Woodstock tomorrow (Jan 9th)

[Ward Odenwald]

Midday casts (11 to 2) look good for soaring. My plan is to be ready to fly at 11:30. Let me know if you're going.

Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

Good day with challenging conditions. Jon Brantly and I decided that we wouldn’t stray far from the launch/LZ neighborhood given the predicted north cross above the ridge. Yesterday was a good example of just how different takeoff conditions can be from what’s happening outside the slot. In the slot, conditions were close to ideal with frequent launch windows of straight in at 10 to 13 mph but at 2,200 ft MSL and above, the air was blowing ~20+ mph from what was most likely a 340 - 350 direction. Throughout the day, the tower station was indicating a 300 to 320 direction. I had the impression that most of the turbulence that we experienced was triggered by two different air masses that were bouncing off of each other. Neither of us had any significant time above ~2,400 ft MSL. For me, it was seconds. My flight track reveals, only one thermal that I could stay in for more than two 360s. There were plenty of 360s where the first half of the circle was in 500 fpm lift only to be followed by 500 fpm down. After an hour, it became clear that what little ridge lift there was at the beginning of the flight was now becoming marginal. Upon our arrival at the LZ, Jon and I could see that both the windsock and mid-field streamer were pointing 90 degrees in the wrong direction so to avoid the angry air that comes from its dumping over the LZ’s north side tree line, we landed in the adjacent field. The following are ordered images from the flight.

https://ayvri.com/scene/e9k4dd34ko/ckjr ... 5r7sth84yc

[Ward Odenwald]

Last set of five images