Woodstock 5/4

[silverwings]

I think Woodstock will be good on Sunday. I am hoping to fly there. Will post Sunday morning if I am definitely going there.

[garys]

Bruce and I are heading to WS with a mid morning ETA. Gary

[silverwings]

Meeting at the LZ with a couple of H2's around 12:00.

[DanTuck]

See you there.

[RedBaron]

Glen and I will be there at noon, too.

[eggzkitz]

Some of us bag types headed there too... ETA 1.

[carweill]

Woodstock it is

Heading down with Dave B.

ETA around noon

Carlos

[XCanytime]

Drove to the Pulpit first. Got there at 10A. Shawn Ray was relaxing in a chair observing the honking conditions. Wave clouds galore and honking up to 29 MPH on the ramp. Waited for the other Pulpit faithful John D. to arrive. Hang 2 Steve Ziegler from Lancaster showed up about 10:30A ready to help launch and retrieve. John and the driver Tobias from Switzerland arrived back to back around 11AM. We decided to bail and headed to Woodstock. 2 hours later we arrived to see a couple of paragliders soaring but no HGers in the air. Set up quickly to light conditions while seeing Dan Tomlinson, Joe Schad, Ashley Groves, and another HGer launch and get up with some work involved. I took off at 2PM and had to struggle for 10 minutes before I got up above the ridge. No ridge lift to be had. Slowly headed NE towards Signal Knob, doing a lot of loitering in the ragged, disorganized lift that seemed to be at each finger. Got up to 3K' MSL and headed further NE. Saw Joe Schad trekking towards Signal Knob ahead. Saw him get low and go out to land at Southfork, then nab an excellent low save from around 500' over the LZ to over 1K' above the ridge. I swapped places with him and made it to the reservoir sinking the whole way. Along the way a mature bald eagle flew right by me off of my right wing and turned out into the valley. Turned around at the reservoir and got scraped off of the ridge. Headed out to land in an LZ I landed in back in early 2003. Put down in the field that resembles an airstrip by Funk Road (Rt. 601). Looked up and saw Joe easily make it to Signal Knob and land out at Strasburg. Later John D. made it to the reservoir, turned around to go back to launch, and lost most of his altitude. He decided to come back and land with me to ease the retrieve. Tobias found us easily and we packed up and headed back to launch to get my truck. I left my glider in the bag hidden in the tall grass/hay, and Tobias asked me what if the farmer starts cutting the hay. I shrugged it off and said he won't cut the hay before we get back. On the return trip, just as I'm cresting the hill overlooking the LZ, I see the farmer cutting the hay. Yikes! I hauled butt and almost wrecked the truck trying to get to the field as fast as I could. I had this vision of a shredded glider in a shredded bag. I skidded into the field in a cloud of dust and was relieved to see the glider in its bag intact in the spot where it should have been, in the grass below the road. The farmer in his high perch in the tractor must have seen the glider bag and responsibly put it where I should have. Whew! Won't do that again. We retired to a nice dinner at the Strasburg Hotel that hit the spot after all that driving and a litle bit of flying.

Bacil

[Dan T]

I arrived at Launch second after Bruce Engan and saw him driving down the road to link up with Gary Smith in the LZ so Bruce could leave his truck there. Conditions were light and getting just a bit stronger as we moved into the forecasted strongest part of the day at 11:00 AM. Gary and I got Bruce off in his rigid wing and sat around and pondered whether we should launch while the ridge lift was as strong as it was going to get or wait for some thermal activity. We waited.

Meanwhile several paraglider pilots showed up including Ellis, Ellie and others most of whom launched and got up. After watching them, the birds and getting reports from Bruce who was about 2,100 over launch I decided to give it a shot and try to hook a thermal quickly as it was clear the ridge lift wasn't going to be sufficient. After some patience from my wire crew I managed a really good launch and soon hooked a ratty but firm thermal just to the left of launch where a bird had been circling a couple minutes earlier. The thermal firmed up and organized after a few hundered feet and took me to well over 1,000 over. After that staying up was pretty easy. Thermal lift was abundant for a few miles either side of launch and I had little difficulty playing yo yo from about 200 over launch to 2400 over or so. I spent a fair amount of time seeing if I could get up as high as Ellis and for the most part not succeeding. I landed in the primary worn out after a 100 minute flight.

I spent the next couple hours chasing down Bruce who had earlier informed me that he intended to Harrisonburg and back. Seems he had forgotten the "back" part and landed well south of Harrisonburg. Great flight Bruce!

