St. Patrick's Day weekend

Post by **XCanytime** » Fri Mar 08, 2019 5:46 pm

Got the repaired glider back from Blue Sky last weekend. Looking to go to Smithsburg on Saturday March 16th to get reacquainted with the scuffed up bird. Extended outlook looks good so far. Would like to have company if the pattern holds. Bacil

Post by **Dunegoon** » Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:42 am

Saturday 3/16/19 Planning to go to Smithsburg if it is not too wet and sloppy. Still have so snow at least in Harrisburg, and more rain forecast for later in the week.

Sunday 3/17/19 Could be the start of our flying season at the Pulpit. It would be a good day to evaluate site maintenance.

CF

Post by **XCanytime** » Thu Mar 14, 2019 5:51 pm

Looks too strong on the ground at Smithsburg Saturday. Switching to Sunday to go to Smithsburg. Bacil

Post by **A.Lloyd** » Sat Mar 16, 2019 1:07 pm

I'll be at Smithsburg Sunday morning and then head over to the Pulpit in the late morning.

Post by **XCanytime** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 7:39 pm

Had a nice day at Smithsburg. Charley, Anthony, Jon Brantley, and longtime HR pilot Kurtis Kemerer showed up. Anthony, Jon, Kurtis, and I took 2 flights each, with Charley helping us launch and schlep the gliders up the hill. A beautiful day on the training hill. Conditions were NW to N. The ole' scuffed up bird flew well. Charley and Anthony headed to the Pulpit afterwards. Planning on the Pulpit next weekend. Bacil

Post by **mcgowantk** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 10:35 pm

I went down to Blue Sky to truck tow with Steve. It turned out to be a pretty good day. Everyone soared (there were four of us). I maxed out at 7,500 msl and flew for maybe 2:45.

I had one interesting experience today worth noting. After I reached base at around 6,700, I started to fly upwind toward another cloud a few miles away. Instead of hitting sink after I left the cloud, I continued to climb in very smooth 300+ up until I was not only far above base, but higher than the tops of the clouds near me. If it wasn’t so cold, I would have tried to turn in it but I was starting to shiver and needed to get lower. I am not sure what the source of lift was - it felt like wave but could have been a dry thermal or some type of convergence. Either way, it was fun to look down on the clouds.

Hope others had a good day too.

Tom McGowan

Post by **markc** » Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:19 pm

Whoa, awesome day at BlueSky Tom, sounds like you had an amazing flight! With the strong W/NW forecasts for MD and PA, I didn't even think to check the Richmond forecasts. Doh!!!

On the other hand... I was battling a cold and had pretty much written-off flying on Sunday during the drive to the Pulpit: Just wasn't sharp enough.

Ten pilots showed up: Eric K and Joe from Pgh; Walt; Charlie F; Anthony; Matthew G; Joe Schad; Mark G; Dave P; myself. Only Eric flew, the rest of us were kinda bummed by the wind velocity. It did calm down quite a bit late in the afternoon, but by that point everyone was pretty cold, not much enthusiasm. Thanks to Matthew for sharing some Irish whiskey with all of us for St. Patrick's Day!

A few pics from the day follow. Those in portrait-mode are tilted in this post, but you'll get the correct orientation when you click on them.