Woodstock New Year's Eve.

[Matthew]

It's looking good for WS on New Year's Eve.

Anyone interested???

Matthew

[sailin]

Yes sir, absolutely

Jon

[markc]

Yup, looks like there's a chance that things might be good there, though perhaps crossing from the W.
Add me to the definitely-maybe list, will be keeping an eye on the forecasts Friday.

MarkC

[markc]

Forecasts are still looking promising; the glider might have to go on the truck tonight.

If we're lucky, the only hard thing about the day will be deciding whether to fly early,
or later, for a magic sunset flight.....

MarkC

[Matthew]

Gliders are already on the truck!

Matthew

[sailin]

ETA is 1100ish

Jon

[kcarra]

Same bat time.

Matthew

[jmcclave]

Are any Paraglider observers going? It would be great to get a flight in on my birthday. Please call or text to
571.331.1626
Happy New Year,
Jim McClave

[markc]

Hitting the road later than I'd hoped, ETA 11:30-ish .

[eggzkitz]

I'm going (PG), and maybe Laszlo, but I'm not an observer.

ETA 1:30.

[jmcclave]

Thanks muCh formthe note Jeff. I ended up over at Smithsburg from 12 to 4. The wind was strong enough to make it interesting. I hope to fly with you soon.
Jim

[mercury]

Now I can die happy! It's been a great month for me capping the year off with a fourth consecutive soaring flight. Glad your ok Matthew. Thanks! Happy new year everyone. Matt Young

[dbodner]

Everyone who left the slot soared, but I almost didn't. I worked for several minutes below launch before finally achieving my reward. So, that was nice. But, it was the flying equivalent of driving on a bumpy road. It wasn't bad, but I just wasn't having a great time. So, I landed before I had to. 1:07 and 915 over.

The PGs were able to fly late after things mellowed out. Soon after they launched it died, and the sky rained aircraft. Later at sunset it was coming in nice and smooth at 8-10. It might've been possible to welcome the new year from the air.

[Matthew]

Second week in a row that Woodstock claims a glider. I'm not really sure what happened. But I blew my launch at Woodstock and ground looped in. I survived and flew my paraglider later for a nice 45 minute evening flight getting 1200 over following lift lines out in the valley. My best guess as to what happened, from talking to eyewitnesses, is that I launched in a cross cycle from the west. I must have jack-rabbited my run because the nose and the left wing went up and I couldn't pull it back down.

So it's a trip to Steve Wendt's to have him strip the sail and send it back to Wills Wing to replace the fabric on the right leading edge, which road-rashed in the rocks. If it wasn't for those rocks, the damage would have been much, much less. Someone should do something about those rocks.

Big thanks to all of you that helped get my glider righted and back up to launch.

Matthew

[jyoder111]

Glad you're ok, Matthew! Yikes.

[Roger]

Glad you're OK Matthew.

[markc]

Unfortunate way to end the HG-year Matthew, but I'm glad you were able to enjoy a PG flight later, and more importantly, that you are ok! If you have any other thoughts about what might have contributed, please share them, they would be helpful I'm sure.

Today was an interesting day: Cross from the W as forecast, reasonable velocity with the occasional gust rolling through. I launched after Matthew, so picking a good cycle was foremost on my mind. Once in the air, I initially played around launch, buzzed the tower, tried to catch thermals out in the valley..... Almost got burned on the latter, hitting lots of sink at one point and them running back to the ridge: Arrived below launch and thought I might be toast, but clawed my way back up.

Headed north, just past the reservoir, with conditions picking up during the trip. The sink was so pronounced at times that it had to be wave-related, given that the thermal activity wasn't all that great. So I was doing my best to connect with it, but unfortunately that never happened. Best I managed was 1300' over launch a couple of times.