On the way back we picked up Ashley who had landed alongside the road into Endless Caverns. Another great flight! Ashley treated us both to dinner, at Fox's Pizza where Joe Shad joined us for a bit. Thanks Ashley.

Oh I almost forgot, I think I saw Ellis silhouetted against the moon as I was leaving Strasburg about 10:00 PM.

Dan T

[silverwings]

I observed two Hang 2's getting two flights each. First mountain flights for Tony Delisio who did foot launch training with me and scooter/truck tow with Steve. I think Sixth and Seventh mountain flights for Dan Tuckwiller who trained with me. Both pilots had good launches and each got extended flights with a few passes on the ridge each flight and reasonably good approaches and landings. Congratulations to you both and welcome Tony to mountain flying!

I had a enjoyable flight launching at 3:45 and catching a nice thermal to the left of launch. I found some fairly good thermals and sink at times and decided to land around 1 1/2 hour flight but had to look for sink out in the valley. I wanted to get down so the H2's could get another flight in. Also, I was amazed at how great the PG pilots were doing. What an incredible flying day for most of them. I had planned to flying my PG later but since my HG flight lasted a good amount and I didn't want to get home at 11:00, I passed on it.

[Lauren Tjaden]

Nice, everybody! Congrats to Tony, especially. I remember what Sunny told me after my first mountain flight -- that it was only the beginning. I hope that proves as true for Tony and Dan as it has for me.
Ha! Tell Ellis she is NOT supposed to fly for more than 12 hours a day. If she wants to lose that "airhog" nickname she's not going to do it like that!
Nice flight, Bruce!
Bacil, glad your glider bag didn't get mulched. And nice job on the accident reports for the national magazine. I found them very concise and readable.
Lauren

[Matthew]

I continue to slip to the dark side. As it was unexpectedly light at Woodstock,I flew my bag again. Launched at about 1pm and thermalled with Ellis and Dave from Laurel. Then I bucked a headwind and flew up to Strasburg and past Signal Kob. Thought the return trip with a tailwind would be easy. Never assume-- fell into a giant hole a few miles back and landed out near Tom's Brook. Caught a ride out to Route 11 with a farmer, flagged down Chris McKee (Batman) for a ride back to Woodstock and Mill Road and then ran into Marc Fink for a ride up to launch. Fun Day! 2 hours and 4K over. Though, I wish it would have picked up more at the end of the day so I could've flown the plumbing too...

Karen says my hang glider is mad at me.

Matthew

[DanTuck]

Flights 6 and 7 for me yesterday. On both flights I managed to stay even with launch for a couple passes before sinking. However, this time I didn't wait too long before heading out to land. Each time I made it to the LZ with about 500' so I had plenty of time to set up my approaches. Both times I sped in, probably a bit faster than necessary, and had good landings with the first being a no-stepper and the second one a couple-stepper. Thanks so much, John M, for observing me. And man, some of you guys really skyed out! Big congratulations to Tony D! Very nice launch. I had lots of fun on what was an absolutely gorgeous day and I put together a little video for (me and) anyone who wants to watch. Enjoy. (Don't forget to hit the "Watch in High Quality" button)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdeHm2x9PUM

[XCanytime]

Congratulations to Tony on his first and second mountain flights. Thank you Dan for the video of the fun day we all had yesterday at Woodstock, especially the launches. And thank you Lauren for the comment on the Safety Bulletin article I wrote for the national magazine.

Bacil

[Ashley Groves]

Dan;

Congratulations on the nice flight. Keep on speeding it in. I did not see you land, but I doubt it was faster than necessary. I generally see two types of landings, too slow and speeding it in. Someday something will kick off as you come in on final, and speed will be your only friend. Keep on flying safe and keep on having fun!

[Ashley Groves]

I flew X-C south with an unknown pilot on Sunday. Blue and Yellow Lite Speed. I was in the Blue and Yellow Lite Sport.

I was just curious who the pilot was, and how he did at the end. I last saw him low just North of me, scratching away from the ridge near the fields. Then I got low, the ridge lift was weak at best, and the thermals got scarce. I was too busy to track the other fellow, then headed out and landed in New Market. I found a few weak thermals but not enought to get back up. It is possible the other fellow had a nice save and continued on.

It was fun flying with someone. I hope you had a retrieve available. None of the pilots that retrieved me knew who you were, otherwise I would have offered a pick up.