Flying Saturday???

[Matthew]

Any thoughts on Saturday? South 5-10. Too light for Daniel's????

Matthew

[George]

Mathew I'll be there. My forecast is for a little better winds. I'm going to fly Woodstock tomorrow then camp over night somewhere and fly Daniels on Saturday. I am bringing the front rack in case hangies come out to play.

George

[mcelrah]

You have my attention. Too cold for me tomorrow, but Saturday… - Hugh

[markc]

Looking a bit light for the Hangies, but I'm thinking I might give it a go nonetheless.... Next weekend's out for me (Thanksgiving travel), so I'm leaning toward gambling on Sat. Sunday is also a possibility, with potentially stronger South winds before the rain moves in. Will check the forecasts tomorrow and decide then.

Let's fly!

MarkC

[Dan T]

the pg pilots will be there. one has a hg rack and will be offering rides.

i had a bad motorcycle accident last week and am out for the rest of the year. i'm healing.

dan t

[mcelrah]

I'm in, loading only PG. - Hugh

[markc]

I think I'll give Daniel's a go too.

(Dan, very sorry to hear about that accident, I sure hope you are doing ok!)

[Matthew]

Karen and I are in.

ETA 12:15

Matthew

[markc]

The short version: Worth the drive after all!

The long version: Yet to come....

[Matthew]

Great day at Daniel's. A few PGs had already flown and landed by the time we arrived at 12:45. Tom C, Paul, Cyrus, Austin and Ben arrived together just before me and Karen. Hugh, Randy Justin and George were also there. Walt and Mark were setting up HGs. A few PGs launched with mixed results-- a couple sinking out and a few sticking. I Observed Walt off. He had a stellar launch in light conditions. Unfortunately he had a quick ride to the LZ. Tom launched and got up. Hugh got up after a struggle below the ridge. Cyrus also had to fight his way up after hitting major sink right after launch. I launched around 2pm and got right up. Nearly everyone was sticking. I got a little over 3 hours and 900 over. There were a couple of flush cycles that claimed a few fliers. And a few PGers took multiple flights. But I think everyone got up for a little while, including Karen after she helped Mark launch his HG. He also worked his ass off and soared. Austin also got 3 hours and Tom got close to four. I was the last man down on a glorious day of flying.

Matthew
PS There is a very friendly and curious donkey in the LZ!

[markc]

OK, the longer version:

It was one of those PG-envy days at Daniel's : The early afternoon stronger cycles pretty much died by 2pm and conditions got very light, and the cycles short.

Good turnout for the PG wings: Justin, Austin, Tom, Osirus, George, Ben, and others I haven't met. Plus bi-wing'ers Matthew, Karen, Hugh and Randy. Just two lonely HG pilots, Walt and myself.

There was some decent 10, 10+ in the slot up until 1pm or so. Early sleds by Randy and others started morphing into soaring PG flights. Walt gave it a go shortly after Matthew arrived (observer), but hit a pothole to the right of launch and then got drilled. It was that sort of day, bad luck/timing and you'd be on the deck.

A wave of PG launches yielded soaring flights for many. But as I was stepping into the slot an errant cloud shut down the sun, and the cycles went to nothing. Like: Maybe I'll just break-down up here and call it a day nothing.

I let Justin by... Then Randy... Then George... Pretty sure they all got up, as others continued to soar their butts off. But it was REALLY light, so I waited it out, letting the sun do it's work. Patience, patience, as John M would say.

Finally, at about 3:00, conditions started to get a bit more consistent, and I gave it a go. Not too much of a problem getting up, but whoa, the air was crowded! No way that I could blend into the PGers with conditions that light. Also concerned about my wake, so I stayed out from the ridge for much of the flight, lots of 180/270 rather than bringing the wing all the way around. Hmmm.... Actually, I don't think I had a single 360 today, go figure!

Oh yeah, my vario was also dying, sigh! Flew for a while, sometimes doing better, sometimes grovelling, hopefully I didn't cut anyone off. The vario died and I finally bailed, didn't have the skills to stay up without it in conditions that light.

I landed in the west field given the cows in the primary, plus there was a bit of a flush-cycle underway at the time. Good landing, and life is good!

MarkC

[markc]

Good video too, lots of passes with many PG pilots... I've *really* got to do something with this stuff.

[mcelrah]

Great flight, Mark! You really gave us biwingual turncoats something to think about. I had the experience in the Philippines of being the lone HG on a small (200 foot/ 3/4 mile) ridge with a buncha PGs and was known for longer flights - but I had a nice quick Falcon III. Props for some masterful piloting of that T2C. - Hugh

[George]

I had three flights. I arrived early having camped up at Ediths Gap overnight and then drove down Luray Valley and came at Daniels over the Blue Ridge on 33. I had flown Woostock alone on Friday. I launched into what I thought were good soaring conditions with some thermal support having watched a kettle of vultures out front and a Red Tail Hawk soaring. I ended up with an extendo by using the black and green rooftops and then the Piney grove to the left and further out (a little softer lift than the punchy bubbles coming off the houses) and finally landed. There was usable lift but it was punchy and hard work and hey... is that Randy pulling up? So I rode back up with Randy and he got a flight in but didn't manage much better than me so I drove down to get him as promised. I think we left my truck there and both rode up with others since Marc and Walt had arrived on the scene. I may have the sequence wrong but anyway I had a second flight that was longer than the first. It started poorly with a big left side deflation while still in the slot. I was able to fly out of the slot with weight shift and a little right brake where it popped out on it's own and I went up like an elevator. This was also an extendo and I was ticked off that I hadn't waited a little or done better with what I'd been given. Once again I found myself 15 minutes into a flight and over the pines getting 10 meters up then loosing them and just went to land in disgust. I packed my gear into the truck and myself, Randy and Kyle drove back up. Mark was set up and on launch but didn't see his conditions and kept very graciously stepping aside and letting us play through. I had gone back and forth about it having gotten into line and out a couple times myself. I picked a strong cycle this time and got nearly plucked, I wasn't getting blown back but I also couldn't run while on tippy toes and was getting shunted to the side. Six more inches in that direction and I'd have been forced to kill it but it let me get a couple steps and up and out I went. This time I tanked up quickly and kept enough to ride out those sink cycles. Also the houses were now working like a filling station so that if I felt I was loosing it I could get down there to tank up. It also helped to have pilots like Tom and Mathew in the air to pimp lift off of. I flew for a little over an hour in the best conditions of the day and then rode big ears all the way to the LZ. In the making the most out of what was available department I think Mark scored top points. I have some great video of that shiny wing in action. I'll be playing with it once I catch up on my chores here. Also just to let it be known I can loan my Flytec anytime if someone finds they need a loaner since I'm using the hacked Kobo with XCSoar more and more.

George