Sunday 10/25 Flying

[XCanytime]

If it's too breezy for the Pulpit, Woodstock is looking good. Fall colors should be at their peak. Bacil

[DanTuck]

you have my attention, sir...

[mcelrah]

Me, too. - Hugh

[mikecosner]

does it look like the woodstock forecast is falling apart?

mike c from richmond

[XCanytime]

Looking not too breezy at the Pulpit. Dan Tuckwiller and I will be there early Sunday morning. Bacil

[POLISH EAGLE]

I will be at the Pulpit or Woodstock early on Sunday.

[carweill]

Most likely Pulpit Sunday

I'll check in the morning

Carlos

[tomceunen]

Pulpit looks good also for PG today

Some PG pilots will meet at 10am or 10:30am (or 11am?) at the Weis Supermarket, thats at exit 49 of I-70 which is the first exit after Frederick, after you exit 49 turn right on 40-ALT and continue for .8 miles to a left on Old Camp Road. The Weis and McDonnalds or on your right on Old Camp Road.
From that spot its 1h to the Pulpit.
In the evening you should take exit 48 to get to this meeting place.

Regards
Tom
703 659 7419

[CraginS]

Pulpit, it is - NW 6 most of the day is the forecast.
I should be there before noon.

[kcarra]

We're in.

ETA noon.

Matthew

[carweill]

Pulpit it is.

Be there about the same time

Carlos

[XCanytime]

Got to the Pulpit around 10:15A. Blowing good and soarable, with some north in it. The bird watching crew was already there and counting. Ready to go in an hour, and it started backing down a bit. Pete Schumann and Carlos arrived and helped me launch from the pad around 11:30A. Had a slight roll to the right into the crossing wind on takeoff, which is what you should do, but it was unplanned. Got up a few hundred in some lift out in front. Went down to halfway between launch and Rt. 16 and climbed up in some lift to 400' over. Went down to Rt. 16 and found nothing. Headed halfway back to launch and back up to 400' over. Back to Rt. 16 and nothing again. Got low around the towers and the north cross down there scraped me off the ridge. Had a nice landing in the main field after a 15 minute flight and walked back up again. As I arrived at launch around 1:40P Pete Schumann took off and got up. Went down to get the stuff and saw Pete land in the main field, as Carlos specked out down by Rt. 16. Saw two others land previous to Pete in the secondary. Drove up Rt. 16 to check out some abnormal fall colors. Back at launch the paragliders were stacking up and getting high. Dan Tuckwiller got into the air and got up down by Rt. 16. Got Tony D., Karen, and Cragin in the air near the end of the day. A few of the paragliders at the top of their stack went OTB. A few pics follow.

Bacil

[XCanytime]

On final at 50' over the main field.

Spooking some deer climbing the gas line clear cut.

Hiking the Tuscarora Mountain Trail.

[mcelrah]

Sallie and I went to Kirchner's Knob first and she got four good paraglider flights with forward launches. Knocked the rust off for the first time since the FiFi's training with Dwayne back in the summer. John Middleton arrived with three hang-gliding students and they were starting with ground running on the flat into the *north* wind as we departed. After lunch, we arrived in the secondary to alarms about a hang-glider in the trees. Walked the LZ with Sallie, (Ellis arrived for a spot landing) then gave a body ride to visiting HG pilot Chad and policed up errant PG pilot Alex from the forbidden field. (Thanks to Pete Schuman for continuing to fill the role of expert tree climber/extraction specialist - I heard the guy was unhurt and they got his glider down OK.) By the time I launched my PG, there was already a gaggle of 3-4 to the left of launch. Greg launched his Exxtacy. (Ellis assumed the role of launch director and assigned me a launch position ahead of Laszlo, who graciously yielded.) Between 4 and 5 PM, there was wonderfully buoyant air. Dan Tuck launched his new U2 Mark II off the left elevated ramp and proceeded to get high over by the towers. Matthew and I got 2000 feet over launch in a thermal (Matthew was actually 2500 over) and drifting back to the second ridge. (Jim Kaplan was also between the ridges but lower.) I started to lose it and decided going over the back and downwind was preferable to clawing back upwind to the front. I had briefed Sallie on the route (elementary school, Lemaster, Upton) and equipped her with a radio, so life was good. (During this time, Cragin and Karen launched HG and PG respectively.) Encountered a lot of zero sink on the way out. By Lemaster, I had lost 7-800 feet, but made half of it back in the "town thermal", then went on death glide to just short of the church outside of Upton for an hour and 10 miles. We had a long retrieval process with Matthew, Ellis, Tom and Tamas all scattered in the Lemaster/Upton/Mercersburg triangle, then gathered at the brewpub in downtown Frederick for beer samplers and dinner. Enjoyed meeting Erick the PG tandem instructor and got his phone number (maybe Sallie can get to P2 with him - tandem would be a good way for her to learn how to set up an approach...) Got home late, tired, but #1 son had the wood-fired hot-tub going - had to add cold water to get it below scalding. what a nice end to the weekend! - Hugh

