Sat Oct 6

Ashley Groves · Post by **Ashley Groves** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:58 am

Hoping to fly.
Pulpit look s pretty rainy.
PM at high rock looks possible
AM in highland looks promising. What are the thoughts on blow-out potential?

Post by **jyoder111** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 10:49 am

Don't forget Woodstock. Pulpit might be blown out till late afternoon, but Woodstock could be good.

Post by **darbbb** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:57 am

Highland is closed until Sunday....they all went to Steve's wedding.

Post by **markc** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:04 pm

I'm liking what I see for Woodstock, at least at the moment:

SATURDAY
MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS...MAINLY IN THE
AFTERNOON. HIGHS AROUND 70. SOUTHWEST WINDS 5 TO 10 MPH...BECOMING
NORTHWEST 10 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON.
CHANCE OF RAIN 40 PERCENT.

Might be one of those days when we hang around until the front blows through, hope that it doesn't rain much, and then fly late afternoon.

MarkC

Ashley Groves · Post by **Ashley Groves** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 5:18 pm

I will keep an eye on the weather and posts for woodstock. I was thinking by heading east you can fly pre-frontal rather than waiting through the rain, hence I had not dwelled on Woodstock.

Thanks for the tip about Highland being closed Saturday.

Post by **jyoder111** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:03 pm

NOAA forecast for Woodstock lists only 0.04 inches of rain with only a 20-30% chance. Easy enough to dodge whatever light showers come our way.

I'm looking at an ETA around noon or a little before.

Jesse

Post by **jyoder111** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:41 am

Chance of rain is even less as of this morning. Woodstock is looking great! Who's in, or where are people going if not there?

Jesse

Post by **Matthew** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:54 am

Looks great--- except that the front still hasn't moved through and the forecast calls for gusts to 30.

Gonna sit on the fence till the next update on the forecast.

Matthew

Post by **jyoder111** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:13 am

Post by **Matthew** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:22 am

VAZ027-061500-
SHENANDOAH-
758 AM EDT SAT OCT 6 2012

TODAY
PARTLY SUNNY WITH A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF SHOWERS. HIGHS IN
THE UPPER 60S. WEST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH. GUSTS UP TO 30 MPH THIS
AFTERNOON.

Post by **jyoder111** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:50 am

Well, I'm hopeful. We'll see what we find. ETA around 11-noon.

Jesse

Post by **lbunner** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:55 am

Jesse, looks like one of those days where you could talk yourself into flying even when the conditions aren't right. Be conservative out there.

Post by **markc** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:28 am

Based on the previous 4 hours, the front should be draped along the WV/VA border by about 1pm if it continues at the same pace.

The surface cast is calling for NW11G21 at 6pm. The ADDS 3k forecast is strong, but not crazy strong. And the winds are supposed to back down to 10-15 overnight.

So, while I'm not optimistic about flying in the early/mid-afternoon, I do think it's worth the gamble to head out there and try to fly. If the forecasts hold, it should actually be sunny out there at the end of the day.

Odds of flying are probably 50/50. I'll give it a go, esp. given Sunday's forecast. There's always Woodstock Cafe and free WiFi to kill some time.

MarkC

Post by **DanTuck** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:34 am

Agree that WS is probably the only real chance of flying today. I think Bacil and Charley might try Pulpit for a late afternoon flight.

I'm heading to Woodstock, maybe we'll fly, maybe we won't.

Ashley Groves · Post by **Ashley Groves** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:36 am

I am thinking it best to let the front pass and let the rain do its thing first, then fly in PM. Show up 1:30 or 2PM.

Post by **kcarra** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 10:47 am

Still looks dicey. Might end up going for a hike. But as tomorrow is a wash, we're heading out to meet Mark C. in the LZ at 1:30.

Give us a call on Karen's Cell if you want to meet up and drop a car.

I can carry four gliders on my rack.

Matthew

Ashley Groves · Post by **Ashley Groves** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:58 am

Heading out, arrive about 2PM.

Post by **jyoder111** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:32 pm

Called it. Awesome beautiful day. Lots a happy pilots. More later.

Jesse

Post by **jyoder111** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:04 pm

It blew strong till 4pm but with launchable lulls after 3pm. Bacil, DanTuck, Matthew, Karen, Mark, Gary S, Ashley, and others showed. I had a nice 1h15 on my Sport 2. Got to 3100 MSL according to the GPS. Toward the end of the afternoon the air smoothed out and it was very pleasant just boating around in fat lift.

