Pulpit Sunday

[XCanytime]

Heading to the Pulpit tomorrow.? Hope Bills worked today.? Looking for company.? Should be a good thermal day with overnight temps near freezin', and highs near 70 tomorrow.

?????????????????????????????????????????????? Bacil

[Spark]

I just looked at the 'cast and I'm tempted. I couldn't be there until around 1:30pm. I'll post intentions in the a.m.

[Matthew]

It was NE most of the day at Bill's on Saturday. Switched to the ESE after 4:00pm. Mixed bag like last week with Juan Ortiz spanking everyone and Tom C. being the secondary spanker of the day... both in PGs. HG-wise-- Karen, Gardinator, Mark C., Joe Brauch and some of the Pittsburgh boys got up for a while in thermals mid-day. Karen had a great low saw at 350 agl. I did five flights in my PG. All were extendos except for one where I got a half an hour. Sparky also got up in his PG and top landed twice. Both Jaun and Tom top landed, with Juan doing a downwind toplanding into the slot one time. Carlos had the shortest flight of the day with one minute showing on his vario. (His second flight was better.) Some 2s and some new pilots also flew. They can tell their own stories.

There was also some major work done on the slot. It's the best I've ever seen!!!

Hope you get some West winds at the Pulpit tomorrow. Still looks a little South to me.

Matthew

[markc]

Thinking about tomorrow.... Undecided about Pulpit vs. Highland,
will decide in the AM....

--mark c.

[markc]

The forecasts seem to have improved a bit since last night....

I'm heading to the Pulpit today! F'cast is a little light, but that's
a good thing since the winds are always blowing harder there.

Dare I even mention the xc-word? We've been skunked pretty
routinely on the weekends for almost a month now. Today might
be the day.

--mark c.

[XCanytime]

Arrived at 11:15A.? Straight in at 6 to 10 MPH.? Blew that way for around 15 minutes, then went light.? High cirrus moved in from the west.? Other pilots who arrived were Mark Cavanaugh, Kelvin Pierce, John Dullahan, Cragin, Dan, BVH, and a paraglider pilot named Marcel, originally from Switzerland.? Marcel took off around 1P and extendoed to the secondary, briefly getting above the ridge.? The hang glider pilots waited and waited for it to turn on.? During the wait there were plenty of launchable cycles, but it would go light for long periods.? John Dullahan stepped up to the plate around 3:45P.? Some good cycles were coming in, but the valley flow was from the south.? John briefly got above the ridge by launching into a good cycle, but as he headed towards the primary, he rotor surfed all the way to the main LZ.? I went down to retrieve John, and lo and behold, around 4:30P BVH launched and got up.? It had turned on big time.? John and I picked up Marcel from his second flight, another extendo before it turned on, and beelined it to launch.? We did notice the flags in the valley were now pointing directly at the mountain.? Mark C. launched and got up easily.? John, Marcel, and I crewed for Dan, Kelvin, and Cragin.? Conditions were 12 to 18 MPH with some slow gusts.? They all had good launches and got up easily.? John and Marcel helped me launch.? Got up easily, and spent the next 45 minutes soaring in light thermals and ridge lift.? Got 800' over.? Gains to 1200'+ over were reported.? Landed at 6P to get packed up before dark.? Marcel launched while all of us were in the LZ, and he got a nice soaring flight in his bagwing.? Back at launch BVH put his Falcon together in record time and had a twanger launch just before sunset.? He boated around for some time in smooth ridge lift before putting it down before sunset.? The patience paid off today at the Pulpit.

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Bacil