[DanTuck]

I had tried to get there by noon but didn't make it until 1:30. Chad was ready to go and waiting on me so I got him taken care of quickly and then got set up. By the time I was ready, it had backed off and was very light. Light enough that it was questionable making the primary and I wasn't all that comfortable with trying to land the U2 in the secondary. So I waited and around 4:00 it started to get better and the PG's started sticking. Didn't waste any time and got suited up and launched promptly from the old ramp into the North cross. I left the PG gaggle at launch and didn't lose a foot heading down toward the towers in hopes of finding my thermal over there. When I found it at first the lift was light and broken but it was there and I kept circling until it got more solid and I got up. I'm not sure how high I got because when I was a several hundred over the ridge I looked at my vario which said I was 900' below. Hugh commented that the microwave towers might be interfering. So I think I got in the 1,200' over range, maybe higher. It was high enough that I could have made it over the back but not high enough to do it comfortably. Most of my flight was in that first thermal which was sitting still in the light wind. It was a nice flight, flew for about 40 minutes or so and landed in the primary. Thanks Tony for the ride back up.

[Pete Schumann]

Had a pretty good day managed to eek out about an hour of tough tree top at times flying given the north cross.
At the time I launched after Bacil, there was a fairly stiff north cross going on with cycles of NW. Later when Carlos launched we were both getting up pretty good. He found some good lift and was able to remain high when things got lighter.

Spent an hour or so helping Alex? get his glider from the trees. Thanks to coordination and good communication with Bacil, Cragin, Matthew and others and a lot of luck we were able to help Alex out.

Back at launch I was able entertain some kids behind the launch by flying one of my micro RC planes after we launched Cragin (great launch Cragin)

Pete

[CraginS]

Left the house at 9:30 and arrived at Pulpit launch at 1130.
Was pretty much set up to fly before 1:00, but various distractions and assists delayed me entering the launch line. One of the distractions was the sight of Pete struggling like crazy to find lift in front of launch as Krys sledded down to the secondary. (We won't talk about Carlos playing happily at a grand over down by the towers as this was going on.)
You notice the previous report that there was a lot of buoyant air between 4 and 5. Sure, nice for him to talk. Having helped several other launches, we reached the point where the last two HGs set up were mine and Karen's. Some may be aware that Karen and I have a de facto tradition at the Pulpit: I launch mid to late afternoon and get 20-30 minutes, then Karen launches really late and gets 1 hour +. I decided to swap with her this time; we got her into the air at 5:00, then Bacil, Carlos, and Pete assisted me off the ramp about 5:10
Well, make note of the buoyancy window (4-5) and our two launch times. Karen had a reasonably leisurely glide out to the main LZ, and I joined her in the closest thing possible to a Pulpit sled that ends in the main - a nice fun 4 minute flight..
While breaking down by 7th Street, we decided to go back to our old launch order.

Thanks to Bacil, Carlos, and Pete for crewing for me, and thanks, Pete for the nice words.
After dinner and beer in Frederick, I was home by 11:30. 14 hour day, 4 minute flight. Gotta love this sport!
And, I do!

[CraginS]

[CraginS]

[CraginS]

[DanTuck]

Some video from Sunday:

[dbodner]

Does anyone remember Dan's first video? He was trying to appease us old farts, so he used Led Zeppelin's music. Now that he has his 3, he's free to go his own way.

Too bad I couldn't make it. That's what I get for sleeping late.

[tomceunen]

Also some pics form the PG snapping the local infrastructure or local waypoints for the next comp?
Mcconnellsburg Centre = Startgate with radius 400m

Mercersburg College Church? = first wayppoint

[drice21037]

Cool Pics Tom. I read the first caption a few times then finally realized there was no StarGate in the picture. I need to watch less tv and fly more...

[pink_albatross]

oooo.... look at that tempting beautifully manicured LZ in front of the church!
-- ellis (salivating)