Mid-Week Flying

Post by **Matthew** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 9:02 am

Fun day at WS yesterday with a big crowd-- I got 2:10 and 2100 over in the bag, launched at about 4:30. First few minutes were relatively smooth, then wind and thermals kicked in for the next hour. Spent a lot of time on the speed bar pushing forward out into the valley. There were huge lift lines under the clouds and I could climb all the way out beyond the LZ to that big, stark brick house with no trees around... flying straight and standing on the speed bar. Winds backed off at about 5:45 and I could finally start circling in the thermals. It glassed off at about 6:20. Glen and Yanni launched about then and had nice end of day flights. Hugh had a flight in his HG and his PG. Tom McGowan, Homer, Adam, Carlos, Kevin, Steve, Gary, Hank and a HG pilot from Blue Sky (Peter?) all had good flights. Mark C. flew down to Strasburg and got stuck, landing at the bridge field.

Matthew

Matthew

heaviek · Post by **heaviek** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 9:58 am

It was good. I set my sights on a speed lap. With the strong thermals a few sections were more difficult then I had expected. Down near Harrisonburg there was more sun and that made the air pretty rough to fly fast in.

Launch, to Signal Knob, to Massanutten, back to launch (86 miles) in just over 2 hours. The hardest part was the jump onto Short mountain from the south.

Kev C

John Simon · Post by **John Simon** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 8:43 pm

Wow,
that's really fast at over 40 mph average, awesome. What was the wind doing? Crossing, straight in? How fast? Any thermalling at all or just super speed ridge blasting? Wow again. I think Monday is shaping up out there... maybe we'll get another crew if the weather holds.

John

Post by **XCanytime** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 9:44 pm

Monday will be another super Woodstock day. You can bet on it.

Bacil

heaviek · Post by **heaviek** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:03 am

John,

The wind was mostly straight in. Maybe a bit north cross but that is just a guess. I am sure it varied some depending on time and place. Down south it seemed like it was blowing around 20. The rest of the ridge was less then that. When we launched it was very light in the slot. Around 3,500 feet it seemed very strong. I thermalled some at the gaps. I got onto Short after an 800 up.

Overall I found the conditions a bit strong for my taste. Thursday for a downwind run would have been nice. Out and return is much easier for the driver.

Kev

John Simon · Post by **John Simon** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 1:24 am

A blessing from the wx guru, I'll keep my fingers crossed to get the day off and some company. Thanks for the details Kev, nice run.

John

Post by **brianvh** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:44 pm

Jeez-louise....most of us are dopey-happy if we make the jump from woodstock ridge to short mountain without ending up in a tree, and here's Kevin doing speed laps to Harrisonburg and back to avoid inconveniencing his driver. Will the humiliation never end?

Post by **theflyingdude** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:01 am

Rumor hath it that Kevin did not go all the way to Harrisonburg before turning around and flying back, but a great flight regardless.

JR

heaviek · Post by **heaviek** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:40 am

Oh, its no rumor. I turned around about 2 miles from the resort for speed. (just after laird's knob). I had a set of batteries go flat on launch and the pair in the gps would never confirm an entire flight for max distance.

If I had gone to the absolute tip, then the posted flight distance would have been about 90 miles, not 86.

Crossing the gap after Laird's Knob is a non event when flying south off the end of the mountain. Crossing it going north is much more difficult, and a waste of time in a speed run for just a couple miles of ridge.

Next good day I will go for distance over speed.

Kev

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Mid-Week Flying

Mid-Week Flying

Mid week woodstock

Fast as snot

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