Sacramento Saturday Oct. 24th
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Sacramento Saturday Oct. 24th
NNW @ 12 MPH @ Harrisburg. Who's interested? Bacil
-
1otIII2007
- Posts: 134
- Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2020 8:10 am
Re: Sacramento Saturday Oct. 24th
I wasn't thinking of Sac but that might be a good choice. I'm in if it still looks good.
Allan B.
Allan B.
Re: Sacramento Saturday Oct. 24th
I have to work tomorrow morning so my ETA is 3P+. Looks great from noon til sunset. Bacil
Re: Sacramento Saturday Oct. 24th
Arrived at the SAC at 3:15P to find Allan on launch, assisted by Charley, Ric Caylor, and Aron Lantz. Allan didn't like what he saw, and backed off. It settled down nicely after he backed off (of course) so I badgered both him and Charley to get in the air. They did so, in that order, got up easy in nice cycles, and were off for a river cruise. I set up quickly as Ric devoted himself to see to it that Aron got in the air safely. As I was setting up, Doug Rogers and his wife Natalie showed up. A pleasant surprise for sure. Hadn't seen Doug in over a year. Aron launched and sledded. I got up to launch and waited out a few swirly cycles for a good one and jumped on the 1st one. Had a nice launch and got up relatively easy. Since it was already 4:30P, I resigned myself to just boat around the local area and fly for an hour and land after an hour in the air. I had 3 immature bald eagles fly with me early in the flight. That was neat. Ric and Doug got into the air, so I shared the air w/ them for some time before going in and executing an accurate approach and nice landing. Got a bit chilly in the last part of the flight. As soon as I carried over to the breakdown area, my phone rang, and it was Charley. He and Allan landed in the same field just east of Pillow. Charley had flown all the way down to the end of Mahantango Mountain and was making his way back but ran out of air in a nice big field, not noticing that Allan had landed in the same field prior. I got a ride from Natalie up to launch to get Charley's car and retrieve him and Allan. No problem finding the 2. Back at launch we met up w/ Ric, and Ric, Charley, and I ended up getting some tasty food at a pizza joint in Halifax. Nice, if short day at the SAC. Bacil
-
1otIII2007
- Posts: 134
- Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2020 8:10 am
Re: Sacramento Saturday Oct. 24th
Like Bacil posted I launched first and Charles launched soon after me I had already headed for the river and was a couple miles down the ridge. I worked some lift up to 2500' MSL Charles flew mostly in ridge lift only and he soon caught up to me. The wind turned more northerly once we pasted the Pillow gap and I turned around 4 miles short of the waypoint I had planned on. Charles continued on and made it all the way to the river. On the way back the wind was crossed from the north and the progress was slow. West of the Pillow gap I was not able to get more than about 200' over the ridge so I crossed the gap too low and landed in a field just east of Pillow. About 20 minutes later Charles landed there too. He then called Bacil to come and pick us up. Thank you! Bacil and Charles for the ride back to my truck.
Here is the post of my flight: https://ayvri.com/scene/0jgrreyeko/ckgp ... 69egxhkbh0
Here is the post of my flight: https://ayvri.com/scene/0jgrreyeko/ckgp ... 69egxhkbh0
Re: Sacramento Saturday Oct. 24th
To the Susquehanna River and not all the way back.
Interesting day at the Sac. Ric, Allan and I were set up by about 2:30. Although the air was launchable there were some unstable cycles that could have indicated some very rough ridge conditions. Once we got Allan off in a good cycle I followed. It took me a little bit of a ridge run to the right to get up, but once on top of the conditions were solid. I refrained from to trying to climb in the broken lift and stayed a few hundred or lower on the ridge to make time. I caught up to Allan at the Klingerstown gap where he was staging to cross. My first attempt to cross the gap was fairly low and I had to abort. Once I got in slightly better position out from the mountain and in some some lift I just pointed at the other side and went. Much of the flight was just dolphin flying or a circle or two to climb. If I stopped to climb, Allen pushed on. Or if I pushed on, Allan followed. Condition were good, but it would have been easier if the thermals were more cohesive allowing more margin for error.
