Wed (April 9th, 2014) @ Woodstock

[wmelo]

WEDNESDAY
PARTLY SUNNY IN THE MORNING...THEN CLEARING. HIGHS IN
THE UPPER 50S. NORTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH.

It is too early to call, but if it looks promising...

Thoughts? Volunteers? Observers? Pilots? Slackers?

Walt

[sailin]

Sounds good Walt. Lets talk on the phone Tuesday evening.

Jon

[wmelo]

Fantastic! Hopefully, hopefully others will join us. walt

[Roger]

I'm interested.

[sailin]

Roger look forward to flying with you. Hope to see you out there!

Jon

[Roger]

Anyone know the status of the bridge field?
I plan to be loaded and ready tonight.

[sailin]

Roger the bridge field is open. See you tomorrow.

Jon

[garys]

Tomorrow looks spectacular for WS. I will be there at 1:00 or so.

[silverwings]

I most likely will be going also.

[andybalkphysics]

Think I'll go also...

-Andy

[FlyingFelix]

Well damn...I wasn't planning on going out, I'm soooo backed up with work. But 500' up? Hmm, I may have to join in tomorrow. Not positive just yet.
Is anybody thinking Pulpit instead of Woodstock? Maybe a nice XC flight? Looks pretty good for that. I may also need a change from Woodstock...

[sailin]

ETA noonish.

Jon

[Roger]

Noon:30
Party of two. PK from Richmond and myself.
If it wouldn't be an issue with the land owner, is it cool to leave a steamer at the bridge field?

[Rich E]

Roger, we usually put a streamer or windsock in the field and there hasn't been an issue with that to my knowledge...

Cheers

Rich

[FlyingFelix]

I heard there might be a little problem with putting something I. The field so I usually put a sock at the corner, across the street. Pretty reliable place to have a wind indicator. I'll it it there again today, too good of a day not to go out!
ETA 12:30

[theflyingdude]

It might be a problem leaving a "steamer" in the field, at least if they see you squatting while you pinch a loaf.

JR

[dbodner]

A bunch of people showed up and everyone soared. Quite a day.

[FlyingFelix]

Quite a day indeed! 10 pilots out - everyone had a great time.
I got just over 2 hours. Got my strongest thermal I've ever been in, just minutes after launching, steady 1200' + up for many turns (can't say really how strong, the 6030 looked maxed out what seemed like for ever and it was beeping super fast) - straight to cloud base at around 7500 MSL, got there fast. What a ride.
Got a nice outing over the valley (at times pulled the bar way in not to get in the cloud suck) to the West of Strasburg over I-81 then back to the ridge at the knob.
Monster lift, flew through virga (snow higher up), lots of fun.
Flight cut short by getting too low behind the ridge and blown over the back - nasty, scary air, made it down safely, I realized afterwards I landed with VG maxed out, too busy to notice I guess...the winds were switchy and I picked an uphill field that I figured would make an OK landing even if downwind. Pulled an OK landing after a nasty nose down drop from the sky, glider suffered a little, not too bad. Got a ride back from the nice land owner that said we're welcome there anytime - I sure will try not to land there again...too close for comfort.
Mexican food afterwards with friends.
Here's the evidence:



Top of the monster thermal - you can see John McAlister to the E.


On the way over the valley - you can see the snow


On the way back, flew right over Strasburg to the radio tower where Jon was hanging out


Where I ended up landing - the gap you see lined up with the field is the next one North from the one behind launch


Too much information? Sorry, I'm just too eager to share...
Sure was great seeing all the gliders/pilots out!

[XCanytime]

Felix it's never too much information. Thanks for sharing the pictures and such. The sky yesterday was explosive. Bacil

[dbodner]

Felix it's never too much information.

He also owes us video!

[sailin]

Another wonderful day at Woodstock. Interesting sky with some OD, rain, snow and sleet. Winds aloft were stronger than I had seen forecasted and I was seeing 25mph+ at times just a few thousand feet over launch. I maxed out just under 6000'msl and saw 868fpm on my averager. I spent most of my time down to the north which originally looked sunny but became covered with virga and big clouds. Got sleeted and rained on briefly.

Ended up landing in the bridge field after a long, fun, active flight. Got packed up and back up top to get Walt some airtime. It was around 630pm and things had finally started to settle in the valley, but there was still plenty of lift for Walt to enjoy. He had a great launch!

