Possible Pulpit Sunday 10/11

[XCanytime]

Out of town Saturday, but heading back east Sunday. It may even blow out of the WNW on Sunday afternoon. I plan to be at the Pulpit in the PM. Bacil

[Dan T]

I am interested if I am in town. Not sure about that yet, won't know until tomorrow night.

biwingal
Dan T

[DanTuck]

Pulpit.

[XCanytime]

See ya Sunday at the Pulpit Dan (and others I hope). Bacil

[DanTuck]

Looking great for Pulpit tomorrow so come on out! I plan to be there early, around 10:00.
See you there.

[mcelrah]

Luis and i are in for flying somewhere tomorrow and he's never seen Pulpit and High Rock, so they are preferred. I will be repositioning from Front Royal (test flying the trike with its new wing in the morning calm) so if someone want to guide Luis to Pulpit I will join you there. - Hugh

[carweill]

Pulpit promising
I'll check in the morning

Carlos

[Dan T]

WNW 5-10, a cool night and a warm day. I don't think the forecast gets any better than this.

Hugh can you observe? I'll bring both wings.

Dan T

[CraginS]

New H2 Greg S and I are heading toward the Pulpit. He will probably arrive before I do.

[DanTuck]

Out the door. ETA 10:45.

[carweill]

Luis and I plan to head out there.
Probably will get there around noon

Carlos

[tdilisio]

Probably will get there around noon

Ditto

[XCanytime]

Got to the Pulpit right at 12 noon to find 9 pilots set up and setting up. Kelvin, Cragin, Dan Tuckwiller, Dan Tomlinson, Carlos, Luis, Krzyztof, Ric Holtz, and Greg Sessa. Strong and soarable at launch, and the sky looked fantastic. I quickly set up, noticing an upper cirrus layer spreading north. I launched as soon as I could, around 12:30P, thinking that the cirrus layer could shut things down. The conditions had throttled back some, and the cumies to the south all disappeared under the cirrus layer. Got up right in front of launch, flew out towards McConnellsburg over the power line, and grabbed a nice thermal that took me to 3800' MSL. Saw Dan Tuckwiller launch, and he headed down to Rt. 16 to soar. Later after a lot of pilots got airborne, the air got downright nasty. The only decent climb I could find was again out towards McConnellsburg past the power line, and this time I could only get to 3100' MSL before it quit. The climb was very turbulent. Lost all that and got low down by Rt. 16. Spent a long time trying to survive in the serious chop at ridgetop level. Gained a few hundred and decided to head past the towers to see if a huge cloud had something under it. Nope, and now I'm low and there's a north cross. Didn't attempt to get back to the main LZ, so I headed out into the valley in search for a nice field on the west side of Cito Road. Over a huge field I found some lift to circle in right over the field. Gained 100' and decided that I could make the golf course to the north. Made the course and had a nice landing on the driving range in north winds on the ground. Packed up and stowed the equipment in the woods off a fairway and walked to the main LZ to find a bunch of happy pilots who filled their airtime tanks. Dan Tomlinson was the last pilot off and the only pilot flying at this time. After retrieving the equipment from the fairway woods, Dan got high enough to go OTB and ended up making it past I-81 east of Greencastle. Grabbed some grub at Tony's Pizza joint in Greencastle.

Bacil

[mcelrah]

Congratulations, Dan! - Hugh

[DanTuck]

Great day! I got there to find Greg Sessa already there and setting up. I set up as pilots arrived and the winds increased. But it increased just perfectly and didn't blow out. I was second off behind Bacil and flew South in search of the friendly thermal generator near the main field. Didn't find it at first but after a few passes, we hooked up and I got up. It was definitely active air, some pretty big lift as well as big sink with pops of 1000fpm and better. Most of the thermals were weak and laying over but the strong ones were standing up better and the drift wasn't so bad. For me it was a very enjoyable flight even though I never got more than 1,500' over the ridge. After 1:40 I had to pee so I went to land but I was still more than 1,000' over the field when I got there and it was absolutely boiling. Strong lift all over the place so I beamed back up and went back to the ridge. Flew around a little while longer and tried landing again, this time getting down wasn't nearly as hard. Got my approach set up real nice and this time only used about half the field and stuck the flare for 2:00 airtime. After some pizza I picked up Dan Tomlinson past Greencastle who picked a field that must have had its own zip code. Nice flight, man. Got some video, hopefully it came out alright. I need to get a 16GB memory card, this 8GB card keeps running out before I land.

[Dan T]

My Sunday flight was unlike any I had flown at the Pulpit before. Since I got there nearly last I decided to help everyone else launch and then waited for a crew to get back to assist me. I figured this was no big deal as it didn't look like an XC day anyway and the fact that none of the other pilots appeared to be attempting one reinforced this conclusion. Eventually Kelvin and two others showed up and assisted me off the left ramp, thanks folks and welcome back Kelvin. I launched shortly after 3:00.

