Woodstock Saturday Nov. 26th

[chuckok]

I'm in

[brianvh]

Ellis and I will be up; she has a renter thing to deal with in the morning so still on for noonish.

[smurfsky101]

I'll be there around 10 AM - looking forward to some chilled out flying

[silverwings]

ETA bridge field 12:15

[A.Lloyd]

ETA 12:30.

[XCanytime]

Arrived at 8:30A to find wave all over the sky and Ward set up with driver Rich Hiegel in tow. Moderate on launch with two noticeable freight trains blowing thru in the next hour. I took off as soon as Blaine arrived at 9:30A. Had a nice launch from the double wide filled in slot in a lighter cycle. By this time the sky had decked over completely. Flew down to the Edinburg Gap, experiencing areas of turbulence along the way. Had to be downwash from wave. Found some nice lift over the rockpiles at the Gap and gained up to 3200' MSL. Flew back to launch and had the same experience with the turbulence. Flew up to the Strasburg Reservoir to stage for a try at a downwind run to the Front Royal Airport, passing beneath Ward, who was heading SW after tagging Signal Knob with Massanutten Peak as his goal. Couldn't find anything cohesive and was getting thrashed around again. Looking across the valley I spied a few snow shower cells dumping onto North Mountain west of launch. Raced back to the launch area, all the while eyeballing the status of the cells, whether they were making their way across the valley. They dissipated at the foot of North Mountain, so I wasn't worried about a gust front. At this point I had been in the air 1.5 hours, and had had enough. Still, it was a challenge to make it out to the grassy field that is the new "main" field. Found a lift line that gave me ample margin by the time I made it out to the field. Had a nice uphill landing. Watched Blaine have a nice :30+ flight, with an excellent landing. Charley picked me/us up yet again. Thanks Charley! Back at launch John Dorrance took off and had a smooth flight, followed by Knut Ryerson and Chuck Pyle, under still a complete overcast. The weathermen failed to tell us of the upper level disturbance that most likely was responsible for the overcast . Josh Miller took to the sky just as I was leaving. Got a phone call from Ward just prior. He made it to Massanutten Peak and did not do a single 360 degree turn the whole flight! Looking forward to Ward's report and Doarama tracklog . Bacil

[brianvh]

A huge congratulations to the community for landscaping the Woodstock launch. That is no minor feat and you can justly feel proud.

Had a nice though somewhat short flight. First 5 minutes spent getting up to Bacil's safety zone of 1000 above launch, another 5 minutes or so boating around, then once the lift started to die another 5 minutes or so coming down, hitting the LZ with plenty of altitude to spare despite hitting a bit of sink. If I left the ridge at 500 feet I likely would have been okay but might have needed to send my pants to the cleaners.

Hopefully negotiations in the works will open up the nearer end of the bridge field when crops are down. I really miss Woodstock!

[krryerson]

What a great launch and don't think it could have be done without Patrick.

Check it out at



Thanks for the help as wire crew at launch too.

Link at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YhP8cp ... e=youtu.be

Knut

[chuckok]

Cold day at Woodstock, but quite a few brave pilots made their way up the mountain.

I was shivering when I arrived, but quickly warmed up while setting up. The gust differential was bugging me, along with the cold, so I waited a bit. Once I decided to launch, the breeze had backed off considerably. But, that didn't stop the soring!

After launch, I climbed out to about 1K over launch and wandered back and forth along the ridge.

Not having landed in the out field, and some concerns raised earlier about having to have about 1K over in order to make it, I ventured out to the LZ. The sleet was pelting the sail as I found myself climbing as I went out into the valley.

Needless to say, there was no challenge reaching the LZ. In fact, with the bar stuffed, I was maintaining at about 2K+.

A nice landing, and actually, a very nice day as the flying season winds down. Thanks to Steve Kinsley to stopping on his way up for a body lift back to the car. And, thanks to everyone that made their way out today!!!

[smurfsky101]

Great flying with everyone yesterday!
I got most of the way to signal knob and came back for about a 45 minute flight, flew fast and got a bit cold but had about eight hot hands electrical taped to my body

[thermalup]

Thx for sharing the videos of the remodeled launch area. Also looking forward to Ward's Doarama track of his flight.
If you guys ever create a fund campaign to buy/lease an LZ (or even to have the fence in the 'new' LZ removed) ... I'll be happy to contribute.

