Pulpit Saturday June 22nd

[XCanytime]

Looking for leftovers from Friday early in the day. Bacil

[Dave Proctor]

Forecast I saw earlier today was NW 5-10. I have to be in Winchester early Saturday morning to look at some trees for lumber. If the cast holds I will take the glider and head for the Pulpit afterwards.

[silverwings]

XcSkies forecast for Saturday at launch as of Thursday at 7 PM is NNW starting about 11am low teens to mid teens. Not encouraging.

[jimsmess]

A few of us Pa guys are looking at Sacramento on Saturday, direction and velocity are looking good.
Jim Messina

[XCanytime]

Switching to the SAC. Bacil

[John Simon]

Might be heading to the SAC

[Dave Proctor]

I am going to bail on the Pulpit tomorrow.

[mcgowantk]

The Sac is an interesting call. I may just head up there, depending how things look in the morning.

Tom McGowan

[XCanytime]

Was great. More later. Bacil

https://ayvri.com/scene/z15y60z0jx/cjx8 ... 5c14198721

[mcgowantk]

An awesome day at the Sac. About 12 pilots. Everyone flew, everyone soared. I flew for about 3 hours and 5k above launch. Others likely got higher and some definitely flew longer. Lots of Bald Eagles including some fledglings. Just a great day.

Tom McGowan

[John Simon]

Here's a shot of Ric getting above launch before hitting the end of the slot... it was ON all day at the SAC, just beautiful.


https://photos.app.goo.gl/jR7kgrtVpvvMfdae9

Not sure if this link will work?

We had delusions of flying down to the river and back, but the wind turned out to be much stronger than we thought (about 20 and as high as 24) in the air. I launched and immediately allowed myself to be blown over the back in a weak/moderate climb seeing Jim specked out. Reaching 4 grand, I followed Jim M (much higher) back to the ridge. He was complaining about 850 down and I was getting -1000... soon down to ridge level, I could not jump back over to the front and starting to tickle the rotor behind the ridge, I had to dive back downwind to avoid the wire slappers.
Low and drifting away, I managed only a weak climb and drifted much further back... about 5 miles now. Took me about 1 and a half hours to fight my way back to the launch. Once there, it was really good and I was soon at 6500' and headed further upwind (why stop now?) towards the next ridge to the north. Finding little and warming up at the lower altitudes, I turned and flew at a leisurely 60+ groundspeed back to the south and decided to drop it into the LZ. Beer and great people, small party at the LZ... lot's of gliders still launching and soaring at 7pm. Wow. 12 to 15 pilots launched and everyone got up on that 600' ridge! Great day. Thanks to all who wired me off and especially Joe and Karen.

Hasta

[krryerson]

Great picture and glad to hear things worked out. For what I could see, the cloud's did look fantastic. Thanks for the report and wish I was there.
Knut

[XCanytime]

It was a great day at the SAC. Been sick all week, but I couldn't pass up my 2nd mountain flight this year. Got there around 11:30A finding Jim Messina set up, along w/ his driver Miles, Jonathan Leal, and Joe Gorrie. The sky looked magnificent and it was already soarable. Other arrivals from the deep South included Tom and John, along w/ local Ric Caylor. Set up and had a good launch at 12:46P. Took a couple of passes to get up, but once up it was golden. Found strong conditions in the air, with NNW to WNW winds up to 20 MPH. Decided against bucking a headwind flying to the river, and just driving around locally. Found a decent climb to 3K' MSL early, then a couple of climbs to 4.3K' MSL. Ric had joined me in the air around 2P, and he found good lift that got him higher as I got that 2nd climb west of launch. Used that altitude to fly out and tag the church at Rough and Ready and go in and land. Very cross conditions in the main LZ from the WNW. Ended up flaring late and bellying in on the hillside pointing west after 1:45 in the air. Out of flying shape and feeling under the weather, but happy to have come out and flown. It's good to be back at the SAC . Bacil

[jimsmess]

Great to see so many pilots soaring at the sac, it was my first foot launch in well over a year. To add another equation onto the strong and challenging launch conditions, I'm foot launching my brand new Aeros Kombat 13.5 GT for the first time. Just like riding a bike, I'm off with out a hitch and imeadatly climb to 5k over launch (Well a mile or so behind launch),managed to stay high (3k over) for most off the flight, at one point near cloud base I encountered a aggressive cloud, tubulant 800 rpm lift (cloud suck) thank God this glider has a TAIL!! Here is some unedited video at the end of the 3.5 hour flight
https://vimeo.com/343924518