Week of 9/30 - 10/6

[XCanytime]

What a week to be off from work . Looks WSW to W to WNW to NW over the entire span of the aforementioned week (so far). Looking for flying partners over the time from late day 9/30 - 10/4. Who's interested and when? Bacil

[XCanytime]

Thursday and Friday are looking sweet at the Pulpit. Would be good hooky days. Bacil

[A.Lloyd]

Looking at Pulpit Thursday and/or Friday. I took both days off of work.

Anthony

[1otIII2007]

I am going to shoot for Friday and Saturday if enough people want to go. Then maybe Jacks on Sunday.
Allan B.

[mcgowantk]

I am looking at it too. Maybe Friday and maybe Saturday too.

Tom McGowan

[XCanytime]

Arrived at the Pulpit at 8:30A. With the ramp being soaked and slippery, I quickly scrubbed flying today. With only 2 wire assists on a slick ramp, not worth the risk, especially since tomorrow and Friday are looking quite good. And a dry ramp . It was launchable the whole time. It's currently getting stronger; my target launch time was 9:30A. Looking forward to tomorrow and Friday. Bacil

[1otIII2007]

I am still planing to take off Friday to fly the Pupit and Saturday too. Then Jacks on Sunday.
Allan B

[XCanytime]

Got to the Pulpit around 9:45A. Already soarable, and very strong at times. Rich alerted me he would be there at noon, and Anthony would be there close to 1P. A cloud bank on the western horizon slowly made its way to the east. Some cumies started popping in the valley heading over launch; they didn't look as good as the ones on the horizon. Set up and waited. The conditions were strong to very strong the whole time, and started abating nicely just before Anthony arrived. With Rich's and Anthony's help, I had a good launch just after 1P. Got slammed by some turbulence to the south out in the valley. Got outta that, and started a climb to over 5K' MSL, drifting to the ENE over the bar. Announced to Anthony over the radio that I was going OTB, with some wispies forming downwind. Flew over to Broad Mountain, and found a good climb to 5800'+ MSL. It was turbulent under the raggedy cloud I was trying to rise to. I'd say base was 6500' MSL. The next cloud was pretty far away, over downtown Chambersburg. I headed that way and lost a lot of altitude. Found a nice field below and set up an approach, and found some broken lift. Tried hard for a low save, but it was not to be. Had a nice landing just before 2P in a bit of a strong crosswind; the surface wind was west, and I flew a long final WNW, in between 2 tree lines. While waiting for the retrieve from Anthony, to the north the clouds looked magnificent. To the south a dark line of overcast ran east/west. Above me was the raggedy clouds I had been trying to reach. After the retrieve from Anthony, we waited at launch. At 4:45P I tuned into the Hagerstown Airport AWOS, and base was 8700' MSL . Rich returned after 5P; he and I helped Anthony launch around 5:20P into a north cross. He had an excellent launch and had a short soaring flight in the north cross conditions. I drove down and retrieved Anthony, and back at launch it was straight in and smooth at 6:30P. Tomorrow looks great. Bacil

https://ayvri.com/scene/z15y60z0jx/ckfr ... 68f72myp7i

[XCanytime]

Got to the Pulpit around 9:45A. Already moderate conditions and soarable. Tom McGowan arrived shortly thereafter. We set up and strategized a little about the day. My goal was to head north again to try to make it to Shippensburg Airport. The sky showed lotsa clouds heading our way. It looked pretty good. John Dullahan arrived with his wife and daughter in tow. After John arrived, it started picking up, and the windmeter was registering winds of 19,20,21 MPH. Anthony arrived and it started backing down nicely. I jumped on that lull, and got off cleanly in a smooth cycle with Tom, John, and Anthony's help. Started heading north with ease, and was getting rocked big time by some severe turbulence near the bends in the ridge to the north. Flew out of the washing machine air and made it to Cowans Gap Lake. By this time, I was only about 200' above the ridge down there. Flew back and forth waiting for a ticket outta there but found only light lift around. Headed back towards launch and found a climb to 3300' MSL. At this point I shoulda went with that OTB to the flank of Kittatinny Mountain, but I putzed around, losing a few hundred. I remembered that the spine of Kittatinny was around 2K' MSL, so I dove OTB. By the time I got past the actual Cowans Gap I got brutalized by massive sink and turbulence (rotor?). The best field I could find w/o any crops was a cow field uphill on the west side of Rt. 75. So I committed to land there. Exciting final, but I got it down and had a no step landing next to a group of cows and a pair of llamas/alpacas. Hurried away from the cows and found I was "fenced in" by an electrically charged wire strung 2 feet off of the ground around the whole field to keep the cows corralled. Did not want to risk zapping myself and the glider trying to lift it over the zapping trip wire, so I broke the glider down and plopped it over the trip wire. Across the street was the mansion of the VP of Gish Logging, where I had landed 2+ years ago, so I hauled the gear over to their porch but nobody was home (It is a normal work day ). Contacted Tom and he retrieved me after hiking up from his landing in the main LZ after a 2 hour flight. Thanks Tom! Tom surmized that the nasty air was wave induced, and it musta been. All I know is that the air today was some of the nastiest I have flown in in 27 years of mountain flying. There will be a better day for sure. Bacil

https://ayvri.com/scene/z15y60z0jx/ckfs ... 683zg46aul