Pulpit Saturday July 15th

[XCanytime]

Looking great again, and with the hay baled no main LZ issues. Let's try to get more than 8 pilots to show up this time. Bacil

[wmelo]

Let us go!

[markc]

Sunday is looking super-light....

Sat is looking pretty solid NW at the moment, which can sometimes suck at the Pulpit (ie, conditions are often more N than forecasted on NW days).

But OTOH, both the Hagerstown and McConnellsburg hourly NWS sfc forecasts are calling for 10 or less. A good thing, given the propensity for conditions to ramp-up at the Pulpit.

So count me as interested/watching. Probably lots of browser refreshes tomorrow

[flymiller8]

Saturday at Pulpit looks like best option for HG this weekend. ETA TBD ...10?

[silverwings]

FYI:

[flymiller8]

Looking forward to morning forecasts from y'all as to WS vs Pulpit.... I'll default to WS if both are on

[markc]

Looks like one of those light-at-Woodstock/cross-at-Pulpit days.

I think I'm leaning Pulpit, but would be interested to hear what others think!

MarkC

[Danny Brotto]

Light at WS? Cross at Pulpit? Sounds like HR is the spot. Any takers?

Danny Brotto

[markc]

I think I'll wander up to the Pulpit. Maybe there will be some late-day magic, to counter the N cross.

Agree, HRock is the best call today; hopefully someone will lead a charge up there at some point.

[markc]

Hmmm, just saw the observations at Winchester. I think I will head to 66/81, and then decide from there.

[markc]

Some occasionally WS worthy gusts... But the super-light ADDS 3k 'cast has me heading to the Pulpit.

[flymiller8]

Pulpit eta 2:30
703-615-8359

[wmelo]

Bacil & r @ pulpit. Conditions r great

[markc]

Typical Pulpit Day, way stronger than forecast.

I was really on the fence given that this was another 'day-of' frontal passage: The rule of thumb for hangies is WS-over-Pulpit on such days. But heck, I'd flown Woodstock last weekend, and there didn't seem to be much pilot chatter about the WS option, and the 3k 'casts seemed on the light side.... So I headed north.

I rolled in at about 12:50pm after my on-road hemming and hawing. Bacil was set-up and ready, while Walt was planning for a later flight. We launched Bacil off the north ramp into 15-ish, and watched him quickly climb under a dark Q. Good OTB flight, hopefully we'll hear more details.

I set up the Falcon and then decided to give it a go after Rich B and Josh arrived. Rich once again up there just to help out, major thanks to you my friend!

Conditions were stronger than the 10-17ish that I'd been monitoring when I got onto the old ramp, at about 2:15 or so. Picked that ramp given the N cross, but in retrospect I think the new/N ramp might have been a better choice. Higher. Wider. More room to deal with the crosswind. And importantly, the first time I've ramp-launched that Falcon....

And it could have been better.

Wow, I hesitated after calling 'clear'. Bit of a pop from the left, and I think I actually said 'wait' halfway into my first step.... But it didn't seem all that bad and I called 'clear' again and powered off.

But WTF? Probably freaked the hell out my crew... I just don't do that! In retrospect, and perhaps counter-intuitively, that Falcon seemed like more of a handful than my T2C on the ramp. I'm thinking that the Falcon was rocking around a lot more because it's simply so much lighter, and I'm not used to that. Important lesson learned!

On the plus side, I finally had a bonafide soaring day on the Falcon, topping out at about 1800' over. Really wanted to take it OTB, but my thresholds were 2K over and a darn good thermal. But I wasn't able to find better than 400 fpm, and that just wasn't enough given the wing. Punched back out into the valley, more good clouds on the way... But the sink cycles were lurking, and I jigged when I probably should have jagged. Bottom line: A long sink cycle caught me, and I'm really happy that I realized it at about 300 over launch, remembering what sort of wing I was flying. There was a bit of a moment there... "You need to head for an LZ now dude!"

Walt chased after Bacil and then they picked me up at about 4:15pm, so that we could get Josh and Walt into the air. Conditions were still N cross, but there were some lulls and things seemed pretty doable. But when Josh got on the N ramp the freight trains started rolling through, 20-25 gusts, and the lulls were way cross. But we had a full crew, and we were very patient, and I'm happy to report that Josh had a good launch in challenging conditions. Major applause from the bikers who had wandered over from the Mountain House.

Walt was up next, and his launch was definitely technical : Just Bacil and myself for crew, but at least the conditions were consistently north cross, allowing us to help manage the wing safely. If there'd been even *one* unexpected gust from the left/south I probably would have pulled the plug... But we all knew what was going on and Walt's patience paid off with a good launch cycle. They both flow until about 7:45pm.

