Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

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sailin
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Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by sailin »

This is a long post so: If you read nothing else then at least please read this.........A HUGE thank you to John Simon for leading me on an awesome XC flight. I really appreciate it man, I learned a lot from flying with you and hopefully I can tag along with you again! Also a big thank you to Amy for driving for me for the past two days.....it makes it much easier to head out XC when you know someone is coming to get you. Thank you!

This was the last weekend of the Highland Challenge at Ridgely, MD......it has been a great experience and a big thanks to Charlie Allen for organizing this.....standby for a better write up of this event in a bit.
My plan was to leave work Saturday morning and head to Ridgely...car was already packed up and good to go. Unfortunately I found out at 0530 Saturday morning that I was being held over and wouldn't be getting off until 7pm that night now (one of the few ugly sides of the job). New plan was to get up early Sunday and head to Ridgely and at least get to fly the last day of the comp. Amy and I headed out early, only to run into stopped traffic on Rt 50, just before the Bay Bridge....all lanes shut down :evil: The kind of stopped traffic where people are getting out of their cars and walking around. The kind that you have no idea when will open back up again......1 hour, two hours 4 hours..who knows. I was thinking, "you gotta be $%^^^& kidding me, I'm not going to make it out there today at any reasonable time." Finally traffic opened back up (three car accident about 3 miles ahead of us) and we were heading the right way again.
I ended up having a very enjoyable flight drifting in lift to the SE, for a short XC flight. Unfortunately, the task for the day was to the north :shock: ....ohhhh well, fun is fun. thank you Amy for picking me up! Ended the day hanging out, having some cold ones and good conversation with the Highland crew and some other pilots. Good times!
Amy and I decided to spend the night in Ridgely as Monday was shaping up to be a pretty good day. And it was. We arrived at the park and there were clouds already starting to pop in the distance. John Simon asked me if I was up for a triangle and I excitingly agreed. The route was going to be heading northeast to Goldsboro, then south to Denton and then back to Ridgely ( I think around 23 miles??).....not crazy long by many standards, but I have never flown a triangle before in my short XC career, so it was a pretty big task for me. The forecast was calling for pretty light winds out of the west- southwest with top of lift being around 5,000. The sky was looking amazing. We should have launched earlier. John launched first and got himself firmly established in some nice climbs. I came up right after him but was having trouble finding him (he was doing an great job of letting me know on the radio where he was, I just couldn't initially find him.) I quit focusing on flying and getting established and spent all my energy and focus on zig zagging every where trying to find him and then get to where he was.....didn't work out for me very well as I never got into any groove and was not focused on what I needed to be. Ended up landing back at the park for a re-light....a little discouraged to be honest.
My second tow was a generous one that I quickly wasted trying to get established again....."I was thinking "Are you F$#$$%% kidding me, here we go again!!! John was still patiently waiting for to get my crap together and get established so we could leave together......Huge thank you man!!! Team flying is something I just have to get better at.......even after doing the Team Challenges I still find it challenging. I gotta remember to not put the cart before the horse and I need to get established before I can worry about anything else.
So finally we were together in a nice climb and heading to cloud base. Once at cloud base (5500'-5600'msl) we started our trek north to Goldsboro. It was freaking sweet!! John was an awesome leader and kept me up to speed on the radio. We enjoyed some more nice climbs under some BEAUTIFUL clouds and had no trouble tagging Goldsboro. Then it was back south to Denton. This put us in a cross/headwind situation (winds seemed to be around 10mph and maybe a little lighter) We tanked up again early on under a nice cloud and then started a LONG glide south. I ended up getting to the south side of Greensboro with just under 3000'msl after leaving cloubase at 5500'msl. Found another climb there but the lift seemed lighter than it had before. Initially I was getting 400-600fpm and now I was in 100-200fpm with occasional 300fpm. After tanking up with this climb we headed south again towards our turnpoint at Denton. This was another long glide for me that got me to Denton around 2700msl. Just northeast of Denton there seemed to be some lift but we just couldn't initially find any solid cores. John finally did but I lost precious altitude searching for it. After talking with John about it later I should have been paying better attention to where he was above me and getting right underneath him. After getting down to about 2000'msl I was just on the outskirts of Denton and looking at an upwind glide across some intimidating terrain, including the river. I decided for worse or better to stay in the area and try to find some lift, rather than do the upwind glide across the unpleasant terrain. After losing the rest of my altitude looking for lift that just wasn't to be found, I ended up landing in a nice field just on the northeast outskirts of Denton. The land owner came out twice to check on me and see if i need anything....you couldn't ask for better. It was the end of a epic flight for me and I was super stoked!!! I would have loved to complete the triangle (John was able to complete the triangle.....way to go man!) but I couldn't seem to find anything to be disappointed about after having such a wonderful flight. Ended up flying 16 miles of the triangle, for an airtime of 1 hour 45 minutes. Just as I was getting done packing up, Amy showed up and a gave me a ride back to the aero-park for some celebratory cold ones!! Thank you Amy!.
I have to extend a Massive thank you to John Simon for offering to fly the triangle with me and being such a good leader along the way. He could have zipped through this triangle much quicker without me, and put on many more miles with out me..but instead he patiently waited for me and my Sport2 to catch up numerous times. It was an important flight for me and I am grateful for the experience and what I learned from it. Thank you man!!

