Pulpit, this Friday 8/6

[Ward Odenwald]

Forecast (wind direction, intensity and thermal index) look good three days out. If it holds, I'm going. Anyone else interested?

[markc]

Thinking about it.... Would have to be 2:00pm arrival time for me, if I can
make it work. Definitely worth keeping an eye on the forecasts!

MarkC

[keith r]

hey mark this is keith r the guy that was up at the pulpit this spring the guy that is getting mats glider do you know how i can get in touch with him i need to set something up with him to to pick it up thanks for any help keith.

[markc]

Check your PMs for a phone number Keith.... Cheers!

MarkC

[XCanytime]

Ward,
It's looking good and WNW. I'm considering it. Will have to leave the beach early Friday to make it to launch before it ramps up. Bacil

[Matthew]

II've emailed Kieth.

Matthew

[Dave Proctor]

I am also thinking about it. Friday is my day off. I will look at it later and decide.

DaveP

[XCanytime]

Got clearance from the tower. Got to get there way early because it's gonna be quite breezy early and for a good portion of the day. ETA 9Aish. Bacil

[silverwings]

Bacil and others,
The forecast as of this morning does look good for Friday but what make you think it's going to be windy or ramp up? I am hoping to fly either the pulpit or woodstock on Friday and will probably have a new H2 do his first mtn flight sometime during the day.

[Roger]

Bacil and others,
The forecast as of this morning does look good for Friday but what make you think it's going to be windy or ramp up? I am hoping to fly either the pulpit or woodstock on Friday and will probably have a new H2 do his first mtn flight sometime during the day.

Did I hear Woodstock?

[markc]

Can't clear things at work. And away for the weekend. Bummer

MarkC

[Dave Proctor]

forecast is now stronger for the Pulpit. May be OK but I only have one shot this weekend. Blip map for entire Delmarva looks good for Saturday so I think I will give Highland a try then. Go to work today instead.

DaveP

[hang_pilot]

Bacil and Ward are headed to the Pulpit early, hell they're probably already there. I'm more comfortable with the forecast for Woodstock, hopefully I'll have some company but I'll bring plenty of reading material in case I don't. Come out to Woodstock!

~Daniel
301.275.6584

[silverwings]

Talked with Ward around 9:45 and he said it's windy there (15-20), so I am heading to Woodstock with hopes it will be doable.

[XCanytime]

Only one to fly the Pulpit today. Got there just after 10A to cumie filled skies and strong, gusty cycles. Set up quickly. Daniel arrived around 10:25A and didn't like what he saw. Ward and Daniel helped me off the pad just after 11A in a strong cycle. Elevatored right up to a couple hundred over and headed away from the ridge and south along Rt. 16. Daniel headed off to Woodstock. Went north and climbed up to 3800' MSL out in front of launch. Considered going with it, but it looked very good down by The Corner. Headed down there and tried to intercept a dark cloud street, but got there too late. It then blued out completely in the valley from The Corner to north of launch. Let Ward know I was headed back north, but stopped in some lift and climbed to 3000' MSL. Decided to drift OTB with it just SW of Cove Gap. Lost a few hundred searching downwind, crossing Cove Mt. at 2500' MSL. Headed out to over a dry brown field in the flats near where I landed weeks ago. At 1700' MSL felt a few burps, and clung to very turbulent lift. It smoothed out somewhat at 4000' MSL, and I topped out at 4600' MSL. The drift was straight into Hagerstown airspace, so I flew xwind down Rt. 416 to try to intercept a big dark cloud. Found a burp or two that gained me a few hundred, but lost it. Saw the Rt. 58 bridge over Conococheaque Creek in the distance. Saw a nice field right by Rt. 416 and just below the small town of Nova. Had a nice landing in a stiff NW headwind just after 1P, 15.5 miles from launch. Thanks a bunch Ward for the retrieve. Back at launch there was a note on Ward's glider from Mark Gardner, who was working in Chambersburg. Ward didn't like what he saw, so he packed up and headed home. I called the Gardinator, and he stopped by launch after work with his glider, but didn't like what he saw. It was still strong and a bit gusty at 4P. Mark left in search of a mountain bike path, and I leisurely headed home. Pics to follow.

Bacil

[Dan T]

Nice flight Bacil!

It looks to me like the Pulpit might work tomorrow. WNW at 5 most of the day.

Dan

[silverwings]

Woodstock was fairly nice. Jesse Yoder a new H2 got to do 2 mtn soaring flights for his first mtn day, one 30 min and one longer and he mostly landed because of a little air sickness. Daniel B, myself, and Gary Smith all flew for a good bit, I got 6400+ agl flew out to 81 and back and landed getting 1:50, Daniel got 7000+ and over 2 hours. Some PGs showed up around 5:00 pm but had not launched when I left at 6:30. Maybe Jesse will write about his experience.

[XCanytime]

Thermalling over the flats.

Looking SW at Whitetail Ski Resort in the distance.

My LZ is the brown strip in the lower left by Rt. 416.

View of the LZ.