On the way back south, at the finger just north of launch and at 1200' over, I was actually making little-to-no progress for a few moments (3/4 VG, flying fast, bar at mid-chest). So I was thinking about landing, tired and sore, but figured I had to at least head a bit to the south. And I'm glad I did, because during that extra time in the air conditions REALLY changed, and the fun-factor returned. Chased a pair of red-tails all over the place, until they finally landed in a tree. They were probably getting sick of me! Three PG'ers launched later and I had a blast following them around, getting fairly high late in the day. The sun even made a few brief appearances. That was the best part of the day, and I ended it with a lazy and slow descent to the LZ, cutting across the loops of the Shenandoah. At least 2 hours of airtime, maybe 2.5 .

Dare I suggest a repeat at Woodstock tomorrow? I know that one of the NWS forecasts is saying gusts to 35, but the hourly graph doesn't show anything like that, so maybe it won't be a blow out? Will at least take a look at things tomorrow AM....

MarkC

[sailin]

Matthew and Matt I am glad you both are okay.

For me, the bad juju at the start of the day (in addition to Matthew's blown launch, we all watched a pretty scary approach and landing from Matt) coupled with the fun factor/risk/benefit analysis of the days conditions, didn't add up, and I ended up deciding not to fly. I broke the glider down and packed up on top.

I was standing about 3 feet behind Matthews keel during his blown launch. Here is what I observed. The wings were never level (it was significant left wing high, right wing low). Not level before the launch run started, during the launch run or during the impact back into the mountain. The nose was slightly high before the launch run initiated, but not as significantly as the un-level wings, and it popped further when the launch run started. There was a light west cross present.

On another, note Amy and I ended up staying over in Woodstock for a New Years Eve celebration. We ended up at the local restaurant "Woodstock Cafe & Shoppes" and had a blast. The food, music and people were awesome! As if Woodstock needed one more reason for us to visit...we found it.

Hope you all have a great start to the New Year....and hope to fly with you soon!!!

Happy New Year!
Jon

[DanTuck]

I saw the same thing Jon described on Matthew's launch. Glad you're okay man. I launched a bit later when things had mellowed some. It was still strong on the ridge and if I slowed down enough I could go backwards. Penetrating was easy enough but it's not every day that you can get a U2 to go backwards. The West cross was pronounced and occasionally a SW cycle would come rolling down the ridge causing some huge sink holes down low. At least I think that's what was happening. I got up to 1,600' over launch a few times and chased an immature bald eagle around. He was almost fully mature, probably next year. Landed in the bridge field again after about 1.5 hours. Randy and I were offered and accepted a ride up from Michael Snyder, who lives in the house by the bridge field. He was very nice, said he and his family love watching us fly and land, and said he's going to be converting the other house on his property to a bed and breakfast. Just an idea at the moment but he wanted us all to know about it. Here's a few pics from my flight.

[Ward Odenwald]

Dan, thanks for sharing the photos and the good news about the Snyders. On Dec 26th after landing in the bridge field, I had an enthusiastic greeting from one of Michael Snyder’s neighbors, Bill Grillo. The Grillos own the field adjacent to the southwest corner of the bridge field (across the street). I emailed Bill a photo of his home and field (the 8th post from the 12/26 thread, also reposted here) and now he wants us to land in his field!! There is a power line that cuts the adjacent (downwind) cornfield in half but the only other issue (albeit significant) is a 4' high fence that separates the cornfield and his grass field. Don’t know if they will agree to this but I plan on asking Bill if he and his neighbor would consider grounding the fence when they don’t have livestock in the field(s). I’ll also ask/beg about the possibly of allowing us to put up a windsock at the corner of his land (by the road). Wishful thinking, but a sock between both fields would be “sweet”.

On a general note, its been my experience that one of the best/fastest ways to get on the friendly side of a landowner is by showing them aerial photos of their land. While you’re circling over - checking out a potential LZ, take photos. The photos have helped me get rides, dinners and the real pleasure of meeting a lot of good people with very interesting stories and backgrounds. Ward