Woodstock this Wed.

[garys]

Looks like a west wind swing NW late for Wed. Any interest in Woodstock?

[thermalup]

.
Greetings Gary,
Marzena and I will be heading toward VA via the Pulpit on Wednesday. If it is blown out at the Pulpit (which it looks like it may be) we will head to Woodstock in the late afternoon and catch up with you there.
..::Jim G.

[garys]

Great Jim. Last time we had a west cross at Woodstock it was a challenge. Hope it goes NW as forecasted. Later in the day looks promising.

[Joe Schad]

I am in for Wednesday Woodstock. Still in need of an assist to get my glider to launch.

Joe

[Joe Schad]

Looks like the time of the post shows up on the CHGPA page as 8pm rather than 4pm. Must be ZULU time.

Joe

[garys]

I can pick U up on my way south Joe.

[markc]

After giving Joe S a ride a couple weeks back, sheesh, now it's my turn for vehicle issues

I like what I'm seeing for Wednesday thus far.... If it holds, and there's someone I could rendezvous with near-ish to Bethesda/ Rockville/etc, I would love to carpool!

MarkC

[Ward Odenwald]

ETA at launch -> 10.

Ward

[thermalup]

Most likely ETA 2-3pm.

[rlweber]

Since I was ground bound yesterday....what happened on the mountain and in the air?
Randy

[Joe Schad]

Ward launched first at 1:10 and headed south toward Harrisonburg. I presume he made it. He had help, Richard Eagle(?) if my memory is correct to pick him up. Gary and I waited for things to mellow some and launched around 3pm. Both got off in a bit of a mellow cycle. Air was occasionally strong. I made an attempt to get to Strasburg but turned around abeam Toms Brook. Overcast north with sink. Made it back to land out in the green field south of the Bridge Field. Grass is 3+ feet high now. Switching getting into land. Gary followed about 20 min later. Jim arrived as Gary was on launch. I am not sure when he launched.

Overall good day.

Joe

[rlweber]

Thanks
Randy

[thermalup]

On the drive to WS I noticed a couple of broken lenticulars mixed in with general cloud cover in the Strasburg area so I had some concern about wind velocity. My wife and I arrived to the launch area shortly after Gary S. and Joe S. launched. No other pilots were around. Some strong cycles rolled through but no tree shaking freight trains. By the time I Iaunched at 4:45 pm conditions were on the light side ... the lulls were 2-4 mph and the peak velocity at around 12 mph. Some cycles coming into launch were cross from both sides but most were straight in. No need for a wire crew. In the air there was moderate turbulence. Thin cumulus were almost gone. Thermal gains were mostly 1K' over launch with wind direction showing 325 degrees but in the middle of the flight I was boosted into a different layer of smooth broad lift and max gain was 2440' above launch. The sky was now blue and wind direction was 270 degrees. Felt almost like a weak wave zone ... but maybe I have been thinking too much about Mark's and Ward's earlier wave flights. I lost the lift zone while cruising north and for the rest of the flight was limited to 1K' gains. Wind at landing was 0-2 mph NW and went almost due north 3-5 mph while breaking down. The evening emerald greens of the trees/mountains were spectacular.

Looking forward to hearing about Ward's flight earlier in the day.
..::Jim G

[Ward Odenwald]

Early AM forecasts suggested that by mid-day the entire length of the Massanutten may have decent ridge soaring conditions with WNW winds becoming NW by late afternoon and the thermal predictions indicated that better conditions would be had at the south end. With the help of Rich Heigel and Joe Schad, I took-off a little after 1pm with a plan to fly to the southern end and then hang-out in ridge lift until I hooked a thermal that was big enough to take me over the back.

While the forecasts were accurate for the first half of the journey south, I found that the farther south I flew after passing the New Market gap the soaring conditions (wind direction/speed and thermals) deteriorated. These changing conditions are suggested by comparing the cloud patterns in the first image (looking north from just south of Short Mt) versus the blue expanse shown in the second photo that looks south at ~ 1 mile south of the New Market gap. By the time I reached Lairds Knob, located just north of the ski resort (third image), I was having a hard time just staying even with the ridge tops. During the flight, the wind direction shifted from WNW to NW but at Grubbs Knob (~a quarter mile north of Lairds) what little wind that I could detect from watching tree movement indicated that the speed had dropped significantly and it was now blowing more from the N or parallel to the ridge.

I’m comfortable with scrapping along ridge tops when potential LZs are close but this time there were no close fields that were even remotely suitable. After a couple of seconds of 500 fpm down near the Laird’s knob radio tower, I didn’t want to risk another dumping that would most likely put me out of reach of even the small fields so I headed west in search of a suitable one. After losing excess altitude over the Carper’s dairy herd (forth image) I landed in their adjacent field.

Rich, thanks again for the retrieval!

Ward

Here’s the flight track: http://doarama.com/view/1331771 (sorry, the first link was incorrect)

PS: Welcome back Jim and Marzena!

[mingram]

Sweet ~50 mile ridge run! The end of the ridge would be an awesome start to a long XC over the back. You've made it to Richmond before on this route, correct?

What airspace do you have loaded over the back? Charlottesville, Richmond - is Farmville an issue?

Screen Shot 2017-05-06 at 12.28.42 PM.png (422.2 KiB) Viewed 1402 times

[mingram]

Bacil pointed me to Tom McGowen's flight to Manquin, VA from Woodstock on 4/29/2007. 143 mile flight - 106 straight line. Almost 6 hours long. Max altitude 8990 ft msl! Wowsa!

Matt