A few photos below. Walt, I'm sorry if my encouragement to fly over launch for a photo opp ended up putting you in the LZ! And sorry Josh, I don't have a good one of you, ah well.

I'm really curious what conditions were like at Woodstock today.

MarkC

Josh

Walt #1

Walt #2

Wave clouds downwind

Wave clouds upwind

[markc]

And of course, a sunset shot

[XCanytime]

Looking great again, and with the hay baled no main LZ issues. Let's try to get more than 8 pilots to show up this time. Bacil

4? HALF . Arrived at 10:30A to a cumie filled sky and moderate soarable conditions on launch. Expected NNW cross at times, but plenty of straight in cycles. Had a setup issue. Propped up the glider on the control frame but one side of the frame would not roll forward all the way. Kept adjusting the nose to try and "unlock" the control frame but it was still bound up for some reason. Light bulb finally went off and I went around back and found the side wire had gotten hung up on the xbar pullback catch on the keel. The plastic coating on the side wire got split open from being hung up on the sharp edge of the catch, but close inspection revealed no damage to the side wire thank goodness. Walt showed up around 12:15P then Mark C. just after 1P. I promptly had a good launch around 1:15P with their assistance from the newer ramp. The expected cross conditions were found but lift was plentiful and I punched my way north to the St. Thomas VOR. I quickly found a good climb and clung to it, getting to cloudbase at 5K' MSL, drifting OTB, and with a good cloud downwind. Flying out from under the cloud I headed downwind for the next cloud towards Williamson in moderate sink. Lost down to 3000' MSL, then found some weak lift over the reservoir. As I thermalled in the weak lift an immature bald eagle came over and joined me for a few turns. He/she climbed up to my altitude, then flew back upwind. I continued drifting in the light lift, gaining a few hundred before it quit. Hit major sink and set up to land over a cut field. Found some light lift and drifted to over another cut field. By this time I was down to 2100' MSL, and there were no cut fields within reach downwind. Ended up having a nice landing after a 50 minute flight in a huge cut field by Coldsmith Road just east of Stone Bridge, PA. Around 14 miles. Dick Myers was out cutting his lawn across the street and greeted me warmly. A couple with their granddaughter pulled up in Dick's driveway to ask questions, as they had seen me flying over their house in Williamson and followed me to my LZ . Dick's wife Joyce brought me some cold bottled water as I broke down the glider on the south side of their house in still steamy hot conditions. Walt showed up after 3P in my new truck. Thanks Walt! We went back to pick up Mark along Rt. 16, then headed straight to Mickey D's for some well deserved food and drink. Mark described the rest of the day well and the pics are great. The infamous Luddite got himself a Garmin Foretrex 401 wrist mounted GPS Friday . The link to the Doarama flight is http://www.doarama.com/create?a=1591262. Bacil

[krryerson]

Bacil,
Thanks for posting the Doarama flight. You lost very little altitude most of the flight.
Great flight!
Knut

[XCanytime]

www.doarama.com/view/1492157.

[wmelo]

Vanity is generally expensive
I was doing fine until Bacil "invited" me to get my pictures taken by Marc As indicated, I sunk afterwards and decided to go to main LZ But the pictures are good
Anyway, it was a good day.
I am surprised we did not have more pilots in the weekend given the fact the flying condition were falconable, sportabe, and Waltable. I hope we had more pilots.

BIG thanks to Rich B (who stopped by just to help us), Mark and Bacil for their patience in the ramp when I was waiting for a "waltable" cycle.

I hope to fly this weekend again.

[rlweber]

In reply to Mark's question,

Woodstock was very productive on Saturday, 7/15. A group of pg pilots flew to near Flint Hill. I arrived later, after the gaggle had left for Flint Hill. I launched my pg initially at 2:26 into a flush cycle, relaunched at 3:32. Flew for 1:26, Max MSL 6165 (Cloud base), 4288 max above launch, for a 12.4 mile flight from Woodstock to Browntown at Dickey Ridge. Had a fun low save over Bentonville. I have come to really appreciate the combination of xctracer and flyskyhy. The most dangerous part of the trip was a ride on the back of a pickup from Front Royal to Woodstock. It was two ride hitchhike back. Thanks to Joe Sherman for the ride from I81 to my car on the top of the mountain.
Totally enjoyable day, except for the 2 mile hike until my sign worked its magic on the Browntown Road.
When I returned to Woodstock a group of pilots were beginning to enjoy an evening glassoff, but it was time for me to get home.

http://doarama.com/view/1494043

Randy