WS Sunday 1-15

[garys]

Thought for sure it would be blown out at WS. Got my butt kicked on the drive down from Berryville. Arrived at 1:30 and it was fairly mellow at launch. Randy Webber arrived 1/2 hr later and I was set up and preflighted in about 45 min. Mark C, Bacil and Craigen showed up with wild stories of their drives. on route 66. Gliders trying to fly off the trucks etc. Things were really backing down fast on launch with a trickle in at 5-8. I was concerned that I waited too long to launch and would sink out. Anyway, good launch, turned left then right and maintained. Yelled back to launch that the gang better hurry up because it seemed marginal. Got to the north finger and climbed in some ratty air to about 1500 over then dove toward the south finger about 1/2 mile in front of the ridge. The really ratty air was waiting to get it's claws into me. Climbed to 4510 with no effort at all. In fact I was looking for sink and stuffing the bar. At least I had plenty of daylight, and clothing and no clouds. I headed out into the valley about a mile to loose the wave thingy that was chasing me and got into some hefty sink -1400 when I hit an abrupt wall that had my glider almost vertical. I pulled in and to the left for all I was worth and found myself facing mother earth and plummeting fast which was ok by me. I had been trying to loose altitude for a while so I started coring 1400 down. It felt good after fighting the rowdy stuff to be heading back to earth. Never thought I'd ever look so hard for sinking air. 1 hr 4510 over, cold, but I was sweating, I was working so hard, good landing good dinner at Foxes Pizza in Strasburg with Joe Schad, Zelda, Bacil and Mark. Thanks for driving my truck down Joe and Zelda. Gary