For the first hour conditions were pretty much as Bacil described. I spent a good deal of time scratching at 350 over launch or less with occassional moments punctuated by sharp ratty thermals. At this point the drift wasn't real strong. Eventually I found one that was telling me that it wasn't going to evaporate or disappear on me anytime soon so I was comfortable drifting behind the ridge lower than I normally would at about 1100 over. The thermal was well behaved while I drifted slowly over the back, however I lost it shortly before crossing the lee side of the mountain range at about 1800 over. At this point I had LZs easily made but was a little concerned about landing in the lee side rotor.

I headed out trying to get some distance between me and the mountains and quickly stumbled into a thermal that was kicking off right at the edge of the shadow of one of several small cumies that were forming in the valley. This took me slowly to about 2500 and safely away from the mountain range. The air over the valley behaved almost as if the entire valley was trying to go magic. There were large areas of 50 down to 50 up punctuated by occassional sharp thermals and the sink that always accompanies them. I must have pulled hundreds of 360s while drifting slowly east and skating north and south in these conditions. This was the reason the flight across the valley took so long. I wonder if these conditions aren't more common late in the day than we think.

Eventually I landed in the corn stubble in a humongous field about 1/2 mile north of the go cart track on hwy 16. By this time it was after 5:00. I had a good aggressive no step landing. It's funny how corn stubble will encourage one to do that!

Thanks everybody who stuck around to make sure I was ok, and special thanks to Dan Tuck for shlepping me back to my truck.

biwingal
Dan T

[g.sessa]

I arrived at the Pulpit around 10:30 am to find very light conditions, and only a few folks watching the hawks from the ramps. Shortly thereafter, several hang glider pilots arrived and conditions picked up considerably. I watched Bacil and Dan launch successfully, and upon review of their launches, began discussion with Cragin of my launch and flight plan. Conditions appeared suitable and I prepared to launch. I opted to use the ramp, and upon starting to launch I was lifted almost immediately. In hindsight, I probably should have pulled in a bit longer to get in a few more steps while on the ramp, but none the less I was airborne quickly. I used the lift just after taking off to gain altitude quickly, then headed down the ridge toward the primary. As Dan also experienced during flight, I went through cycles of lift, then sink, and so on… with a max altitude of 700 feet over launch. After about 40 minutes, I began to fall below the ridge line. I was hoping to find lift again, but couldn’t, and it was time to head in. I had a good approach and good landing on my feet. All in all it was a great flight! The only thing that did not turn out so great was the error with my camera. I was hoping to have pictures and video, but my camera appears to have malfunctioned. However, my father was out taking photographs of all the pilots, and once he has the pictures published, I will communicate the link for all to see.

I would also just like to add that it was great meeting the pilots flying at the Pulpit! Cragin, thank you very much for agreeing to observe me for the day, and for your valuable insight! Bacil, thanks for the radio communication. Your comments were very helpful!

[DanTuck]

Video from the day:

[CraginS]

After helping Greg get into the sky, I crewed for Krystof on the slope, then finished getting my glider ready for my own flight. Dan T, Tony D, and a PG pilot helped me launch from the old ramp at 1:50. The earlier great lift had subsided a bit, and the other gliders were a bit lower than at 1:00. Still, I wasn't able to join them; I had to look up to see my companions over the ridge. Here is my view from the bottom of the stack.



I sunk out at 2:10 for a 20 minute flight.
A bit more detail and a couple more photos are on my (b)Log.

[Matthew]

Looks like a lot of fun at The Pulpit.

We headed to Ridgely so our friends Jan and Ben could do tandems. It was a birthday present for Ben from his wife Jan. And, wow, did they have a great time!!!! They each had half hour soaring tandem flights with Jim... and Ben took a second tandem flight with Sunny at 4pm and again soared for a half hour. I think he's hooked. He bought a three pack tow package and plans to come out again this fall. I got to soar with Ben on each of his flights-- I ended up with two forty minute flights and a 25 minute flight. Karen had two half hour flights. Steve K. followed the thermal that he and I were sharing on my first flight and he ended up in Denton for 10 miles. Ward had a great soaring flight and John Simon caught the early bird prize with a two hour flight. Heather also flew and Joe Greogr flew twice-- thermalling with me and the tandem (Sunny and Ben) on his second flight. It was an incredibly clear day. On my last flight, Karen also flew with us and we all got to watch a hot air balloon fly beneath us as the skydivers dropped from the sky and Jim Roony kited his paraglider in the RC field-- a very unique day of aviation.

Matthew