???? On Saturday, I listened to the Hagerstown AWOS early around 11A, and cloudbase was 2900' MSL.? At around 12 noon it had risen to 3500' MSL.? It was time to go!? I took off a little after 12 noon into 8 to 12 MPH straight in winds.? Struggled a good bit, only getting a few hundred over.? Almost got flushed down by 16.? Actually got below the ridge and had to work hard to get back up.? Found some good lift halfway between launch and 16.? Got to 1300' over.? Was spooked by some clouds upwind to the north and south of me with lots of vertical development.? Actually radioed John Dullahan I was thinking about landing, but he got me back to my senses by telling me the clouds above me and close by were not towering.? All the time I was talking to him I was climbing w/o knowing it.? Looked at the altimeter and I had gained 300'.? The clouds looked good downwind.? Locked into the thermal and announced that I was taking this one OTB.? Maxed out at 4600' MSL drifting under a wide, gray cumie.? Got real gray around me.? To the north some tendrils of the cloud were hanging below my altitude.? Lost a few hundred gliding out from under the cloud, found another elevator around LeMasters, and got back to 4400'.? Drifted and spotted I-81 and was down to 2400'.? Found some light lift and gained back to 3000' drifting over 81.? Spotted a cleared cornfield and beelined it to there for a possible landing since back down to 2400'.? Loitered over the field in zero sink.? It turned on, I locked in, and I was on my way after climbing to 3800'.? Drifted over another cleared field and loitered again, this time down to 1700' (1K' above the ground).? Once again found zero sink and lo and behold, it turned on again.? Gained back to 3000' before it quit.? Drifted and started losing it quick.? Looking for fields now.? Lots of corn still in the fields.? Dead ahead I spotted a golf course (turned out to be Penn National Golf Course), just north of Mont Alto.? Looked like I could make it, w/ a backup field of a short crop as a bailout LZ.? I glided over two fairways, one oriented North/South, the other East/West.? A pond in between had no wind lines on it, so I chose the N/S fairway, which was next to a nice road.? There were lady golfers on the tee and on the green when I blistered in diagonally across the fairway and landed at the edge of it.? Had a good landing, and parked the glider in the rough, not far from the road.? The ladies on the tee stopped by and were friendly, as was the starter who stopped by in his golf cart.? He mentioned that a Bill Crist, who used to fly hang gliders (and who opened "Bills Hill"), worked at the driving range.? Was retrieved by John Dullahan and Rich Donahue, thanks to Karma (and Hank the airborne repeater!) who coordinated the retrieve.? After 8 years of trying to cross this *&%$# valley and always coming up short, I finally did it!? Around 22 miles from launch to the 17th fairway.? Back at launch it turned magic, and hang gliders and paragliders were performing a spectacular aerial ballet.
???? Sunday's conditions were very light.? Juan the awesome paraglider pilot arrived, liked what he saw, immediately took off, got up, went down, got a low save near the secondary, specked out, and went XC to the other side of the valley at Fayetteville, dropping in on a pee-wee football game for free drinks and food.? The paraglider guys were enjoying the light conditions.? Mark Cavanaugh decided to give it a go around 2P and got up.? Mark Gardner followed and got up.? I got up on the ramp, and they were down to ridge level, w/ Mark G. above Mark C.? I gave it a go and beelined/dolphin flew to them down by 16.? Got there way low, 50' below Mark C.? Got scraped off the ridge and headed out to land.? Tried for low saves in some lift on the way out and over the LZ, to no avail (I'm no Hank Hengst!
).? Landed to the NW in some mild chop on final.? Mark C. landed shortly after I did.? Looked back to see Mark G. climbing out and going OTB.? The rat! .? Got a body ride back up w/ Bill Priday.? Thanks Bill.? Decided to pack it up and head home.? Gardinator calls Sheila reporting he made it over the Michaux and doesn't exactly know where he is.? Great flight Mark!? It started going magic around 4PM.? Saw BVH climbing out, with a low save over the LZ and going OTB.? Great flight BVH!? As I'm leaving I see Mark C. going OTB, heading along Rt. 30 downwind.? Excellent!? Both days flyable at the Pulpit.? Paragliders soaring/XCing as well as hang gliders.? Evening glass-off for the Hang IIs both days.? It doesn't get any better than this.????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Bacil
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