[jyoder111]

As John mentioned, I had my first mountain flights yesterday at Woodstock. It was a bit breezy when we got there so I went into the first flight thinking there would be enough lift to soar a little- and there was! Daniel launched first and went straight up. I had a good launch with John and Gary's help, turned left and flew back and forth between the fingers until I got up above the ridge. It's an amazing feeling looking down at launch from a couple hundred over and think "I was just down there."
John launched next and we flew by each other a couple times before he found something and climbed up out of sight. After that I followed some vultures and a hawk up and back for a while. The air was quite "sporty", as Daniel put it, and I was knocked around quite a bit and started to get airsick. Later, talking to Gary, I realized I was probably staring down at the ground too much. When I began to consider the consequences of throwing up in my full face helmet I knew it was time to head to the LZ. I came in pretty fast and realized right before the downwind leg that I hadn't unzipped my legs yet. While fumbling for the strap I slipped a little low but managed to haul it around and land alright- just missing the scraggly weeds and stuff in the center of the field. I had forgotten my watch, but John thought I was up for a half hour or so. The others landed after a bit and we all climbed into my 1988 Corolla to "speed" back up to the top. I'm not sure, but I think by bottoming it out we were able to reduce the air friction a bit on the trip back up.
Gary had suggested I take another flight while they retrieved their vehicles and gear. Everyone pitched in to help set up my Falcon 3 and I think we had it done in about two minutes. The air had calmed a bit but there was still a steady breeze at launch. Gary let me borrow his vario this time and I jumped off a mountain for the second time in one day. This flight was a lot smoother and with the help of the vario, I was able to work some sections of the ridge to get to 500 over. Focusing on the horizon and looking up the ridge helped a lot with the airsickness, as did the calm air, and I was able to relax and just cruise up and back for another half hour or so. I saw John finishing breaking down in the LZ and was feeling a little queasy again so I headed in to land. I had hugged the ridge all day and so heading out to the LZ with lots of altitude was an amazing view. I had fun watching some farm animals gathering at a pond and next door.
Once again, I forgot to unzip until I was about to turn downwind. Again, I came in low but cranked it around and landed alright. Thank you training hill! I decided I definitely need to come up with a mental checklist for landing, like with launching. Afterward, Daniel and Gary returned with their vehicles and Gary offered us some beer. Looking back, it was an amazing day and made all the better by John, Daniel, and Gary's help and generosity!

On a side note, has anyone had experience with airsickness when they first started flying? I'm considering taking something for it next time.

[Roger]

Great job Jesse, you will never forget your first mountain flight and I'm so glad it was a soaring flight too!
As for airsickness, I'm lucky to say it hasn't happened to me yet. I don't know if it actually helped me, but when I first started thermal soaring, I would ride my bicycle in tight circles while looking all around. Looking to the outside and behind was interesting at first.

[XCanytime]

Bacil and others,
The forecast as of this morning does look good for Friday but what make you think it's going to be windy or ramp up? I am hoping to fly either the pulpit or woodstock on Friday and will probably have a new H2 do his first mtn flight sometime during the day.

John,
Below is a message I sent a few years ago to a pilot new to the area about the Pulpit. A simple look (on 8/5) at the 8/6 hourly forecast for Hagerstown on weather.com, coupled with all the information in the message below, kicked pattern recognition in and I knew what the launch conditions would be like well in advance.


Here's some cheap experience and advice on flying at the Pulpit, our most friendly mountain XC site that we have. I have been flying/observing weather there since 1994. I go there as often as I can because of the XC friendliness and potential, so I have a huge database that covers the site year-round. So here goes:


1. The first thing that you should do when planning to fly the Pulpit is to get there early. What I mean by early is arriving at the site early enough to be set up and ready to fly between 10AM and 11AM. I know that's asking a lot, but it makes the difference between soaring for hours while the late-arriving pilots are stuck on the ground with strong/blown-out conditions. The Pulpit tends to be blown out a lot in the fall/winter/spring more so than any other mountain site we fly. The times that tend to be launchable on those midday blown-out days are in the early morning or the late evening. So getting to the site early or getting there late in the day is your most efficient use of time. Getting there after 11AM on any day during the fall/winter/spring often guarantees that you will be standing around for hours waiting for it to calm down, or driving back to High Rock. Been there, done that too many times (waiting around all day).


2. To get to the Pulpit early means you should have already decided the night before to go to the Pulpit. This kind of decision-making comes easy after years of weather predictions and actual observations at the Pulpit. Or what the heck, just go ahead and make your call the night before. Take a chance. You will always be able to log a data point for the Pulpit (i.e. what time of year it is, predicted launch conditions, actual launch conditions, conditions aloft) to help you either avoid making the wrong call in the future in going to the Pulpit or get rewarded with a long soaring and possible XC flight at the friendliest XC mountain site that we have.


3. The Pulpit is the windiest site that we have. This is due to the local topography. Visualize the cut in the mountain where Rt. 30 passes over the spine as a venturi tube, an "escape valve" of air if you will. Couple this escape valve with the fact that the mountain to the right (north) of launch sticks out in the valley further than the launch ridge like the curved bottom of a thumb. This "thumb" portion of the mountain compresses the airflow and speeds it up around the Rt. 30 cut and launch area even more, just like putting your thumb over a garden hose to speed up the water flow. This highly energized airflow scares some pilots into thinking that the air aloft is the same. More often than not it is completely benign compared to the conditions on the ramps. The strong flow on the ramps is usually only a local phenomenon. The air is often fine aloft (no strong headwind).