July 4th weekend

[XCanytime]

Looks good. I'm thinking Pulpit. Any interest? Bacil

[mcgowantk]

I am looking at Monday.

Tom

[wmelo]

I am available from Friday to Monday if it is waltable

[XCanytime]

On 2nd thought Saturday is looking to have enough north in it to make the SAC the best place to be. Sunday is still looking Pulpity. Bacil

[markc]

Got my eye on WStock for Saturday (granted, a bit iffy), and Pulpit for Sunday/Monday. Fingers crossed that we'll have multiple opportunities for the long weekend!

[markc]

I'm starting to get encouraged about Woodstock on Saturday. Granted a bit of a N cross in the surface NWS hourly, but the 3k wind direction improves during the course of the day, and it isn't a way-strong day. Gary's planning to fly (and today too!!!), ETA noon-ish. Unless the forecasts tank I'll be doing the same.

[1otIII2007]

Sac is the best forecast for Saturday. I sure would like to be there but I am out of town.

Allan B.

[mcgowantk]

I'm now looking at Saturday at Woodstock. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Tom McGowan

[Dave Proctor]

I am looking at Woodstock Saturday. Will decide in the morning.

Dave

[wmelo]

great day yesterday at Woodstock.
3 HG pilots showed up.
3 great flights and landings.
Gary got +- 6K above Straburg.
A lot of birds and bald eagles flying around.

I hope to fly today (Saturday) at WS.

ETA 2 PM

[XCanytime]

Had to work in the AM so I dedicated the afternoon to observe Alex on his 2nd flight from Woodstock. Arrived at 3:40P to find Walt asleep , Gary, Dave P. Greg Mick, The Gardinator, Alex, and Jon Brantley. 2 friends of Alex, Paul and Liz, were there to see Alex fly. Tom and Mark C. were already airborne and soaring, and conditions were light to moderate in the slot. Greg Mick was the 1st to launch. I did not see his launch. Walt was next up,, and powered down the runway,, but the glider was not lifting enough. So Walt powered his run all the way to the edge of the lip of the fill dirt. Bravo. Gary executed a good launch, and was hit by some turbulence as he exited the slot. The Gardinator timed it perfectly, and had a textbook launch. Dave P. was next, and conditions on launch had lightened considerably. Dave picked a good cycle, had a good launch, and encounted a gradient past the lip. He sank a little, but flew fast and exited the slot nicely. Tom had arrived at launch, and I asked him if he felt conditions were appropriate for launching Alex. Tom said just pick the right cycle. So prior to Alex launching, I emphasized to NOT drift at all past the spine of the ridge. So Alex had a great launch in a moderate cycle, and went straight up, but was not flying fast enough for my tastes. I panicked a little bit, and screamed for him to pull in. He did, and slowly moved forward and was on the escalator of lift going up. He ended up getting to 3K'+ over and getting cold . Jon was up last, and had a great launch in light conditions. By the time I drove down to the LZ, Alex had already landed and was carrying over to the breakdown area. 20 minutes later Jon came in and had a perfect approach and no step landing. I drove Jon and Alex up to launch to retrieve their vehicles, and Mark C., The Gardinator, Walt, Jon, and I celebrated at the Woodstock Brew Pub w/ cold beer and hot wings. A fitting end to a nice soaring day for the pilots. BTW, Mark C. flew for 4 hours and change . Bacil

[mcgowantk]

Mark I guess you had that fun flight you were looking for. As you suspected, I may have launched early. There was plenty of strong lift, over 800 up on the averager, but it looked like it could OD. I decided to stay well below base and ran the main ridge to stausburg to Edinburgh. It was a fun flight but the air looked better after I landed. I did get about two hours.

How were the other flights?

Tom McGowan

[Dave Proctor]

I had a nice flight. First flight in almost two years. Met Gary and Tom at the LZ around 12:30. Mark Cavanaugh brought his car down and we all rode up to launch. I only wanted to fly for 1-2 hours so I was in no hurry. Didn’t launch til after 4. Had an OK launch. Lift was everywhere. I just stayed between 3-4K MSL. Over 4K started getting a little chilly. Landed after 1.5 hours. OK landing. Not perfect, hit 500 down on my downwind over the power lines along the road so I had to turn base a little earlier than planned. Flared a little high but not horrible. At least it was timed well. Gary gave Walt, Gardinator, and myself a ride back to launch. Thank you Gary. About 10 HG pilots total. Good to see lots of old friends. Woodstock is only an hour from the house in Falling Waters, WV.

Dave

[wmelo]

It was nice to see so many HG pilots.
I think I was the 3rd to take off (after Mark and Tom).
The conditions at the launch were weak. I had to wait a little bit until I was confident to take off.
Fortunately, I run a lot since the slot was kind of empty.
I had not problems to gain the ridge. As Dave reported, it was cold after 4,500 feet.
I tried to land a few times but given the thermal activity I decided to go back to the montains.
Finally, by 6:30 I decided to land. I got a reasonable strong thermal on my DBF, but I was able to land +- well: landed on my wheels... flare too late.

After everybody landed, we spent some time at Woodstock Brewery... I closed the placed

It was a very good flying weekend. I am looking forward to the next weekend at Pulpit.

Regs, Walt

[markc]

Mark I guess you had that fun flight you were looking for.

Well.... The duration = jubilation equation needs some protestation

The overall conditions weren't as strong as my recent WStock flights all seem to have been. But I found the thermals to be hard to work, very far from one of those big, fat, set-your-bank-angle and forget about it type of days. Been a long time since one of them, and Sat didn't qualify. I know, whine-whine-whine.

Certainly plenty of lift, easily found cores that took me to 4k/5k/5500 MSL, all day. I bailed after my first climb to 5k because it was starting to feel like cloud suck. I was also concerned about OD at one point, with a huge black cloud headed for the north half of the ridge. So I stayed south, and kept a nervous eye on its track (had a field picked out if need be). A bit of improvement after that cell blew through, so I worked lots of thermals for 2.5 hours, punched out to Rt 11 twice, etc.

But wow, lots of sink too. And all the clouds with sharp dark bases. Super-strong thermally day. So I decided to kill some time, ran to the gap and then up to Signal Knob. 6:30 by that point, and I was still hitting turb and getting turned 90-degrees left/right by thermals, flying along the ridge at 800' or so. SLOW slog back to launch. And when I got there, there was one last cloud in the valley, heading straight over the LZ. More killing time.

The waiting paid off, conditions were fairly predictable during my approach. Went pretty well, but I flared a bit high and didn't have the strength to hold it. Plunked down on the basetube, not a graceful conclusion. Totally exhausted after 4 hours, phew!