Flying Saturday 10/13

[silverwings]

Looks like a HG flying day at Woodstock or possibly Pulpit. Who is interested?

[XCanytime]

Pulpit. Bacil

[chuckok]

Watching

[XCanytime]

Better be airborne early if you want to fly the Pulpit. I hope to get airborne by 10A. Bacil

[markc]

NW and G20+ on the latest NWS forecast, so crossing fingers for a Woodstock day on Sat!

[silverwings]

I feel the Pulpit is going to be blown out. It is predicting over 20 mph at 10 AM and upper 20's at 2k above! I am going to Woodstock. Who is going to join me? It looks fairly reasonable from noon on.

[wmelo]

After I saw the forcast to the Pulpit, I also decided to go to WS. Garry is also going to WS.

[chuckok]

I'm in for WS

[markc]

Will make the call tomorrow morning.... Complicating factor: glider is at BSky, so mondo roadtime.

[markc]

NWS sfc forecasts at both Pulpit and WStock have been backed off a bit.... What say the wind gurus this morning?

[XCanytime]

Charley and I have decided to go to Woodstock. The lingering rain has goobered up the Pulpit timeline. Bacil

[silverwings]

Planning on Woodstock today. ETA bridge field about 1 PM.

[A.Lloyd]

Ditto

[markc]

Departing Blue Sky now...

[silverwings]

FYI: Holfuy at the Pulpit at 10 am is reporting 21-32 mph!

[markc]

Was that just the best day in forever or what?!?!?!


*Edit*, to add the roll-call:

Bacil, Walt, Randy, John M, Charlie, John McA, Gary, Anthony, Randy, three visiting PA and/or NY pilots, and Chuck (just helping out, thank you man!!). Sorry if I've missed anyone....

Everyone flew as long as they wanted to, pretty much! Base was at about 5300MSL, multiple pilots reached it. I topped out at 5100 a couple times.

Wow!

[XCanytime]

As Mark stated, what a day it turned out to be. Rose at 5A in the vain hopes of getting to the Pulpit by 8:30A and airborne by 9:30A to beat the expected throttleup. The radar showed rain all the way west to the Ohio border. Decided the window of time was too narrow from the rain ending to the throttleup so diverted to Woodstock. Got into an accident 20 minutes into the drive. A young lady ahead of me and to my right lost control of her car at 70 MPH on a wet entrance ramp and performed a perfect police maneuver to force me off the road into a muddy grassy area. We skidded together inches apart and I did not contact her car until we came to a skidding stop on an uphill section adjacent to the shoulder of northbound Rt. 29. Got some "minor" damage but the vehicle was drivable, so on to Woodstock after an hour delay.

Arrived around 12:30P to Gary Smith in the parking lot and Walt already set up. Set up to a nice sky full of clouds and smooth conditions on launch. Launched around 1:40P. The launch was substandard. My nose was most likely too high, so the glider got airborne mushing. I pulled in and the glider was still in terrain follow mode. Finally hit a gradient near the bottom of the slot that provided me with the much needed airspeed to trade for altitude to clear the trees at the bottom of the slot. That was too much excitement on a day that already had enough. Got clear of the mountain and turned right. Not a gimme getting up. Had to do a lot of scratching before I was able to get above the ridge.

Initially was only getting around 500' over. Saw Walt launch and get up. Flew out into the valley in front of launch and found strong lift under a huge pancake of a cloud above. Climbed up to 3800' MSL and made sure I was near the edge of the cloud so I would not visit the White Room. Headed NE with the goal of landing at my UA pilot buddy's private airstrip in Fort Valley. Went up to Mudhole Gap opposite his 40 acre spread and trolled for lift. Once again found some strong stuff and climbed up to 3400'+ MSL, drifting OTB. Made it easily to the airstrip and found it boiling over with lift. Finding no windsock, I looked at a few ponds nearby that showed W winds. So I set up an approach to land to the SW. Was too high and on final had a significant tailwind so I glided much further than expected and almost ran out of field to the tree line by Passage Creek. Flared hard in thigh high grass but tripped again and belly flopped ahead of Paul as he was cutting grass at the tree line.

Paul was glad to see me land and not fly into the treeline at the creek border. He did not see me until I came flying by him on final. He told me he was saying to himself "Oh, Bacil's here" and then "LAND LAND LAND" . After packing up he gave me a body ride back to launch, where he was able to video Charley's and Anthony's textbook launches. Now that's how you launch. (I will try to get him to send the videos to Charley and Anthony). After retrieving my glider I went up for a visit and ended up watching Paul take off in his Kolb Mark III/IV ultralight and fly towards Front Royal Airport where he stores it along with his Cessna 172.

Charley had squawked to me on the radio that he was up by the reservoir and he may try for the airport. So after Paul took off I drove over to the airport to not find Charley but to see Paul taxiing over to 28, taking off, entering the pattern, and greasing it in for a nice landing. A perfect ending to quite an exciting day. Phew! Bacil

https://ayvri.com/scene/z15y60z0jx/cjn8 ... 68spo8tu0y

[Dunegoon]

After a frustrating start to the day and showers on the way down, I was surprised to see how good conditions were. Of course my anticipation was further delayed by a broken batten tip. Thanks to John and Anthony for the help. I finally got everything worked out and had to refocus my attention to flying. Thanks to Bacil and Gary for the launch help. I launched at about 4pm and made my way down the ridge about 500 over. Just could not connect with anything strong enough to get over 3k MSL so decided to just enjoy the nice smooth air and explore. Seemed like it took a long time to get back to launch even with VG 3/4 and getting down on the ridge. Found a sweet spot that just kept pumping lift so I could endlessly circle either direction and play with VG and coordinating trim. The Gecko has a superb sink rate and is very quite compared to my other gliders. My harness and coat made more noise than the glider. Played with the other gliders until very late in the day and made my way out to land. Another glider left the ridge after me and lower so I patiently watched and waited while they landed. Landed shortly after with a sweet no wind couple stepper. They said they never saw me until turning final. The Gecko is a great intermediate glider. Wish I could have flown in the big boy air earlier.

Got left waiting for the late crew which delayed a good debriefing session that I needed. Found myself thinking I "only flew 2.5 hrs" and soared with some friendly Bald eagles...like it happens all the time. Only other pilots can understand the satisfaction and serenity from such a flight. Made it home in great time with no traffic. What a day.

CF