Pulpit weekend 8/10 - 8/11

Post by **XCanytime** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 9:02 pm

Looks good so far. I am flying both days this time. Hope to see a large turnout of pilots. Bacil

Post by **krryerson** » Mon Aug 05, 2019 7:11 pm

Will be at Pulpit on Sunday, if weather permits and I get my new hang loop ready for Sunday.
Wing at Bluesky now.
Knut

Post by **XCanytime** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:52 pm

Hourly has it soarable before noon on Saturday. Goal (for me) is Shippensburg Airport. Sunday the winds abate some and may have some north in them, but I'm thinking peak heating time after 2P should be ridge soarable til sunset. Bacil

Post by **markc** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:05 pm

Bit odd that the NWS sfc hourly is calling G20 midday on Saturday at the Pulpit, while the ADDS 3k looks fairly light. Crossing fingers that Sat might turn out ok....

Post by **XCanytime** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 2:02 pm

So far Rich, Anthony, Charley, and Jon are in for Saturday. Bacil

Post by **markc** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:26 pm

Glider going on the vehicle tonight, IN! Bringing camping gear too.

Post by **XCanytime** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:56 pm

PGers are most likely coming to the Pulpit Sunday. John Dullahan plans to come Sunday. Knut don't know yet. I plan to bunk down at the Comfort Inn at Greencastle Saturday night. Bacil

Post by **krryerson** » Sat Aug 10, 2019 7:50 pm

My wing is at Bluesky, getting installed a new custom made hangloop.
Will be going to Bluesky on Sunday.
Lisa will be there for AT.
Knut

Post by **XCanytime** » Sun Aug 11, 2019 12:14 am

Awesome day at the Pulpit. After the customary pit stop around 9A at the Sheetz in Greencastle, I caught up w/ Mark C. on Rt. 30 climbing the back side of the mountain. At launch it was straight in w/ a lot of high clouds shading the sun. We set up as Jim Carroll, Charley, and Rich Bloomfield rolled in in the next 2 hours. Mark launched first around 11:20A into moderate to strong conditions on the new ramp. He had a good launch and got right up. I launched next about 15 minutes later. Had the left wing lift a little as I got airborne, necessitating a correction to straighten it out. Got up easy too. Mark and I flew around for a while before Jim Carroll joined us. The 3 of us flew together for a little while until Mark and Jim in their T2s sped out into the valley and climbed under a cloud street. I opted for heading north to start the attempt to make it to Shippensburg Airport. The sky had filled in nicely up by Cowan's Gap Lake. I skimmed the edge of the bowl before gaining some past the elbow to the west facing part of the ridge. Made it past the next elbow in the ridge and climbed under a nice cloud to ~ 3600' MSL. I was tempted to hop over to Kittatinny Mt. then and there but thought better of it and used the altitude to fly up to opposite the lake. Flew back south a bit and found a solid climb to 4300' MSL and drifted OTB onto Kittatinny Mt. Ran the ridge for 11 miles, up to opposite the Willow Hill exit on the PA TP, finding plenty of lift along the way and never getting below 2500' MSL, 500' above the ridge. At this point I opted to run the remaining 4 miles to the end of the ridge where the PA TP Kittatinny Mt. Tunnel is, knowing nice LZs were there from satellite map study of the area. Nice clouds were over the secondary ridge where the tunnel goes thru so I hopped downwind to some nice looking clouds over the tunnel. Couldn't find a decent climb to hop OTB and head towards the goal. Got flushed to below the ridge. After 3 hours in the air I was bushed and decided to land. Found a nice wide open field just opposite a large farm complex. Saw a crosswind in the grass as I was ready to flare. Severe wind gradient kicked in and I belly flopped on the wheels. As I carried over to the road at the top of the field, 87 year old Pat Campbell was mowing her grass, and her grandson Aaron had just finished milking the cows. Aaron ended up driving me to Metal PA to Mike Jones' house, where I had landed nearby 15 months ago and hitched a ride back to launch w/ Mike. This time Mike's wife, who was the only one home, drove me to launch in her brand spanking new Lincoln Navigator. Drove back to Pat's house and had a nice chat w/ her before departing back to launch w/ my equipment. At launch Anthony timed a quick straight cycle and launched for a sunset soaring flight. Prior to that Jon Brantley had an extendo to the secondary in north cross conditions, and Kelvin Pierce made an appearance, scoring a soaring flight prior to Jon's extendo. Charley, Jim, Mark, and I debriefed at the biker bar, grabbing some much needed chow and refreshments. Here is the link to the Ayvri track https://ayvri.com/scene/z15y60z0jx/cjz6 ... 65d7rn73md Bacil

Post by **Dunegoon** » Sun Aug 11, 2019 11:06 am

Some butt kicking conditons for sure. Flew for about 1:30. Spent most of my time "avoiding the lift" and looking for smoother air. It might have been not as high and smoother earlier, but it got rather challenging building into the late afternoon.

Mark floating over launch posing like it is a really a "fun" day!

Cirrus ice crystal "Fire Clouds"

Post by **Dunegoon** » Sun Aug 11, 2019 11:23 am

Trying to find an area of sink after hooking up with a more pleasant thermal close to the LZ.

Post by **markc** » Tue Aug 20, 2019 7:26 pm

Here are a few frame-grabs from the video of my flight on Sat August 10th, in no particular order. Three here, then three in the next post.

It was one heck of a strong day, I was sore for days afterwards. Spit out of thermals more times than I can remember, over the falls (ball-up & suck in the bar), wire-slaps. Topped out around 6k MSL, and saw sustained 700 fpm on the averager many times. Flew for about 3.5 hours, last hour of which was basically waiting/hoping for things to calm down a little bit before having to face the LZ. Phew!