Finished the night at Jalisco in Strasburg, telling tales of all our wonderful adventures for the day. Good times.

Jon

[wmelo]

I arrived by 1:00pm. Helped my fellow colleagues as a wire crew. Later on I rescued John M. who landed in the bridge field. John M helped assess the launch situation, but after talking with Jon B., both of them agreed it would be better to me to wait: the flying conditions were too strong to a falcon/H2 pilot. I finally launched by 6:30pm. I had a great time and flew for 45 min. It was very hard to penetrate so I was not able to make to bridge field and end up landing in the primary LZ.

We are really very luck to have such a great group of people! I am so thankful for John M. and Jon B. advice and for observing me. Needless to say that I really appreciate the fact that several pilots (sorry I do not remember your names ) who help me in the hire crew: they even carried my glider to the launch are so I would not want day light time. What a nice group of pilots!

I am looking forward to flying again with you guys.

Cheers

Walt

p.s. Yes, I am also looking for the videos They look very cool!

[Lostgriz]

It was great to see so many hang gliders out on a week day, nine pilots in total. I don't think I got to fly with my buddy Jon Brantley all last year, so it was great to hang with him. Peter Kane made the trip from Richmond, Roger brought his Atos up from NC and I got to meet a bunch of cool guys who I have already forgotten their names, sorry.

I have not flown since last October, so I was very excited to get out and knock the rust off. I launched at around 3:30 and quickly climbed to 2k over. Despite the strong winds at that altitude, I found the thermals to be pretty well organised, but drifting fast. My PTT is in for repairs, so I had no radio. That coupled with the fact that with my wife out of town, my three kids were home alone, kept me from seriously considering XC. But, it would have been a really fun day to go over the back. Not wanting to get too far back, I found myself leaving nice climbs to stay out front. I flew down to the first gap and had fun bouncing between 3500 and 5500 in some pretty sporty spring thermals. It was pretty shaded to the north, so I pushed out into the valley a little thinking I would spiral down and get home early to my kids. After pushing out into pretty solid headwin, I found the whole valley to be kicking-off and getting down was more work than climbing....so I climbed back up to 6k and pushed out into a stiff slightly crossing headwind to tag the water tower. At 30+ mph, I was still climbing most of the time in straight flight. As I rounded the tower, it was a quick trip back to the bridge field. Always fun to fly with a nice tail. I boated around for a while back at the bridge field ( sorry Jon, didn't see you) before calling it a day. After just over two hours in some pretty strong thermals, I was actually pretty tired....gotta get back in flying shape.

What a great day! Thanks to all who assisted with my launch. It was great to meet some new pilots and always great to see the rest of you. Looking forward to a great season.

Cheers,

Matt

[Roger]

Great time at Woodstock! I brought the Atos and was fortunate to have enough people there to help me get it in the slot. Thank you all. Good launch (although I think I held the nose down too long), and elevator up. Within a few minutes I had to decide, stay on the ridge and wonder what the sink and turbulence could be like flying through the virga on either side of me, or glide out and around it in the valley and reconnect with the ridge to the north. But even better than the lift, was the cloud street between the two, leading straight to the Flyin J truck stop on 81. I left the ridge and flew all the way and arrived at the same altitude (6500') doing 40-45. Magical.
The day was incredible. I didn't spend a lot of time ridge soaring. SeeYou has me circling only 23 minutes of the 1:53 airborne. Time was spent just gliding mostly in front. The air was just that good. I was ready to land after 90 minutes but couldn't get down. Even with full flap and 40-45 mph speed! So I thought why not go out into the blue hole and tag the water tower all while descending. But once again, I arrive at nearly the same altitude, but this time I scream straight back to the ridge with 75 mph ground speed. This time back at the LZ I find sink, pull on flap, but after 3/4 turn, I'm going up AGAIN! I finally manage to descend and make a large aircraft style approach into the LZ. Things got really skatie/yawing due to my over reacting to the gust while having full flap, and too high approach speed. Once I slowed, the landing was good. I decided right then to sell the Atos. Having second thoughts now. My problem is airspeed control on final. Everything else about the Atos (in the air) is amazing. It's funny to me how small landing fields (the bridge field is huge)are when you're boxing the field on an Atos, or a topless for that matter.

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