Pulpit after 5P tomorrow?

[XCanytime]

The precip chance drops dramatically after 5P at Hagerstown. Anybody up for a late PM flight at the Pulpit? Gotta work Monday. Bacil

[Petr]

Depending on the weather development, I am interested (P2). Petr

[silverwings]

I will probably be teaching at Kirshners on Sunday and will possibly stop by after class.

[mingram]

Laszlo and I are headed to Woodstock eta 5pm.

[XCanytime]

Hit the road just before 2P after tracking a serious line of storms on the radar all morning. Predicted the line would hit Hagerstown around 3P. Got hammered by the torrential rain and gust front on the backside of South Mountain at 3P. On the front side the sky cleared and regular looking clouds could be seen throught the haze. At the top of Tuscarora Mountain the windsock frame was swinging back and forth from SW to NNW. Arrived at launch just before 4P to find Ward Odenwald up on the ramp, and his glider still in the bag in the setup area. It was cranking at launch on the pad. I set up the two spinner windsocks at the sides of the pad, and the winds were 15 to 20MPH gusting to 25 and swinging all around from WSW to NNW. The sky had nice scattered cumies with no OD, so it looked like the threat of t-storms was over (it was). We decided to chill and wait out the strong conditions. Petr showed up just after 5P. At 5:30P it started to back down some, so I committed to at least setting the glider up for a drying cycle. Thanks to Ward and Petr for helping me stage the glider in the setup area when some northerly blow would cycle thru the setup area. John Middleton and two students showed up from Kirschners, and lo and behold, Eric Wakefield, who I hadn't seen since 1996, walks right up to my glider. Eric was a member of MHGA and flew the mountains from about 1994 to 1996. So now I've got plenty of wire crew (John, Eric, Ward), therefore I launched at 6:15P into 12 to 18 MPH. Had a nice launch, and climbed up to 300' over immediately out in front. Pronounced north cross in the air, so I loitered out in the valley above the power lines, then would turn downwind back into launch for photo ops for the biker folks who showed up to see us fly. After about 15 minutes, I decided to go out and try to land at the golf course with 300' over, starting way upwind of the course so the north cross would blow me diagonally towards the course. Made it over the clubhouse with a couple hundred feet to spare. Put down on the driving range, landing to the NNW directly in front of the 200 yard flag marker in 6 to 12 MPH winds on the ground. Ward was there in a jiffy to pick me up in my truck. Picked up the windsocks back at launch, and it was still strong at 15 to 20 MPH at 7:45P. Bacil

[mingram]

The front didn't move through fast enough for Woodstock. On launch between 5:30-6pm it was consistently blowing 6mph from the SE so we bailed. Storm cells were still growing over the ridge at 7pm and the wind in the valley was NE.

Did anyone go to Blue Sky?

John, how was Kirshners?

[silverwings]

Kirshners worked out. At first it was cross from the S and the storm went through about 1:30 for 15 minutes. Stayed cross until around 3:00 and started to improve in direction and got pretty good by 4:00.

[Richard Hays]

Eric Wakefield? OMG....

I still email his brother ( Doug Wakefield ) from time to time. Always wondered what happened to Eric. Dougie is living out in Vancouver and was still flying last I heard. I think he was flying a Northwing design.

Richard Hays