It looks great.

I launched later in the day after I saw more consistent launch and lift cycles. I cut my flight short but got in some nice soaring and final glide practice. Thanks to Walt and John for launch help, and John for the retrieve. It was great to see Bacil back in the sky. Lets get some more pilots out to share the fun.

Here is a short video (thank God because it is just as boring as my other videos):

https://vimeo.com/211582439

can't get the vimeo embed feature to work so just use the link above

[Ward Odenwald]

Thanks Charley. Most of us have never landed at the golf course so having two perspectives during your final really helps for future attempts by the rest of us. Your video got me thinking that collectively we could generate a library of landing videos, including attempts, for all of our sites. Nothing like seeing real time at the site you’re about to fly.

Ward