It was my second flight on the Sport 2 so I tried to induce PIO at altitude in mock landing approaches over the LZ and was somewhat successful at practicing and dealing with it. However, on base I got hit with turbulence and ended up oscillating on final but pulled off a decent landing.

I had moved the hang point to the forward hole and that was the right choice. Glider trimmed out perfectly at that setting. Such a fun flying machine!

Here's the video:

Jesse

Post by **DanTuck** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:38 pm

Great to fly Woodstock again! I topped out a little over 3,900 msl, had 650 fpm on the averager, flew with 4 bald eagles, a bunch of red-tails and had a great landing after 2 hours. Had a ton of fun running the ridge 2-300 above the trees as fast as I could go without losing anything. Good freakin times! The Strasburg Inn even allowed us to crash their nice dining room for dinner. What a day!

Post by **FlyingFelix** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:51 pm

Wow, sounds like great times all around! I wish I could of been there.
Perhaps next time.
Great reading about it though!

Post by **markc** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 12:03 am

Wow, hours and hours of airtime for the HG'ers out there today. Played up at Signal Knob for close to an hour with Bacil. Great scenery, some early fall color. Best I could do was 1700' over, and that was very briefly. Most of my flight was 600' to 1200' over.

Back south, conditions were smoother and a glass-off was underway. I had fun flying out along the fingers, and crossing from one to another. REALLY great day! Hung with an immature bald eagle for a while, but he was busy/hunting, no close encounters.

Absolutely *stuck* a no-wind-to-slightly-tail landing, a bit before sunset. That was the icing!

On PG, I know that Ellis and Mitka flew, and Lazslo too I think. Apparently things went WAY calm on launch for a time, and Ellis even had to do a forward. I think they all had at least 30 minutes late in the day. Randy, flying HG, also bagged a great flight.

That front pushed through, conditions didn't ramp up crazy-strong, and the gamble paid off!

MarkC

(argh! waiting for 17 GB to download from the GoPro has never taken so long!!!)

Post by **jyoder111** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 8:42 am

(argh! waiting for 17 GB to download from the GoPro has never taken so long!!!)

Mark, you may want to have the whole flight downloaded, but in the case that you only want segments, you can open the file on the GoPro using Quicktime (free version) and then use the "trim" feature to isolate what parts you want and save those to your computer as separate files. I load those segments into iMovie and merge them together with transitions to make a 2-3 minute movie. Probably took me only 25 minutes total to do mine last night.

Jesse

Post by **Matthew** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 8:52 am

Another awesome day! The light on the mountains was spectacular! Got 3 hours and 10 minutes and 2K over launch. Flew up to Signal Knob and then caught some baby wave at the reservoir coming back. Maintained 1700-2K over all the way back to launch out in the valley-- smooth as glass... and landed at sunset. Karen got cold after 1:15 and landed. She got 1300 over and soared a bit with three bald eagles!

Broke down in the twilight... a group of us had dinner together up at the Strasburg Inn and got home at 11:30pm. Just like the good old days!

Matthew

Post by **XCanytime** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:44 am

It was a gorgeous day. After rerouting along the way (original destination the Pulpit) took my time arriving. Got there around 12:30P to find Dan Tuckwiller in the parking lot and very little wind around. As we carried in it picked back up and clearing skies were on the horizon heading our way. Put in the 2 spinner windsocks at strategic points in the slot. The rest of the train cars arrived at the station with Ashley the "caboose"

arriving around 2P. Around 3:30P I decided to give it a go and lead off. The slot was very squirrelly and you had to be very patient for all the indicators to line up. The winds would ricochet off the right side of the slot making the streamers point NE at times. Waited for a smooth lighter cycle and had a good launch. Headed NE to some nice looking clouds above the reservoir, with Front Royal Airport in the back of my mind. Couldn't find the ladder all the way to base. Max I could get was 1400' over. To get to the airport I would like to be at least 2500' over and still climbing. So I hung out up there until Mark C. joined me. We both trolled and trolled but never found the top floor. Around 5P I gave up and headed back SW in smooth air. Had a good approach but a late flare introduced my new harness to a little mud

. Dinner afterwards at the Strasburg Hotel dining room. Great food and good times. And to cap it off, 97.5 MHz on the FM dial faintly picked up the conclusion of the WV - Texas shootout on the way home. Bacil

chgpa.org

Sat Oct 6

Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6

Re: Sat Oct 6