Saturday-3/2/13, Sunday 2/24/13

[rlweber]

I do not make a habit of posting my flights but I had a specific request, so here it goes. Saturday I was accompanying my wife to Arlington for a morning meeting. I decided to take my gliders along since I was going by Woodstock. I was not sure what time I would be returning or it the conditions would be conducive to commit aviation. We arrived on launch as Tom C. and Laszlo were leaving. Krista had flown and reported strong conditions, so they decided to not launch. Time to get out the tubes! On launch the wind was straight in 8-14 mph. The sky was totally overcast and it was cold. I took the glider to launch in a lull and ran off the mountain. I boated around in widespread lift that went out into the valley for over an hour, enjoying the snow flurries. There were pockets of turbulence, but nothing very serious. I did not go much higher than 1400 agl because it got cold and I was not interested exploring cloud suck (there was no place to run). Penetration was not a problem. Landed in the bridgefield. I was greeted by a fellow named Bill. He wondered if I knew Ward. He was delighted by the pictures Ward took of his house from the air!
While I am in the mode of flight reports I want share a personal best. On Sunday, February 24 I flew 40 miles from the Woodstock launch to a field behind my house, 4 miles off the tip of the Massanutten range. I launched at 3 pm into a 10-15 mph turned left and headed south. My agl altimeter was zero''d on launch. I flew down the ridge with an average of 2000 ft. over with very few circles (circled to reached 3200 agl before the Edinberg gap. I lost 1800 in the crossing.) It was the most difficult gap crossing. A highlight of the flight was flying over the lighted ski resort. I landed at 5:55 pm. It was a beautiful flight with the sun setting on one side an the moon rising on the other. I had made attempts previously and learned from each failure. I know others have done this numerous times but for me it was a dream since 1993 when I re-entered the sport.
I would recommend that anybody who wants to make this flight talk with those who have made it. It is a technical xc flight with large areas of trees between the mountain and the lz's.

[sailin]

Randy congrats on a sweet flight on 2/24/13 !!! I would love to chat with you about it sometime and get some tips/strategies as it is a flight I would love to try sometime.

Glad to hear someone flew this past weekend. I had my glider on top of the car, and gear all loaded but, everybody that had posted, had backed out. I'll shoot you a text next time and check in with ya to see if you are heading up there.

Thanks for the cool flight reports,

Jon

[XCanytime]

Now that's what I'm talking about! Thanks for the flight reports Randy. Nice flight 9 days ago. Congratulations on achieving a dream flight of yours that has been on your docket for 20 years. You should have let me know that you were planning on a ridge run. I would have joined you instead of boating around waiting for the moonrise that I never saw. Best Regards, Bacil

[John Anderson]

Sweet flight on Feb 24! But now your problem is that everyone is going to want to land in your backyard and you are going to need an Air Traffic Controller.