Jack's Saturday 7/21

[XCanytime]

Looking good for Saturday at Jack's. Finally a weekend day w/ a decent wind velocity AND direction. Anybody interested? Bacil

[XCanytime]

Better grab it when you can weekend flyers . Bacil

[markc]

Latest NWS forecast is pretty discouraging:

Showers likely, mainly after 8am. Cloudy, with a high near 73. East wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Maybe they'll be wrong, but....

[XCanytime]

I use the hourly fcst for State College from weather.com. Looks soarable from 11A on but your glider will definitely get soaked driving home to the Baltimore/DC area. Your call. Bacil

[markc]

Updated State College NWS cast has improved a bit for Mcveytown:

SaturdayShowers likely, mainly after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 71. Southeast wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

But for Belleville, out front of the mtn:

Showers likely, mainly after 8am. Cloudy, with a high near 72. East wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

The NWS hourlies outta State College are atill calling mainly east, at least for the moment:

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.p ... =graphical

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.p ... =graphical

I'll check things in the morning and make a call then.

[Ward Odenwald]

FYI: weather.com posts surface wind forecasts and does not discuss winds aloft (the air that we fly in, except for landing). Here are current predictions for Jacks at 2pm tomorrow at 2K msl (at/or near takeoff msl):

NAMS (5km) -> 90 degree direction at 25mph
ECMF (Euro) -> 110 degree direction at 18mph
GFS (NOAA)-> 120 degree direction at 22mph

Advice from a local Jacks HG pilot (Spoons) last year suggests that anything above 15 mph at takeoff at is less than ideal.

Ward

[markc]

Yeah, winds aloft pretty strong, and Jacks' can get blown out pretty easy....
Wasn't going to look at the uppers until tomorrow, but...yeah.

Might just head down to Daniels and clear some more trees

[markc]

Mcveytown hourly is calling for a window of nearly SE between 9am and 1pm, but the Belleville hourly isn't as promising. Might be one of those "Don't know unless you go" kinda days.

But for me, the ADDS 3k (fairly strong) is arguing against heading up there. Hope it works out for those who give it a try!

I think I will continue with the maintenance at Daniels : cool, cloudy day, not bad for that sort of thing. ETA: 11:30 or so.

MarkC

[mcgowantk]

Thanks for working on the slot Mark! We appreciate your efforts.

Tom

[XCanytime]

http://www.doarama.com/view/2337999

[markc]

Quite the day at Daniel's!

Heavy rain on the way down. Thinking I was crazy to even give it a try... But eventually you hit that "Well, I've driven this far" point, and just keep on going, right?

PITA drive, but it eventually eased up south of Culpeper. And then, go-figure, the rain stopped, about 10 miles north of the Rt. 230 turnoff for Stanardsville. (also where it started back up, on the way home, sigh!)

Cloudy at the site initially. No rain at any point. Later in the day, the sun broke through the clouds and I realized (yet again!) that one's sunscreen choice shouldn't be made based on a glance out the window when the alarm goes off.

I focused on the left slide of the slot, hoping to leverage last weekend. Took out one major tree, and cleared a decent swath on the way to/from. 4+ hours.

There's no way that I'm going to let Daniel's go the way of Bill's Hill, that's just not gonna happen on my watch! Two efforts have almost gotten the mid-left of the slot into decent shape for HG. There's one obvious Christmas-looking-tree remaining, which you'll see in the photo. Couldn't get to the damn thing in the time available, but IT WILL BE MINE!!!

After that, the right side of the slot is the next target. Two people, three visits, 3-4 hours each... That would take care of things.

But then... There are the trees along the bottom. They are getting too damn tall, and taking them out will require an organized/chain-saw type of work-party.

I wonder if that will ever happen?

MarkC

[XCanytime]

Rose at 4A to start the day. On the road by 5:45A. Arrived at Jacks launch at 9A+ to smooth soarable conditions on launch and a solid cloud deck above. Set up and waited for the Jacks faithful. Charley arrived first, just after 10A, but forgot his harness . Eric Kriner showed up by 10:45A. I promptly launched ~ 10:50A into moderate conditions. Had a good launch and turned left into the expected ESE cross, as was indicated by a black vulture prior. Got up easily and found some of the sweetest air I have ever flown in. Smooth, light lift everywhere. Grandma coulda been up there sippin' lemonade . Decided to run SW towards Mt. Union and land out there, and stay away from the solid deck above. Approximate the base was around 3K' MSL. Tried to stay below 2200' MSL, and it was work to stay that low . Didn't do a single 360 the whole flight until Charley radioed as I was heading out to land. Charley squawked for me to stay up and I half heartedly did a 360 but it was in sink (dummy). Decided to commit to landing uphill in a baled field on the SE side of 522. Had a good approach but just as I was about to flare a hillock was up ahead so I hesitated in order to clear the hillock. After clearing the hillock the gradient won out and I bellied in. A long carry out to a bridge across the culvert between 522 and the field(s). Charley and a wuffo helped Eric launch, then Charley retrieved me. Thanks again Charley! While we checked out the main LZ, Eric was flying around in the smooth air w/ one hand at times. He had a sweet flight of 102 minutes, running the dragstrip that is Jacks when it is on. Flew up to the 322 gap, turned around, and ran SW to the antenna farm just shy of the 22 gap at Mt. Union. He had a nice landing in a cut field on the NW side of 522. Eric found nice landowners, and I was able to drive up an access road and retrieve him and his equipment sans glider. Back at launch it was still soarable, but started spitting rain. By this time it was 2:15P, so the rain held off long enough to enable us to snatch some much needed airtime, given the dearth of good flying days on the weekends the past 2 months. Bacil

[silverwings]

Mark, thanks for your major work at Daniels. Does your Subaru make it all the way up to launch OK?

[krryerson]

Mark,
Thanks for cleaning up/working on Daniels launch. Looking much better now.
Bacil,
Great flight. Never thought you would be able to fly yesterday.
Knut

[markc]

The Subaru is making it, but you have to pay much more attention than a 4Runner. Couple of "make you go hmmmm" sections, for sure. Paddle-shifter in 2nd, all anti-slip stuff off, worked for the trip up. There's a tricky spot, might toss a shovel into the vehicle just in case....