Flying plans this weekend

[smurfsky101]

As we all know, these weather systems change fast, but man does it look nice for Saturday flying.

Woodstock / Cumberland ? Cloudbase is forecasted to be stupid high....

[XCanytime]

Aiming for Pulpit Saturday and Woodstock Sunday. Bacil

[silverwings]

Hoping to fly Woodstock on Sunday.

[mingram]

What do people think about trying Woodstock today? Maybe trying to secure a new bail out LZ first.

[Dan T]

I think conditions except for the cloud cover and damp ground look pretty good. I think fun flights could be in order but my guess is that there will be some 4 minute sleds as well. The LZ issue would be a concern if I was flying a hang glider.

Dan T

[silverwings]

Woodstock is still looking good for HG on Sunday. A number of us will be giving it a try.

[Ward Odenwald]

WS ETA 9:30

Ward

[g.sessa]

Woodstock. ETA 10:30.

[XCanytime]

Arrived at 10:30A to a hazy sky with Lennie type clouds here and there and moderate conditions on launch. Ward was almost completely set up and brought a driver (Juan Sonen). Set up to gradually increasing conditions. Greg Sessa, Jim Gibson and his wife Marzena, Gary Smith, John Middleton, and his student Eric arrived in the next hour. By noon it had gotten out of hand so we waited. By 1:15P the sound of the wind in the trees had diminished somewhat and there were nice launchable cycles. So I pounced on one at 1:30P. As soon as I exited the slot the expected strong rowdy lift struck. Headed SW very slowly into a very stiff west cross. Made it down to Waonaze Peak and climbed in strong lift over the rockpiles to 5100' MSL. Jumped the gap onto Short Mountain, losing only 1500' in the process. Stayed around 4K' MSL in light lift over the successive rockpiles spaced equally along Short Mountain. Went about 3/4 of the way down to The Knob, then turned around. Passed by Greg Sessa who made his first Edinburg Gap jump onto Short Mountain. Congratulations Greg! Found a strong thermal just before the NE end of Short Mountain. Drifted OTB with it to jump back to Waonaze Peak. However the winds had gone north in the area and I got pushed a bit past the ideal straight line ground track. Found myself in a venturi in the gap and losing altitude fast. A tree landing was imminent if I continued trying to slog upwind. So I turned tail and made it over Fort Valley with enough altitude to scope landing fields. I remembered a large, uphill field just next to the intersection of Fort Valley Road and Edinburg Gap Road (Kings Crossing). Made it over the field and encountered major turbulence on final. Remembered to keep the basetube out of the tall grass and pulled off a decent uphill landing. Found a break in the fenceline to carry out to the intersection. No cellphone service meant a visit to a nice retired couple's home with a WELCOME flag flying. They lent me their phone to contact Marzena. She picked up Greg who made a valiant attempt at the upwind XC to North Mountain Vineyards. He came up about 2 miles short after running into a wall of air and major sink, landing on the mountain side of Rt. 11. Soon enough they picked me up at the retired couple's home after I enjoyed chatting on the porch with Mr. Phil Dean and his wife. After the transfer of the equipment back at launch Greg and I got some well deserved food and drink at the Strasburg Hotel Bar. Would like to hear about the flights of the other pilots who flew today at Woodstock. Bacil

[g.sessa]

Bacil summed up the day at Woodstock very well! I arrived around 10:45 am, and while setting up, was surprised by the strong winds on launch based on the forecast and consideration given to the Woodstock effect. After waiting awhile for conditions to back off, I launched after Bacil just shy of 2 pm. I found the air very active after launching, but was able to climb quickly and headed down towards the Edinburg Gap. It was slow moving down the ridge. Along the way, I noticed that Bacil was high over Short Mountain and decided I was going to follow. I climbed to 4,700 ft msl just prior to the gap, pushed out into the valley, and headed for Short Mountain. This was my first time jumping the gap, and it was definitely a bit unnerving given the dense forest and limited landing options. I managed to make it across losing about 1,700 ft. I then climbed right back up to 4,500 ft msl, and continued down Short Mountain, passing Bacil along the way. I made it to the end of Short Mountain and turned back to head toward launch. The flight back was a bit quicker given what seemed to be the help of a slight tail wind. I was also easily maintaining altitude around 4,000 ft msl. I crossed the gap again and made it back to launch. I decided I would try to fight the head wind and land at North Mountain Vineyards. I pushed out in to the Valley but turned back to the mountain shortly thereafter as I was losing altitude quickly. I came in low on the ridge near the old primary, but was able to climb out. I spent some time flying around launch, and soon found a strong thermal that quickly had me at 4,700 ft msl. I was thinking of landing in the bridge field as I was getting tired, but then decided to push again for the winery given the lift I was finding as I worked out in to the valley. I made it over Maurertown but was greeted with sink that put me on the ground in a nearby large open grass field. I had a solid landing, but definitely experienced a rough and turbulent approach. Overall, it was a great flight at 2.5 hours, topping out just over 5,000 ft msl, and experiencing a first with the jump over the Edinburg Gap! Huge thanks to Marzena, who was graciously helping pilots on launch, and who was also kind and willing to help Bacil and I with retrieval! Thanks! As Bacil mentioned, he and I ended the day with a good meal at the Strausberg Hotel!

