Woodstock Friday

[Kelvin Pierce]

Nice day at Woodstock today. Wasn't that great early but turned on in the afternoon. Early flyers were 4 guys from Kitty Hawk and me. The first 2 guys from Kitty Hawk to launch got about 20 to 40 min and the rest of us had sleds or extendos. When I went back to launch there were 3 PG pilots in the air who had just launched and all were soaring. The wind had picked up and was coming in pretty steady about 10 mph. Dave Bodner lead off the second wave of HG'ers about 3:00 and at first looked like he was going down but had a nice save and ended up with a nice long flight. Others there that I recognized were Steve K., Carlos, Craigin, Yanni and Glen. Not sure if Glen flew but all others did and all had nice flights. Flew 1:10 and 1800' over. Beautiful colors.

[CraginS]

Launched at 3:26 in the second wave of HG flights. (First wave was sled city.)
62 minutes, 1K over, twice. Much fun, kinda cold. More details and GPS images on my flight blog (link below). Sorry, no video this time.

[carweill]

I launched right after Cragin. 2K over and landed 90 minutes later.
Will use balaclava next time.
While breaking down we had spectacular view of the ridge. Bright red all over with shinning moon touching the ridge line just as the sun was setting. Wish I had a camera.


Carlos

[stevek]

Tim had his first real xc. Landed at the middle school in Strasburg. Good job!

Tom C said he got 3k+ over on his PG and said he saw a sailplane at 4k over.

I landed after 30 mins or so and 1800 over. Too cold. My hands were numb -- had on light gloves and bar mitts but couldn't get them into the bar mitts. That has happened before. Landed at the bridge field and hiked up (finally got warm).

Think I will try Blue Sky tomorrow.

[dbodner]

As Kelvin indicated, I was about 250 below launch for a few minutes before I recovered. Definitely my best low save. About 90 min and 1400 over. I had a barmitt malfunction, so only one of my gloved hands was in a barmitt. Both hands felt equally cold. Hmmm.

[jimrooney]

So what you're saying is you had a wardrobe malfunction?

[dbodner]

So what you're saying is you had a wardrobe malfunction?

Um, yeah. But without 100M viewers. Probably best for all concerned.

[dbodner]

Almost forgot. Before the other HGs launched, I was passed by a sailplane flying north about 300 feet below me. It looked like he was just skimming the trees.

[Kurt Hirrlinger]

Better late than never?
73 tandems to solo, 5 years to XC, 3 days to post, sorry.
Except for this post it was all worth the wait! The day could not have been
any more perfect. (maybe landing in a hOOters parking lot w/ hot food waiting)

D.B.'s save was encouraging so I launched a few minutes after, about 3:15.
Lift was immediate, and abundant. After about 30 min. of boating &
enjoying all the colors, the red-tails, the sun setting and moon rising I noticed that the landscape was looking more like a map. For the first time I looked @ the verio. It then dawned on me that if it is so brain-dead easy to get to 3800 I should try & do something with it ... like concious flying, yah. Maybe too bad it was that easy. All I did was crab down to the end, turn out and land on the soccer feild, approx. 4:30, 10.4 mi.. Shame there wasn't a sole around to watch a perfect touch-down. When I unhooked I shivered hard, once, BOO-YAAH! Remember your first? Thanks Glen for the retrieve, & Steve for picking the perfect day.