Started to notice that the wind was getting more north so I wanted to expedite the rest of the run. Same strategy for Pillow gap but I just zoomed across without much effort. Got to the last part of the ridge (and last land-able area) and decided to push on to an area of the ridge that I have looked at for 45 years wondering if I could ever fly it. If you are on the west shore of the river and driving through Liverpool you can see this area. Flying to this area requires some planning. Either you are stinking high, or the ridge lift is solid and you have an exit strategy. This area is known as "Big Balls" for a reason and most with better judgement will not bother to do it. There are good landing areas over the back as long as you are high enough. Getting stuck low means landing in the river or worse. Once I got to this area the lift was incredibly smooth and I imagined this was as close to costal ridge soaring as possible inland. There was an orgy of eagles tumbling down in front of me clasped together and squadrons of curious Ravens zooming acrobatically past me. I have never experienced so many birds at one time.
I flew past the radio tower (at the Susquehanna river) and quickly turned back and started looking seriously over the back. It was a little slow going unfortunately (at least it felt like it even though I was indicating 22-25 mph groundspeed) and I made it back to land-able areas out front. Good thing because now I was just about 100ft over and scraping all the way to Pillow gap. I couldn't get a good climb to cross but the landing options were better on the east side of the gap. I got across at just below ridge level and got drilled by turbulence and sink. I was hoping to get just a little bit farther to get what was probably good lift. The disappointment of not making it all the way back quickly turned into hypervigilance about landing. Now I was low on the ridge and turned out to a good uphill field. Stuffed the bar all the way to the ground and made a full flair no stepper. Walking up to the road I saw some approaching me. Ok, now the fun ends, angry farmer, hunter, moonshiner, misanthrope or whatever I could imagine...only to realize it was Allan. That made for a convenient retrieve. Thanks to Bacil for the retrieve and flight debriefing.
Some G.E. captures to follow.
CF.
Interesting day at the Sac. Ric, Allan and I were set up by about 2:30. Although the air was launchable there were some unstable cycles that could have indicated some very rough ridge conditions. Once we got Allan off in a good cycle I followed. It took me a little bit of a ridge run to the right to get up, but once on top of the conditions were solid. I refrained from to trying to climb in the broken lift and stayed a few hundred or lower on the ridge to make time. I caught up to Allan at the Klingerstown gap where he was staging to cross. My first attempt to cross the gap was fairly low and I had to abort. Once I got in slightly better position out from the mountain and in some some lift I just pointed at the other side and went. Much of the flight was just dolphin flying or a circle or two to climb. If I stopped to climb, Allen pushed on. Or if I pushed on, Allan followed. Condition were good, but it would have been easier if the thermals were more cohesive allowing more margin for error.
Started to notice that the wind was getting more north so I wanted to expedite the rest of the run. Same strategy for Pillow gap but I just zoomed across without much effort. Got to the last part of the ridge (and last land-able area) and decided to push on to an area of the ridge that I have looked at for 45 years wondering if I could ever fly it. If you are on the west shore of the river and driving through Liverpool you can see this area. Flying to this area requires some planning. Either you are stinking high, or the ridge lift is solid and you have an exit strategy. This area is known as "Big Balls" for a reason and most with better judgement will not bother to do it. There are good landing areas over the back as long as you are high enough. Getting stuck low means landing in the river or worse. Once I got to this area the lift was incredibly smooth and I imagined this was as close to costal ridge soaring as possible inland. There was an orgy of eagles tumbling down in front of me clasped together and squadrons of curious Ravens zooming acrobatically past me. I have never experienced so many birds at one time.
I flew past the radio tower (at the Susquehanna river) and quickly turned back and started looking seriously over the back. It was a little slow going unfortunately (at least it felt like it even though I was indicating 22-25 mph groundspeed) and I made it back to land-able areas out front. Good thing because now I was just about 100ft over and scraping all the way to Pillow gap. I couldn't get a good climb to cross but the landing options were better on the east side of the gap. I got across at just below ridge level and got drilled by turbulence and sink. I was hoping to get just a little bit farther to get what was probably good lift. The disappointment of not making it all the way back quickly turned into hypervigilance about landing. Now I was low on the ridge and turned out to a good uphill field. Stuffed the bar all the way to the ground and made a full flair no stepper. Walking up to the road I saw some approaching me. Ok, now the fun ends, angry farmer, hunter, moonshiner, misanthrope or whatever I could imagine...only to realize it was Allan. That made for a convenient retrieve. Thanks to Bacil for the retrieve and flight debriefing.
Some G.E. captures to follow.
CF.