[smurfsky101]

Really nice seeing every get off the mountain yesterday!

[smurfsky101]

*everyone

[silverwings]

Quite a strange day at Woodstock. First it was blowing stronger than expected and the Woodstock effect was absent. See my other post regarding weather. The winds at launch varied quite a bit and was quite gusty a lot of the time. Occasionally there were some nice cycles and that is when those that flew launched. Late in the day it got a bit nicer when Gary and Jim launched then got stronger for a while. Eric decided to pack it up and as he was almost done it got a little nicer. Gary was out in the valley quite high and then we saw him core sink and go in and land. We were wondering why and he told us he had just gotten very cold from his altitude. I had pretty much decided call it quits but Anthony decided to launch and watching him for a couple of minutes caused me to change my mind. I launched at 6:25 and easily got above launch and just cruised 2300-2800 AGL until I chose to go out and land just under an hour. The air was pretty nice during the time I was flying with mild lift. As I was breaking down the sky really cleared. Thanks all that helped today in launching.

[thermalup]

Marzena and I arrived at 10:50AM to meet Greg hiking gear in and Ward and Bacil setting up. Conditions at that time were consistent and leaning toward stronger .. but still reasonable especially considering that a front had passed through in the early morning hours (heavy rain for 45 minutes in Linden). Wind/thermal cycles became very strong for the next couple of hours. Not long after Bacil and Greg launched I noticed three ‘cumulus’ trying to form in the middle of the valley but they were ragged and stationary. I would expect drift on these clouds given the wind velocity so I am wondering if these were rotor clouds. No lenticular was visible but John (smurfsky101) spotted a sailplane very high over the middle of the valley.

Gary had a sweet launch at maybe 4:15PM into a mellow cycle was up and away shortly afterwards. Conditions on the ground started to become so mellow that John M. and I were wondering if things were shutting down. I launched at 4:45PM in light winds (at launch) but found stronger air just above the ridge. The most turbulence experienced was between 150-400’ above the ridge. Above that altitude was buoyant and mostly smooth. Light thermals (100-200 fpm) were friendly but I maxed at 4200’msl to avoid drifting above the back too far. Winds aloft were West at 17-20 mph.

Earlier in the day I had educational discussions with Ward and Bacil (thx guys!) about gap crossing so I headed down near Waonaze Peak to ‘study’ the comparison between getting high at the peak vs. heading out into the valley to find lift before dog-legging the gap to Short Mountain. The sun was blocked by thick cirrus and I could only get to 3500’msl just north the Peak so I tried the alternate method and made several trips out into the valley and found light lift to 3900’msl each time .. but the NE drift would put me back on to the main Woodstock ridge. Fun game though! Congratulations to Greg for his first crossing … that ocean of trees below Short Mtn is impressive and extensive. I headed back to the Woodstock launch area to find John M. exploring and cruising around. Apparently Gary was high over the valley at this time but I didn’t see him (looking forward to reading his report). I then headed out to the valley to see if there was any lift being generated by the town area of Woodstock. There were light burbles of lift over the NE end of town but nothing coherent so I elected to land in a field near the west end of Moose Rd. (that I believe Jon Brantley has landed in before).

Marzena and I would have liked to have joined Greg and Bacil at the Strasburg Hotel but we still had to pack for a 5:00 AM departure back to Michigan. Great flying with you guys and we hope to catch up with you if we make it back for a fall trip this year.

[Eric]

I packed it in primarily because it was getting late in the day. It would've been my 2nd mountain flight. My 1st was back on 3/25 at Woodstock when I ridge soared for 50 mins after choosing not to hook any thermals. That day I left the ridge around 1450' above the bridge field on my Falcon 4 195. I cut it pretty close and did not have enough altitude to do a DBF. My concern wasn't so much the windy conditions. (I knew John wouldn't throw me off into something I couldn't handle.) My concern was more for waiting too late in the day where the thermal activity began shutting down then getting stuck too low to get a safe LZ. Given that the winds were still pretty strong, I thought that penetration might be and issue, and I might not have the ground speed to get out.

Were/are these valid concerns?

[XCanytime]

Absolutely! Bacil