Jon
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cthornberger
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Re: Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by cthornberger »

Awesome flight, Jon. Can't wait to get out there as well. It sounds like you had a great adventure. See you soon.
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Chris __-_-->
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brianvh
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Re: Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by brianvh »

It was good hanging out at Ridgely again sunday morning, however briefly. Brought my Dad in to do a mile high tandem. Sunny basically let him fly it the whole time between the tow and final approach. I'm used to people being all excited after coming down, but dad was surprisingly nonchalant. I think he'd been up there so long he got used to it.

I was tempted to take a tow, but the wind was crossing over the trees and I haven't towed in 2 years. I need to come back and do a gradual work up into soaring conditions. Actually I'd like to get the Ellenville crew to come down - can't think of a better place to bring them.
Brian Vant-Hull
John Simon
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Re: Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by John Simon »

Great write up Jon. The Highland Challenge was indeed a GREAT time this year. We had very good weather (flew all 8 days to some degree)... most tasks were short to medium and some really memorable ones, like a 30+ mile dog leg to Cambridge across 2 wide rivers and a nice , but challenging 30+ mile triangle to the west. Charlie made the longest flight at about 37 miles. Huge thanks to Charlie and the Highland crew for making it a great flying experience and a fun time for all. Thanks also to my lovely wife Heather and Jenn for cooking on multiple occasions for many pilots and family members. The social aspect of this event was equal to the great flying and made the whole experience a blast. Thank you Michelle for saving me on Sunday and Jenn for taking care of me and Jim and your man all summer.

Jon, I had a ball flying with you Monday. You did a great job on our Goldsboro-Denton run. I am sorry we couldn't get one more climb and get you home but we'll do it next time! In a couple weeks the crops will be a bit more forgiving and we can do some more flying. Really great to see Amy this weekend and thanks for the beer!

Take care,

John
callen
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Re: Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by callen »

Jon, glad to here John S. helped you around the course. The alternate weekend of the Highland challenge will be a team challenge format with prizes for the HC Sat. night. I'll send more detail in an e-mail. However everyone should try and come out.

Charlie
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Lostgriz
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Re: Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by Lostgriz »

Jon,

Congratulations on a great flight with John! I wish I could have been there to learn with you. I really want to do some flying with the Open pilots on the radio and get some schooling on how its supposed to be done. I don't know if you guys saw it, but I sent an email out to the group regarding an article I would like to do for the magazine on the highland challenge. In case anyone missed it, I am going to post that email below. Although I am planned to be in PA during the alternate weekend, there is an outside possibility that I may be able to make one day. Please read my email below and share your thoughts/pictures with me.


Hey Guys,

I am going to write an article for the mag about the great event that Charles put on for us. I have a few pictures, but would appreciate it if you all could email me any pictures that you have, especially the group photos. Also, I would like to request that each of you take a few minutes and share a few thoughts with me on your take away from this experience. Let me know if you have personal milestones to share, things you learned, highlights of the experience, or whatever you think may be an interesting nugget to incorporate into my article. I don't want the article to be just about my experience, I would like it to be about OUR experience.

Charlie, thanks again for the GREAT event! I had a blast and learned a lot. I look forward to next years Highland Challenge. If everyone could send me something by Friday, I would appreciate it. I am going to try and have something completed by this weekend.

I won't be able to make it out for the alternate weekend, as I will be camping with my crew. I hope you guys get some great flying in! I am sure I will see you guys around and hope to see some of you at the TTTTC this fall.

Thanks,

Matt
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Lostgriz
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Re: Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by Lostgriz »

Charlie,

I thought you would be proud of the fact that we had some pretty well organized gaggle flying on Sunday, with zero "Shit Show" to be seen. :D

Matt
lbunner
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Re: Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by lbunner »

Nice Jon, nice. I'm glad you have the "getting established" part cemented in your brain. Often times I find the radio chatter to be less helpful than if I were flying by myself. The "I'm right above you, over more to the north" etc can be meaningless as thermals tend to snake skyward.
Bun
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Re: Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by Flying Lobster »

You guys should form a team and come to the Team Challenge in TN.

Marc
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Lostgriz
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Re: Ridgely 8/12 & 8/13

Post by Lostgriz »

There will be a pretty good representation of VA pilots at the TC this fall.
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