Sacramento Sunday June 7th

[XCanytime]

Looks like a similar pattern is setting up and forecast to occur in the same sequence & same time exactly a week later. Hence the call for flying the SAC next Sunday. And this time it looks to be a true NW/N/E(SE) pattern over a 3 day timeframe. Bacil

[jimsmess]

Looks like some of us Highland Challenge pilots are going to fly at Charlie's site again on Sunday. As of Saturday afternoon the forcast is looking nearly identical to last Sunday, so I think we'll call the same task, out and return to Raven Haven launch.
Jim Messina

[XCanytime]

Arrived at the SAC just after 10A to awesome skies and soarable conditions. Set up quickly, and w/ Joe and Karen's help, launched around 11:15A and got up easily. The goal was Carlisle Airport. A cloud street to the east provided a nice climb to 3800' MSL, prompting me to head immediately for the Klingerstown Gap. By the time I got close I was literally down on the deck w/ not much going on. Found a little lift that gave me a few hundred, so I jumped the gap pretty low. Made it to the other side just above ridge level. Headed down to the Pillow Gap and found a similar situation. Once again, found enough lift to gain a few hundred, and shot that gap low too. Made it to the other side at ridge level. Found lift that buoyed me up a little, and headed down to just before the "saddle". There the sky upwind started to fill in, and downwind was looking good too, with a cloud street starting in the middle of the Lykens Valley OTB. So I stayed there, slowly climbing in steps, and then followed a solid thermal OTB. Found plentiful lift all across the valley to the town of Elizabethville. Flew over it and then over the quarry on top of Berry Mountain where Rt. 225 crosses the mountain. Found some ratty lift and drifted out in front of the Elizabethville hang gliding launch. Found a good climb to cloudbase at just over 5K' MSL. At this point I made a decision to try to fly xwind and intercept clouds to the west of me instead of jumping onto Peters Mountain and running that ridge down to Inglenook. Peters looked formidable from the air, with many smaller ridges in front of the main ridge. Not a place to get low and not be able to glide out to far out landing fields, with another ridge in front of you that you would have to clear. I chased a cloud to the west, but didn't find any lift, and resigned to land. I was pretty pooped from the active flight; it had been since last October that I had a flight that lasted over 2 hours. Out of flying shape for sure. Found a nice field and lined up with it, knowing that it was going to be turbulent (It's now close to 1:30P). Everything went fine until rounding out and getting ready to flare. The bottom completely dropped out below me, and I bellied in hard, with no forward speed at all. A big foot of sink? stepped on me, or maybe a severe gradient (the field was not completely flat). Whatever happened it was a hard drop, and thank goodness for the chest mounted parachute serving as an airbag. Had to park the glider immediately; a gust almost flipped the glider over as I got up after the hard belly flop. Carried over to a nice lady's yard next to the farm field. She brought out cold water, and even drove me the 40 minutes back to launch. The straight line distance was about 21 miles. Bacil https://ayvri.com/scene/z15y60z0jx/ckb5 ... 69tfqwexur

[krryerson]

Thanks for the write up!
Wish I was there.
Did they all fly?
Knut

[XCanytime]

5 other pilots flew. Joe, Karen, Anthony, Jonathan Leal, and Jeff Vaughan. All soared near the end of the day. Bacil

[jimsmess]

Sunday turned out to be a good day for the HC gang. While we didn't complete the task we got closer than last week, the up wind leg into a 15+or- head wind was challenging. In the end we all landed at the primary lz , we had climbs to 7100msl , 600fpm lift , and flight times of 2.5 hours, landing by choice. Charlie Allen, Chris Bruno, Roger Irby and myself flew with Ric Caylor assisting
Jim Messina

[A.Lloyd]

Fly Pennsylvania! In the past few weeks I got to soar Jacks and Sac. Both of these sites are great for hang gliding. At Jacks, it was an interesting experience stepping over the guardrail while hooked in, in order to get to the take off spot. At the time that seemed like the better option then walking around it. I got to share the air with the legend himself and he had much to teach me. Lesson 1: Respect your land owners in small ways by being aware where you step, park or break down your glider. Don't curse or drink if they are religious. Lesson 2: Never leave the ridge if there is still lift and another glider is heading to land. This happened to me once at Pulpit, I was heading out to land and another glider decided to burnout next me and spiral down and land in front of me. Seemed like bad judgement. I'm guilty of this at Sac, I misjudged how slow those new style Alpha type gliders can creep along. I thought that I allowed tons of time before leaving the ridge but I actually landed first. Totally misjudged that one. However, there is plenty of landing room at Jacks unlike Sac. SAC is a RLF so your flight plan should include leaving time for other hang gliders to land in case the lift dies and then moving safely out of the way for the others coming in. That is exactly what I did and it worked out great. At Sac, Joe has widened the slot another 50' and the LZ has just been hayed. Joe and Karen couldn't be nicer hosts. Below is a picture of Joe's glider in the sunset taken this past Sunday evening after the 5 gliders landed in the main LZ.

IMG_20200607_201143.jpg (48.77 KiB) Viewed 449 times

[A.Lloyd]

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