My wife and I were hoping to get back to VA for some flying this fall but it looks like the next trip will be in the spring.
..::Jim

[Ward Odenwald]

Good day at Woodstock! When Rich Hiegel and I arrived (~7:45) conditions at launch were close to being ideal with the valley full of wave cloud shadows and winds in the slot at a steady 10 to 15 mph with an occasional ramp up to 20. By the time Bacil and I were ready to launch, slot winds were 15-20 with higher velocities just above (as judged by the increased sound of the wind in the trees). I flew up to the north end and then down to the southern end of the Massanutten range.

The photos show images of the flight up to Signal Knob, over launch (on the way back), crossing the Edinburg gap, the southern end of Short Mtn and photos from the last third of the flight that show a climb up to a wave cloud (maybe) and the Massanutten ski resort.

I’ve also attached a link to the flight track. After watching the Doarama reenactment, I realized that my vario (Flytec Connect) stores enough GPS info to resolve flight turbulence. The wire slapping, zero-g, wrist snapping, “what the F***” events appear as kinks or abrupt changes in direction in the flight path - that was otherwise focused on getting up to the north end and back down to the south end with as few course corrections as possible. As you can see from the track, the flight up to Signal Knob and back down to the Edinburg gap was full of these events. The first pic, a screen shot of the Doarama trace, is from just after launch showing the first of many events that appear as a kink in the track. The turbulence is also highlighted on the track by a bold/double vertical flight curtain line on the trace. The next photo was taken at or near the peak of this event and the following photo (taken 30 sec later) shows that what the previous photo was not the result of a loose camera mount. This is just one of many examples of how over the years, my real time impressions of conditions at Woodstock launch are not directly aligned with reality. In other words, to avoid potential issues, no matter how good your takeoff is, fly fast until you’ve wrapped your brain around what’s out there!

About one mile south of the New Market gap, I found that as I flew out in front of the ridge, the air was a lot smoother and the lift was light but consistent. My best guess is that the turbulence directly above or close to the ridge tops was triggered by an upper level wave flow mixing with surface air that was damming up against the ridge. Whatever the reason, I found myself in “glass” air out in front of the ridge that was taking me up at 50 to 200 fpm. The air was smooth enough to fly at min-sink that allowed for letting bar pressure feedback tell me what small corrections were necessary to follow the lift. The gradual climb went on for over a mile and brought me close to cloud base which was ~50 to 100 ft above my highest climb (~4,750 msl). The first four images of the last set of photos show this climb.

As I reached the southern end of the range, I realized that I was too banged up from north end turbulence to achieve my morning goal/fantasy of going back so I decided to keep heading south into the valley.

I landed next to Neil Miller while he was spreading manure on his pasture about a mile south of the Massanutten resort. Neil was just about as happy as I was to meet him. While waiting for Rich to pick me up, he gave me a history lesson on livestock farming in the valley and current water table problems triggered by over development. Wells are drying up and new ones have to be drilled down nearly a mile before reaching useable water pressures.

From the north end of the Massanutten range to it’s south end radio towers, it took 1 hour and 42 minutes to fly ~46 plus miles. The other notable fact (not part of the flight plan) was that there were no 360-degree turns from takeoff to landing. With the exception of turbulence-induced corrections, I basically followed ridge contours and when I ran out of ridge, I headed south making 90-degree turns to reach Miller’s field.

I was not alone on my flight south. On three or four occasions (happening along the entire length of the ridge) there was a high performance T tail (with curved winglets) that would fly by to check on me and then dart off. Just before I reached the Edinburg gap, it flew out in front of me (at my altitude) crossing the gap as if it was showing me the way. I followed it but by the time I had crossed he/she was climbing near the south end of Short. As I approached the south end of the range, I watched it show-off over the Massanutten retreat (tight 360s) before it passed under me flying north.

Rich thanks again for helping me fly and getting me home!

Ward

http://doarama.com/view/1089618

[Ward Odenwald]

Next set of five images showing the Edinburg gap cross and the south end of short mountain.

[Ward Odenwald]

Last set of five pics showing a possible wave climb south of New Market and the Massanutten Ski Resort.

[krryerson]

Ward,
Thanks for sharing! Great write-up and love studying your Doarama flight data.
To bad I arrived at 9:45am and too late. Would have loved flying behind your tail.
Ward, you are definitely now the champion of WS hangies.
Next time, I might have to stay at Strasbourg hotel, so I can be early and catch up with you and Bacil.
Congrats again and what a Great flight.
Knut

[Dave Gills]

This is the coolest pic of the set.
Easy to see roll cloud to your right.