Woodstock, Monday May 15

[Ward Odenwald]

Forecasts are suggesting that it could be ideal for HGs. Any interest?

Ward

[Blaine]

I'd be interested.

[Ward Odenwald]

Looks good! ETA at launch ~ 9.

Ward

[silverwings]

A number of pilots including Ward, John McAllister, Gary, Walt, and me are planning to being there and hopefully others.

[Blaine]

Sorry Guys. I thought I had everything worked out to be there early but I have be in court in the morning so I'm out.

[smurfsky101]

what's everyones eta?

[silverwings]

Ward is suppose to be there at 9:00 and most every one else early afternoon. I am hoping to arrive around 1ish.

[smurfsky101]

i'm also targeting 1, maybe 1:30.

[smurfsky101]

Popped the nose on launch.

Heard walts voice in the corner of my mind yelling run run run, and I did, pulled in and recovered after.

Need to concentrate on my launch technique, feel as if every aspect of my flying has gotten sloppy this season....


Anyways, regardless, wonderfully smooth conditions, maxxed out at 6100 msl, and flew to a nursery just north of Harrisonburg, which is actually an airstrip! I talked to the owner of the nursery, and he was very friendly, mentioned that I should relay to the club that everyone should feel welcome to land there.

Conveniently, was able to get an uber back, since I was inside the Harrisonburg uber area

[krryerson]

Great job that you flew to Harrisonburg. Wish I was at WS today. Good news about an actually airstrip and friendly owner of the nursery.
Glad you guys had a great day at WS today and looking forward getting some more flight reports.
Going to Blue Sky on Wednesday, to learn platform truck towing.
Knut

[smurfsky101]

*Harrisonburg = not quite though, it's bills nursery a few miles north of hburg

here's my flight, with Wards referenced

http://doarama.com/view/1351304

[XCanytime]

Looks like you landed at the hamlet of Tenth Legion, VA. Why didn't you try for the end of the mountain? Bacil

[wmelo]

Wonderful day! Sunny, dry, mild winds, good thermals.
Special thanks to Rich and John who helped in the take off and "Smurphy" for the body hiding.

I took off by 4:00pm and landed in the bridge field 2 hours later. I got high enough to try XC, but I chicken out and I did not do.
I did my landing approach to land in the new primary, but the grass was/is way too high and the field was terrible turbulent. After flying over it I decided to bail out to the bridge field and removed the glider as soon as possible (not ideal, but given the circumstances it was the safer decision)

LEt us hope we will have another nice day and everybody will bring their RADIOS!!!!!

[Ward Odenwald]

Great soaring conditions during most of the flight with a mix of ridge lift, thermal and maybe some wave lift just south of the New Market Gap. As with previous Woodstock flight plans, I wanted to fly to the north end of the ridge and then down to the ski resort. Once there, depending on lift conditions, I was hoping to either fly back to Woodstock or thermal over the back to the Chesapeake.

With Rich Heigel's help, I took off just before one and quickly climbed above the ridge, spending most of the flight up to the north end between 3.5 and 4.5 K msl (no clouds and remarkable visibility). While flying south, I decided to stay below 4 K while on the ridges as the WNW winds aloft were strong enough to slow my progress. Crossing gaps was not an issue as thermal climbs near and/or in them made for safe passage (as shown in the flight track).

After jumping back to the main-ridge from Short Mt, my vario indicated that the wind direction had shifted to the NW and by 5 to 6 miles south of New Market it was showing due north that was confirmed by watching tree/leaf movement. The temporally ordered photos that, for the most part, focus on ridge contours show how I went from a comfortable 1 K plus above their tops to ridge level and then below. The gradual loss of altitude coupled with a mental fixation of reaching the southern end put me into a difficult/dicey situation, as the available LZs out front were not close enough to safely reach. Once I realized that I was flying into uncertainty, I shifted to survival mode and clung to a weak thermal that took me high enough to cross the ridges into the Shenandoah Valley.

Rich thanks again for the start and the retrieval!

Ward

Flight Track: http://doarama.com/view/1351243

The first set of images are views from the Massanutten north end and crossing the Edinburg Gap.

[Ward Odenwald]

Over Short Mountain to just south of New Market

[Ward Odenwald]

The gradual decline

[Ward Odenwald]

Exit thermal and landing

[thermalup]

....

Looks like great flying on a very blue day!

It appears that John launched two hours after Ward (according to the Doarama start times for each track log) and it is interesting to compare the gap crossings for each flight. Thx gentlemen, for sharing the track links and Ward for photos too.

I'll be studying the downwind maps to prepare for my next visit.
...::Jim G.

[smurfsky101]

I did not have the balls to go low over the southern part of the ridge!

My goal was similar to wards, but didn't fly fast enough given how late I launched and I think I was overly conservative on the gap crossings.

For example at the Edinburgh gap I wanted at least 5k and a downwind glide to push to short mountain, as I had a scary, low, scratching experience there last year that I don't want to repeat.

Ward it was super inspiring to watch your flight track, next time I hope we can join up for an XC attempt!

[XCanytime]

I hear you John. This is twice in a row that conditions have presented Ward with dicey situations down by the Grubbs Knob/Lairds Knob area. Running the ridge down to Massanutten Peak can be a cakewalk if conditions are right. But if they change for the worse, it can be quite unnerving, as illustrated twice in the last 3 weeks. Personally I have tried to run the whole ridge once, back in Oct. 2010, bailing like you and landing near Athlone, VA, about a mile south of where you landed (Tenth Legion). Frankly it is much safer, and way less stressful, to just stay on the dragstrip between the Edinburg Gap and Signal Knob, going downwind off of the north end of the mountain towards Front Royal Airport if you desire more adventure. Or, as I did in the same month, going downwind near the Edinburg Gap and making it to Luray Airport . There are so many XC possibilities other than the ridge run. Bacil