Thursday XC Ridgely (long)

[John Simon]

Great day out there...

A bit of Vacation so I snuck out there while Heather worked. Thought I'd fly the K4 but the forecast was looking good and as I arrived the sky looked great. Just a couple other gliders there and I set up and got into the air on my trusty Discus at around 2:15. I decided to go for 66 miles because I've never had more than 60 before but it was not to be.
With light winds I setup an out and back from Ridgely to Ric Niehaus' house and back to Denton and to Ridgley... Launched and it took a few minutes but I finally got a good one and off to cloudbase at about 4800 or so and 500 fpm. I started north into about 4-5 mph and it was super slow going as my next few climbs were weak. I just couldn't hook into the real stuff and had 300 or less too often. I hit a big blue hole at 14 miles from Ridgely and had to go about 5 miles East. Got down to 850' and scratched for a while but finally hooked a good one thanks to numerous birds. Headed north and hit the turnpoint but now exhausted and 2:45 minutes into the trek. It's now nearly 5pm.
Going back MUCH easier with the light tailwind but as I get about 15 miles out things are going soft and I work hard at 100-200 fpm to make Ridgely. I finally arrive at 1600' and a few clouds left to get me to Denton but alas it's all smooth under them and I deck it back at the field for 54 miles and nearly 4 hours and 6pm or so.
I'm not on the ground for 10 seconds literally and Sunny has a beer for me, they are all surprised to see me after so long and had assumed I would not make it back or maybe just forgot about me?!
Awesome day and thanks to the gang and Zach too for the retrieve offer. Great fun and more this weekend with luck.

Take Care,
John

[mikel]

That's right !!!!!!

Way to go John.......... Hope to see you and Heather @ the Pulpit

fly-in........

'Til then, M

[Kurt Hirrlinger]

Great flight on a very nice day! 2 AM ? I guess I would'nt be able to sleep after a day like that. I'm going to keep an even closer eye on you from now on. MY first tow since April, I thought I would just tune-up. But when I saw the way you were suiting up I went back for sweatshirt & gloves. Next time I'm packing my bags. The other pilot & I found good stuff @ the SW end of the runway, including a pair of Balds and getting sucked up into a cloud for the first time. @ 4500 we both went north but found very light lift under beautiful clouds. Nearly two hours though, YEEHAW.

[John Simon]

Hi Mike and Kurt,

Mike I'll be at the Pulpit but have a party Sat night so will have to scoot out early. Maybe back on Sunday, we'll see.

Kurt, Glad to hear you had an awesome flight! Mel is flying his first rough air flights on the U2 so a great day there as well. It was definately a cloud suck kinda day as it got stronger as you got higher for sure. Needed to stay near the edge and leave a couple hundred feet early on most of them.

Take Care,

John