Made it to the back of the mountain with my sherpa/driver around 11:45A. On the road up the light snow blanket convinced me the road was closed. It was. Hiked in. Great with a sherpa assist. Took about a half an hour. Strong at launch. Died down some for a good 20 minutes, convincing me to set up. Got strong again for 20 minutes, then died down again. Took off in light air and turned left into the expected west cross. It was more cross than west and at least 30 MPH. Drifted NE in the turbulence and cross, only getting 200' over. Kept the heck away from the mountain. The turbulence convinced me to land, so I landed about 4 miles to the NE in a cut cornfield. Turbulence dumped me down on the deck; the speedbar basetube caught a rut and got bent, along with a light whack. The turbulence in the field made the carry out difficult. Found nice landowners who assisted the driver in finding me in the boonies (Rt. 649 SE of Toms Brook). The driver brought a pair of Garmin RINOs (combo of radio and GPS). The RINO on my basetube started chirping when my driver indicated he was 500 yards away from me. And sure enough, there he was up on the ridge above the field. The best moment in the XC retrieve is when your driver shows up .
Mark,
Hope your air tomorrow is way less turbulent. Gotta take the daughter back to college tomorrow early AM to get back in time for the Super Bowl in the evening PM. Good luck!
Matthew,
Very correct observation. Should not have flown. Reminds me of a story from around the 1994 Hangola timeframe where three pilots were at Woodstock and the first one took off and reported way WSW conditions and rowdy air and that it was not worth it to fly. The second pilot waited for some time and convinced himself that the cross was not as bad then and took off and found it blowing 30 MPH down the ridge. He barely made it to the "west" field with full VG and bar stuffed and that sort of thing. The third pilot thought the other two pilots were "nuts" and went home. I should have just gone home after the exercise up the back side of the mountain.
Once I get my glider back together (I pulled the sail off and had some winter sail and harness repair at Blue Sky) I'll let you carry my gear up. You can hike up the back side and go home to your hearts content!!